by: Lauren Hodges

Piecing It
Back Together
Featuring the art work of
Erica Morgan
Edge of Urge, 18 Market Street
March 4th • 7-10pm

Faced with sudden loss, most of us go through the seven stages of grief: shock, guilt, anger, depression, adjustment, reconstruction and acceptance. For some, a few of the stages are harder to conquer than others. Local artist Erica Morgan was hit with the shock of her life when her younger brother died last year. Anger was a long process that was difficult for Morgan to overcome.

“I detached myself from friends and family,” she says. “I stopped making art, had no creativity or drive, and started questioning the reason for my loss. No reason, in my opinion, was worth the cost of such an innocent and good-hearted life that was taken.”

Before the tragedy Morgan was a promising and hard-working artist. She had a solo show at the Wabi-Sabi Warehouse featuring her signature environmentally focused work. Her most moving piece was made of organic cloth, soaked in motor oil, and over time showed the damage done to nature by a man-made substance. The dark, greasy oil slowly spread throughout the bright, clean material, darkening the color and filling the creases. In hindsight it was an ominous foreshadow to Morgan’s struggle.

“In the weeks and months passing, death became very, very real to me,” she recalls. “I was abruptly made aware that everything—and I mean everything—only ends in death. So what was the point? My thoughts about life and death, purpose, coincidence . . . fell apart. I couldn’t make sense of anything, not even love, because to me, none of it mattered since it was all going to end in death anyway.”

Slowly and painfully Morgan made her way into a period of reflection. Her art had been neglected since the tragedy, but somehow all of the make-you-think messages featured in her previous works had not completely left her mind. Morgan’s talent for insight in art was going to be her saving grace. She began the stage of adjustment, which required, in her words, “to stop dwelling on the who, what, why and how of the death I was dealing with, and to realize no matter how much I focused my energy on all of those [things,] he wasn’t coming back. Nothing was going to change that. So I started seeing beauty in the world and people around me again.”

Without really looking for materials, Morgan found herself amongst a new body of work naturally. She began with a fabric collage on a piece of cardboard and incorporated metal objects. She found a grate from an old grill and started to tie the whole piece together with clumps of frayed threads. It was pure improvisation, since she says she wasn’t actively seeking materials or picturing a finished product. The threads were left to hang freely from the work, which was meant to symbolize impermanence.

“My struggle to work with what I knew about life and death, in order to cope, is mirrored in this body of work by only using material I had,” Morgan says. “It forced me to learn about myself and what I’m capable of, both with making art and dealing with my brother’s death.”

Having entered the sixth stage, reconstruction, Morgan was reminded of her previous commitment to environmentally conscious messages. She found that the process of recycling was a perfect metaphor for her new beginning.

“I’m piecing back together objects that would have otherwise been discarded . . . allowing the environment to feel a little relief,” she notes. “Since all my materials are found, reclaimed and recycled, there is no impact on the environment. So in a sense, I’m giving life back to the environment—or at least extending the life of [it.]”

Today, Morgan has found herself in the seventh stage: acceptance. As she prepares to re-enter the art community, with an upcoming show at Edge of Urge, she hopes her message of hope will be contagious. “These works are a manifestation, or documentary, of my exposure to the multidimensional loss of life,” she says “Each piece is contrived of several components, some of which are in obvious conflict with the others and are fighting for priority or attention, but remain still connected whether loosely or permanently with each other and the whole—very much the same way the stages and levels of grief network with one’s mind.”

by: Lauren Hodges

Materials and Methods
Featuring the fabric art and time-lapse
videos of Leslie Pearson.
ACME Art Studio
711 N Fifth Street
February 26th • 6-9pm

Unless one happens to live with an artist, it’s a rare opportunity to catch a glimpse at the creative process. Any artist showing off a finished work will inevitably encounter the following questions:

“How long did it take?”
“What did you use for this part?”
“What were you thinking when you made this?”

As they say, it’s not just the destination but also the journey.

