Clayton Visual Arts October Exhibit

The artists for the month of October will be digital photographer Natasha Johnson and mixed media artist Melissa Katherine.  The reception will be held Thursday, October 2nd from 6:00-7:30pm and all are invited to attend.

Location:

The Clayton Center

111 East Second St.

Clayton, NC  27520

Admission: free

Phone: Larry Strevig, 919-550-8934

CVA Invitation

Remember, this is just for fun! 

Here’s a video from a television show in Australia called the Chaser’s War on Everything. I started on YouTube looking at a song (Tom Waits - Hold On) that was recommended to me and an hour later I was still looking through videos!

There’s plenty more clips of the Chaser’s War on Everything on YouTube here. They hold nothing sacred and poke fun at anyone or anything, but they’re no longer making the show.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton jolted the art world in 2005 by outbidding two venerable East Coast museums for an iconic New York painting, paying a record price for the 1849 Asher B. Durand work “Kindred Spirits.”

The purchase heralded the avid collector’s plan to found a major new museum of American art in northwest Arkansas, home of her late father’s company. The project is starting to take physical shape since foundation pouring began in October.

Dubbed Crystal Bridges for a natural spring and the bridges that will span two ponds in the center of the compound, the glass-and-wood design by architect Moshe Safdie will cover 100,000 square feet when the museum opens in 2010.

It aims to be “a premier national art institution” dedicated to American art and artists from the Colonial period through the modern era, according to the museum Web site.

Bringing masterpieces to a folksy corner of the Ozarks better known for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., has spurred some art world reactions “ranging from fascination to skepticism to fear,” the journal ARTnews wrote. There is also excitement among art professionals over what some describe as a major new museum, one of only a handful nationally focused on American art history.

“The collection, as far as it’s been made known, is superb,” said Betty Krulik, a New York art dealer who specializes in American art. “Alice Walton is an experienced collector and Crystal Bridges is an exciting, major new institution.”

The collection includes Gilbert Stuart’s 1797 painting of George Washington, Charles Bird King’s early 19th-century portraits of American Indian leaders, and works by Winslow Homer, Norman Rockwell and Martin Johnson Heade.

Museum director Robert G. Workman, a 30-year veteran of the art world and former deputy director of the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth , says reports suggesting his big city peers are taking a snobbish view of the $50 million project are not true.

“Almost to a person, they’re absolutely thrilled that this project is underway and that it’s bringing a very high quality of art to an underserved region,” Workman told The Associated Press.

Alice Walton declined an interview request for this story. The heiress, who lives on a horse ranch west of Fort Worth, Texas, has collected American art for over 20 years. She met Workman as a board member of the Amon Carter.

The museum is a series of glass-and-wood pavilions with copper roofs set in a narrow valley around two ponds and connected by bridges. It is surrounded by more than 100 acres of rolling Ozarks forest, donated by the Walton family, to reflect the role that nature and landscapes have played in American art and the nation’s history.

“We want the forest and the buildings to meet in a way that maximizes the interaction of art and nature and the human mix,” Workman said.

Visitors will follow a half-mile lane through the woods to arrive at a knoll looking over the pavilions. From the knoll, a four-story-high tower of glass elevators will lead down to a courtyard facing a glass lobby with a view of the water.

“It’s going to look like the buildings were just set down in the middle of the forest,” Workman said.

The museum will include about 34,000 square feet of exhibition space as well as a cafe, performance hall, library and research center.

Trails will link the grounds with the historic Bentonville square and the museum expects about 250,000 visitors annually. Bentonville has fewer than 30,000 people but the surrounding 60-mile radius is one of the fastest growing areas in the nation with over 500,000 people, according to U.S. Census figures.

Regional tourism officials are already touting the museum, including in bids for national conference business at a new convention center in Rogers, bordering Bentonville.

From MSN Entertainment:

LONDON - A sale of pickled sharks, butterfly paintings and other pieces by provocative British artist Damien Hirst has raised $198 million, silencing his doubters and defying the global economic gloom.

Sotheby’s auction house said the total for the two-day sale was a record for an auction of works by a single artist.

The turmoil engulfing global financial markets did nothing to dampen prices as more than 600 prospective buyers packed the showroom for each of the three auction sessions. Others around the world bid by phone.

“The Kingdom,” a tiger shark preserved in formaldehyde, sold for $17 million in the first session Monday evening. “The Golden Calf” — an embalmed calf with golden hooves and horns — fetched $18.5 million.

