Gift Suggestions from the N.C. Arts Council
While we would love to be able to put together a whole catalog of items from the state’s creative folks, we can’t. Here’s a small sampling of N.C. Arts Council Staff Picks for 2009.
Gifts range in price from under $25 to several hundred. Remember, originally created treasures from your artist neighbor, loved one or friend are priceless (and timeless!)
For the Music Lover
“Going Down to Raleigh: Stringband Music in the North Carolina Piedmont 1976-1998” is a recently-released two-disc anthology of field recordings that highlight the distinctive music traditions of the Piedmont region. These North Carolina musicians, mostly older fiddlers, banjo players, guitarists and singers, learned their music from family and friends during the early decades of the 20th century. The anthology includes a forty page booklet of notes and photographs of the musicians.
Musicians featured on “Going Down to Raleigh” include North Carolina Heritage Award winner Marvin Gaster, Virgil Craven, Joe and Odell Thompson, Lauchlin and Evelyn Shaw, Leonard Eubanks, A.C. and Gerry Overton, Beth Hartness, Rich Hartness, Jack Jones, Smith McInnis, Robert Mitchener, Fred Olson, Wade Yates and Wayne Martin. The CD is $25 and can be ordered online from the N.C. Folklife Institute’s Web site or purchased at Piedmont Council of Traditional Music (PineCone) events.
The CD was produced by PineCone in collaboration with the N.C. Arts Council, with support from the NEA. Proceeds from the CD sales benefit PineCone, a non-profit arts organization based in Raleigh and celebrating its 25th Anniversary season this year.
Another new audio recording featuring North Carolina traditional music is “Gastonia Gallop”issued by Old Hat Records. Twenty-four remastered recordings of performances originally documented between 1927 and 1931 of musicians living in or near Gastonia comprise this historical re-issue. The performers were part of the thousands of laborers who worked in large textile mills and lived in the nearby villages. Amid a world of factory whistles, clattering machines and low-wage labor, these workers created music that provided the foundation for today’s country music. Order “Gastonia Gallop” through Old Hat Music. The CD costs about $17.
Old Hat Records in Raleigh has released seven anthologies of vintage music recordings, each track skillfully remastered for the digital age. The label continues to earn critical acclaim and popular support as it mines the musical treasures of the Tar Heel State.
John Brown Quintet’s CD “Merry Christmas, Baby” features Ray Codrington on trumpet and vocals. Codrington’s singing style was influenced by both Nat King Cole and Billy Eckstine. This collection provides fresh approaches to classic Christmas tunes and pleases all of the senses of the traditional jazz lover. You’ll enjoy this CD for the entire holiday season. “Merry Christmas, Baby” debuted Christmas 2007. (CDBaby, $16.99) The CD is also sold seasonally at Quail Ridge Books & Music and at Borders Books & Music in Cary and Chapel Hill for about $20. Check out John Brown’s Web site at www.jbjazz.com. Brown serves as professor and director of the jazz program at Duke University and is an adjunct faculty member at UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State University. He has performed with the North Carolina Symphony since 1992 and has traveled in the U.S. and abroad with artists like Elvin Jones and Wynton, Ellis and Delfeayo Marsalis. He was also selected to be in the Arts Council’s Touring Artist Directory.
For the Book Lover
Trinidad born Brenda Flanagan’s book “Allah in the Islands” delivers a powerful look at the life of a poor fictional community struggling to survive amidst a corrupt government. Through the eyes of protagonist Beatrice Salandy and her relationship with the unreliable Abdul we learn the challenges the town and its people face as the appealing new element of Islam is introduced as an alternative to leaving the island to find a better life. (Peepal Tree Press, $14.62) Flanagan won a 2009–2010 N.C. Arts Council fellowship.
Flanagan is the Edward Armfield Professor of English at Davidson College. She’s now working on a literary non-fiction book about working for a year with jazz vocalist and song writer Nina Simone, a Tryon native. “My first job in America was with Nina Simone. She introduced me to African American writers and composers and I credit her with helping me to understand how music and literature can be beautiful together, even as they make strong political and social statements. My sensibility, in many ways, has been shaped by Nina, her songs, and her politics. That I became a professor of African American literature, a writer and a traveler around the world to lecture about writing, and to present my work as well as the literature of African Americans is, I believe, connected to that first song heard Nina sing in her living room: ‘To Be Young, Gifted, and Black.’”
Katherine Min’s short story “The Music Lover” is included in the “Long Story Short,” a collection of short stories by 65 of the best North Carolina writers such as Doris Betts, Fred Chappell, Clyde Edgerton, Lee Smith and Daniel Wallace, as well as emerging ones you will be happy to discover. (UNC Press, Cloth: $32.50, Paper: $16.00) Min won a 2009–2010 N.C. Arts Council fellowship. Min is an assistant professor at UNC-Asheville. She was a finalist for the PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship for Writers, which honors “an exceptionally talented fiction writer whose debut work—a novel or collection of short stories—represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise.” This was for “Secondhand World,” her 2006 novel about a Korean-American family living in upstate New York during the aftermath of the Korean War. (Anchor, $13.95)
For newcomers to North Carolina and natives, the N.C. Arts Council offers trail guides that will answer the question, “What are we missing?” Plan your family “daycations” or Sunday afternoon excursions for the new year with our affordable guidebooks.
