Women of Fearrington December Event

Chatham Latitude and Longitude

Chatham County is the geographical center of North Carolina. It is the locus from which we view the world and create art.

Place these Lat/Long coordinates in: https://www.latlong.net/Show-Latitude-Longitude.html and it will give you the address and a map to each studio.

Studio # 1 Janet Resnik Affordable, functional stoneware

Lat 35.860290, Long -79.218380

Studio # 2 Vince Pitelka Ceramics / Mixed Media

Lat 35.864790, Long -79.211540

Studio # 3 Jeffrey N. Clark Wood Turning, Jonathan Clark Wood, Barry Udis Photography

Lat 35.848360, Long -79.183560

Studio # 4 Marie Wright Ceramics

Lat 35.846250, Long -79.133770 

Studio # 5 Cathylee Mahin Watercolors

Lat 35.826560, Long -79.109670

Studio # 6 Hamish Jackson Ceramics

Lat 35.836190, Long -79.096930

Studio # 7 Louise Hobbs Ceramics

Lat 35.826460, Long -79.233200

Studio # 8 Judy Bauman Acrylic Painting

Lat 35.856460, Long -79.016640

Studio # 9 Rusty Sieck Stoneware Pottery

Lat 35.830880, Long -79.218720

Studio # 10 Annabelle Stein Textiles, screen-printed and painted silks

Lat 35.810680, Long -79.199400

Studio # 11 William Moore Sculpture in marble, wood, ceramic, bronze, steel and stone

Lat 35.809360, -79.198560

Studio # 12 Andrew Wilson Wood and Jewelry

Lat 35.807750, Long -79.134940

Studio # 13 Doug Dotson Ceramic / Stoneware

Lat 35.808290, Long -79.132220

Studio # 14 Leslie Palmer Drawing, Watercolor & Mixed Media Painting

Lat 35.808360, -79.080490

Studio # 15 Forrest Greenslade Nature-Inspired paintings and sculpture

Lat 35.804910, long -79.087660

Studio # 16 Lani Chaves Watercolor Painting

Lat 35.806049, Long -79.083458

Studio # 17 Steve Shafer Photography, Digital art

Lat 35.804100, Long -79.078770

Studio # 18 Eric Saunders Photography

Lat 35.790150, Long -79.075260

Studio # 19 Vidabeth Bensen Hand screened prints

Lat 35.806220, Long -79.073160

Studio # 20 Michael Blotzer Photography

Lat 35.796880, Long -79.125766

Studio # 21 Karen West Painting

Lat 35.794170, Long -79.067970

Studio # 22 Andi Sobbe Ceramics

Lat 35.784970, Long -78.986940

Studio # 23 Shannon Bueker Natural wonders in paint, clay and cards

Lat 35.769110, Long -79.166560

Studio # 24 Selden Lamoureux Ceramics

Lat 35.769070, -79.149330

Studio # 25 Amanda Greiner Painting, Craig Greiner Photography

Lat 35.774120, Long -79.139910

Studio # 26 Bronwyn Watson Ceramics

Lat 35.743600, Long -79.173050

Studio # 27 Linda Callihan Watkins Painting

Lat 35.731920, Long -79.140910

Studio # 28 Julio Alberdi Sculpture

Lat 35.733360, Long -79.097010

Studio # 29 Linda Collura Drawing painting

Lat 35.722650, Long -79.183720

Studio # 30 Mark Hewitt Beautiful place, beautiful pots

Lat 35.713200, Long -79.132860

Studio # 31 Judith Smith Painting, Rita Baldwin Oil on Canvas

Lat 35.705470, Long -79.103850

Studio # 32 Lee Kazanas Ceramics

Lat 35.620070, Long -79.076600

Studio # 33 Eva Green Basketry, Fiber, Mixed Media, Wood, Gretchen Niver Fused and stained glass panels, bowls, platters, ornaments, and tiles, Lara O’Keefe Ceramics Janice Rieves Glass mosaic, sculptural lighting and ferrocement sculpture, Diane Swan Wood Furniture, mixed media, Painting

Lat 35.682230, Long -79.218310

Studio # 34 Kim Campbell Glass, Heather Gerni Painting mixed media

Lat 35.664650, Long -79.134800

Studio # 35 Beth Bale Painting Sarah Graham Painting

Lat 35.599560, Long -79.199340

Place these Lat/Long coordinates in: https://www.latlong.net/Show-Latitude-Longitude.html and it will give you the address and a map to each studio

Arbor Day in Fearrington Village 2019

We had a wonderful walk along the North Langdon Trail to celebrate Arbor Day on April 18th 2019. Green Scene Moderator Jason Welsch, Trail Master Henry Castner and FHA BOD President Judith Andersson joined arborist and naturalist Frank McKeever who led the tour. It was a "Carolina blue" day with birds singing and soft breezes wafting as we enjoyed Frank's educational talk.