“Fragments of Paradise,” a confection of stainless steel, glass and manufactured diamonds, sold for almost $9.4 million, five times its pre-sale estimate.

Two of Hirst’s butterfly paintings were sold for charity, for a total of more than $2.9 million.

All prices include a buyer’s premium.

Sotheby’s said the total smashed the $20 million record for an auction of works of a single artist set in 1993 for 88 works by Pablo Picasso.

Hirst took a risk by offering more than 200 pieces of new work through Sotheby’s rather than a gallery. He said it was a more democratic way to sell art — and it also spared him a gallery’s hefty commission. But if buyers had stayed away, Hirst’s global brand would have been tarnished.

The most successful of the so-called “Young British Artists” who came to prominence in the 1990s, Hirst is famous for eye-catching works redolent of death and decay — pickled animals, rotting cows’ heads, diamond-encrusted skulls. He employs a large staff to help him make his works, and some critics had suggested his prolific output was devaluing the work.

There was little sign of that Monday.

Hirst, 43, said the results of the sale showed “the market is bigger than anyone knows.”

“I love art, and this proves I’m not alone and the future looks great for everyone,” he said.

The results are all the more startling given the fear spreading through international financial markets and the economic elite who are among modern art’s major buyers. The sale came as global markets reeled from the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

“Banks fall over, art triumphs,” former Royal Academy chief Norman Rosenthal told the Guardian newspaper.

Charles Dupplin, an art expert at specialist insurers Hiscox, said the sale was “another landmark and astounding day for the art market in a year that has seen many long-standing records demolished, despite the gloomy world economy.”

But some remained unimpressed.

“Sometime in the future people will be laughing their heads off at all this,” said Charles Thomson, one of a group of artists who call themselves the Stuckists and oppose much modern conceptual art. “Actually, quite a lot of people are right now. One of them is Damien Hirst, on his way to the bank.”

Jessica Meadows was employed by the Johnston County Arts Council as Executive Director in January 2005. Following her departure, she will continue to work with the organization as a volunteer.

“It is not an easy decision to leave this position, as the arts are my passion and I was sincerely honored to serve as the executive director of the Johnston County Arts Council. However, I think the Arts Council is capable of new and unique opportunities and the next director can take the organization to the next step,” states Jessica Meadows.

Arts Council President Susan Lassiter said, “The board of directors accepted Jessica’s resignation with regret and thanked her for her excellent work and creativity in the management of the office, her good rapport with the Johnston County community, and her guidance to each board member. We will certainly miss her. She will especially be missed by all those who have worked with her in the Artists-in-the-Schools program, a successful program in its tenth year that brings professional artists from around the world to perform in every
Johnston County school.”

A search for a new executive director will begin immediately. Until a new director is hired, the board will oversee the daily operations of the office. The office is located at 231 E. Second St. in Clayton.

In the video below they have a hilarious song about all of the different ways to prepare BBQ throughout the Southeastern United States.  As many Southerners, I feel VERY strongly about the way to prepare BBQ (it should be pork and it should be vinegar based, not tomato for you silly Western North Carolinians!)  So check it out, have a good laugh and go to Rhett and Link’s website for more funny videos! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ubTQfr_tyY

The German artist Gregor Schneider is looking for people that are about to die and are willing to be a part of his exhibition, which will be you dying.

Schneider told the Art Newspaper that he wants to “display a person dying naturally in the piece or somebody who has just died. My aim is to show the beauty of death.” He also told them that his doctor in Düsseldorf is actively looking for possible participants in the exhibition of death.

I don’t know much about the artist, and he may just be out to shock and collect his 15 minutes, but I don’t have a problem with his plans. If the person dying is aware of what he or she is participating in and it’s done in a reasonably tasteful manner, I’m fine with it. I probably wouldn’t go to the exhibition, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be exhibited.

It’s a thousand times more tasteful than killing an animal for art, as I doubt that any of the animals from the recent Adel Abdessemed exhibition signed a consent form to agree to be filmed while they took a sledge hammer to the head.

