HILLSBOROUGH SCULPTURE
TOUR 2013

The Hillsborough Arts Council  presents Hillsborough Sculpture Tour 2013 on April 26, 2012 through  March 2014. This will be the second time outdoor sculpture will be exhibited throughout downtown Historic Hillsborough, North Carolina.

Hillsborough is a small town with a big history. The downtown historic district — listed on the National Register of Historic Places — features more than 100 homes, churches and buildings from the late 18th and 19th centuries. Today, Hillsborough is a tourist and permanent destination and a haven for artists and writers. The town is centrally located in North Carolina with fast access to the Triad and other Triangle cities. Interstate 85 runs through the town, and Interstate 40 is just outside its limits. See Hillsborough websites www.HistoricHillsborough.org and www.ci.hillsborough.nc.us for more about the town.

This year we are honored to have Patrick Dougherty as our Judge

.Dougherty’s monumental-scale environmental works, which require saplings by the truckloads, evolved from combining his carpentry skills with his love of nature. Over the last 30 years, the Chapel Hill resident has built more than 230 of these works and become internationally acclaimed. His sculpture has been seen worldwide — from Scotland to Japan to Brussels and all over the United States. He also has received numerous awards, including a Japan-US Creative Arts Fellowship and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. In 2009, Princeton Architectural Press published “Stickwork,” a book about Dougherty and his work. View his natural material installations on his website at www.stickwork.net. 

Patrick Dougherty has selected the six sculptures that soon will become part of Hillsborough’s landscape in the town’s second outdoor sculpture tour. “All the sculptures chosen this year were well crafted and smartly conceived,” Dougherty said. “It was a pleasure to review all the applicants. Unfortunately, the guidelines allowed me to choose only six this time.” 

Hillsborough Sculpture Tour 2013 opens April 26, featuring six contemporary pieces of art. 

Winning sculptures are: 

“Ark” by Charles Pilkey of Mint Hill 

The welded steel sculpture will be displayed at Eagle Lodge Masonic Hall, 142 W. King St. 

Pilkey, who grew up in Hillsborough, is a former geologist. He lived in Japan for 15 years, where he taught stone carving classes at Kyushu Sangyo University. His work can be seen in parks, museums and other public spaces in China, Italy, Japan, Korea, Turkey and the United States. He described Ark as a space ark “pointing toward the heavens to where someday we will, by choice or by necessity, journey to see other worlds.”

“Force of Nature: Figurative” by Susan Moffatt of Chapel Hill

The carved marble on a granite base will be displayed at the Town Hall Annex, 137 N. Churton St. 

Moffatt is an award-winning sculptor and industrial designer who has studied marble carving in Carrara, Italy, and in Marble, Colo. Her sculptures have been selected for numerous juried exhibitions and have been awarded “Best in Show” and “Honorable Mention” at the N.C. Botanical Gardens sculpture exhibitions. She said she was inspired to carve “Force of Nature: Figurative” by a small yellow pepper she found in a market. 

“I was attracted by the subtle, sensuous curves of the pepper, which brought to mind Edward Weston’s famous photographs of bell peppers,” Moffatt said. “In abstracting and amplifying the pepper in marble, I wanted to highlight the beauty and humanness of the form.”                                                  

“Gathering” by Michael Waller of Hillsborough 

The painted woven steel sculpture will be displayed at the Hillsborough Visitors Center, 150 W. King St. 

Waller has been creating sculptures for the private and public sector for more than 15 years. He received his bachelor of fine arts in sculpture from East Carolina and has worked as a professional blacksmith, foundry-man, mold-maker and instructor. He now serves as facility manager for Liberty Arts Non-profit Sculpture Studio and Foundry in Durham and is the co-owner of businesses WallerFoushee Studios and Carolina Shuckers. He works and lives in Hillsborough with his wife and daughter. “ ‘Gathering’ represents the significance of individual elements unified,” Waller said of his winning sculpture. “The ‘woven’ steel vessel pays homage to the traditions of the field, the family and the community.”

“Home Sweet Home” by Rudy Rudisill of Gastonia 

The galvanized steel sculpture will be displayed at the Old Orange County Courthouse, located on the block of Churton Street that intersects with King Street and Margaret Lane. 

Rudisill has been a working artist for more than 25 years. His fabricated sheet metal sculptures have won international awards and can be found in public, corporate and private collections in North America, Europe and Asia. In his work, Rudisill shows the illusion of change through galvanized steel and copper brushed with acid, which yields a corrosive effect. His work is both contemporary and traditional as well as industrial and pastoral. 

“ ‘Home Sweet Home’ uses abstracted architectural form to explore the juxtaposition of interior and exterior space, mass and negative space in a fun, architectural, folly sort of way,” Rudisill said.

“Intrusion” by Harry McDaniel of Asheville 

The aluminum and steel sculpture will be displayed at Turnip Patch Park, 333 W. King St. 

As a child, McDaniel enjoyed creating and constructing, gradually moving from go-carts and firecracker-powered cannons to more aesthetically oriented projects. He began to take a serious interest in sculpting and painting in his mid-20s and was focusing on sculpture by age 30, learning mostly through experimentation. In recent years, McDaniel, who is in his 50s, has concentrated on outdoor sculptures in aluminum and steel and has been commissioned to create a dozen permanent works for public spaces from Maryland to Florida. 

“ ‘Intrusion’ is an exploration of the interaction and energy created by pushing three large, irregular forms very close together,” McDaniel said of his winning piece. “The composition conveys a sense of tension between the three sections. The graceful, curved lines and unbalanced, leaning forms suggest movement — perhaps a dance, perhaps a struggle. The matching curvature of the gaps between sections draws the viewer’s attention into those spaces. The middle section, differently finished from the other two, seems to be forcing its way between them, thus the title. While the sculpture might be interpreted as a social or geological intrusion, my intention was purely abstract.”  

