Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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Recycle! It's Second Nature Enchants at the Arts Council by SONI MARTIN Pablo Picasso created a new modern movement in western art by gluing paper and posters on a surface, then drawing over the collage to infuse multiple meanings in a work of art. The mixing of found objects in a work of art (this could be construed as recycling) continued with late modern artists and is still popular with contemporary artists. So, Recycle! It's Second Nature, the newest exhibit at the Fayetteville and Cumberland County Arts Council, is a local spin on a popular art genre. Sponsored by the City of Fayetteville's Environmental Services department, and open to all ages, individuals in Fayetteville and the surrounding counties had the opportunity to make an art object from an array of materials to compete for cash awards. Each artist who took the time to create a work also had the opportunity to explore how creativity is an open ended process. Visitors to Recycle! It's Second Nature will immediately notice how using recycled materials can often result in whimsical objects. There are 33 works in the exhibit, sparse compared to prior recycled exhibits, but there are still some fun and elaborate works to enjoy. Tim Allen's Robot Man is a great example of how creative one can be with a mix of found metal parts, PVC pipe and a well crafted technique of attaching all these dissimilar parts to create a unifi ed and enjoyable design. While Allen's sculpture stands approximately 16" high, Brian Tyler's necklace, titled Three Ladies About, is a contrast in scale and equally creative. Tyler constructed a necklace with three women, cut out of some type of aluminum can, dangling from the chain; each miniature fi gure is detailed with areas of small twisted wire. Tyler also integrates colorful circuit board "thingies" along the length of the chain to create a rhythm of objects for everyone to enjoy the playful interpretation of three women out-and-about. There are three categories in this competition: 12-years-old and under, 13- to 17-years-old and 18 years or older. You know the objects children make are typically delightful. So Giraffe by 9-year-old Alyzabeth Ward and Robot Man by 9-year-old Finley Allen will not disappoint visitors with their creative achievement at constructing highly whimsical and rather large sculptures for visitors to enjoy. Noreda Hess and Bob Schwirzke both have highly imaginative work that Tim Allen's Robot Man is a great example of how creative one can be with a mix of found metal parts, PVC pipe and a well crafted technique of attaching all these dissimilar parts to create a unifi ed and enjoyable design. relate to the economy. In Mad Money, Hess had created a two-dimensional work out of cast recycled paper, part of a denim pocket from a pair of jeans; a $50 bill is tucked into denim, the pocket emerging from the cast paper. Schwirzke has created the shape of a large fi sh that has been mounted on a material that resembles fi shing net. Not only is the relief well crafted, the fi sh has been made from a montage of cut up credit cards! Caught in the Net of Credit by Schwirzke is a work to enjoy for the artist's acute sense of humor. Tracy Budrow invested a lot of time to create a woven, mixed-media work titled Marilyn Sparkles. In pinks and purple, Marilyn Monroe's icon face is reduced to a minimal shape, while the background is a complicated texture of repetition and smaller shapes to offset the face of Marilyn. 10 UCW AUGUST 31 - SEPTEMBER 6, 2011 I see Kevin Baldwin and Lenorra McDonald both made a heroic effort to create time consuming and inventive works for the exhibit. McDonald's painting titled Coca-Cola became a mixed-media relief after taking the time to twist parts of aluminum cans into a 3-dimensional still-life on the surface of the painting. Baldwin built a 3-dimensional motor off the surface of his two-dimensional collage in the work titled Chevy Power. Both works are commendable and enjoyable to view. There are many more works to view which were made by adults, but I have to mention the two individuals who entered the 13- to 17-year-old category for also taking the time to enter the competition. In Bottle Tower, Evelyn Malveau is showing a conceptual tower made out of stacking plastic bottles with different types of papers pushed inside each bottle to create contrast and interest. Rachel Strong took the time to construct and enter two whimsical animals out of recycled glass, metal and plastic. Strong's sculpture titled Glass Angler is a quirky, colorful, fun fi sh that will make you smile. It's actually quite amazing what several of the artists did with paper, from the casted paper work by Tanya Lyn Willard to the large fi gures by Cynthia Murray and Romana Grennaro — paper can be bent, pulverized and sculpted into fl attened shapes or forms that exude a presence. In the portrait sculpture by Jason Thomas titled Role Model, Thomas has created the fi gure by cutting and shaping small pieces of aluminum cans to create a three-dimensional form with lots of new age curly hair. The form, expression and refl ective color of the metal feel futuristic in content. One block behind the Arts Council, on Maxwell Street, another exhibit has opened. Gay Smith is having a one-person exhibit at the Cape Fear Studios in an exhibit titled The Works of Gay Smith, Potter. Beautiful in form and functional, Smith's work is made from porcelain clay, thrown and altered on the potter's wheel. Smith talks about her approach and the aesthetics of her work on her website: "My clay is glazed when leather-hard, and fi red to cone 10 in a soda kiln. I control the fi re and kiln atmosphere to decorate my pots by creating responsive surfaces and forms. I am interested in the tactile quality of clay, and my pieces appeal to the sense of touch and the scale of the human hand. The pots look alive, a bit whimsical and I intend that they will bring life, beauty and years of enjoyment into the lives of those who use them." A distinguished artist, Smith teaches at Penland School of Crafts and has received many awards including the North Carolina Arts Council Visual Arts Fellowship in 2008 and 2009, and a Regional Artist Project Grant through the Asheville Area Arts Council in 2009 and 2010. Her work is represented internationally, and is in many collections including the Mint Museum, Charlotte, N.C. and Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan. The Works of Gay Smith, Potter and Recycle! It's Second Nature will remain open until mid-October, 2011. Both galleries are free to the public and open six days a week. For more information, visit the Arts Council's website at www.theartscouncil.com and the Cape Fear Studio at capefearstudios.com. SONI MARTIN, Contributing Writer, Up & Coming Weekly, COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. Special www.LittleMiracles4D.com 6516 Dental Ln. Suite B Fayetteville, NC 28314 Fa 99ll Fall $ 910.778.5806 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Actual Image From the Womb.