Sculpture on the Green Comes to Pittsboro

The following article about Sculpture on the Green first appeared in the Chatham County Line :

Sculpture on the Green Comes to Pittsboro by Deborah R. Meyer

(Author’s note – I love sculpture. For many years, I have written about it, and for the past 12 years, my husband and I have put on a large sculpture show with over 75 artists at our horse farm in Chatham County. So when Paul Horne, Parks Planner for the Town of Pittsboro, asked me to help him found a new sculpture exhibit at Mary Hayes Barber Holmes Park, I jumped at the opportunity. We hope the community will jump with joy at this extraordinary chance to come picnic among the artwork.)

Sculpture by Chatham Sculptor Edwin White

Sculptor Jeff Hackney always has designs dancing in his head. But there they do not remain. He is continually bringing these ideas to life with works in private and public collections.

“One of the reasons I love sculpture is because it is an art form that interacts with the environment,” Hackney said.

During the first annual Sculpture on the Green event, May 17 through June 15 at Pittsboro’s Mary Hayes Barber Holmes Park, viewers will get a chance to see how two of Hackney’s pieces converse with their surroundings.  Joining Hackney with their own unique and provocative sculptural works will be Edwin White, Janice Rieves, Joe Kenlan, Mark Elliott, Forrest Greenslade, Jenny Marsh, Steven Silverleaf, Andrew Dixon, Steve Cote, Stevenson McNeill, Hunter Levinsohn, and Mark Hewitt. The WingNut Artists, a newly-formed group of artists that focus on creating large-scale installations, are also participating with a piece that invites viewers to play. It will be a fun and intriguing show for all ages and the reception on Saturday, May 17, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., is especially geared towards children. Tokyo Rosenthal, who has traveled the world performing, is providing live music. The park is a perfect place to have a picnic but for those who take a break on the weekends from preparing food, a food cart or two will be on site. Throughout the opening reception, Sandi Adams, the founder of SandiCastles, will be on site building a sand sculpture and offering demonstrations. Adams began working in sand in 2008 and just a year later, took first place in the adult division at Castles and Scoops.

At 12:3 p.m., Forrest Greenslade will do a reading from his wonderful children’s book “Haicooo: Little Poems for Children,” that he collaborated on with his daughter Kathryn Armstrong:  she did the delightful artwork and Greenslade wrote the haiku. Greenslade’s sculptural contribution to the exhibit will be a green man, not to be found on the ground but up in a tree.

“I love making sculpture because of what one learns about creating two-dimensional art after one makes a piece of three-dimensional art,” Levinsohn said. “There is something about the tactile nature of creating in three-dimensions that makes it easier to draw.”

Children will be awestruck by Levinsohn’s enormous, prehistoric snake sculpture and feel the magic of her piece, “Open” which has 44 cranes hung from tree branches.

Andrew Dixon’s interactive piece “Qubularspun” has a kinetic element that is activated by slowly pushing any of the four top corners of the cube with one’s hand. His other piece, “Motion of DaVinci’s Helicopter,” was just completed before the show. “Creating sculpture is exciting,” Dixon said. “The process of creation that frees the image from my mind does totally remove the mundane thought construct dictated by every day life.”

The idea for Sculpture on the Green came to the Town of Pittsboro’s Park Planner Paul Horne one day while he was watching a presentation about a great annual sculpture show that the Town of Cary hosts. “Every other slide I recognized the works of Chatham artists, so it was obvious that our sculptors needed a venue closer to home,” said Horne, who hopes that this will become an annual event and grow over time.

The 10-acre Mary Holmes Park, 304 Old Rock Springs Cemetery Road, that will host the exhibit, has received a Recognition award from the American Society of Landscape Architects at its recent Tri-State Conference in Asheville. Other candidates being considered were among top projects in Georgia and South Carolina as well as North Carolina.

The opening reception is free. Questions? Email Paul Horne 

When there is sculpture involved, there is a guarantee of memorable  times.