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DURHAM ARTS COUNCIL GRANT
From June until August, I will be creating 5 6 by 6 foot oil paintings of downtown Durham, a project made possible by the Emerging Artist Program of the Durham Arts Council. As I work on the paintings, I will be updating my website with information on the process.
This is such a fascinating time for Durham: history and present are merging in a unique way. Projects like the restored tobacco district, the new performing arts center, Brightleaf Square, Golden Belt (and other projects by Scientific Properties) are really redefining and shaping the city. In these paintings, I want to explore how the new space in Durham is merging with the historic fabric of this old industrial town.
I'll be documenting the process on my website and will include pictures of my work, notes on research that I've done at the Durham public library, and scans of old pictures that I find. For this project, I think it's important that the viewer follow the process with me so that they can learn about Durham and its history, too.
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8/19/2009
According to the Durham Architectural and Historic Inventory, the Golden Belt Manufacturing Company was founded in 1887 and initially operated within the Blackwell Durham Tobacco Company building (now the American Tobacco District). The Golden Belt Company was chiefly responsible for creating the tobacco bags that were used in packaging Blackwell's tobacco. In 1885, W.H.Kerr invented a machine that manufactured tobacco bags. Before this, bags were sewn by hand. This change caused an increase in production and a need for more space. Carr then created the Golden Belt Manufacturing Company building as a new space to manufacture of tobacco bags. There's more information about Golden Belt on the Endangered Durham blog: http://endangereddurham.blogspot.com/search?q=golden+belt
8/16/2009
8/13/2009
I'm almost done with my last painting and will hopefully have it photographed today. In the last week before Friday, I'm going to to research the locations that I painted a little more so that I can be thoroughly prepared for this opening!
8/12/2009
08/11/2009
08/10/2009
08/09/2009
I finished my painting of Golden Belt today and had Jess photograph the painting for me. I'm working on my final painting of the DPAC but haven't gotten very far yet.
08/05/2009
My painting of Main Street shows
the Yuille and Watts tobacco warehouses (built by Duke) on the right side of the canvas. These buildings were converted into shops and offices in 1981. The renovated buildings are now known as Brightleaf Square. There's more info on Brightleaf Square and its history here. I've now started my last painting in the series. I think it will be an image of DPAC, but I'm still working on my sketches.
08/03/2009
08/03/2009
This painting is driving me a little insane. I haven't worked with human figures in a while, so it has been a struggle to make them fit in with the rest of the painting!
Be sure to mark your calendars! The public reception for the Durham Arts Council show will be Friday, August 21, from 5-7PM.
07/30/2009
07/30/2009
07/29/2009
I added more figures to the painting yesterday and began on the windows along the top. The lower half of the painting will show the dance scene, the upper half will mostly show the architecture of the building.
07/28/2009
My next painting for the Durham Arts Council will be different. I'm going to paint a scene from a dance performance that was held in Golden Belt a few weeks ago for the American Dance Festival.
07/25/2009
My friend Jess (J&J Photography) took pictures of Main Street for me today. She has taken all of the final photographs of my artwork (not the bad ones that I've taken in my studio). I asked her to take this picture so that people can see how big these paintings are. I'm standing on a ledge behind the painting.
07/23/2009
The painting below is a view of Brightleaf Square and the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company building from Main Street.
07/21/2009
07/20/2009
07/17/2009
This image isn't very good, I'll attach a better one tomorrow. Here's Main Street so far. Still have lots to do! The cat in the corner is named Quabnot.
07/16/2009
I've started my newest painting. In these pictures, I'm outlining the building structures. The painting has a yellow oxide background color. This will be a night scene of Main Street in Durham.
07/14/2009
I thought I wanted to work on this a little more, but I think it's done (photo by J&J Photography)
07/12/2009
Getting close, but it still needs lots of work...the bottom half is all oil paint, the top (background behind the buildings) has a little bit of oil (the green and black), but it is still mostly acrylic.
07/10/2009
07/09/2009
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/multi/new-train-station-opens-in-durham
I've started my painting of Dunstan Street. Before using oil paint, I paint the background with acrylic. This picture shows the canvas after the acrylic has been applied but no oil paint has been added. Now I can start with the oil paint.
07/08/2009
I've taken pictures of Dunstan street and have started on my large canvas. I might switch to another subject halfway through, though. The houses on Dunstan may not seem like the right subject once I get started. I've already gessoed a new canvas and can paint all afternoon and evening. I've started my research on Golden Belt and have been reading more about Hayti. While taking pictures of Dunstan Street, I came across former Hillside Park High School (picture below), which was the first African-American High School in Durham. It was built in 1922 and now stands abandoned. The school looks terrible. Almost all of the windows are smashed and it is clear that it has sustained damage on the inside. What a waste of such an important historic site.