“For me the process is almost more important than the finished piece,” Leslie Pearson, fiber artist, says. “Because a single piece can easily take months, or even years, to complete. [It] becomes a meditative, ritual act or performance.”

Pearson, a graduate student at East Carolina University, studies textiles. With a home base in Wilmington, she is an avid experimenter, who loves to work with new materials, naturally incorporating a variety into her artwork.

“I am excited to see that boundaries are being crossed within all media,” she says. “Labels are almost a thing of the past. I find this to be especially true for artists working in fiber-based materials, because the the range of what is considered to be ‘fiber’ is so diverse.”

She keeps a busy studio in the downtown home she shares with her photographer husband. Once inside her creative space, she finds solace in the acts of hand-stitching, beading and weaving.“The repetitious processes and handwork associated with fiber-based artwork is usually a very important aspect to the artist,” Pearson says.

So important, in fact, that she takes the time to document her woman-at-work moments. Using an automatic setting on her camera, she takes a picture of herself creating every 30 seconds, which she compiles and transforms into time-lapse videos.

“I find that the video showing the progress and the physicality of the artist-in-action is a key component to understanding the artwork: the time, the sacrifice, the dedication to completing something.”
But it’s not all painstaking discipline. Pearson enjoys every moment. “Let’s not forget the fun of using one’s own hands to make an idea into a tangible object,” she says.

Though she’s the only star so far of her homemade films, she is sure that plenty of Port-City fabric fanatics can relate to the process onscreen. When she isn’t making the commute to Greenville for school, Pearson has been busy curating an exhibit, featuring her fellow textile students from ECU. In fact, the travels she endures for an education were her main inspiration for the show.

“There are a lot of fiber-based artists in the Wilmington area, but there isn’t a program available locally,” she points out. “Perhaps this exhibition will even stir an interest in creating a textile program at UNCW.” When asked why the school would want to install textiles in their curriculum, Pearson couldn’t stop herself.

“The word ‘textiles’ itself is even being redefined in people’s minds. Once traditionally thought of as term for working in industry—wall paper design, fashion, fabric design—it’s now a broad umbrella for anyone working in fiber-based art.”

The broadness will soon be displayed on the walls of ACME Art Studios. The show, called “Materials and Methods,” is a group exhibition, featuring a mix of fiber-based artworks created by several professors and graduate students from East Carolina University’s School of Art and Design. An opening reception will be held on Friday, February 26th, from 6-9pm.

Leslie Pearson’s time-lapsed videos can be viewed on her Web site at www.lesliekpearson.com.

by: Lauren Hodges

Silent auction feat. the work of Robert Delford Brown
Wabi Sabi Warehouse
19 N. 9th Street
Saturday, February 20th • 11am-4pm
Absentee bids: 910-599-0476,
archibaldheptinstall@gmail.com

Show up anywhere in Wilmington where art is loved and celebrated, and you will still feel the presence of Robert Delford Brown. The meteor of a man that hit the Port City died in March of 2009, and the creative community is still on his road to Nevada (Brown’s tongue-in-cheek version of “the road to Nirvana”). After almost a year, his friends and followers are keeping him alive on the walls. His energy still roams the halls of Cameron Art Museum, and his signature catch phrases (“Who? Knows!”, “What Great Art!”) decorate the theater in Jengo’s Playhouse.

“A lot of people think that artwork only becomes valuable when the artist is gone,” Jengo’s founder, Dan Brawley, says. “But the person is the most valuable part. I think Bob is the ultimate proof of that.”

Brawley, who was a close friend of Brown’s, has been taking inventory of the pieces left behind—and it hasn’t been easy on him. “It’s a painful process,” he admits. “Bob was such a presence here, and he is missed every day. But these things all represent his message to the world and how he felt about things.”

In the spirit of keeping Bob’s presence moving around town, his First National Church of Exquisite Panic is liquidating a large amount of their great leader’s creations. A silent auction (as Brawley says, “Hush, hush...shut up!”) will be sponsored by the Independent Art Company and held at the Wabi-Sabi Warehouse. The sacred objects up for bid include Brown’s signature Mirror Mandelas, Ikonomobiles, gluings, Maps to Nevada, Epherma and other works of art.

