Sculptor: Get supplies and ‘try to make something’

 

By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com

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* May 7: 4-H club, art show up next for home-schoolers 

ROCKINGHAM — Hope Norton had everything figured out. Well, almost everything.

The de facto art teacher for and organizer of the Richmond County Home Educators inaugural art show on Thursday inside the fellowship hall of First United Methodist Church in downtown Rockingham had a rather messy idea. The only problem was the kids loved it.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com Ben Layton stands still so his mother can document the moment.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
Ben Layton stands still so his mother can document the moment.

More than 50 people took advantage of the two guest speakers and hands-on activity Norton lined up for the two-hour program. Norton offered an apology not too longer after the kids enjoyed, perhaps a bit too much, blowing into a straw onto a plate filled with wet paint. The paint splattered. The kids giggled.

“You would think I would know better,” Norton said. “Obviously, I don’t.”

The artist in Norton, however, wouldn’t allow her to skip over the benefits the project had to offer.

It has, she said, “a really, really, really neat effect.”

Rockingham sculptor Richard Warsin was one of the two featured speakers during the event. Warsin, assisted by his daughter, 9-year-old Vera. Warsin said he’d been sculpting for nearly 30 years, and the best way to get started is to “go buy some clay and try to make something.”

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com

Of course, technique — and quality of result — can be refined with practice.

Warsin showed off a gargoyle — misunderstood mythical creatures, he said, as they were not mean but intended to ward off evil spirits. He said he had about 40 hours of work into the 12-inch piece made of oil-based clay.

Like any good artist, Warsin offered a number of self-deprecating statements.

“I feel like I’m not that good,” he said.

Warsin told the kids — who thought he was plenty good — of how he was discovered after he hanged a dragon creation in his yard.  He’s received royalties from that work, which was shown in a catalog some 20 years ago.

“It’s like cutting a record, but not quite as good,” Warsin said.

Inspiration was the foundation in the weeks leading up to Thursday’s event. On each artist’s card, the student was to put how they thought of their creation or why they pursued a particular design.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com

In “Toucan,” 12-year-old Anna Richmond made an image of a bird on a tree limb for a needle felting demonstration for the Seaboard Festival.

“I saw these birds in my mom’s book and was inspired to copy them, ’cause I knew she would love it,” Anna shared.

William Norton, 9, seemed to have the right idea and be on the right track of a true professional. In his “Can You Find the Stick Man?,” he used alcohol ink on yupo paper to create an abstract work.

“I like artwork that can be whatever that can be whatever you want it to be when you look at it,” William wrote.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com William Norton, 9, offers his abstract piece "Can You Find the Stick Man?"

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
William Norton, 9, offers his abstract piece “Can You Find the Stick Man?”

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com The Hadinger children — Austin, Hayden, Carson, Hudson, Abi and Ian — melted plastic beads to make this "Bunny Herd."

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
The Hadinger children — Austin, Hayden, Carson, Hudson, Abi and Ian — melted plastic beads to make this “Bunny Herd.”

 

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