If you are a resident in Johnston County NC and are interested in exhibiting your work in The Eye of the Eagle Art Gallery during the month of October, we would love to hear from you. We are looking for diversity and broken boundaries in your chosen medium.To be considered for exhibition the following requirements must be met:

• Send in 4 pictures (print or digital) with sizes of the artwork being submitted. Two will be chosen to exhibit, more if space allows. Mail to Eye of the Eagle Art, 131 East 1st Street, Clayton, NC 27520 or donna@eyeoftheeagleart.com
• If pictures are sent by email include your Full Name, Address, Phone number you can be reached at during day and evening hours.
• If you wish to have your pictures returned, include a stamped addressed envelope
• An Artists’ Statement and/or a resume
• Work must be appropriate for all ages
• Work must be original and made by the artist - no Prints or Giclee
• Work must be professionally framed and wired for hanging - no saw teeth, no exceptions.
• Sculptures and pottery will be accepted - include the dimensions of your pieces.
• Jewelry will be accepted (no kits)

Note: The Gallery has the right to reject art work that it feels is inappropriate and does not meet the standards deemed acceptable.Emerging artists with a fresh perspective are encouraged to apply. Art will be on display during the month of the grand opening. If you wish to consign your art to the gallery you may do so at the end of the month. If you do not wish to consign your work to the gallery, it will need to be removed by November 1, 2008 or a $10 daily storage fee will be charged.All Gallery Sales during the grand opening will incur a 25% commission fee. For more information contact Donna Light Pfledderer at 919-221-0452 or donna@eyeoftheeagleart.com

I’ve made up three little “gift baskets.”  One is a golf-themed basket with JCAC golf balls, JCAC golf towel, and some other golf-related gifts.  The second is a Johnston County themed basket with a Johnston County mug, pen-holder, and other Johnston County-related items.  The third is for Music lovers-four CDs by various musicians. 

These baskets will be given away to the first three people that contact me via email info@johnstoncountyarts.org.  You must put “Johnston County Arts Council Giveaway” in the subject line; the first person gets to choose from the three baskets, the second person picks from the remaining two and the last person gets whats left!

Start emailing!

The Saturday, Oct. 18, performance by Capitol Steps will feature the side-splitting hilarity of this wildly popular comedy troupe. Capitol Steps first appeared in Clayton prior to the 2004 election, and they return armed with timely material from the current campaign.  
 
The second show in the series is the Nov. 1 performance of The Blues Brothers Revival, a Blues Brothers tribute show endorsed by Dan Ackroyd and the John Belushi Estate. On Jan. 16, Etta May and her band of Southern Fried Chicks bring their down-home humor back to town, followed by the March 14 return of the annual Blues Bash. This year’s Bash features legendary “guitar hero” Johnny Winter. The season wraps up with two diverse musical shows. Rumba-flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook returns for an encore performance on March 27, while folk-bluegrass singer/songwriter Kathy Mattea closes out the series on April 25 with her “Moving Mountains” tour.
 
Again this year, The Clayton Center will offer three Sunday afternoon performances. The Sunday audience can expect first class music, comedy and magic. Cherryholmes, one of the hottest bands in the bluegrass arena today, performs on Sunday, Nov. 9, while juggler Mark Nizer brings new meaning to the word entertainment on Feb. 1. The Sunday shows conclude with the Four Bitchin’ Babe’s blend comedy and music in their latest show, Hormonal imbalance, on Sunday, March 22.
 
As previously announced, The Clayton Center will present Shawn Colvin on September 26 as a prelude to the Palladian Series.
 
This past year, more than 50,000 people visited The Clayton Center to enjoy a performance, rent the state-of-the-art facilities or attend a meeting.  “It is our goal to promote and support the arts in our community and to continue to present the quality of performance that our patrons have come to expect,” Stump said.
 
Season tickets for the Palladian Series, which are $125, are available for purchase beginning Aug. 28. The season ticket offers a discount of more than 20 percent off the total ticket price.  Individual tickets for performances range from $12 to $29 and go on sale Sept. 3. Tickets may be purchased by phone at 919-553-1737, at The Clayton Center Box Office from 10 a.m. until noon and from 1 until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, or online at www.theclaytoncenter.com.
 
Other popular artists presented in past seasons at The Clayton Center include Jim Brickman, Doc Watson, Eileen Ivers, Riders In the Sky, the Harlem Gospel Choir and David Sedaris.

Season Schedule At A Glance:

September  26    Shawn Colvin (Season Prelude)

October 18          Capitol Steps
November 1        Blues Brothers Revival
November  9       Cherryholmes
January 16          Southern Fried Chicks Comedy Tour
February 1          Mark Nizer
February 22        Hormonal Imbalance: A Mood Swinging Musical Revue
March 14            Blues Bash IV with Johnny Winter
March 27            Jesse Cook
April 25               Kathy Mattea