Ackland Museum Store

We’re a bit hyped up here at the Ackland Museum Store.  Sunday, May 13^th is both Mother’s Day and Graduation Day.  We’re ready for you with gifts and cards for both occasions.  We could inundate you with lots of pictures of the goodies here in the store but you already know that if you come, you’ll find just the right thing to congratulate your graduate and to tickle your Mother’s fancy. 

But today is Tuesday, May 8^th and amidst all the anticipation of the coming weekend, it’s an election day.  We know the 2012 graduates are leaving UNC better citizens for having been here.  We wish you success and happiness in all your future endeavors and we hope your journey will be one of lifelong learning and joy.  But today, right now, make your Mother proud and get out and vote. 

This Week at the Ackland Museum Store

We are celebrating our 1^st birthday!!! We will be open exactly one year this Saturday, May 5^th. Come celebrate with us… rumor has it, there will be cake.

In the Gallery –

Woman Pushing Stroller, Anthony Ulinski   

This week continues with Perspectives in Mentoring: The Paintings of Anthony Ulinski and Deneé Black.  Perspectives in Mentoring is the first in a series of shows focusing on the importance of mentoring in the fields of art and craft. This week we share a little about the process for each artist.

Anthony Ulinski on his process  –

Technique:

These paintings are made from a mixture of oil paints and bees wax. The two mixed together have a consistency of frosting and this impasto is applied with a palette knife. (A third ingredient, a plasticizer is added when the painting is on canvas.) The mix of paint to medium can be altered—more paint for a more opaque mix or more medium for a more translucency.

I layer many coats over an initial rough drawing. Each layer allows me to refine or redefine the drawing. By layering many successive coats of colors that are very near each other I (hopefully) add interest to and break up color fields adding depth and texture.

Imagery:

These paintings are derived from photographs taken from the first floor dining room at Teaism, a tea shop near Dupont Circle in Washington DC. I was watching the people come and go and photographed the scenes as they passed by below me. I was attracted to the long shadows of the people and trees cast by the late afternoon sun.

The viewer is standing above and at some slight remove from the scene— an unseen observer.

On Otis Street, Deneé Black

Deneé Black on her process –

My work is taken from inspiration that I document with my camera. I work with acrylics utilizing my photography, image transfers and collage (including my own screen printed collage pieces).  My photographs turned into image transfers are kind of my blueprint for the start of a painting. I work in layers with paint and collage pieces. Paint and collage are found below and above the surface of the image transfer.

In the Store –

Mother’s Day is quickly approaching, and we’ve got the perfect things to let mom know how special she is not only on Sunday, May 13th, but throughout the year.

-  Jewelry by artists like Meghan Patrice Riley.  Meghan’s light and wearable sculptural jewelry will delight any Mom. Mixing metals with textile techniques, she creates unique handcrafted pieces with a feminine elegance and a slight industrial touch inspired by volumetric forms.

-  New to the store are bright and colorful necklaces, bracelets and earrings by I. Ronni Kappos. Handmade using vintage German glass beads from the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. Ronni values the history in her materials, while designing pieces with a clean modern look.

- Tell mom you want her to be happy and healthy with a glass water bottle by bkr.

Why glass you ask? Here’s what our friends at BKR have to say –

IT’S JUST A WATER BOTTLE LIKE YOU’RE JUST A PERSON. Who are you anyway? You’re not just a person who accepts logic like leaching chemicals in your drinking water, awkward shaped mouthpieces during your workouts, an island made of plastic with a 700-year zero-interest         lease on development, camping equipment as accessory with your super cool outfits. We are bkr people. Your bkr (“beaker”) bottle is made of glass and is for you to fill. Whatever you want inside. Tap water, bubbly water, orange juice, chocolate milk. Give up your plastic habits. We don’t eat things we can’t pronounce or marinate our water in polyethylene terephthalate. We’ve evolved. It’s a bkr. All clean everything.®

F.A.Q. -  http://www. mybkr.com/faq.asp

This Week at the Ackland Museum Store

In the Gallery –

This week continues with Perspectives in Mentoring: The Paintings of Anthony Ulinski and Deneé Black. Perspectives in Mentoring is the first in a series of shows focusing on the importance of mentoring in the fields of art and craft. This week we share what each artist has to say about their work.

