Chatham County emerging artist debuts at Scrapel Hill Art

Holly Felice is a joyful young woman, known to whistle and sing while creating her unique sculptures. However, she is stone serious about two things – her art and the environment. “I am so excited about the Scrapel Hill show and contest,” she exclaims. “I love working with scrap, wondering what it can be. It’s inspiring rather than intimidating, because I can experiment without fear of wasting some expensive art material.
Scrapel Hill Art (http://www.scrapelhillart.com/) at the University Mall (http://www.universitymallnc.com/) from April through June, is an inaugural Chapel Hill public arts project, where the best local artists create works of art to help educate and promote the value of recycling. The idea evolved from the Mall management’s interest in art and sustainability. They want to expand this idea to other centers in their portfolio, but believe that Chapel Hill is the best venue for the inaugural event. They had learned about a similar event taking place near San Francisco, called “Scrapture”. They turned to Jeffrey York, the Art Administrator for the Town of Chapel Hill for guidance, and he came up with the unique name, “Scrapel Hill”.
Holly Felice is one of 16 area artists participating in the Scrapel Hill Art exhibit and contest. Felice considers herself a mixed media artist. “I want to learn everything about using wood, metal, clay, or glass – whatever material tells the best story,” she explains.

Felice is developing her multifaceted sculpture career at Central Carolina Community College (http://www.cccc.edu/curriculum/majors/sculpture/). “What sets the CCCC program apart from other professional arts and crafts programs is the inclusion of entrepreneurial instruction that will assist in the planning, operation, and marketing of a professional craft studio and gallery,” asserts Phillip Ashe, the program’s director. “This program was created in response to the expanding interest in pottery, sculpture, and professional arts in the central region of North Carolina.” Felice adds, “The CCCC program is a great way to jump start an arts career. I gained both the technical skills and the marketing know how to live as an artist. The teachers give each student a lot of personal attention. They actually helped me with the Scrapel Hill project.” Metal Sculpture teacher Kevin Eichner drew Felice’s attention to the opportunity that Scrapel Hill Art would offer her, and Design teacher Emma Scurnick advised her on the submission.

Felice is producing her sculptural submission under Eichner’s tutelage at his Moncure Mechanism of Art (MMOA) in southern Chatham County. She describes, “I am making a Scrap Metal Medusa using re-bar that I found at a grocery store demolition site. Using the re-bar, I am forging snakes that will seem to be slithering over a female torso. Medusa's form is defined by the negative space left by the stylized snakes fabricated from scrap. The concept – People only know what they see. Sometimes only the surface defines the whole.” MMOA is envisioned by renowned sculptor Eichner as a vehicle for emerging artists like Felice to advance both technically and conceptually. "Holly possesses a refreshing confidence and ambition that allows her to take great strides in broadening and strengthening her creative talents and technical abilities," Eichner explains.

Felice’s family was always conscious of the environment, but she took it to another level. Her mother Roxanne recalls, “The cable company would not run cable into our subdivision because low population density in the area reduced their profits, so we had satellite TV installed. My husband and son-in-law were all ready to watch their favorite sports channel, but one tree blocked the reception of that satellite. There was discussion about possibly cutting the tree down when our tree-hugging art student threatened to live in the tree if necessary to save it. Needless to say, the tree is still there.”

“I am more comfortable with plants and animals than with people," Felice says. Her Scrapel Hill project reflects her dual passions – art and the environment.

"I look forward with great anticipation to the Scrapel Hill Art show at University Mall. I am always fascinated by artists' creativity in transforming cast off materials into objects of beauty or controversy,” says Forrest Greenslade, President of the Chatham Artists Guild. “I can't wait to see the show and cast my vote."

For more information on the Central Carolina Community College Ceramic and Metal Sculpture Program contact Phillip Ashe (pgashe29@cccc.edu); on Scrapel Hill Art contact Garry Meldrum (garry@businessvaluecreation.com); on MMOA contact Kevin Eichner (eichner@themmoa.net).

Caption: Holly Felice working on her Medusa at the MMOA in Moncure, NC. Photo by Forrest Greenslade

Margaret Maron Keynote for New CCCC Creative Writing Program

Central Carolina Community College will introduce a new Creative Writing program during a public event Sunday, April 26, from 1pm to 4pm. The keynote speaker will be national best-selling mystery writer Margaret Maron. The audience will have the opportunity to break into small discussion groups to provide feedback on topics for the new program. Sponsored by McIntyre’s Fine Books at Fearrington, the kickoff event will be held in the Multipurpose Room, Building 2, at the CCCC Pittsboro Campus.

