This year’s UNC Chapel Hill MFA exhibition began with a partnership between the studio and art history departments. The eight MFA candidates, Nicole Bauguss, Julia Gootzeit, Ali Halperin, Michael Lauch, George Jenne, Lauren Salazar, Damian Stamer and William Thomas, needed a curator for their show and so the idea went forward to ask some of the art history Ph.D. candidates if they wanted the task. Two, Kim Bobier and Russell Gullette, who are specializing in contemporary art, answered the call. It is the first time the two departments have partnered like this. The curators did studio visits and sat in on class critiques. The result is an exhibition which includes manipulated paper to look like coral; oil paintings which mimic photographs; clothing made rigid with tar and plastic; images transferred onto Walmart blankets; a ghostly installation of ordinary objects; videos about the environment and personal biography; and a fiber-made site-specific installation.
I always enjoy giving my college students some amazing facts about the human body, or give some numbers related to the complex machinery of the body that really gets their attention. Let me try this with you this week, and lucky for you, I won’t even give you an exam on the information.
Q. I happened across a study showing that low-sodium diets don’t offer benefits to people who aren’t otherwise at risk for heart disease. I realized that I’ve been religiously following a low-sodium diet for years, since it was advised for the general population. I’ve completely lost my taste for salt and avoid it whenever possible, but I am not at risk for heart disease.
Most people have heard of porcupine meatballs. But, unless they’re baked, I cannot produce a round meatball. So, I make patties. The Kid decided that with the rice grains sticking out all over them, they look like something that’s been run over by a car.
In an upstairs gallery on Parrish Street a revolution of sorts is taking place. Artists are invited to organize and display their work or put together a show of other artists; no fees involved, no commission taken. Laura Ritchie is the gallery director and with small donations from art aficionados has paid the rent for two years. At this writing there is no jurying process, so the artists stand in line for their turn. One stipulation: turn around time is two weeks then the next exhibit goes up. Along the way there are musical evenings, lectures, poetry readings; it is a smorgasbord of art.
Q. As far back as I can remember, my stool has floated. I never worried about it until I saw something on the web about pancreatic cancer and floating poop.
Last Saturday about 50 participants showed up to walk around Duke’s East Campus to raise money for children with hearing and speech problems. The event was sponsored by the Bull Durham Sertoma Club, and over $5,000 was donated for this most worthy cause. It was a fun day, and I was happy to be part of it, speaking for a few moments about the benefits of walking. I also talked a little about some historic Duke sports buildings and places on the East Campus we would be walking by, such as The Ark, Duke’s first basketball building, and the Alumni Memorial Gym, Duke’s second basketball gym. There was a magician on hand, a bluegrass band was there, and some good food was enjoyed. Congratulations to the Bull Durham Sertoma Club for such a fine effort in working to help hearing and speech challenged kids.
Normally our doctor’s office runs like clockwork. Petey and I are the ones that are usually racing to make our appointments on time. So, I never take a book or anything for the wait.
It probably comes as no surprise that I love pizza, since for almost 18 years I’ve written about pizza several times.
Durham is fast becoming a destination for the culinary arts, and the visual arts are not far behind. New shows at Outsiders Art and Collectibles and the Scrap Exchange offer examples of the art that is in the galleries today. At Outsiders, Chris Milk Hulburt, is an artist who is self-schooled and makes art with intuitive passion. At the Scrap Exchange, the artists there use craftsmanship and decorative skill to make art from such things as souvenir shirts, clothes hangers and pencils; they fit today’s broad definition of folk artists.
Q. My husband’s best friend, another soldier, started taking Chantix on Wednesday to quit smoking. Sometime Sunday evening or early Monday morning, he murdered a 17-year-old recruit and shot himself in the head afterward.
On Saturday, I would like to encourage area residents to come out and support what will be a fun activity on the Duke University East Campus. Celebrate Sound: Don’t Walk In Silence is a fund and awareness raising walk to promote hearing health in our communities. Half of the net proceeds will be used to support organizations like the Duke University Medical Center Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, the Durham Public Schools Deaf/Hard of Hearing Department and Camp Sertoma. This event is sponsored by the Bull Durham Sertoma Club. The walk and event registration will begin at 9 a.m. with the walk itself beginning around 10 a.m. The walk will be around the beautiful Duke East Campus, which is one of my wife’s and my favorite walks in Durham. This will be a great day to come out and enjoy a fun walk and meet some new friends, but most of all, help raise funds for some very special kids, and to show these kids they are loved and appreciated. There will be live bluegrass music, face painting for kids, and free food for all the registered walkers after the event. A Durham fire and rescue crew will be present to demonstrate and talk about what they do.
Can you call a 45-year-old man who’s over 6 feet tall and has 85 pounds on you a “little brother”?
Phil Freelon’s photographs are large, exact in detail and offer a fresh perspective on familiar places. As an example, in “Mutual Respect” we are looking at downtown Durham through the piers which are part of the outdoor plaza of the N.C. Mutual Life Insurance building. As a longtime Durham resident, I know this building well, but have never been in that particular spot and so had to be reminded of the photograph’s location.
If you want a nice afternoon of fitness and healthy living, here is an idea. Go walk the loop around the beautiful Duke East Campus, then walk across the street to Whole Foods for some good, nutritious food. Then after your food has digested, walk just down the street to 719 Broad St., where you will find the brand new Maitland’s Method Personal Training. Inside this new facility you can get some of the best exercise anywhere in Durham.
