David Connell
by Samantha Thompson Hatem photographs by Missy McLamb Most people know him as the lanky bass player in the popular Raleigh-based band The Connells. But if you ask David Connell, 51, how he wants to be remembered, it isn’t for…
Category: Arts & Culture
A Box of Blue
by Betty Adcock Begin with a box. Imagine it made of ordinary and exotic woods: yellow pine and rosewood, mahogany and oak, hickory and ebony, mixed every which way: mosaics, shape-shifting inlays. It can expand to hold a sunset,…
Cane Pole Fishing
By Charles Upchurch photographs by Shawn Rocco I have a neighbor who sport-fishes all over the world. Hawaii, Costa Rica, the Atlantic Gulf Stream. Marlin, tuna, sailfish. I told him I was writing a piece on a guy here in…
Thomas Sayre
by Liza Roberts photographs by Jimmy Williams You might not know it, but you’ve probably seen Thomas Sayre’s art. It’s big, it’s bold, and it’s public. In Raleigh, his three gigantic earthen ellipses spool across a field at the…
Life of the party: Rory Parnell fills her home in support of art education
by Martha Quillin photographs by Liz Condo Rory Parnell did not herself prepare the petite crab cakes with Cajun remoulade that guests gobbled in two bites at her late fall party to benefit local arts education. Her husband, Jerry, grilled the…
Gratitude
by Chelsea Jones Every summer, I spend the month of July with my family in the Northern Michigan town where I grew up. It’s an amazing place, never too hot, always cool enough for a campfire at night, with clear,…
Freeze frame: Three responses to art
text and photograph by John Rosenthal Jackson Pollock When I was 16 I took my girlfriend, Amy, to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. I didn’t know much about modern art, though I knew I liked Picasso’s…
Larry Wheeler’s letter from the art world
by Larry Wheeler director, North Carolina Museum of Art At the North Carolina Museum of Art’s annual art auction, Marion Church of Raleigh won a weekend in New York with me. So the long-anticipated adventure – a three-day weekend of…
Hunting as Heritage
by Charles Upchurch photographs by Shawn Rocco You’re a tundra swan. Tonight, you will leave your summer nesting grounds in subarctic Canada and begin the southern migration to your winter home. By ancient imprint, guided by moon and stars…
Dog Heart
by Noel Crook He lies still, breath clouding the slate tiles between his paws. Only the occasional twitch of an ear mars his perfect vigil. He has grown old following the girl, his only lamb; has watched her …
Reflections: Let’s call this place home
by Doug Glanville illustration by Laura Frankstone When my wife and I moved from Philadelphia to Chicago in the winter of 2005, we also had Charlotte, Asheville, and Raleigh on the tips of our tongues. Without children at the time,…
Hear: Grant Llewellyn on big band and jazz
photograph by Michael Zirkle North Carolina Symphony music director Grant Llewellyn, who divides his time between his North Hills apartment, his 600-year-old Welsh farmhouse, and gigs across the globe, is famous for sophisticated, imaginative interpretations of classical scores and accomplished…
Charman Driver joins the circus
by Charman Driver photographs by Scott Sharpe I like to get high. I expect my clients to do it and I’d like to suggest you do it, too. Of course I’m talking about that natural high one gets through exercise….
Just one plant: Sabal minor
by Tony Avent illustration by Ippy Patterson Certain plants, like the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield, never get the respect they deserve. A classic example is our native scrub palm, Sabal minor, also known as the dwarf or bush palmetto. Perhaps its ubiquitous…