“Windows of Time” by Dale McEntire of Saluda

 The steel and cast glass sculpture will be displayed at Burwell School Historic Site, 319 N. Churton St. 

In addition to sculpture — using stone, steel, glass and bronze — McEntire produces oil and pastel paintings. The Western North Carolina native has been involved in visual arts since training at Mercer University, continuing private studies in the United States and Europe and training at Penland School of Craft. His interest is in the spiritual essence of nature, which can be seen in his use of color and form. He is represented by galleries in Western North Carolina and the Southeast and, for the past several years, has been selected to participate in public art events and outdoor sculpture shows. He is a member of Mountain Sculptors in Asheville and teaches painting at Isothermal Community College. 

McEntire described his winning sculpture as representative of four cycles of life: birth, life on Earth, death, and the afterlife. Each glass sculpture is cast in the pate de verre method, a form of kiln casting that uses finely crushed glass mixed with a binding material and often colorants and enamels. “The overall design of the steel is in a geometric shape called a vesica piscis, which represents the overlapping of two circles,” the artist noted. 

Each winner will receive an honorarium of $800. A People’s Choice Award also will be announced at the end of the yearlong tour. The winning sculptures show a good variety again this year with a high level of artistry, noted Gail Cooley, coordinator and founder of the tour. “They combine a contemporary sensibility, but they’ll still be appropriate in a historic town,” she said. 

The sculptures will begin to be placed around town a week before the tour’s opening, which will coincide with the town’s first Last Fridays event of the year — an evening featuring arts in the downtown. Look for more information soon on a grand opening event at the Hillsborough Arts Council’s new location that will feature the tour’s six winning artists and judge. Sites were chosen with walkability in mind and to showcase town, county and historic sites. “The sculpture committee did a thoughtful job of identifying prominent sites for this year’s tour in the downtown area,” said the judge, Dougherty. Helping him discuss the attributes of each available site were Cooley, the Sculpture Tour coordinator; Hillsborough Planner Stephanie Trueblood; and Dougherty’s associate, Dorothy Juhlin Bank. “In time, it became clear that a comfortable home could be found for each of this year’s winners,” he said.

For more information about Hillsborough Sculpture Tour 2013, visit the Arts Council’s website at www.hillsboroughartscouncil.org or e-mail sculpture@hillsboroughartscouncil.org

Archive

Hillsborough Public Sculpture Exhibition

Hillsborough Sculpture Tour 2011 has ended and its ballots are counted. Winner of the People's Choice for Hillsborough Sculpture Tour 2011 is "Jack", the donkey made from antique farm machinery and demolition scrap by Jonathan Bowling of Greensville, NC. Jack has stood proudly at Eagle Lodge Masonic Hall on King Street since April. Mr. Bowling received a $100 gift card from Hillsborough BBQ in recognition for his sculpting the People's Choice winner.

A select group of juried contemporary sculptures exhibited in public areas in the heart of the historic district in downtown Hillsborough. This was the inaugural exhibition of contemporary public sculpture in Historic Hillsborough, North Carolina. Sculptures were available for sale.

A 3 judge panel selected the winning sculptures. The judges were Emily Kass, Director of the Ackland Art Museum; Jane Tyndall, owner of Tyndall Galleries; and Tinka Jordy, sculptor and co-owner of Eno Gallery.

The six sculptures selected by the jury were:

	'Anhinga' by Harry McDaniel Asheville, NC
“Jack” by Jonathan Bowling Greenville, NC

'Joiners' by Karen Ives Asheville, NC

“Oakleaf Horizon” by Jim Gallucci                    Greensboro, NC

	“Out of Nature” by Hanna Jubran Grimesland, NC
“Stranger in a Strange Land”   by Charles Pilkey Mint Hill, NC.

Each winner received an honorarium of $750. In addition to cash awards, at the closing of the tour two special awards were announced: The Judges Choice Award and The People’s Choice Award. The People’s Choice Award was made based on votes by spectators who picked up ballots and maps at the Hillsborough Visitors Center.

Hillsborough Sculpture Tour 2011 opened April 16, the same day as the Hillsborough Arts Council’s Arts and Crafts Show. The sculptures remained on exhibit until the end of September.

All sculptures were outdoors within walking distance of downtown Historic Hillsborough. Locations included Historic Burwell School, Eagle Masonic Lodge, the Hillsborough Police Station, Turnip Patch Park, the Hillsborough Visitors Center, and the Orange County Historic Courthouse.

About historic Hillsborough Hillsborough, NC has been called a museum without walls, because its historic district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and boasts more than 100 late 18th and early 19th Century structures. The Old Orange County Courthouse, built in 1844, has been cited by the Library of Congress as one of the finest examples of Greek-Revival architecture in the United States.

Sites for Sculptures
All locations were within walking distance of downtown Historic Hillsborough. Selected sculptures were carefully sited to enhance the appearance and accessibility of the art and the site on which the art was located.

Locations included Historic Burwell School, Eagle Masonic Lodge, the Hillsborough Police Station, Turnip Patch Park, the Hillsborough Visitors Center, and the Orange County Historic Courthouse.

Artists Reception
An artists reception was held at the Alexander Dickson House Sat. April 16th.  There were presentations by judges and the selected artists were awarded their honorariums.

The Hillsborough Arts Council would like to thank all the members of the Sculpture Tour Committee and acknowledge the vision of Gail Cooley, the exhibitions founder and coordinator.