January Newsletter

Arts InFocus

JANUARY 2020
Each month, ArtsGreensboro brings you stories about artists, arts organizations, and individuals whose lives are infused with creativity. Join us in celebrating our vibrant city.
ArtsGreensboro is dedicated to elevating the arts by creating awareness and promoting the vibrancy of our city; amplifying the impact the arts have in building strong and thriving communities for all citizens; and supporting arts organizations, artists, and teachers through grants, shared services, and technical assistance. For more information visit artsgreensboro.org
Painting: Gordon, Amy. Soul on Fire.

ARTIST IN FOCUS
BY AMY GORDON
Amy Gordon is a fervent and soulful painter and designer. Her abstract work is a reflection of her diverse polarities growing up in rural North Carolina, Fabric and Menswear design life in New York City and Yoga teaching.
Her pieces are inspired by the depths and complexity and fragility of the human experience. Through color, texture and negative space, she mimics the ebb and flow of the complex states of being.
The premise of each work is the struggle to rise from darkness, pain and confusion of life’s elements to merge to clarity, light and forgiveness.
Her work is an invitation to empathize and connect. Amy, the artist and human, is in every piece she creates. Acrylic, oil, pastels and mixed media are organically combined with her fingers to mix, gracefully apply sand and scrub her way to a place of acceptance and beauty.
Her studies at Textile and Design school of NCSU, fabric designer for Geoffrey Beene, Oscar De La Renta, Nautica, as well as her studies in London and San Francisco give her diversity that is uncommon. She is most well known as one of Greensboro’s prime commission artists, selling over 500 paintings and shown in galleries such as X-Posure, Gregory Clark and Love Art in Connecticut. Paul Robinson Fine Art in Atlanta, Lucky Fish Gallery and Tyler White O’Brien Gallery premiere her work locally although Amy is an Independent Artist.
Today her work ranges from sleek and minimal to organic, complex and multifarious. Amy brings a unique balance of subtle surprise and authenticity to her all of her paintings. To learn more about Amy, visit her website at amygordonart.com.

ARTS HAPPENING
BY BRIAN FORD, DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY THEATRE OF GREENSBORO
The Community Theatre of Greensboro is thrilled to be bringing the classic “Steel Magnolias” written by Robert Harling to the Starr Theatre stage at 520 S. Elm Street and the Well-Spring Theatre in January 2020! CTG is proud to be Guilford County’s oldest arts organization. For 70 years now, we have been bringing our diverse community together to learn about, experience, and celebrate the joys of theatre. Travel to Truvy’s beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are “anybody” come to have their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle, the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town’s rich curmudgeon, Ouiser, (“I’m not crazy, I’ve just been in a bad mood for forty years”); an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee; and the local social leader, M’Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby (the prettiest girl in town), is about to marry. The play moves toward tragedy and the sudden realization of their mortality affects the others, but also draws on the underlying strength—and love—which give the play, and its characters, the special quality to make them truly touching, funny and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.
Please join us for Steel Magnolias and the rest of our wonderful season. We can’t wait to see you at the theatre! Steel Magnolias will play at the Starr Theatre 520 S. Elm St. January 17-26 and the brand new Well-Spring Theatre January 31-February 2. Visit ctgso.org for tickets and more information!

AG MAKING IT WORK
By: CATENA BERGEVIN, MONTHLY ARTS MEETINGS
The day Laura Way started as the new President + CEO of ArtsGreensboro, she emphasized one important belief, “As a service organization that advocates and supports our local art economy, ArtsGreensboro must be outward focused.” One initiative Laura organized as a manifestation of that core belief is a monthly arts meeting.
On the second Tuesday of every month, ArtsGreensboro facilitates a one hour meeting for artists, arts organizations, and arts enthusiasts. These meetings are an opportunity to discover common ground, develop partnerships, and nurture collaborations that can impact all of Greensboro’s 165 neighborhoods. Each meeting location changes so we can learn more about those who are making a difference in our community every day. The atmosphere is one of open-dialogue, discussion, support, and action. Starting times alternate each month at 8:30am or 5:30pm to accommodate a variety of schedules. Topics have included activating downtown’s First Fridays with art and creativity, providing more opportunities for partnerships and peer to peer mentorships, discussions on challenges and successes, and ways to keep the lines of communication open.
ArtsGreensboro is dedicated to building a strong and vibrant arts community that benefits all citizens, strengthens our economy, and plays a fundamental role in our children’s education and development. Our monthly arts meetings are just one way that ArtsGreensboro is working hard to keep the arts alive and thriving in our city.
To attend a meeting or learn more visit artsgreensboro.org.
Photo from December Arts meeting at Reconsidered Goods
Coming from a public, ordinary and not so creatively structured high school and landing in an art school, I suddenly discovered how much more the world had to offer me. I finally had options, I could choose what to do, the way I wanted to do it. But after leaving art school in São Paulo, Brazil, I spent time trying to somehow fit in the art world. I guided tours in museums, but I could barely pay my personal expenses.
Then I took my first international trip and moved to Tokyo. I got a job as a maid in a hotel, but I would always visit art museums, galleries and art supply stores in my free time. My cleaning job was the sponsor for my art outings.
After two years, back in São Paulo, I started working with languages and translation. I almost totally disconnected myself from the art world, I tried hard to leave that part of my life behind, thinking that having talent but not the means to make it as an artist was a curse.

MY ART STORY
BY ELY URBANSKI
I thought I made up my mind, except that, even with my frequent trips and relocations, I never got rid of my artworks. They went with me to Japan again, this time I was resolved to live there forever. And I almost did, if it was not for the big earthquake of 2011 that made me go back to Brazil to escape radiation.
Fast forward to the present, now I am living in Snow Camp (NC) and after a closer contact with Nature, both the environment and my true nature, I finally fully accepted that art is a blessing in my life. When I look back, I see that art was what kept me sane during my hardest challenges and what made me even happier in my flowing moments. And I am grateful that art is always what remains untouched in my soul when everything else seems to be shaken by external events.

To learn more about Ely and her work, please visit printosynthesis.com.
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