Sculptor Eddie White starts with a piece of paper or a thin sheet of plastic. He cuts intricate lines – sometimes parallel, sometimes curved – and carefully twists the ribs apart. The flat surface suddenly becomes dimensional. “What begins as a design consisting of two basic shapes can be manipulated in endless ways for different effects,”… Read More →
Meet This Artist: Allison Tierney is exploring the objectness of paint
Artist Allison Tierney is known for applying paint in a “non-traditional”style. But paint isn’t the only thing she is applying to her canvases. “My pieces often employ found items that are embedded within the frame and these objects bring with them histories and stories of their past,” she said. Even the scraps from her paintings… Read More →
Meet This Artist: Leandra Strope is empowering girls to find their voices
While other toddlers were smearing yogurt in their hair and coloring on the walls with crayons, Leandra Strope at age two was learning to play the violin. “My mother was committed to the idea that my brother and I would be musically literate,” said Leandra. By the time she was in elementary school, she had… Read More →
Meet This Artist: Young Authors, Bright Lights
When Chatham County’s media coordinators put out a call for original stories, more than 500 elementary and middle school students delivered. Autobiographies, works of fiction, pop-ups books, poetry – they arrived in many forms. From this pool of literature, 50 were selected – representing the top picks from each public school. The authors of these… Read More →
Meet this Artist: Liz Bliss is a Cirque Performer with a Flare
Chatham County artist Elizabeth Robertson (aka Liz Bliss) is a cirque performer, aerial artist, acrobat, stilt dancer, fire dancer and instructor. “I tend to think of myself more as a professional smile maker. My goal is to inspire others to move, express and be,” she said. Though she pursued a career in public health and… Read More →
Meet This Artist: Linda Booker fuses art and issues through documentaries
As a child, Linda Booker was especially drawn to these three things: art, reading and the little brook that trickled near her home. The latter provided a quiet retreat where her creativity and her passion for learning flourished. Thus when she founded a company in 2005, she chose the name By the Brook Productions through which… Read More →
Meet This Artist: Meredith Bridges – shoemaker, weaver, sculptor, teacher
Meredith Bridges can make herself a pair of shoes, weave a blanket, construct a pack basket and craft a shaker box. She does so with creative flare, a respect for her materials and a keen eye for detail. “Though I love making art and being in the studio, I am just as happy to help… Read More →
Meet This Artist: Joey Howell Creates in Paints & Notes
In the deep woods of Chatham County, Joey Howell has found synchronicity between his two art forms. He plays music to create “visual imagery that transports the listener” and he paints visual images that “convey the rhythm, harmony and emotion of music.” There is a bold yen and yang flow between them – rather like… Read More →
Meet This Artist: Diali Cissokho Blazes a New Chapter
Musician and songwriter Diali Cissokho was born into a long line of West African griots, who have been passing down history through song for seven centuries. From a small fishing town in Senegal, he followed his heart across the sea and landed in Pittsboro, N.C. where he lives on a small farm with his wife… Read More →
Meet This Artist: The Passions and Preoccupations of Painter Julia Kennedy
Julia Kennedy has known for some time that she has a passion for vintage muscle cars (she drives a 1967 Chevy Impala SS 3964), Korean pickled crab, dark mystery novels by the likes of Ross MacDonald and Raymond Chandler, and her ever-changing family of rescued animals (currently four dogs). But it wasn’t until a friend… Read More →