My friend and colleague, Durham Fine Arts photographer and AAArtNow co-blogger Marthanna Yater, was asked to submit one of her photographs for the Portraits of Durham exhibit, on display at the Durham Arts Council (DAC) March 15 through May 2.
It’s been too long since I last perused the free exhibits at the DAC, and I looked forward to seeing Marthanna’s work and the work of other local artists in the natural light of the windows that stretched from floor to ceiling past the second floor of the 113-year-old building.
Today was the day, and I was not disappointed. Drawings, paintings, and multimedia artwork displayed well-known as well as little-known Durham people and landmarks in thought-provoking strokes, stitches, and colors.
Just past the glass doors on the ground floor, the sharpness of the lines and golden colors in Joslin in the Sunflowers (Justin Cook, 2016), immediately caught my attention. Is it a photograph or a painting or a combination of the two? It doesn’t matter. It’s beautiful.
I’ve never been much with a needle and thread but always wished to have that skill and desire; so the multimedia work of Caitlin Cary (2017), featuring landmark buildings in Durham, also drew my attention. I enjoyed imagining them on the walls of a local restaurant, hotel, or municipal building.
Stacey Donoghue’s Mr. Tim, James Rashaad Freeman’s Break Above Pinhook, Chris Ogden’s More than a Barbeque, Frank Myers’ Anderson Paak at the Armory, and so many more works on display speak to the multifaceted history and culture of Durham, which is still being created today.
One of my favorite pieces was Michael Konvicka’s photographic image entitled Screwed, in which the artist captures the organic decay of the abandoned Norfolk and Southern rail bed as it transforms into the Durham Belt Line Trail for pedestrians and cyclists. My own thoughts fell on the automotive and oil industries’ replacement of rail with cars and taxpayer-funded roads; and Duke University’s recent sabotage of Durham residents’ hard-won Light Rail project, a 17.7-mile line that would have connected 3 major medical facilities and 3 of the state’s top 10 employers in Durham and Chapel Hill.
Before heading upstairs, we passed Fabrizio Bianchi’s mixed-media AssemBULLage. Always a sucker for affordable art featuring the Durham Bull, I immediately wanted to purchase this colorful tribute and hang it prominently in my house; but it had already sold (for a mere $80!).
We spent another hour on the second floor, appreciating the artists and the city where we live. The concentric, fabric-like design of Katie Ree’s Eno River watercolor and ink paintings evoked Nature’s neverending cycle of cycles and made me appreciate the small slices that Durham continues to (try to) preserve. I imagined Ree’s images on the walls of the City Planning or Stormwater Services Departments, reminding everyone of Durham’s commitment to its natural resources.
Diane Allen’s Michael and Edie Cohn’s Elgie Wagstaff, both accurately detailed charcoal works, called to mind the diversity of people in Durham, racial and socioeconomic, and the importance of the most vulnerable among them.
Before we left, we encountered highschool senior Kayla Beckett and her mother. Kayla is the creator of “I am Durham”, an initially subconscious visual and poetic tribute to a man named Brother Shareef, one of the many Durham influences that have given Kayla the confidence to be true to herself and her story.
Finally, almost as an afterthought, we found Marthanna’s piece, a hauntingly romantic, black and white photograph of adolescent twin sisters by a stream that has been flowing through Duke Gardens as long as it has been there. Given the twins’ attire, the image could have been on the wall of the Washington Duke Hotel alongside other black and whites from the Duke’s historical collection, but the photograph was taken relatively recently. For me, it was the perfect representation of Durham’s perhaps romantic determination to preserve its history and its culture in the present environment of urban growth and gentrification.
Needless to say, Portraits of Durham is an exhibit you want to see, particuarly if you are from Durham. Bring the kids. You’ll leave with a sense of pride in your city and a desire to be a part of its vibrant community. But you need to go soon. The exhibit closes May 2.
Contact:
melissarooneywriting@gmail.com
Webpage:
www.melissarooneywriting.com
www.marthannayaterphotography.com
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