August 2011

Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, NC, Offers New Exhibits

Three provocative exhibitions open at the Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, NC, on Aug. 20, 2011. “Imprints” create a lasting impression through collected photographs, oral histories, lithographs, and woodblock prints. The exhibitions will remain on view through Nov. 19, 2011. A reception will be held on Aug.26, from 6-8pm.

Through a Soldier’s Eyes: Remembering Vietnam, is a collaborative project between the Rowan Public Library and Waterworks Visual Arts Center. This special exhibition honors and illustrates the Vietnam experience of local servicemen and women through a powerful and creative assemblage of selected artifacts, photographs, and oral histories gathered over the last twelve months, as well as lithographs, paintings, and woodblock prints by two visual artists, Thomas L. Floyd (Tecumseh, NE) and Mona Wu (Winston-Salem, NC).

During the thirteen-week exhibition, visitors will have the opportunity to view this extraordinary display of photographs and works of art, listen to recorded stories, and interact/react with the exhibition at three activity stations: Message to a Hero – a wall designated for visitors to write a message, add a picture or remembrance in honor of a special soldier(s); Hero’s Rock – visitors may write the name of a fallen hero on a commemorative rock and place it in the heart-shaped memorial; and Record Your Story – veterans from all wars are encouraged to record their personal stories in a specially-designed recording booth. All collected pictures and stories will be archived and kept in the Edith M. Clark History Room at the main branch of the Rowan Public Library in Salisbury. The heart-shaped rock memorial will be moved following the exhibition and placed on permanent display in the South Rowan Library Garden.

Tom Floyd is a multimedia graphic artist with Nebraska Educational Telecommunications and the creator of Captain Spectre, a crime-fighting superhero graphic novel character. He grew up in rural West Texas in the 1950s with a pen and pencil in hand, creating his own cartoons. His strongest influences were his dad and the characters from comics, movies, novels, and television. Captain America, Tarzan, Doc Savage, and Roy Rogers were all weekly visitors to his world.

Floyd earned his degree in art education at Texas Tech and became a middle school and high school teacher. He states, “The lessons learned when we are young leave the strongest impression. Even the youngest viewer quickly learns about good guys and bad guys. Honor, duty, and integrity were common themes interwoven with action and adventure. My art carries on the tradition of storytelling. My time in Vietnam was a meeting of principles and reality, a chance to prove my worth. My artwork explores the feelings and emotions that arose from those experiences.” His body of work, Principles and Reality, will be featured in the Osborne Gallery.

Steeped in Chinese traditional art while growing up in China, Winston-Salem artist Mona Wu immigrated to the United States in 1970. She received her BA in Art History from Salem College that opened the door to Western art for her. Wu studied printmaking under David Faber at Wake Forest University.

Wu uses woodcut relief, the traditional medium used by her Chinese ancestors for reproducing texts and illustrations. Her goal is to seamlessly combine her educational, spiritual, and technical elements, both Eastern and Western, into a body of work which reflects her life experience – living in the West but never forgetting her Eastern roots. Wu’s new body of work will be presented in the Woodson Gallery.

For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Center at 704/636-1882 or visit (www.waterworks.org).

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