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March Issue 2008
Turchin Center for the Visual Arts in Boone, NC, Offers Current and New Exhibits for Spring Season
The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, is presenting several current and new exhibitions including: Appalachian State's Department of Art Faculty Biennial, curated by Melissa Post, on view in Gallery A, through Mar. 15, 2008; featuring an exhibition of works by Judy Humphrey and Marianne Suggs, long-time ASU faculty members, on view in Gallery B, through Mar. 15, 2008; and featuring an exhibit of works by Debbie Arnold, who studied art at ASU and has lived in Boone for 30 years, on view in the Mayer Gallery, through Mar. 15, 2008; If you can kill a snake with it, it ain't art!, featuring selected works from the collection of Jonathan Williams, curated by Tom Patterson, on view in the Main Gallery, Mar. 7 through June 7, 2008; 5th Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition, on view in the Mezzanine Gallery, from Mar. 7 through June 7, 2008; and James Fickling: Recent Work, on view in the Catwalk Community Gallery, from Mar. 7 through June 7, 2008.
Appalachian's Department of Art Faculty Biennial is a collaboration of TCVA and the Department of Art's Catherine J. Smith Gallery presenting new work from ASU faculty members. This year's guest curator is Melissa Post, currently a curator with The Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA. Post recently served as the assistant director of the Center for Craft, Creativity & Design in Hendersonville, NC, and served curatorial roles at The Corning Museum of Glass and the Mint Museum of Craft + Design.
Faculty exhibitions provide a great opportunity for students to view and discuss artwork produced by their teachers. They also give others at ASU and the Boone community a chance to engage with the many ideas and practices being explored and taught at the Department of Art.
Judy Humphrey and Marianne Suggs, long-time ASU faculty members, are exhibiting their work in Gallery B.
Humphrey was born in Florence, SC, and received her BFA in Art Education and her MFA in Printmaking from the University of Georgia in Athens. She joined the Department of Art at ASU in 1973 where she taught full-time until her phased retirement beginning in July 2005. In addition to teaching, Humphrey has exhibited extensively and assumed numerous roles within the department, including three terms as Chairperson. From 1975-1981, she served as the founding director of the Appalachian National Drawing Competition, which provided a foundation for building a permanent collection at the university.
"My art, like my life, has been dominated by the eclectic, decorative and obsessive manipulation of interior and exterior environments real, imagined, fantastic, macabre, complex, layered, fractured, organized, enigmatic, and filled with celebration, menace, the delightful and the bizarre," Humphrey says. "My ancestors were architects, farmers and gardeners, all of whom influenced my early development of a profound interest in my visual environment."
Artist and educator Marianne Stevens Suggs holds a PhD from the University of Maryland and earned her MFA from Florida State University. Her areas of study at both schools included Art Education, Aesthetics & Art Criticism and Fibers. She received her BS in Art and Art Education from ASU and joined the university's Department of Art in 1973. She entered phased retirement in 2005. Her professional activities include extensive presentations and conference papers, published articles, exhibitions and funded research. She also has been very active within the Department of Art, serving two terms as Chairperson.
Suggs says, "The use of fiber as an art medium in contemporary times is a rich and complex phenomenon which draws upon centuries of historical and cultural antecedents. I like to think of my work as utilizing the strength of tradition without constraint and with imagination. An emphasis on reusing, recycling and reinventing materials is also evident in my work."
Both Humphrey and Suggs have been honored with the position of Faculty Emeritus and continue to make important contributions to the work of the Department of Art.
Works by Debbie Arnold are on display in the Mayer Gallery. She studied art at ASU and has lived in Boone for 30 years. She credits the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains for much of the inspiration behind her work. Her early pieces were in watercolor, but after a decade, she turned to acrylic paints. "I have always worked from spontaneous visions or from dreams," Arnold says. "These images may take months or even years to evolve to the point where a painting can begin. I rarely work with photographs or props of any kind, leaving my response to the work fluid. Once I begin a painting, it takes on a life of its own with what is created often being a total departure from the original concept."
The exhibit, If you can kill a snake with it, it ain't art!, featuring a selection of works from the collection of Jonathan Williams, curated by Tom Patterson will be on view in Turchin Center's Main Gallery.
Patterson is a writer, critic, independent curator and the author of several books on contemporary folk art and artists and has curated a dozen exhibitions since 1985 for institutions across the United States. He enthusiastically has followed Jonathan Williams' work since their first meeting in 1974.
The exhibition, 5th Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition, will be on view in the Mezzanine Gallery. The 2008 competition is a program of ASU's Outdoor Programs in partnership with the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and the TCVA. This competition provides both amateur and professional photographers the opportunity to showcase their interpretations of the unique character, people, places and pursuits that distinguish the Southern Appalachians.
And, finally, the exhibit, James Fickling:
Recent Work, will be on view in Turchin Center's Catwalk Community
Gallery.
The Catwalk Community Gallery was created to provide an exhibition
space for the range of artists found in Bonne and its surrounding
communities. In this case, a self-taught artist, James Fickling
finds his work tends to investigate themes of warfare, monsters
or the macabre. "I don't know what my work will look like
next year, next month or even tomorrow," he says. "I
am in a constant state of becoming and am always progressing,
leaving little time for relationships and even less time for planning."
The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts supports the mission of Appalachian State University through regionally significant exhibition, education and collection programs. Underlying the center's mission is the belief that the arts play vital roles in the development of creative and critical potential, and in experiencing, interpreting, understanding, recording and shaping culture. The center provides a place to investigate these roles by implementing programs that engender and strengthen Appalachian community participation in and ownership of the arts, and an emphasis is placed on partnerships with the university's academic areas. Through its programs and partnerships, the center supports the university's role as a key regional educational and cultural resource, and offers a dynamic space where participants experience and incorporate the power and excitement of the visual arts into their lives.
For further information check our NC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the Turchin Center at 828/262-3017 or visit
(www.tcva.org).
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