WAC Gallery Information for September 2007

Watauga Arts Council’s September gallery exhibits in the Jones House Community Center feature the artwork of a retired teacher in the downstairs Mazie Jones Gallery and the combined work of two long-time friends in the upstairs Open Door Gallery.

Steve Canipe’s show in the Mazie Jones Gallery titled “Paintings of Transformation and Repose” reflect a broad range in the theme from natural representations to dreamline symbolism.

“I’m not of the opinion that artists need to be anguished, tortured souls to create inspired art, but there have been events in life that seem to reconstruct my very being. Human events, love and death, forces one to examine not only his/herself but their version of reality, nature.,” Canipe said

“This forced “restlessness” produces a change in perception leading to new avenues of expression. This has certainly been true in my case and seen through my work. Often religious or profoundly spiritual, these moments are “Transforming”. Since these mutations don’t occur often or with regularity, the times between them are periods of rest and mundane digestion of daily circumstances. In these moments, my paintings are in ‘Repose’.”

Canipe taught middle school science for 30 years in Wilkes County, he has had a long history with Watauga’s outdoor drama, Horn in the West, serving in the cast and now on the Horn’s parent organiztion, Southern Appalachian Historical Association. He has been an artist for 40 years, but retirement enables him to pursue his passion for painting fulltime.

He has always painted in acrylics, but now enjoys expanding into new materials, often adding metallics, micas, and layers of glazes and polymers to create real and illusionary dimension.

In the upstairs Open Door Gallery, recently reunited former college roommates Marsha Holmes and Beth Andrews are rekindling their friendship and sharing their love of art by collaborating on this exhibit.

Marsha Holmes, the art teacher for the  Lois E. Harrill Senior Center and the Western Watauga Center Center, has lived on a horse farm in the Creston area of Ashe County for the past 25 years with her husband and children.

I love teaching art, guiding others in opening their eyes to the world around them, supporting students to see things with fresh eyes, then helping them to translate it into a work of art.

“Over the years I have worked as an artist and art instructor teaching both children and adults in a variety of programs, including Mabel Elementary School where I have volunteered teaching art for over 12 years. I was also commissioned to create the mural in Mabel School foyer,” Holmes said.

The unique beauty of this area inspires her work both as a painter as well as an art teacher.  I love to bring awareness to the simple objects that surround us, capturing them as portraits of beauty in everyday life. 

As our region and our environment change, I paint to honor and preserve these mountains as they are today.  Twenty-five years from now, many of the places and views we love will no longer exist.  The painting of “Nutt Farm” is such a place... once it was my home, but now it is a subdivision filled with million dollar homes.

Beth Andrews, a lifelong artist, has worked for the last 30 years as a graphic designer and illustrator. She also has a passion for the use of visual arts as a process for healing, both for herself and others, creating and facilitatting art groups for people with cancer.

“The last three years have been full of deep fulfillment for me as three long-held dreams came true.  I dreamt of moving to these mountains; I dreamt of going to Florence to paint, and I dreamt of resuming my painting in earnest.

In 2004, I moved to Ashe County (near where I grew up).  In 2005, I spent over two weeks painting in Italy with a wonderful friend and artist, Raney Rogers. And in 2006, I reconnected with my college roommate, Marsha Holmes, a dear friend and artist.  We had lost contact and had not been in touch for 25 years.  To my surprise, she was living here in the same county.  As art students in the 70s, we were passionate about our work. But like many women with families, we found it hard to find the time to focus on our art, exhibiting and showing.  Now, after 25 years, we have found ourselves at similar places on our journey as artists... refocused, ready to exhibit and inspired by a mutual love of these mountains, this place we call home, full of beauty, rich traditions, and simple life.”

Inspired by a dual love of Tuscany and the Blue Ridge Mountains... that mix of ancient hills and mountainsides, deeply-held traditions, distinctive sounds and flavors.  I have jokingly referred to it as Ciao-Chow. Here in NC, we use “Chow-Chow” as a way to add zest to our simple dishes. Everyone here knows what it is, and some- how the word ‘relish’ doesn’t explain it to someone who has not grown up here.  And in Italy, “Ciao Ciao” means so much more than just a greeting or farewell. It speaks to an entire culture and way of life. 

Both exhibits are on display from Tuesday, September 4 until Friday, September 28 from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays. The Jones House Community Center’s galleries are also open Thursdays from 7:30 to 11 p.m. during the acoustic jams and on Friday eventings until 6:45 during the September Concerts on the Lawn.

The gallery reception to welcome these exhibits is Friday, September 7 from 6:30-8p.m. and is held in conjunction with downtown Boone’s First Friday Art Crawl. 

The galleries are sponsored in part by Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff and Grassroots Funds of the North Carolina Arts Council. The WAC’s offices and galleries are located in the Jones Jones House Community & Cultural Center, owned by the town of Boone.