Bakersville, NC

"Bakersville the Way it Was"

Anita Connelly of Anita’s Atelier will be displaying her series of watercolors depicting life in the Town of Bakersville in the 1920s and 1930s at the Historic Mitchell County Courthouse throughout the month of September, 2010.

When Anita relocated to Bakersville in 2000, she was befriended by Mary Lee Barron who was kind enough to loan the artist her extensive photo collection of downtown Bakersville in bygone days.

Subsequently, over a period of several years, Anita completed nine watercolor paintings using Mary Lee’s photographs, as well as some reproductions offered her by George Morgan.  She then made prints of each of her paintings and made them available to the public through Anita’s Gallery in downtown Bakersville, NC.

The exhibit will contain the four remaining original watercolors plus signed prints of the five paintings which have been previously sold.  The prints will be available, framed or unframed, at Anita’s Gallery directly across the street from the Historic Courthouse.

New Exhibits at Crimson Laurel Gallery

On September 4th, Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville, North Carolina presents three new exhibitions featuring three of the finest ceramic artists in the country and and one of the most unique painters in western North Carolina.  Our featured exhibition is "Collecting, Creating, Connecting...Ceramics by Liz Zlot Summerfield and paintings by Sarah Faulkner" and our showcase exhibition is "Leaning into the Light...New Creamic Sculpture by Melisa Cadell". Additionally, our online exhibition is "New Work by Hayne Bayless".  

For Liz Summerfield recontextualizing utilitarian objects is a common thread woven throughout her work. Her interest lies in what an object once was and what it can become; this curiosity fuels her to create her work. She references functional, everyday objects and intends to formalize them by focusing on their form, surface, and presence in space. Her recent body of work continues to reference functional objects and address theories of collection. Currently, the most important influence in her life is her daughter, Roby.  She finds that the objects that surround her, and in turn influence her work, belong to her. They are playful items: toys, games, and balls.  They are stacked, grouped, and contained throughout her home. She has acquired a new collection and inspiration, and thus a new body of work has emerged. 

Sarah Faulkner seeks to capture, in her work, the important relationships humans have with trees, flowers, animals and all things in the natural world.  These relationships offer a sense of peace, grounding and calm which is so essential to the quality of one’s life.  Growth is reflected consistently throughout her work.  She experiments with different materials in order to capture the mysterious and atmospheric qualities found in nature.  Most recently, she has been working with wax to add depth to her paintings.  This translucent and misty material blends and softens the undercoat colors to give the work an element of light.  In addition to wax, Sarah also uses a combination of materials to build up the surface of the paintings.  This gives the work a three dimensional quality.  The work represented in the upcoming exhibit will be the first collage series in the artist’s career.  The work will reflect the simplicity and repetition found in the patterns of nature.  

Melisa Cadell is interested in the figure and the spiritual being that is represented by it.  She wishes to record the triumph of the human existence as she has observed it in the strong people who have entered her life.  Clay allows her the opportunity to form figures who sing of their past, and who are witnesses of their history.  She trying to communicate the past of individuals who have had to endure hardship, persecution, and poor health.  People have always amazed her because of their ability to face life with determination when so little hope seems apparent.  Their stories have touched her soul in a way that words fall short in describing. It is her hope that this is communicated in her work.  Her works represent people who were changed because of their life experiences and it is reflected in a beauty and strength that has nothing to do with what our society typically deems beautiful.  Their beauty is one of dignity, courage and of inner strength.  Melisa's exhibit will feature a very broad range of new works.

For Hayne Bayless the unintended result, often misread as a mistake and so dismissed, is one of the most fertile sources of new ideas. "The trick is not to fool with clay's inherent desire to be expressive.  Pay attention to the clay, not only for the sake of each piece, but because the clay will offer - or impose - its own suggestions of new forms and ways to work."  His pots are not so much about harmony, although that does happen, but more about tension. He loves what spawns in the friction between what he wants the material to do and what it would rather do.  Hayne's exhibit will feature a great selection of new works.

These exhibitions will open on September 4th and remain through October 31st with an artist's reception on September 4th at 6pm.  Each exhibition will be available online on September 4th.  For more information call 828-688-3599 or online at www.crimsonlaurelgallery.com.

Crimson Laurel Gallery Nominated for NICHE Award

Bakersville's own Crimson Laurel Gallery has been nominated for a NICHE 2010 Top Retailer Award, a national honor recognizing retailers of American and Canadian fine craft.  The store has been nominated for honors in the Top Retailer category.

Award winners will be announced at a ceremony Monday morning, August 23, 2010, during the Buyers Market of American Craft at the Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, MD.

The NICHE Top Retailer Awards program annually recognizes 24 retailers and gallery owners as "Top Retailers" and names one "Retailer of the Year".  This year, additional awards will be presented in the following categories: Best Advertising/Direct Mail Campaign; Best Promotional Event; Best New Store (less than 5 years old); Best Visual Merchandising; and Best retailer Website.  The full list of nominees by category is now posted at www.TopRetailerAwards.com.

Criteria for nomination were based on NICHE magazine's Retailers' Guide to Best Practices which details the characteristics of craft retailers who are committed to fair business practices and to growing and strengthening the North American craft community.  Nominees come from fine craft artists throughout the United States and Canada.

About NICHE magazine
NICHE is published by the Rosen Group, a Baltimore-based arts marketing, publishing and advocacy firm.  The Rosen group also produces the Buyers Market of American Craft, the nation's largest wholesale trade show of handmade gift, home decor and fashion goods.

Doug Sudduth Exhibit at Anita's Atelier

Anita Connelly of Anita’s Atelier is please to announce the upcoming Special Exhibit of the stunning photography of Doug Sudduth of Bakersville, NC, to be held on August 28, 2010 at 6 pm at Anita’s Atelier, 14 N. Mitchell Ave, downtown Bakersville. Refreshments will be served.

Doug became interested in photography while in military service in South Korea where he documented experiences with Amerasian orphans. After returning to civilian life, Doug married his wife, Billie Ruth, and they went on to start a family with two sons, Mark and Chris.

Doug studied at Penland School and with the support and encouragement of distinguished photographer Gloria Schulman, established his first permanent darkroom in 1994. Though this is a brief resume, Doug feels that “it conveys the meaning throughout my life of interest in all that is around me, viewed through the lens of a camera and my enjoyment and pursuit of the infinite possibilities of photography.”