Henry, Frank, Judith and Jason

Frank explaining

Marilyn Racine at the
Charles Ravine mamorial rewilding plot

Jason by the Arbor Day Sweet Bay Magnolia that he planted

The Obscene Comedy*

The stench stung his nostrils, seared

his lungs. Flames tongued up his
legs to scorch his testicles and
abdomen. His back recoiled, then
bent to the slash of the whip
wielded by the hulking, slobbering
demon. He stumbled to his knees,

his head cowered, tears streaming
down his face. “Why am I here?”
he whimpered.

“To make Americal great again!"
 snarled the  demon'

He felt a weight on his
legs, and looked down to
see a dark soul clinging
to his torso, grasping toward
his face. “Who is this
parasite?” he asked.

“Mike Pense.” responded
the demon.

He stared into a molten
pool at his reflection, but
did not recognize his own
face. Instead, he gazed into
a head split wide open,
with spiders roiling from
the gaping wound. “What is
this horrid image?” he inquired.

“Ivonka,”
told the demon.

He raised his head and glanced
to the right, “Who is that poor
soul with serpents gorging his
mouth, his words tangled, distorted?”

“Bill Barr”
replied the demon.

He turned to the left and
queried, “Who is that, her
tongue swollen out from her
mouth, covered with sores
and maggots?”

“Kellyanne,”
 the demon answered.

Frailly, he pointed across a
stream of boiling oil. “Who
is that with burning coals
protruding from his
eyes, his vision darkened
and obscure?”

“Jared”
said the demon

His eyes focused on another
soul with white hot pokers
thrusting themselves into his
ears, blocking all reason and
knowledge. “Who is..?”

“Paul Manafort”
the demon interrupted.

Then he wondered,
“What about my friend Vladimir?”

“There is a special place here for him,”
smiled to demon.

He lifted his body, twisted and stared
above. Millions of transparent
souls swirled, tossed about by
flames and clouds of smoke.

The demon faced up, “The 30 odd
 percent of Americans who followed you here.”

It seemed like he trudged for
hours, days, months. He could not
determine time. His pathway
intersected all the tragic souls
who shared his life and now his
torment.

“Art of the deal,”
whispered the demon.

He slogged, ankle deep,
in the now smoldering
molted gold that had paved
his way here, each agonizing
step punctuated by the demon’s
whip. “How long must I endure
this?” he implored.

“Until Mar-A-Lago freezes over,” the demon
explained. “Thank God
for global warming."

Forrest C. Greenslade, PhD
2019

*Many thanks to Dante, whose Inferno inspired me to write this fake poetry.
Special thanks to The Donald for nothing.

Artist Studios at Fearrington Village Spring Tour

Artist Studios at Fearrington Village Spring Studio Tour

Saturday and Sunday, April 13 & 14, from 10 AM to 5 PM each day
The high-spirited artists who live and conceive unique works of fine art at Fearrington Village will open their studios to welcome and share their creations with art lovers, Saturday and Sunday, April 13^th & 14^th, from 10AM to 5 PM each day.  Come and enjoy seeing watercolor, oil, and acrylic paintings; pastels, screen prints, basketry, jewelry, wood art, photography, mixed media and sculpture at many charming locations, all within a 1 mile radius.  And for collectors, art items will be available to purchase.  Allow some extra time to visit the unique gardens, shops and restaurants in the charming Fearrington Village Center, and to simply enjoy the scenic drive through the woods in between the studios.  In addition, visitors can arrange to meet artists at a pre-tour, preview reception in the Fearrington Gathering Place on Friday evening April 12^th from 7 to 9 PM.  

Participating Artists:

Vidabeth Bensen. Screen Printing

John Makowski. Found objects into Sculpture

Forrest Greenslade. Nature inspired paintings and sculpture

Roy Lindholm. Giclee prints of  Digital  Photographs on canvas and paper

Ginger Anderson. Paintings of local animals and landscapes

Eric Saunders. Outdoor Photography and digital arr

Julie Uhler. Oil Paintings

Matthew Leavitt. Exceptional wildlife and nature photography

Murry Handler. Acrylic Paintings

Enid Handler. Jewelry

Anne Angers. Painting

Jim Aiken. Painting

Pat Stewart. Basketry

Minnie Gallman. Photography

Roni Liberman. Turned wood for practical use and whimsey

Horty Jacobs. Unaltered photography taken in wrecking yards and enchanting necklaces

Steve Shafer. Painterly digital art and fine art photography

Michael Blotzer. Photography

Lynne Griffith. Pottery

Remembering Rita Spina

Landmark year for Chatham Studio Tour -- 2010

When in 2010, Pittsboro’s landmark Chatham County Courthouse burned, local artist Rita Spina was one of the 25 citizens asked to give advice on the historic building’s future.  Spina was also entrusted to enshrine a bit of the building’s past into a work of art. She is renowned for the re-visioning of discarded materials into beautiful and distinctive art. “I am a “junque” artist, she grins. Rita has shared her vision now for 20 years as an artist on the Chatham Studio Tour. Her creation from the Pittsboro fire will find its final home in the restored Courthouse, but visitors to her Fearrington Village studio will see the piece that Spina brought back from the ashes, along with a variety of evocative works of “junqueart”.