07/03/2009
I'm especially interested in this view of Dunstan street from the 1930's (I got the image from The Durham Architectural and Historic Inventory). Dunstan is located in Southeast Durham, a traditionally black-occupied area of the city.
I got the image above from Google Maps. Looks like the area hasn't changed much from the 1930's. I'm going to take pictures next week to start a painting of Dunstan street.
07/01/2009
In the 1950's, a large number of "urban renewal" projects were proposed and then partially funded by the federal government in various U.S. cities. Durham was chosen because, according to the U.S. government (and many Durham citizens agreed) certain parts of the downtown area needed revitalization. The government proposed to fund two-thirds of the revitalization plan. The huge project was approved. Unfortunately, this attempted "urban renewal" in downtown Durham is now remembered as an "urban removal" project. As one part of the project, land was cleared in order to build NC 147, the expressway that now runs through Durham. The demolition destroyed a large number of historic buildings and houses in Hayti. I'm interested in trying to capture an aspect of this project in my next painting.
06/30/2009
i drove through the area traditionally know as Hayti today and got to take a look at the part of Durham i'll be focusing on next. I think I have found some great places to paint because the area has a unique set of neighborhoods and houses. Once you explore it a bit, you realize that the construction of the highway really changed the neighborhood. More on that tomorrow.
06/30/2009
I am reading about Hayti, the traditionally African-American district of Durham. The word was first used in print, according to Anderson in her book Durham County, in 1877. A strong middle class gradually grew in Hayti as the tobacco industry blossomed, showing that “blacks in Durham were holding their own, even making progress in their now separate but parallel culture.”(163, Anderson) Durham is now marked as somewhat of an exception during this time, where the black community was able to thrive and grow a strong middle class. Anderson suggests that this was due to three unique attitudes in Durham, the most important being “an easy-going tolerance, a live-and-let-live philosophy” (164, Anderson). This, of course, does not mean that times weren’t tough for the black community. Durham still forced political restrictions and social separation on the black community, but the city also voted for education opportunity and accepted black economic advancement (164 Anderson). Other cities at the time strongly restricted any economic gains among blacks.
06/29/2009
photo of the Strickland building from the new ballpark in Durham
Toreador
72 x 72"
oil on canvas
(photo by J&J Photography)
I finished Toreador (6 x 6 ft. oil on canvas), my first painting for the Durham Arts Council. The painting shows the new Durham Bulls stadium with the Strickland building of the American Tobacco District in the background. The history of the American Tobacco District is pretty fascinating. I’ll try to summarize it very briefly here (if you want more info, check out the Endangered Durham blog).
The tobacco industry in Durham thrived after the Civil War. Brightleaf tobacco, which grows well in sandy (and poor) Piedmont soil, had gradually become popular among smokers because of its mild and aromatic flavor. By 1870, many had begun to see the advantages of manufacturing tobacco in the area. The most successful tobacco company to see profits rise was the famous “Bull Durham” business. Others included W. Duke and Sons, R.F. Morris and Son, Z.I. Lyon and Co., and John S. Lockhart (the names of all of these companies changed pretty often, so I'm just going to stick with one of the original names used for each to make it simpler).
In order to gain ground over his largest rival ("Bull Durham"), James B. Duke acquired two Bonsack cigarette–rolling machines in 1884 for the Duke company. The machines replaced workers that hand-rolled cigarettes. By doing this, he was taking a huge risk (none of his large rivals were using them yet). The machine had been tested, but it had many mechanical imperfections. Machine-rolled cigarettes were also considered inferior to hand-rolled ones at this time. Basically, there was no way to know whether they would sell.
Despite the huge risk, the machines worked for Duke. William O’Brien, a mechanic for the Bonsack company, was able to fix the quirky machines so that they functioned smoothly. In addition, the demand for cigarettes was so high that machine-made cigarettes became the standard. Duke soon acquired more machines and gained headway over “Bull Durham”.
In a final push to gain control of the market, J.B. Duke persuaded his 4 largest competitors (Allen & Ginter, Kinney, Kimball & Goodwin co.’s) to merge together with W. Duke and Sons Co. They agreed to the plan in 1890, and the American Tobacco Company was formed! At 33 years old, after master-minding the entire deal, James B. Duke became the president of the company. He finally beat out his main competition and eventually absorbed “Bull Durham” into the American Tobacco Co.
By the way, I'm getting all this info from three sources: The Durham Architectural and Historic Inventory, the National Register of Historic Places, and Durham County, a book by Jean Anderson. You should click here to check out Gary Kueber's blog to find out more about the American Tobacco District. He also has some great photos.
06/19/2009
Fritz, my oldest brother working on the large stretcher bars for my grant in January 2009. He helped me make the canvases.
click here to view entries Oct. 2008 thru June 2009