Scheduled to begin in Fall 2009, the new Creative Writing program will offer courses in various genres of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. Several weekly courses and one-day workshops will be offered each fall and spring semester. “We are very pleased to offer a Creative Writing Program here at our Chatham County Campus,” said Carl Thompson, Director of Continuing Education for the Chatham County campuses of CCCC. “Our goal is to provide programming that enhances the skills of our citizens, while bringing a level of enjoyment as well. This particular endeavor should satisfy both requirements. We anticipate that this program will be one of the first in this region, and we look forward to serving not only the needs of Chatham County citizens but those of the region.”

Ms. Maron’s keynote topic for the Creative Writing Program kickoff event will be, “My Writing Life”. She is the author of twenty-four novels and two collections of short stories. Winner of the 2008 North Carolina Award for Literature and several major awards for mystery writing, Ms. Maron’s works have been translated into 15 languages. A native Tar Heel, she still lives on her family’s century-old farm a few miles southeast of Raleigh. The farm served as the setting for Bootlegger’s Daughter, which is in the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century as selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. McIntyre’s will have Ms. Maron’s books available for sale during the April kickoff event at CCCC.

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If you would like more information on these courses, please call Maggie Zwilling at 919.542.6594, ext. 228 or Carl Thompson, ext. 224.

Mark Hewitt Featured at Catawba Valley Pottery Festival

Three years ago celebrated Chatham County potter, Mark Hewitt (http://www.hewittpottery.com/), built a new big kiln to fire alkaline glazes. He already had one kiln the size of a school bus, used for firing salt-glaze, but he likes alkaline-glazed pots so much he felt compelled to build a new kiln. “I guess it was because I love the color green,” says the English-born Hewitt.

The fruits of his most recent firing will be for sale at this year’s Catawba Valley Pottery Festival, March 27 and 28 at the Hickory Convention Center. It’s the first time Hewitt, 53, has attended the festival, and he will also be the Guest Speaker, his talk entitled, “A Few of My Favorite Things about North Carolina Pottery.” The Catawba Valley Pottery Festival is well-known as one of the region’s best loved pottery festivals, drawing pottery enthusiasts and collectors from near and far. Hewitt comments that, “Regional pottery traditions are very rare, they are a little like wild flowers that only grow in certain special soils and climates. A unique set of economic, historic, and cultural conditions have allowed the pottery tradition in the Catawba Valley to survive from the in the early 19th century until now. It’s quite miraculous.”

Recently in his Chatham studio, Hewitt talked about his first visit to Lincoln County in 1981, before he and his wife settled in Pittsboro, NC, in 1983. When they visited Burlon Craig, Hewitt was immediately drawn to Craig’s time-tested methods, “Not many potters used local clays and fired in wood-burning kilns back then,” Hewitt explains. “Most studio potters were, and still are, trained to get clay from a supplier, not from the ground.” Hewitt’s own apprenticeship, thirty years ago, to legendary potter Michael Cardew back in England, taught him about using local materials, so he felt quite at home standing on Craig’s clay pile, dug from the nearby “Rhodes Clay Hole,” and crawling into his groundhog kiln. “I felt comfortable there, it all made sense. I was used to doing it all from scratch, and here was a rare place where the old methods were still being used,” he said.

He remembers that first visit, standing in the doorway of Craig’s workshop, quietly watching Craig turning large jars one long afternoon, and when Hewitt finally announced that he and his wife had to leave, Craig looked up and said, with a twinkle in his eye, “So, what’s your hurry?” Says Hewitt, fondly, “I knew I could live in a place like that.”

“Twenty five years later Hewitt’s reputation has grown,” notes Forrest Greenslade, Chatham Artists Guild President. In addition to his fine quality work, he has written extensively about NC pottery, and in 2005 he co-curated with Nancy Sweezy, former Director of Jugtown Pottery, the exhibition, “The Potter’s Eye: Art and Tradition in North Carolina Pottery,” at the North Carolina Museum of Art, in Raleigh. His work is eagerly sought by collectors at his three annual kiln opening sales at his home near Pittsboro, people line up early in the morning to seek out his treasures. His larger pots are to be found at the Smithsonian, the High Museum in Atlanta, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, but his pots remain affordable. “Many of my pots are priced at less that $50, and I’ll be bringing plenty of my apprentices’ sweet little vases and cups that are less than $10.” His current apprentices, Joseph Sand and Alex Matisse will be traveling to Hickory, as will two former apprentices of Hewitt’s, Matt Jones and Daniel Johnston, who regularly sell at the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival, along with many other fine potters and antique dealers from across the region.

“I love alkaline glazed pots,” says Hewitt, “It’s taken me a while to figure out how to make them, but the alkaline glaze tradition means a lot to me and I’m excited to make my contribution to it. Bringing my new Chatham County alkaline glazed pots to the Catawba Valley is a little like “taking coal to Newcastle”. I’m bringing some pretty good-looking pots, and there may even be a few diamonds hidden in the coal.”

Caption: Mark Hewitt at his kiln. More photos available.

Chatham Artists Guild
artstour@blast.com
http://www.chathamartistsguild.org/