Feature Articles


April Issue 2002

Center for Craft, Creativity and Design in Hendersonville, NC, Features UNC-Asheville Fine Art Department Exhibition

Painting, printmaking, sculpture, pottery and photography created by the UNC-Asheville Fine Art Faculty and Selected Students is the focus of the current exhibit at the UNC Center for Craft, Creativity and Design in Hendersonville, NC. The exhibit will be on view until Apr. 5, 2002.

The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design (CCCD) is a regional inter-institutional center of the University of North Carolina and UNC-Asheville is one of the institutions served by the Center. Throughout the year work by the fine art faculty and students ofthe three UNC mountain universities have been included in exhibitions with professional craft artists from the region. This is the first exhibit that focuses on the work from one campus.

Each UNC-Asheville Fine Art Faculty selected two students to participate in the exhibit.

Megan Wolfe is a new comer to both the Western North Carolina area, and a new faculty member of the UNC-Asheville Art Department. Her life-size organic sculptures are based on her reactions to the environment, including the interplay of society and nature. "I believe everything is related to everything else, and how we respond to our surroundings is what shapes our society." Having lived in Southern Florida for most of her life, her work is often inspired by the vivid colors forms that grow there. "I feel my sculptures are most successful when these animated organic forms merge with a more colorful, subtle surface. My intention is to set up a situation that invites private encounters, engendering responses on both visceral and imaginary levels." Wolfe received her BFA from both the University of Miami and the Kansas City Art Institute, an MA from the University of South Carolina, and an MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Her work was most recently covered in "Ceramics Monthly Magazine". Students selected by Wolfe for this exhibit are: Amelia Daniel, a senior in ceramics, and Laura Aultman, a ceramics student experimenting with crystalline glazes.

Larry White is an Adjunct Professor teaching basic and advanced photography, as well as exhibitions. He studied photography at the University of Georgia, and has taught at Apeiron Workshops in Millerton New York. He has also been an artist-in-residence at many arts programs throughout the Carolinas. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Survey Grant, White has photographed numerous private and public collections, including working with the George Eastman House. He has been a Professor of Art at the University since 1988. Students selected by White for this exhibit are: Melissa Smith who makes multiple exposure silver gelatin prints, and Charity Anderson who has created a photographic collage.

Virginia Derryberry received her BA from Vanderbilt University and her MFA from the University of Knoxville. An Assistant Professor in the Art Department, she has been an actively exhibiting painter for the past 18 years. Numerous galleries throughout the Southeast, including the Cumberland Gallery in Nashville, represent her work. She is most recently working on a group exhibition with four other artists called Convergence, which will travel to a series of museums across the US. Derryberry's paintings are in public collections such as the Carnegie Museum, the Tennessee State Museum, the Morris Museum and the Asheville Museum, as well as in corporate holdings such as South Central Bell, HBO and the Nashville International Airport. Recently she has received two Individual Artists Grants in painting from the Georgia Council for the Arts and several research University grants.
Derryberry selected the following students for the exhibit: Lillian Bailey who created an altar installation, and Lauren Gibbes who paints on built up surfaces to create textural pieces.

Robert Dunning is an Associate Professor of Art at UNC-Asheville. He joined the faculty in 1990 after three years as Printmaking Instructor at Indiana University. Dunning received his BFA in painting and drawing from East Carolina University and his MFA in printmaking from Indiana University. His current body of work "addresses the theme of fertility and growth and the private spiritual world and psychological forces which influence this growth . . . The process of constructing these compositions with their multiple layers of printmaking, drawing, painting and relief work is meant to mimic the process of growth and the effects of weathering and aging." The student selected by Dunning for the exhibit: Anna Toth contributed two large linocuts for display.

S. Tucker Cooke, Chair of the Fine Art Department, has been a member of the UNC-Asheville faculty since 1967. He teaches courses in painting, life drawing, advanced drawing, watercolor and other Special Topics Courses, as well as the Arts and Ideas Laboratory. His own work revolves around the figure, and is exhibited in many public and private collections throughout the United States, including the Mint Museum in Charlotte, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem and the Asheville Art Museum. In 1997, Tucker was awarded the UNC Board off Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching. He received his BFA from Stetson University and his MFA from the University of Georgia. Students selected by Cooke for this exhibit: Jason Weatherspoon created a large paper clay figure, and Hunter Stamps who created sculptural clay work in the UNCA Anagama kiln.

Dan Millspaugh has been a faculty member since 1981. He currently teaches sculpture courses, as well as being the Director of the Arts and Idea Program, and the Interdisciplinary Arts Course at the University. In 1996, he was awarded the Distinguished Teacher Award. Millspaugh has completed sculpture commissions for the city of Asheville, the Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio, and the Tennessee Valley Authority in Huntsville, Alabama. His works are on display in many corporate, public and private collections in the Eastern United States. He received is BFA in Ceramics, and his MFA in sculpture from the University of Miami. Students selected by Millspaugh for the exhibit include: Kellie Berns who created a metal sculpture and Christine Bednarek who works organic mixed media sculptural forms.

Robert Tynes received his BA with Honors and Distinctions in Art from Rhodes College in 1975. He earned his MFA in painting from East Carolina University in 1981. His work has been exhibited in over fifteen solo exhibitions including, The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, the Fay Gold Gallery in Atlanta, the Asheville Art Museum, the Roswell Museum and Art Center in New Mexico, and The Greenville Museum of Art in North Carolina. He has also participated in over sixty group shows from all across the United States. Tynes is the recipient of several artist-in-residence grants including two from the Roswell Museum and Art Center in New Mexico in 1985 and 1991, and one in 1986 from the Uncross Foundation in Wyoming. He has also completed several large-scale commissions. Tynes has been a faculty member of the UNC-Asheville Art Department since 1987, prior to which he taught at East Carolina University, Humboldt State University in California, and the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. Students selected by Tynes are: Jeremy Russel and Paul Jeanes, who both create oil works on canvas.

The Center is located at 11 Broyles Road between South Rugby and Hwy 64 in Hendersonville. All shows are free to the public. For a full listing of exhibits and Tea Time Talks, contact the Center directly at 828-890-2050 or please visit our website at (www.craftcreativitydesign.org). The Center is open from 1-5pm, Mon.-Fri.

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