LCC Silent Art Auction Kicks Off "Annie"

Several local artists associated with Lenoir Community College have recently donated works of art to be on display in the lobby of the Waller Building at each performance of the upcoming musical Annie. Patrons will be able to purchase the paintings through a silent auction.

"Annie" will be presented by LCC March 31-April 2 at 8 p.m. and on April 3 at 2 p.m. The production will be held in the Waller Auditorium on the LCC campus. The play is directed by Mitch Butts, with Clay Whittington serving as music director.

The art compositions range from Depression Era to Pop Art and Abstract Expression.

Eddie Cox, who recently created replicas of the County Seals on display at LCC, is donating a painting of a two-furnace barn reminiscent of Lenoir County in the thirties. The painting in pastels is matted and framed in dark mahogany. Cox paints a wide variety of subjects. He is noted for his historical scenes, especially barns and Indian life.

Crystal Carter of the LCC Information Systems Department is also a digital artist who focuses on landscapes, sunsets, and nature scenes. She is one of the artists featured at the North Carolina Community College System in Raleigh. Her work will be on display from March to December in Raleigh. The landscape she is donating is a scene captured on a digital camera from a train ride in the mountains of North Carolina. In the scene, the surface of a mountain river cutting through the Appalachians mirrors the riverbank, the pines, and the mountain skyline in a picture whose upper half is the reverse of the lower.

Lisa Shaw, LCC Learning Resources Center lab coordinator, works mostly in watercolors although she enjoys dabbling in oils as well. She bases most of her paintings on outdoor scenes from her travels. She has recently participated in four art shows. The piece she is donating is a watercolor depiction of the workshop of Volis Simpson, an internationally renowned folk artist from Lucama, NC.

Cynthia Hyder, LCC Graphic Arts instructor, paints in all mediums with watercolor being her favorite. She has held private showings and sold work throughout the United States. Her paintings are prominent in a number of restaurants and business around Kinston as well as in other cities. The painting she is donating is an acrylic medium depicting the coast of Maine where she says the “mysterious, misty atmosphere” invites the brush of an artist.

Nathan Dolde, LCC Art instructor, has exhibited regionally and internationally. He is donating one graphite and three monoprints. All works deal with the appropriation of images from art history blended with traditional tattoo imagery. They are a hybrid of Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism. The monoprints are one of a kind prints dealing with the relationship between Botticelli's Venus and traditional tattoo design. The Graphite drawing is from his most current body of work, titled "mother and child III." It juxtaposes a renaissance maddona and child with the traditional "mother and heart" tattoo design.

Tickets for "Annie" are $8 in advance, $10 at the door and $5 for students with LCC idenitification. Tickets are available iin advance at The Nook, The Beauty Box, Community Council for the Arts, Alison and Co., The Villager, Lydia's Tea Room, and The Book Depot.

Featured artists for the Lenoir Community College silent auction to be held prior to the performance of the upcoming production of Annie are: left to right: Cynthia Hyder, Lisa Shaw, Eddie Cox, Nathan Dolde and Crystal Carter. "Annie" will be presented March 31-April 2 at 8 p.m. and on April 3 at 2 p.m. The production will be held in the Waller Auditorium on the LCC campus.