March 2014

NC Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount, NC, Features Works by Horace Raper and Jerry Taylor

NC Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount, NC, will present Stories in Paint, featuring an exhibit of works by Wilson, NC, artists, Horace Raper and Jerry Taylor, on view in the Mims Gallery in the Dunn Center, from Mar. 21 through Apr. 20, 2014. A reception will be held on Mar. 21, from 7-9pm.

Raper and Taylor are old friends with enough years under their belts to know some good old stories to tell in paint.

Now in his early seventies, Raper is self-taught artist who has been making art since first grade. His studio is located on the James T. Eatmon farm where he creates paintings and sometimes sculpture in a wide variety of art mediums. A prolific artist, Raper also creates acrylic miniature paintings, which are highly collectable and these along with his other works are found throughout the world in private collections.

Raper has always been a tobacco farmer. He says, “For as long as I can remember, my daddy and his daddy worked tobacco. It’s all that I know. I ain’t never wanted to do nothing else, never wanted to leave what I grew to love, sure have been some hard times, bad crops and all, but ain’t nothing that’s bad all the time. I guess the good times made up for the bad.” Much of his art reflects his life in rural Wilson County in farming and other outdoor activities, and are the source of the stories he tells with his paintbrush.

Jerry Taylor says, “While talent is God given, desire, determination and perseverance are the keys to success. Art is a passion to be pursued and a pleasure to be enjoyed.”

Taylor grew up drawing “on everything,” he says. After six years in the Marine Corps and better than thirty years as an executive in the advertising and graphics business in Washington, DC, Taylor “retired” and began seriously painting. A member of Wilson Active Artists Association and an award winning exhibiting painter, Taylor’s work is found in stores, galleries and museums around the country.

Taylor will depict those real moments in the life and times of a Wilson artist as well as a romanticized better days of the simple life away from the hustle and bustle of contemporary living. Narrative representation is his specialty as a painter.

For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the gallery at 252/985-5268 or visit (www.ncwc.edu/Arts/Mims/).

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