Rita Spina is one of 50 artists who live and create in Chatham County, who will open their studios the first two weekends in December for the 20^th Annual Chatham Studio Tour. Art-lovers can meet Tour artists and see samplings of their works at receptions at FRANK Gallery in Chapel Hill on November 29^th from 7 to 9 PM, and November 30^th at Central Carolina Community College in Pittsboro from 7 to 9 PM.

Rita Spina’s career as an artist began just as the Chatham Studio Tour was being organized. Born and raised in Manhattan she always expressed an interest in art, and as a child attended Saturday classes at the famous Parson’s School of Design. She planned to be an art major at Russell Sage College. However, she became an English major, as the Art program was tailored for those who wished to follow the great artists of the world -- that would come later. She married, had four children, went to Hofstra University for her graduate degree in Psychology and eventually headed up the Psychological Center. A subsequent clinical practice followed.  For 5 years she and her husband Larry lived on their 57 foot boat in Huntington Harbor.

It wasn’t until she retired to Fearrington Village that Spina rediscovered her knack for creating art. She began meeting with a small group of practicing Fearrington artists called The Collection -- Carol Owen, Vidabeth Bensen, Fran Schulzberg, Jackie Hammer and Claire Levitt. They supported one another in creating art, and became the nucleus of artists that would evolve into the Chatham Studio Tour.

“Those Fearrington artists were a great help to me,” says Cathy Holt, founder of the Chatham Tour. Holt had been a successful jewelry maker for 10 years when she moved to Chatham County just over 20 years ago. “I had heard that there were artists up every country road, and I wanted to meet them,” she asserts. Holt took on the job of Executive Director of the Chatham Arts Council (now called ChathamArts) with the idea of fostering a vibrant artist community. She drew inspiration from an artists’ collective she had visited just outside of DC, and an antiques center in Cameron, North Carolina. She envisioned a tour of artist studios as a mechanism for building community among local artists.

Holt proposed the idea to the Arts Council Board of Directors. “They said there were no funds available, but, if I would raise the funds myself, they would be supportive” she recalls. She secured some starter funding from Central Carolina Community College, and began to talk to businesses. “I pointed out that artists are small business people, who attract visitors to other local business,” Holt emphasizes. “On my own time, I began meeting with artists, to describe the idea of a tour, and get them involved.” In 1992, the first Chatham Studio Tour launched with 30 artists. “Then, most of the artists had full time jobs and created works as avocation,” Holt notes. “What makes me most happy is that the Tour helped many artists to pursue their art full time.”

The Chatham Tour became a model for other arts groups. The next year, fellow jewelry maker Monnda Welch, who then lived and worked in Orange County, patterned a studio tour there on the Chatham plan. “I even had a visit from a writer all the way from Boston to learn about our tour,” Holt recalls.

Over the years, the Tour flourished as a program of ChathamArts, and in 2007 Tour artists formed the Chatham Artists Guild.  It has now grown to over 50 artists. Ten new artists join the Tour this year: potter Trish Welsh; quilter Suzanna Stewart; pastel artist Carolyn Schrock; fiber artist Christie Minchew; jewelry maker Lynell Dodge; basket weaver Jan Dunn; mixed media sculptor Nate Shaeffer; photographer Len Jacobs; and furniture maker Erik Wolken.

The Chatham Studio Tour is a holiday tradition, and an opportunity to see and purchase unique original art. Visitors from all around enjoy Chatham’s rural beauty and share with the members of the Chatham Artists Guild in the creative process. “Our Tour is an important economic engine,” notes Guild President, Julia Kennedy. Last year, Tour visitors came from counties all around North Carolina, and as far away as New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona and California. “As they travel around Chatham, they stop at restaurants, gas stations and all kinds of local businesses,” Kennedy continues.  

A free self-guided brochure and tour map can be found in numerous locations throughout the area, including: FRANK Gallery in Chapel Hill, Saxaphaw Artists Gallery, McIntyres Fine Books in Fearrington Village, PAF Gallery in Siler City and The Joyful Jewel in Pittsboro. An online gallery of selected Tour art, information about participating artists, and a tour map and guide can be found on the Chatham Artists Guild website at: http://www.chathamartistsguild.org.

Photo caption: Chatham Artist Guild’s Rita Spina with her creation resurrected from the burned Chatham Courthouse.

About the author: Forrest C. Greenslade, PhD is a Chatham County writer, sculptor and painter. He is a member of the Chatham Artists Guild, and will participate in this year’s Tour.