Anthony Ulinski on his work –

This series of paintings were inspired by views from an upstairs window seat at a tea shop in Washington DC. I had been working on a series of rural landscapes looking at plow lines, canals, roads and telephone wires for structure. In these cityscapes once again I have structural lines — streets, curbs, cracks between sidewalks. A way to break up the spaces and add connecting lines for the objects on the canvas. The perspective is slightly vertiginous, the figures are foreshortened and the shadows elongated in the harsh light of a late winter afternoon.

Deneé Black on her work –

I recreate the way that I see my daily surroundings: in contrasting, bold blocks of shapes and saturated colors. I sometimes envision entire live spaces and moments as complete works of art. At other times, a single object or form, removed from its surroundings, may be the subject of my work. These visual ‘snapshots’, whether based on my daily surroundings, moments captured, or single objects, are then translated into mixed media pieces. My Cityscapes series focuses on the shapes, colors and energies found in urban spaces.

In the Store –

We’ve got lots of new friends in the store courtesy of our friends at Cardboard Safari & Jellycats. Rocky the Ram is fabulous and we are absolutely in love with Robbie the Rhino. He is beyond cute! In addition, a few Mad Pets have joined our Cordy Roy pals, and boy are we mad for them. Welcome Orla & Olive! 

Hope you’ll stop to meet our new friends and perhaps make a few of your own!

Marsha Owen Pottery is now available @ AMS. The pottery is the work of Marsha Owen and her husband Rick Moss. They have been working out of their studio in Raleigh, NC, for over seventeen years making a variety of ceramic objects for everyday use. Form and function truly become one in the hands of Marsha and Rick. 

This Week at the Ackland Museum Store

In the Gallery –

Anthony Ulinski, Man Reading  Deneé Black, The French Quarter Alley II

This week continues with Perspectives in Mentoring: The Paintings of Anthony Ulinski and Deneé Black, which opened with a special reception last Friday, April 13^th. What a fun opening! Anthony and Deneé were here along with about 100 friends ,art lovers, and passers-by. We also had live music with local pianist Dawn Michelle Williams who played beautifully, accompanied on drums by Michael Rogers.http://dawnmichellewilliams.com/

Perspectives in Mentoring is the first in a series of shows focusing on the importance of mentoring in the fields of art and craft. Anthony Ulinski is an accomplished oil painter who has taught extensively at Penland among other well respected schools. Deneé Black, a talented mixed media painter, has taken classes with Anthony and has been mentored by him for several years. The show features not only the cityscapes of both artists, but reflects the evolving nature of a mentoring relationship. Their work, while stylistically different, share structural lines, strong perspective, and bold color.

In the store –

The NEW collection in The Bags from Banners line has arrived and we are super excited! Jennifer Collins-Mancour has once again taken a banner from a former exhibition at the Ackland Art Museum and turned it into fun, functional, and beautifully constructed bags (clutches, totes and messenger bags).

This new collection comes from Fortune Smiles: The Tyche Foundation Gift, which was on exhibit in the galleries at the Ackland Art Museum, May 22-August 10, 2010.   http://www.ackland.org/OnView/archive/CCM1_041106

The exhibition catalog, along with these fabulous new bags, is available at the Ackland Museum Store.

Cards, cards and more cards! They say letter writing is a lost art. Well, we hope to bring it back… or at least try. We have a fantastic selection of cards in the store: cute ones, funny ones, sweet ones, snarky ones… you get the point. They’re just waiting to be sent to Mom & Dad, your BFF from back home, or your dear sweet grandmother. Fugu Fugu Press, Whigby, Sugarcube Press, Red Cap Cards and more.

And speaking of paper, we’ve also just received a new shipment of Japanese Paper. We LOVE it! It is beyond beautiful and it is amazing to work with… perfect for all of your paper crafting pursuits! Did I mention we LOVE this paper?