Whoever is lucky enough to aqcuire one of the masterpieces will have plenty of options.

“I am asking anyone who buys work by Bob to consider donating it back through Cameron Art Museum [CAM],” CAM’s director, Deborah Velders, says, “so that it could be up for possible placement in another art museum, for which they would ultimately receive a tax deduction.”

Though this seems unorthodox, many of Brown’s friends feel that he wouldn’t have it any other way. “This would help fulfill Bob’s desire that his work be represented in various museums,” Velders says. “That desire was actually the whole point of this sale of artwork: to help get Bob’s work into museums across the country. We couldn’t do that without legal ownership being settled. Elsewise, we would have simply allowed the court to reclaim the work and sell it.”

Ultimately, Brawley feels that the purpose of the auction is to keep Brown’s memory alive. “This is a chance for a lot of people to own a piece of Bob, a chance that they might not have had before. It’s a huge opportunity.”

The auction will take place on Saturday, February 20th, at the Wabi Sabi Warehouse, 19 North 9th Street, from 11am-4pm. Absentee bids will be accepted via telephone at 910-599-0476 or via e-mail at archibaldheptinstall@gmail.com. All absentee bids must be received by 2:37pm on Saturday, February 20th.

by: Lauren Hodges

The Bunce Island Exhibit
Randall Library Exhibit Center,
UNCW campus
on display through Feb. 27th
Grand opening reception Feb. 21st, 3pm
www.bunce-island.org
(910) 262-8208

February is Black History Month, which always gives America a lot to think about—particularly in the South. Our own Cape Fear region has an especially poignant part in the past, with a rich heritage of struggle and strife for African-Americans. Of course, the history has remained largely unacknowledged in history books until recently.

“African-Americans, free and enslaved, were crucial to the development of southeastern North Carolina,” John Battle, director of the African-American Heritage Foundation of Wilmington, Inc. (AAHFW), says. “Besides providing the bulk of plantation labor, they dug the canals, labored on the railroads, worked in commerce and shipping, and help construct much of the built environment, some of which is still in existence today.”

Battle and his colleagues at the AAHFW have been busy studying the connection between the history of Wilmington and Sierra Leone. In fact, a former slave named “Thomas Peters” joined the British Army in the Revolutionary War and later became a founder of Freetown, Sierra Leone. He was known as a “Black Pioneer.”

“Bunce Island was an 18th-century British fort in Sierra Leone,” Battle explains. “It shipped thousands of African captives mainly from the Rice Coast of West Africa to the rice-growing regions of North America during the mid- and late-1700s.” As the history points out, that knowledge of rice farming became an assett to the South and its economy.

As slave owners profited from the labor and knowledge of the African imports, a new culture had started to develop in the fields. In 2006 Congress established a Gullah/Geeche Cultural Heritage Corridor, making it the only one in existence to commemorate African-American history. The 12,000 square miles spread along the Southern coast and include pieces of North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Parts of New Hanover County are included in the stretch.

“Over time, enslaved Africans who lived and labored in relative isolation on rice plantations developed the distinct Gullah language, traditions, music, material culture and foodways,” Battle says. “Much of this culture is maintained to this day.”

Yet, many people are unaware or know very little of this rich cultural heritage in the Wilmington area, largely due to the lack of information available to the public. “The historic presence of the Gullah people has largely escaped or been excluded from records, books and until recently, historian scrutiny,” Battle says. “But this might be because of an inability to distinguish among African-American origins. It is often viewed by others as a homogenous group of people.”

The AAHFW hopes that a new public exhibit will help to educate the local population on the Gullah/Geeche culture. Working with the UNCW Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, the organization has been able to sponsor a display in the Randall Library. Called the “Bunce Island Exhibit,” the show features papers and pictures depicting the history of the understated people. The story of Sierra Leone, the Atlantic Slave Trade and the origins of the culture in North America is told vividly in illustrations along the library’s main corridor.