You may have visited Carl Sandburg’s home in Flat Rock, but did you drive by the old post office where he use to bring his guitar and play music for passersby? Let Georgann Eubanks, the author of “Literary Trails of the North Carolina Mountains,” lead the way. She’s your Garmin when it comes to literary trails. The guide is organized geographically through a series of 18 half-day and day-long tours in the western part of the state. The book directs curious travelers to the sites where more than 170 Tar Heel authors past and present have made their home including Thomas Wolfe, O. Henry and Charles Frazier.(UNC Press, $35 for hardcover and $18.95 paperback)
If you want to turn a whole new generation of your family into fiddle music lovers, thumb through Fred C. Fussell’s “Blue Ridge Music Trails.” There’s nothing like an old-fashioned jam session in Mount Airy. This traveler’s guide lists 160 events and venues featuring old-time and bluegrass music and dance throughout the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and Virginia. All of the places described are within 25 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The book includes interviews and profiles of performers, descriptions of different performance styles and a brief history of Blue Ridge music. Organized by county, it includes driving directions, maps and a calendar of annual events related to traditional music and dance. (UNC Press, $16.95)
Why leave it to the text book to engage your children in learning about North Carolina’s Native American culture? Authors Barbara R. Duncan and Brett H. Riggs tell a story more fascinating than any fiction of the largest Native American population east of the Mississippi in the “Cherokee Heritage Trails Guidebook.” In 2010 get on the road with the essential guide to the stories, ceremonies, dances and customs practiced throughout the Cherokee homeland in western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and north Georgia. Maps, directions and beautiful color photographs contained in this 384-page traveler’s guide tell only part of the story. It’s the land, the Cherokee voices, and the people themselves who give you unforgettable insights into Cherokee ways of seeing the world. (UNC Press, $16.95)
“Homegrown Handmade: Art Roads and Farm Trails” is the perfect guide for any roadie who loves authentic arts and agricultural experiences. This guide features 16 self-directed driving tours through the rural countryside of North Carolina. The trails comprise an insider’s guide to 72 Piedmont and eastern North Carolina counties. The guide offers information about art galleries, artists’ studios, performing arts, hands-on farm experiences, you-pick organic produce, favorite local restaurants and festivals, music and crafts, farmers’ markets, specialty shops and foods, vineyards and wineries, museums, historic houses and sites and picturesque bed-and-breakfasts. (John Blair Publisher, $19.95)
For the Art Lover
Durham environmental artist Bryant Holsenbeck transforms trash into art. She takes bottle caps, credit cards, old book covers, pencils, shoes and chopsticks and creates wildlife animals, butterflies and journals. Her work ranges from $26 for a small journal to wildlife animals starting at $175. Visit her Web site at www.bryantholsenbeck.com. The Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South and filmmaker Margaret Morales made a 15-minute documentary about the work of Holsenbeck called “Blackbirds, Bottle Caps & Broken Records: Environmentalist Artist Bryant Holsenbeck at Work.” The DVD sells for $15 each.
Penland glass artist Devin Burgess’ functional wave vases, pebble vases and tall bottles are constructed to hold water and flowers. These vases and bottles can also stand alone as an element of design. These glass works look especially beautiful in groupings creating rhyming forms. His wave vases come in five colors: tea (a reddish brown), olive green, tumerline (a greenish gray), amber and wine (red.) The pebble vases are designed for a single flower, perfect for sitting in a windowsill, glowing in the sunlight. The glass is sandblasted and then polished with a satin finish to resemble sea glass. The pebble vases come in five colors: gray, smoky topaz (a warm brown), cranberry, olive green and steel blue. The tall bottles come in eight earthy tones, adding a stylistic element to any home. Prices range from $96–$280. He also sells drinking glasses called stacker glasses, which have been featured in House Beautiful magazine. The 14-ounce tumblers sell for $32 a piece. Check out his Web site at www.dbglassworks.com.
Pittsboro basket weaver Madeline A. Mason makes an array of mixed use baskets for everything from storing mail to the market basket that comes with handles convenient for grocery shopping. The patterns vary from simple to detailed and come in earth tones and bright colors. Some of the baskets feature a solid wooden bottom, others have woven bottoms. These affordable baskets—made from wicker and cane—range from $8–$75. If you would like to learn more, Mason can be reached at (919) 444-3845. Mason and two other women normally meet once a week for several hours to sit and weave baskets. ”It’s really relaxing time for us, to visit and do your craft.”
Spruce Pine jeweler Angela Bubash creates one-of-a-kind brooches that are wearable sculpture. Both the Fin and the Cluster Portrait series are colorful brooches made out of sterling silver with glass and dyed ostrich feathers. They range in price from $250–$550. Bubash’s eye-catching Arched earrings are also unique pieces made out of sterling silver that rock back and forth in the ear, making them a perfect holiday gift for someone special. Available in brilliant reds and blues, a dyed feather underneath the glass makes them pop with color. These earrings sell for $185. Bubash is also known for her memorial jewelry including pendants and brooches in which you can store the ashes of a loved one or a personal keepsake to commemorate those who have passed. The pieces start at $270. Visit her Web site at angelabubash.com.
Wilmington printmaker Donald Furst creates interiors lit by unseen light in his original prints made on copper plates known as mezzotints, which is Italian for “half-painted.” He creates narrative images of striving and climbing reflected in the prints featuring ladders or steps. Some of his other copper prints depict spiritual themes based on biblical references such as “striving after wind.” His prints range from $100–$250. Check out his Web site at uncw.edu/art/about-furst.html.
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Typical…the NC “Arts” Council evidently still isn’t aware that there are fine art painters in this state.
Sandy thanks for commenting on our Artful holidays blog. Since 1981 the Arts Council has recognized talented visual artists across the state with funding and technical assistance. And as you can see from this link many painters have received Artists Fellowships over the last thirty years. The blog postings, including the gift guide, will be updated daily, and we welcome your suggestions.
Rebecca Moore, N.C. Arts Council