I was lucky enough to complete the fifth firing of my wood kiln here in Hillsborough before the COVID-19 restrictions were put in place. It included work from five different potters. I’m starting to get the hang of this, my third wood kiln. It’s much easier to fire than my first two as it’s significantly smaller and I’ve now been…
During this time of quarantine, we are most lucky as artists to be able to continue the work of making. It may be that if we are forced to stay with our work, and are less distracted by things beckoning us from the outside world, we might find that we can go deeper than we expected.This may take a variety…
Since I began teaching abstract painting and collage a few years ago (through a joint appointment with the Durham Arts Council and OLLI program at Duke) I have looked for ways to both stretch myself and give my students some new ways of starting their paintings. Last year, dealing with the trauma of a flooded and destroyed art studio, I…
One of the ways that I like to paint is to simply allow my hand to create colorful shapes in a seemingly random pattern, until a coherent painting forms and begins to look ‘finished’. This can be done using any 2D or 3D medium. I often listen to music that matches whatever mood I’m in when I start to paint.…
Finishing up a yearlong art project left me drained and at loss of creative energy. I became mired in emptiness and fear crept in that I would never have another idea that excited me enough to create again. I had been fumbling around using a new technique and got caught up in generating a lot of work for an upcoming…
I believe it’s true that anything worth having is worth working for, and waiting for the right time. In my case, it took 12 years of working and waiting for a long-time creative dream to come to fruition. Here is my story of how the recently printed copies of my picture book ‘Even a Leaf: a book about the gift…
The magic of seeing San Miguel for the first time is an experience I will never forget. In 2010, my art teacher Jane Filer and her husband John and my sister flew to Leon and from there took the shuttle to San Miguel. We rented a cheap but beautiful home in the area of San Antonio and wandered the city…
This May OCAG hosts a show at FRANK’s Outreach Gallery in University Place located at 201 S. Estes Drive, Chapel Hill. This generous space provides us with an opportunity to show many samples of the participating artists’ work. You’ll find a range of mediums on display…paintings, photography, ceramics, pottery, textiles and other works of unique craft materials. Styles range from…
In May, I attended a weekend retreat sponsored by Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary to sketch and paint native plants of the Outer Banks of NC. I was one of a small group of eighteen participants along with 3 experts: a naturalist, a botanist, and a botanical illustrator. We stayed in an historic hunting lodge built in 1913 that was gracious…
In the mountains of Millboro Springs, Virginia is an artists' and writers' resort area that has been a creative refuge for many years. Originally built in 1783 as a stagecoach stop, Camp Nimrod/Nimrod Hall has been a summer resort for people from all over the world since the 1930's. There are seven buildings consisting of the main house that acts as…