“It is our hope that the exhibit will stimulate new representations and historical narratives based on Western forms of evidence,” Battle informs. “We want to validate the Gullah people’s family and oral histories, memories, folklore and life experiences.”

The Bunce Island Exhibit is on display from February 1st to the 27th in the Randall Library Exhibit Center. On February 21st a grand opening reception will be held, featuring a lecture and video with Professor Joseph A. Opala, the show’s curator. The lecture will begin at 3pm with time for questions and discussions at 4pm. The video and reception will follow. Visit www.bunce-island.org for more information or call (910) 262-8208.

by: Lauren Hodges

Heart Art Show
Featuring the sardine-can art
of Tuki Lucero
Mitzy Jonkheer Jewelry Art Studio
4410 Wrightsville Avenue
Feb.12th, 4-8pm • Feb. 13th, All day

“Recycle” and “valentine” probably don’t make the most attractive word-pairing in many minds. In fact it probably conjures up memories of that heart-felt gift given by that special someone—who forgot to toss the card from their ex. Yet, since Valentine’s Day is the time to give all relationships a chance, “recycle” and “valentine” will be brought together in a good way this year, thanks to artist Tuki Lucero.

“I try to be a conscientious recycling type,” Lucero, who found her inspiration in a pile-up of sardine cans, says. “My vet told me my cats needed to eat tinned fish other than cat food, so, voila! Recycled sardine-can art.”

Lucero’s unconventional thinking likely comes from an unconventional discovery of her creative talents. With no formal art education, she assumed that a career in art was pointless when she failed to draw a successful still life. Her awakening, not surprisingly, came in New York City when she was only 19, and her roommate encouraged her to think outside of traditional art.

“I lived with a woman named ‘Micci Cohan’, who showed me that creative inspiration can come from any object and can be expressed through any medium,” she remembers. “Once I realized most of my barriers were self-imposed, it was easy to let my creative urges take over.”

Lucero worked for a jewelry designer for years before she began to make her own and eventually had a friend show her how to cast on. While watching her young son play on the playground, she taught herself to knit and began selling her creations in boutiques around the city. Finally, her introduction to artisanal paper brought her to the artistic arena in which she makes her current creations.

“I started making cards and small books,” she says. Yet, she doesn’t believe she will sit still in her craft for long, since she insists on surrounding herself with creative types.

“I have friends who sew, knit, design furniture, cook, weld, dance, write and paint,” she says. “They all inspire me and teach me things that I incorporate into whatever project I’ve embarked upon.”

For now Lucero is concentrating on her sardine-can project, which began last fall at Halloween. As a fan of all things macabre, Lucero could never resist the Mexican folk art and religious shrines that surrounded the Day of the Dead.

“I’m very partial to the slightly odd,” she says. “I see the most beauty in things that aren’t quite right or maybe a little bit scary.” She used her inspirations to make spooky keepsakes for October and decided to keep at it into the holidays. A collection of Madonna-themed tins emerged in time for Christmas. Now in the new year, an off-beat celebration of love can be found inside the glitter-covered containers.

“This is actually my first Valentine project—other than baking,” she laughs. “Valentine’s Day never really inspired me before.” After letting her romantic freak flag fly, Lucero was able to put her own version of the holiday into the valentines. The results have been glamorous but deliciously dark, featuring skeletons and vampires, mixed in with whimsical images of Victorian and 1920s couples. The Smashing Pumpkins would be proud.

“I hope customers find them irresistible, of course,” she says. “And I hope that they will appeal to the people who appreciate gifts that are handmade and one-of-a-kind. I think a gift to your true love should reflect how unique and special your feelings really are.”

Lucero’s creations can be found at the Heart Art Show at the Jonkheer Jewelry Art Studio on February 13th. A preview party will be held at the 4410 Wrightsville Avenue location on February 12th, 4-8pm. The show will also include work by Mitzy Jonkheer, Jeff Bridgers, Clair Hartmann, Julia Jensen, Sandra Siemering, and Rhonda Sparks.

Call 910-409-8758 for more information.