WAC Gallery Information for July 2009

The Jones House Community Center is the place to be Friday, July 3rd beginning at 5 p.m. for an evening of the arts – both performance and visual.

As always throughout the summer, Watauga Arts Council’s Summer Concert on the Lawn will begin at 5 p.m. Surefire and Meade Richter will be this Friday’s performers.

A reception to honor the gallery artists will follow the concert: Ron Skelton with his beautiful watercolor paintings in the downstairs Mazie Jones Gallery and Trudy Muegel with her photographs of the highlands of Scotland and the High Country in the upstairs Open Door Gallery.

Ron Skelton’s watercolor exhibit in the main gallery gives testament to his travels and his love of the High Country. 

The artist has lived in Beech Mountain since 1989 with his wife Eve.  He also makes his home in Florida for part of the year.  His travels as an army officer and a seven year stint in Turkey working for the Boeing Company, give his art work a broad perspective.

In the upstairs gallery, Trudy Muegel continues the theme of world travels with her exhibit, “The Two Highlands.” Half of the photos in this exhibit were taken in Scotland in 2005.  The other half represents the artist’s most recent project of depicting the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  They are displayed in pairs showing the striking similarities between these two settings including churches, waterfalls, castles, arches, railroads, local fauna, and famous mountains, to name a few. Instead of showing similarities, in one pair of photographs titled “Old Buildings,” she shows the contrast  between what is considered old in Scotland -Elgin Cathedral ruins from the 13th Century- and what is considered old here in the Watauga County - a barn from the late 19th Century.  

Also, throughout the evening, Sharon Mitchell, songwriter, singer, and musician, will entertain gallery patrons as she plays popular standards and old favorites on the antique upright piano in the parlor.

Orville Hicks will also be on hand in the parlor to sign copies of his newest book Jack Tales and Mountain Yarns as transcribed by Julia Taylor Ebel and illustrated by Sherry Jenkins Jensen.

The concert and gallery reception are free and the public is invited and encouraged to attend.

This evening of the arts happily coincides with the downtown Boone First Friday Art Crawl.

For those unable to attend the opening reception, the Watauga Arts Council gallery exhibits are available for viewing Tuesday, June 30 until Friday, July 31 from noon to 5 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays. The galleries are also open Thursdays from 7:30 to 11 p.m. during the acoustic jams and on Fridays from 5 to 7 p.m. during the concerts on the lawn.

The Arts Council galleries are sponsored in part by Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff and Grassroots Funds of the North Carolina Arts Council. The WAC’s offices and galleries are located in downtown Boone at the Jones House Community & Cultural Center, owned by the town of Boone.