New Show Opening in the Gallery -

Lately, all us at the Ackland Museum Store have been discussing the importance of mentorship in the fields of art and craft, so we are super excited about the new show opening in the gallery. Perspectives in Mentoring: The Paintings of Anthony Ulinski and Deneé Black opens with a special reception this Friday night, April 13 from 7-9 pm, and will continue through June 10. This is the first in what we hope to be a series of shows focusing on mentorship.

Anthony Ulinski and Deneé Black have worked together as mentor and protégé for several years. The work in this show reflects not only the cityscapes of each, but also the evolving nature of a mentoring relationship. In viewing the paintings of each artist, one is struck by the similarity of their intense observational translations. Their paintings, while stylistically different, share structural lines, strong perspective, bold color, and shadows.

Ulinski’s oil paintings are inspired by views from an upstairs window seat at a tea shop in Washington, D.C.  He uses perspectival lines—streets, curbs, cracks in the sidewalk—as a way to both break up the spaces as well as to connect the objects on the canvas.

Men Walking, Anthony Ulinski

Black, working in an acrylic medium, depicts her perspectives through the use of contrasting, bold blocks of shape in saturated colors.  These visual “snapshots” are based on her observations of the energies found in the urban spaces around her.

Stroll on Patton Avenue, Deneé Black

The reception will feature live music by local pianist Dawn Michelle Williams. This is an RSVP only event.  Please call 919.962.0216 or reply to the attached FB invite.  Space is limited. 
http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/407588679270694/
Hope to see you!

The Ackland Museum Store will also host an artist talk with Anthony and Deneé on Friday, May 11 @ 7pm.

This Week at The Ackland Museum Store

In the Gallery –

This is the final week for Cellular Obscura – The Cellphone Photographs of Shawn Rocco. If you have not yet seen this wonderful show, be sure to stop by. Shawn is an award winning staff photojournalist at the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Since 2007, he has produced a body of award winning documentary work which he has coined Cellular Obscura. These stylistically distinctive works are produced using a Motorola E815 cellphone camera, no apps involved.  Shawn was named Photographer of the Year in 2011 by the N.C. Press Photographers Association. He was raised in Yonkers, then Goshen, New York. He graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh with a B.A. in Environmental Science and a minor in Photography. He has taught as an adjunct professor in the Journalism School at UNC-Chapel Hill. Shawn moved to North Carolina in 1995, where he currently resides in Raleigh with his wife Joanna and their dog Cooper.

“As a photojournalist whose profession is entwined with technology, I appreciate the practical advancements of this era. They have led to the democratization of photography on a significant scale. While technology strives to improve accuracy and minimize the technical flaws in capturing a digital image, as an artist I find atmosphere and personality in photographs that are inherently imperfect. The images shown in ‘Cellular Obscura’ represent a moment in our history measured, not just by the content within the frame, but also by the reality represented in a photograph via cellphone, a visual evolution unique to our time.”

In the store –

In case you’ve forgotten or didn’t know, Easter is this coming Sunday, April 8^th. We know, we can’t believe it either. No worries, we’ve got plenty of fun goodies to fill the Easter baskets of young and old alike. We even have all natural Easter Egg dye by Eco Kids.

We’ve also just received some fabulous new glassware from British company, LSA International… beautiful vases, hurricane lanterns, colorful drinking glasses, and polka dot mugs.

And, some very cool paper placemats from Hester and Cook.

New at The Ackland

In case you haven’t noticed, we have a running love affair with textiles in the store.  We love them for Spring in their bright colors, subtle textures, and varied uses.  Check out these wonderful new linen totes—hand dyed, pleated and sewn by Carol Gilbert of Yorktown Road.

Or, if you’ve never discovered the wonders of flour sack towels while working in the kitchen, you are really missing something.  They are soft, absorbent, never leave lint around, and are great for wrapping and storing fresh greens in.  We have a great selection of them in fantastic prints (all hand printed eco-consciously with water soluble dyes) from Kei and Molly.

And really, wrapping paper is so yesterday when you can wrap a present in a “Give Wrap” by Chewing the Cud.  These colorful hand printed wraps are based on the Japanese furoshiki—a wrapping cloth to be used over and over.  We have them in Give Love, Give Thanks, Give Joy prints and more.