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July Issue 2007

Haywood County Arts Council in Waynesville, NC, Features Works by Dale A. Morgan and Miriam Sagasti

The Haywood County Arts Council in Waynesville, NC, will present the exhibit, From Petals to Paper: A Botanical Experience, featuring the work of two Western North Carolina artists specializing in botanical art, Dale A. Morgan and Miriam Sagasti. The exhibit will be on view from July 11 - 13, 2007, at Gallery 86.

Miriam Chiarella Sagasti is a Peruvian-American artist who came to the United States with her husband and three small children in 1978 and lived in the Washington, DC, area for 16 years before moving to Chapel Hill, NC.

Sagasti is a member of the North Carolina and National Guild of Natural Science Illustrators and the Orange County artists Guild. She has shown work in many individual and group shows and North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, DC, Maryland and Lima, Peru. She is also a graduate of the North Carolina Botanical Garden's Botanical Illustration Certificate Program.

For several years Sagasti had a graphic design studio and also worked on enamels in copper and steel-tiles. She has illustrated about 20 children's books, magazines and jigsaw puzzles.

"Now I concentrate in my paintings," says Sagasti. "My most recent works reflect the influence of my Peruvian heritage and my love of architecture and nature. I use strong colors and bold graphic shapes to show the simplicity and organic nature of the structures. I work in watercolors and acrylics; both mediums reflect well the strong colors that inspire me."

"My botanical paintings are very detail. I like the challenge of showing what nature has to offer and my paintings reflect my love for gardening and the natural world. I mostly use watercolor, and also colored pencils, pen and ink and graphite. These are two very different looks, but I like to work in both the bold, colorful landscapes and the very detail nature paintings," says Sagasti.

Most people would refer to Dale A. Morgan as an "outdoorsy" person. "For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated and amazed by the natural world," says Morgan. "My love of plants, animals and all things natural began at an early age while playing with my twin sister and the family dog in my mother's flower gardens."

"As a young adult, yearning to see the great natural wonders of the United States, I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a year living in a converted '67 Chevrolet school bus with my boyfriend and our dog. We explored our National Parks from Acadia on Mount Desert Island in Maine to Yellowstone in Wyoming and many others along the way."

"Nature, in all its marvelous forms is my greatest inspiration," adds Morgan. "From the towering Teton Mountains to the tidal pools of the Maine coast I am in constant awe of the color, shapes and compositions in which nature cloaks its self."

"My greatest desire as an artist is to bring that same sense of wonder and joy of nature to people who may not have the time to experience it first hand or have forgotten how to really look at the world around us."

Currently, Morgan is living in a bucolic region of North Carolina along with her shepherd, Natasha, her husband and her old traveling companion, the '67 school bus.

For more information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call 828/452-0593 or visit (www.haywoodarts.org).

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