Delta Arts Center opens folk stories on canvas exhibit
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
The Delta Arts Center opened its latest exhibition on Nov. 1, the exhibit is HOMECOMING: Folk Stories on Canvas. The exhibit is the second in Delta Arts Center’s Deep Roots Series of 2016-2017.
It highlights 2D works from private collections by folk art matriarchs Ruth Russell Williams and Wanda Clark.
An opening reception will be held at 6 p.m. on today, Thursday, Nov. 3 in the Simona Atkins Allen Gallery at Delta Arts Center, 2611 New Walkertown Road. The event is free and open to the public. Donations are appreciated.
Family, home, church and southern living are themes easily recognized in the works of Ruth Russell Williams and Wanda Clark; small town born North Carolinians endowed with the natural capacity to tell the story of simple life, nurturing loved ones and lifelong relationships.
Williams, who passed away in 2010, was a native of Townsville, NC where her early childhood was spent in the home of sharecropper parents, and with a grandmother who she accompanied to work at the home of a plantation owner. Painting came later in life, after the children were raised and a cosmetology career established. It was then that she turned to painting, “to tell my life story,” a story that carried her from cotton fields at age 8 to the cover of Smithsonian Magazine.
Clark, a resident of Statesville, N.C. began drawing as “a kid, horses and outside scapes,” she states in a You-Tube discussion, but did not begin painting until 2000. A trip to Walmart for supplies sparked an all-night painting session from which she emerged saying, “she couldn’t believe how it made her feel.” She says painting “consumes me and I never want to stop.”
The exhibition presents the work of one of North Carolina’s most recognized artists along with those of a lesser known but equally powerful artist. Their paintings tell stories that will resonate with many viewers, and cause others to imagine life in simpler, slower paced times, unspoiled by fast-paced demands of present day living.
Delta Fine Arts is a funded partner of Winston-Salem Forsyth County Arts Council, receives support from the North Carolina Arts Council Department of Cultural Resources and generous contributions of individuals.
Tours of the exhibition can be arranged by calling the Center at 336-722-2625. Gallery hours are Tuesday –Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The center is closed every 3rd Saturday of the month. The facility is available for rent. Inquiries please call 336-722-2625, email nadiyah@deltaartscenter.org, or visit www.Deltaartscenter.org/donate.
