Carol Owen and Joel Hunnicutt show at Piedmont

Color and Form

Chatham Artists Guild members Carol Owen and Joel Hunnicutt are the featured artists for February at the Piedmont Craftsmen Gallery in Winston-Salem. The show runs from Feb. 6-Feb28 with an artist reception on Feb. 6 from 7-10pm. The exhibit will focus on mixed media Spirit Houses by Owen and turned wood pieces by Hunnicutt.

Carol Owen (http://www.carolowenart.com/) has been a professional artist for 30 years, working initially as a weaver and papermaker, and now in mixed media. Carol Owen sees her Spirit Houses as protective icons of family history, "My Spirit Houses are shrines to family memories. They make sacred those shards of the past that have made us what we are," she describes. Enshrining memories of family and home and incorporating personal mementos which celebrate the people, places, and events important to us, Owen’s unique, three-dimensional assemblages honor people's most intimate histories and truest treasures.

Joel Hunnicutt (http://www.joelhunnicutt.com/) works to create vessels out of the organic medium of wood, vessels with the elegance and luminosity of glass. “Using the technique segmented turning, “I am able to achieve shapes and designs that are usually associated with the ancient pottery forms of Greece, China and Egypt,” he says. “The use of classic forms and vibrant colors create a delight to the senses.

Segment turning involves cutting wood into small, precisely measured pieces, then gluing the pieces together into forms that will be turned on a lathe into the final design. Toners and dyes are added to lacquer during the finishing process to give the vessel a unique luminescence.”

Since 1963, Winston-Salem, North Carolina has been home to Piedmont Craftsmen, Inc., a guild founded by craft artists and collectors to honor the work of the hand (http://www.piedmontcraftsmen.org). The organization carries on a centuries-old regional tradition dating back to the eighteenth century when the first Moravian settlers established their workshops, laid out their garden plots, and set up housekeeping in the lovely rolling hills of the Piedmont. Furniture makers, potters, weavers, metalsmiths and glassblowers, their goods were recognized as the finest available in the southeast.

The Chatham Artists Guild (http://www.chathamartistsguild.org/) is a non-profit organization of regionally and nationally recognized visual artists. Each December, Guild members open their studios to the public through the Chatham Open Studio Tour.

Chatham Artists Guild
magz@emji.net
http://www.chathamartistsguild.org/