By David Bradley, Chatham News + Record Staff

The 18th annual Fearrington Folk Art Show, which features the works of more than 30 self-taught artists, returns to Fearrington Village this weekend.

The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at 2000 Fearrington Village Center. Admission is $5, cash only, at the door, with children 12 and under admitted free. A special ticketed Friday preview from 7 to 9 p.m. is being held for an admission price of $45, with an online purchase. The evening event includes hors d’oeurves, time with the artists, and a chance to buy art before the show opens to the general public.

The weekend art show is designed to showcase work created by self-taught artists, said Kerstin Lindgren, one of the event’s co-coordinators.

“It’s about color and joy and fun, with a little bit of darkness thrown in for good measure,” Lindgren said. “And maybe a chicken or two.”

The annual art show was launched 18 years ago by Fearrington builder and developer R.B. Fitch as a way to offer artists a method of showing their work to the public.

The show has continued and expanded over the years, with more artistic media, and more artists exhibiting their creations, including paintings, sculpture, pottery, and more.

The fluid definition of “self-taught” means that the artists involved don’t have art or Masters of Fine Arts degrees. This opens the range to more colorful and playful works, Lindgren said.

Thomas W. Graham, from Alamance County, will be displaying his works. He has been creating collages from tin cans since 2013. He took classes in the art form at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, and Pocosin Arts in Columbia.

“I began making tin can collages, exhibiting them and eventually selling them,” Graham said. “I do this by collecting used tin cans (cookie tins, olive oil cans, etc.), disassembling and flattening them out, cutting them up and then nailing them to plywood to create images. By now I have made several hundred of them.”

Prices for Grahams’ original art range from $95 to $295.

Participating artists will offer work representing a wide price range, Lindgren said. Some pieces may be as low as $10, and some will sell for up to $2,000 or $3,000, depending on the artist and the piece.

Graham’s work will be featured along with pieces by local artists including Hamidou Sissoko, Lara O’Keefe and Crystal King.

Lindgren said that about a third of the artists who exhibit are from North Carolina. The works are part of a curated collection by artists that went through a jury process before being accepted.

It’s a unique show in that the artists themselves pay no fee to be in the show. There’s a limited number of artists as well because the show is limited to the size of the Fearrington Village barn, where the works will be displayed.

Every artist has his or her own story about how they got into the craft.

Graham, for instance, had worked in psychiatry in Randolph County for many years, but got into the art of collage-making because of his fascination with the tin media.

“I have always been fascinated by tin containers — the colors and graphics, the shapes and the fact that it is so light yet strong. I have a memory of trying to wheedle my mother out of the typewriter ribbon tin box that she kept her pins in at about age 5. As I recall I did eventually get a tin Sucrets box to keep treasures tiny in. I do now collect old tins just because they appeal to me — and have been for 50-plus years. I don’t cut them up but have friends who do. I have tin friends across the U.S., in England and South Africa using tin in amazing ways.”

Lindgren said, “We hope that visitors will come to be inspired by what these artists created using just their imaginations and a compulsion to create, and that they will take support the artists by taking home something that connects them to that great feeling they get when they visit the show.”

 


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