April 11, 2014. Join the Watauga Arts Council and the Blue Ridge ArtSpace to celebrate the second Saturday Arts Celebration. The celebration will be held at 377 Shadowline Dr. in Boone from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 12.
Featured Gallery Exhibits
The Main Gallery
In the Main Gallery, the Blue Ridge Artspace will feature forged furniture and other metal works of Carley Eisenberg complimented by the original paintings and drawings of Tommy lee McGhee. Both were Regional Artist Project Grant winners this past fall, selected to be part of an elite group of ten artists chosen from among an outstanding slate of talented artists from Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany and Wilkes Counties.
Tommy is using his grant funding for marketing materials to promote his paintings. He is a member of the Nth Degree Gallery and was a speaker and vendor at the New Economy Summit held in April 2013. Calling himself Sir Tom Foolery, his works are delightful and whimsical, yet are filled with symbolic messages and narratives.
Carley Eisenberg attended both Rhode Island School of Design and Miami University of Ohio for undergraduate students. At RISD, she studied all different types of art, focusing on glass blowing and charcoal drawing. After her freshman year, she transferred to Miami of Ohio and began studying interior design. A few months later, she stumbled into the wood shop of the basement of the architecture building and never left. She then attended Rhode Island School of Design again for graduate studies in furniture design. With her main focus on metalworking, Carley created her thesis collection entitled “Fables of Red” inspired by the original tables of Little Red Riding Hood. After graduating with an MFA in furniture design in Spring 2013, Carley began assisting Vivian Beer in her shop in Mancester, New Hampshire. At the end of the summer of 2013, Carley moved back to Boone and started her own forge where she enjoys spending all day forging beautiful and functional artwork. She is now creating her new collection based on the original tales of Cinderella.
Open Door Gallery
Shirley Hampton is the featured artist in the Open Door Gallery. Shirley studied art at Appalachian State University and in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, however she is mostly self taught. Shirley said she paints from her imagination. She starts with a blank canvas and simply begins painting, not knowing exactly how long it is going to turn out. She says that, to her surprise, it usually comes out well or at least she likes it. Most of her paintings are figurative abstracts or impressionistic. She also sculpts, and like her paintings, they are the products of her imagination. The end result is an eclectic collection of fresh works which are both colorful and frequently large.
Serendipity Gallery
David Richardson, often termed an “outsider artist” is displaying a collection of his works in the Serendipity Gallery. He has lived in Watauga County most of his life. About ten years ago, being bored, he sketched an old barn shed and was happy it could be identified. Since then he has done pencil drawings, painted his grandchildren’s pictures and created several organic wood carvings which utilize the natural shape of the wood to dictate the subject.
The Tarheel Footprints Children’s Gallery
The Children’s Gallery will feature works of art created by students of Mabel Elementary School with art teacher Rae Filsinger. Like all elementary art teachers in Watauga County, Rae divides her time between Mabel and Parkway school. She featured her Parkway students’ work in November and it will be exciting to see what her Mabel students have been doing this year.
All galleries are sponsored by Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff.
The five colorful classrooms will once again be filled with creative energy. Each of the five classrooms will now feature a new arts adventure. Among the featured artists this month are Pat Grant, Tunde Afolayan, Jody Bargerstock and Bill Kaiser, whose novels are a fascinating depiction of the Civil War and its impact on families in western North Carolina.
There will also be plenty of shopping in the gift shop and light refresments. All WCAC Members are reminded that during the second Saturday weekend they are entitled to a 10 percent discount while shopping at the gift shop just for showing their card.
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