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Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05
October 2, 2008 issue
Downtown Boone Art Crawl Friday
Compiled by Anna Oakes
Plenty of new art exhibits will be on display at this Friday’s Downtown Boone Art Crawl, including handcrafted textiles by local fiber artists and colorful, imaginative paintings and drawings. It’s also your last chance to check out Dancing with the Dragon, a contemporary Chinese art exhibition at the Turchin Center.
Receptions at several downtown art galleries begin around 5:00 p.m. and continue throughout the evening. The Downtown Boone Development Association sponsors the Art Crawl. For more information, call 828-262-4532.
Nthº Gallery and Studios
683 West King Street
The Nthº Gallery presents The Grove: New Works From Billy Fowler. Fowler is a native of Durham and a graduate of Appalachian State University with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. His latest body of work explores an imaginative world of eccentric creatures through a series of colorful and dream-like paintings and drawings. The reception starts at 7:30 p.m.
The Nth? Gallery and Studios is an underground art venue that exhibits emerging and established artists in the region and features six studio member spaces. The gallery hosts new shows on the first Friday of every month in conjunction with the First Friday Art Crawls. The Nth? is located at 683 West King Street in downtown Boone, across from the post office on the second floor. For more information, call 828-264-7429.
Jones House Community Center
634 West King Street
828-264-1789
The Watauga Arts Council monthly gallery reception begins around 5:00 p.m. at the historic Jones House on King Street. The Mazie Jones Gallery will feature locally produced fiber arts, including hand-sewn quilts, machine-sewn quilts, hooked rugs, hand-felted wool, barn quilt examples, a woven tapestry, cross-stitching with hardanger embroidery and a hand-tied fishnet bed canopy.
These fiber pieces represent craft traditions that have been passed down for generations in Watauga County and some newer art forms that are becoming part of the tradition. The artists also represent several generations. The exhibit will also feature information about the artists, art forms and photos of the artists and other work they do.
The artists include Ruth Coffey, a Caldwell County artist who creates quilts, hillbilly dolls, baskets and other items; Carol Turner, a quilter and seamstress from Watauga County; Turner’s grandmother, Mary Clark, a quilter and embroiderer; Leniavell Trivette, a doll maker, rug hooker and quilter from Watauga County; Evanell Trivette Thomas, a Watauga rug hooker and quilter; Sandy Adair, a tapestry weaver who lives in Boone; Kelly Sheets, an old-time fiddle player from Vilas; John Turner, a painter of the High Country’s barn quilt squares; and Eula Osborne, a woven lace maker from the Three Top community in Ashe County.
ArtWalk
611 West King Street
828-264-9998
As you enjoy spending time outside this fall, remember to stop by ArtWalk to see how the appreciation of nature inspires local artists. One of Artwalk’s artists uses her love of nature to create homages in clay. Inspired by the outdoors, Kate Colclaser creates ceramic pieces that accentuate the nature surrounding your own home.
Colclaser originally resided in Bucks County, Pa., and moved to North Carolina four years ago. Colclaser has appreciated handmade pottery her entire life and upon retirement from the corporate world, she began working in clay, determined to become a potter herself. Her studio is in Artists Alley, south of Blowing Rock.
Colclaser hand builds from slabs and adorns her work with extruded or thrown elements. To each piece she dedicates a great deal of time, forming and adding color through multiple layers of stain, terra siglatta or glaze and achieving the desired colors and textures through multiple firings. Nature and humor are recurring themes in Colclaser’s work such as her sculpted trees. Though based in nature, they have their own anthropomorphic twist, with faces and personalities. Her vases definitely have attitudes. Her functional pieces mirror elements found in nature.
Colclaser will present a demonstration of her pottery at ArtWalk from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served throughout the evening.
Hands Gallery
543 West King Street
828-262-1970
The Hands Gallery, a cooperative of fine crafts artists, will be open from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. during the Art Crawl. Stop by to see the handiwork of the gallery’s 16 members, including pottery, jewelry, furniture, functional pieces and more.
The Collective on Depot
125 South Depot Street
thecollectiveondepot@gmail.com
Artists of The Collective on Depot will open their studio doors to the public around 7:00 p.m.
Located through the steel doors to the left of Black Cat Burrito, The Collective On Depot is principally a work and studio space for local artists and musicians. Current members are Jamie Carroll, Chris Curtin, Travis Donovan, Dan Kaple, Sean Matthews, Peter Oakley, Uijin Park, Melissa Reaves and Virginia Tocaben. The Collective seconds as a gallery and performance space for regional and nonregional artists and musicians.
Turchin Center for the Visual Arts
423 West King Street
828-262-3017
As always, the Turchin Center will be open during Art Crawl. Stop by and see Ancient Philosophy/Contemporary Art: Asian Artists from China, Japan, Korea and the United States, on display through November 15. More than 25 artists present their work influenced by traditional calligraphy and three philosophical principles: Yin and Yang, or unity in opposites; wabi sabi, or the art of finding beauty in imperfection, understanding in nature and of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay and death; and stillness/movement, or within stillness, there is movement and within movement, there is stillness.
Also, this is your last chance to see three exhibitions at the Turchin Center that are closing on Saturday, October 4. Dancing with the Dragon explores the contemporary work being created in China with 76 works ranging from paintings and drawings to mixed media and sculpture. Gayle Weitz, a professor in ASU’s Department of Art, brings viewers into a dialogue about animal hierarchy with Humanimals, a series of carved and painted wooden cabinets that address the relationship between humans and other animals, particularly the issue of speciesism—the “right” humans have to dominate, oppress and/or exploit other animals. The Brian Ayers Memorial Exhibition is an annual showing open to international students with learning disabilities, ages 10 to 19.
