Sculpture and Paintings at Cheese House Gallery for March 2009

As anyone from here knows, the Green Movement is nothing new. Mountain people have been recycling, re-using, and repairing things for generations. DC Smith just takes it one step further. To his way of thinking, those cast off farm tools, car parts and what-have-you are raw materials for his imagination. When an odd shape catches his attention, he welds and fashions it with other pieces to create whimsical sculptures that he calls his “Varmints.”

Smith is the type of person who never has an idle moment. After retiring in ’92, he found a security job with the Elk River Club to fill his time. When the late shift proved to be too quiet, he learned to weave baskets so he would have something productive to do during the evenings. Now retired yet again, Smith remains on the go with his busy lawn care service and a fine flock of goats that he and wife Bonita enjoy watching cavort in the fields above their home. Between chores, he creates his Varmints. Friends save discarded tools for him to use, and Smith says that his granddaughter serves as his “art critic.”

Although they are designed for an outdoor setting, DC Smith’s Varmints seem quite at home with the warm-toned surfaces of Germaine Galjour’s abstract paintings currently on display in the gallery. Galjour, a self taught artist of French-Cajun descent, found her way to Bakersville after leaving Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. She has had no formal training, but has spent years on applied theory and resourcefulness to arrive at her various styles of painting in several art mediums. This show features her abstracts in acrylic; in November, she will return to the Cheese House Gallery with an exhibition of landscapes.

Galjour’s varied styles may also be seen at her website, www.germainegaljour.com, and at these galleries: The Design Gallery, Burnsville; Guthrie Contemporary Fine Art, New Orleans and Houston; Interiors and Extras, Metairie, LA; The Nunnery Fine Art Gallery, Jackson, MS; and the Toe River Arts Council (TRAC) Galleries, Burnsville and Spruce Pine.

The artwork of DC Smith and Germaine Galjour will be on exhibit at the Cheese House Gallery through March 31. Gallery hours are Monday – Friday, 10-4, and Saturdays by appointment. Call the Avery Arts Council, 828-898-4292 for more information, or come see us at the Cheese House Gallery, 630 Shawneehaw Avenue (Hwy 184), Banner Elk.

The Avery County Arts Council is a non-profit organization working to enrich the people of Avery County through meaningful arts and cultural experiences. For more than 30 years the council has helped to support school arts programs and served as a resource for artists and the community. Contact the Avery County Arts Council at 828-898-4292 or info@averycountyartscouncil.org.