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November 21, 2006
No Boundaries 2006
by Doug Stuber
No Boundaries is an artist colony that takes place the first weeks of November out on Bald Head Island, which is off of Southport, NC. It started in 1998 and was immediately written-up in Art In America, as it found a way to draw the likes of Gligor Cemerski (Macedonia), Michele Raby (France), Per Bille (Denmark), Ricardo Calanchini (Argentina) due to relationships UNC-Graduate Pamela Wallace Toll had made during her previous trips to colonies in Macedonia.
This year the colony went further afield and found Wu Rei (China), Hiroshi Sueyoshi (Japan) to round out Claire Fuillet (France), Arrow Ross (Denmark), Marjana Kostoicinoska-Uzunceva and Sergej Andreevski (Macedonia) and Feridun Isiman (North Cyprus) in the foreign established group, who painted with many Americans, including the triangle's Michael Mosca (who runs Side Street gallery in Pittsboro, between studio sessions painting his own art).
Once again founders Toll, Dick Roberts and Gayle Tustin put on a hell of a show at the Saturday, November 19th "one day exhibit," at Acme Studios in Wilmington. During the colony artists were treated to meals cooked by local restaurant chefs and collectors, handed free canvasses, and given between seven and 21 days to paint at Bald Head, an island so rich in natural beauty, a weekend art hobbiest could easily produce their best work there. Now that Simmons-Wright Gallery is closed, No Boundaries is THE event of the season for Wilmington's art scene, maybe for its entire year.
I've had the good luck of knowing the No Boundaries artists since its inception in 1998, and, other than 1998 itself, this year's work is hard to top.
Mosca gives us figurative work after hanging out with Andreevski (huh?). Indeed, any who knows his fully complex charcoals and oils paintings made of lines constructed from roofing tar would not expect his ability in figurative work to jump off to such a nice start. He wasn't quite equal to Isiman or Toll, but those two have been making figurative art their entire careers.
Heck, even the shapes of the necks have the Andreevski influence, but it's the move AWAY from Andreevski's eye that interests me. Notably the dark figure, probably male, possibly nude, in the foreground, but facing his three friends, NOT US. Here is where Mosca puts his own current aesthetic into the mix. The softness of the women's faces versus the abnormal body of one male, and forced grin of the other. If this line continues, Mosca will surely grab new collectors.
Although Marjana K.-U. had only smaller works on view at the opening, they also stood out with their simple combination of expressionism and collage. These works, on paper, were dangerously close to being "extremely young" expressionism, but, we have to assume she has earned the freedom to be turning emotions into art, and as such, these pass due to contrast, texture and adherence to the expressionist credo. The one here uses colored lace. Buttons, and many other sewing objects were scattered throughout her other work.

Claire Fuillet, who ties for my favorite artist at the colony (along with Andreesvki, whose art is irresistible to the eye) show us just how strong a small abstraction can be with the painting below, that is a mere 9 x 12 inches.

Fuillet said she is "always worried about whether I am going in the right direction," which is amazing, since she's been so strong for so long. Add the 30 x 40 inch beauty at the top of thhis article to your art memory bank. Fuillet sneaks figures in rather than forcing them on us, and, although dark, it uses green and blue to pull you into a tale of at least two figures and a (bird?) creature. The green flora is easy, but now notice both the small bird on what could be a human's back, or a turkey's back, to the left, and the chickadee/wren type lines made LARGE that surround the left figures. This large bird I can't be denied, as your eye finds its claws on a one-line branch. Humans within birds, birds within birds, both/all confronting a distant human split by an inexplicable river of blue. Works for me.

Those with dial up, please bear with the number of photos, but I can't skip Wu Rei, as he mixed a capitalists sense of graphic art with, well, a fish theme to make outstanding works during his time here. He is between two of them, and a little red dot to boot:
Chinese and paint were the only languages he needed in his time at No Boundaries. With so many Asian artists kicking butt in their newly enriched countries, its hard to imagine his life's arc going anywhere but up.
Same for conceptualist Hiroshi Sueyoshi. This photo does NO JUSTICE to the subtlety of his assemblage, which may be too simple for the American collector, but not so in Asia, where simplicity of form has long been admired.

Very few of us make a real contribution to art that will last beyond our years. By spending their life's energy on this project, Toll, Roberts and Tustin have assured themselves a place in art forever. It helps quite a bit that Dick Roberts' and Gayle Tustin's work has improved, by light years, since we first met in 1998. Tustin's well-known clay wall sculptures run from landscapes to figurative, and her start in painting (Anthony and Cleoptra, made at the 1998 colony) was auspicious, under the guidance of Cemerski, Andreevski and Stojcevski: painted at what is normally the seafood restaurant during the "season," out on Bald Head. Now, with a gentle nudge from the assemblage/collage folks, she's got one more that stands out, completely separate from her normal ouvre, but worthy.
Pam Toll never had to rise much from her 1998 level. Heck, she's been so good for so long…she even survived an ECU MFA and came out the other end better.
Allow one digression to end this report. It's an example of synchronicity so divine: in 1997 I was pushing artists on galleries up and down the east coast (to no avail, perhaps due to my "quirky" personality?) and, while schlepping Barbara Burck (the Leipzig artist) I was also selling my own un-matted, unframed watercolors out of my trunk. One day I ran into a collector in Charlotte behind Center of the Earth Gallery out on North Davidson, who also happened to be running the art end of NOFO, a kitchen gadget/souvenir and art shop in Wilmington NC. She bought two of my paintings, and said come on to Wilmington so she could slip us into NOFO. That luck landed Barbara Burck, Lee Hoag and myself a show in NC and the closest any of us lived then was Rochester NY.
At that opening I met Pam Toll, and was told to come back to her opening a couple of months later to make sure I got in on the No Boundaries Art Colony, which she was founding after time in Macedonia. I came all the way back to her opening, got news of the colony, moved to Chapel Hill, knowing exactly one person there (all off of just being able to help sponsor the colony) and, bingo, bango-bongo, started painting full time.
OK thanks if you've read this far. But folks, I owe all to these coincidences. I mean I owe them my life.

3 Responses to “No Boundaries 2006”

1. Administrator Says:
November 23rd, 2006 at 10:07 am e

[This is sent to us from FH, a Wilmington artist, whose work many of us know.]
The No Boundaries IS a fabulous event. I attended the first one in 98′,and have attended two more on the non-international years since. Two comments: we (local Wilminton artists) just held the first of a semi-annual event here in Wilmington that Gayle Tustin,one of the founders of No Boundaries, was a participant in. It was “8 Artists - 6 Houses - 1 Weekend”. Hiroshi Sueyoshi (who is indeed from Japan, but has lived and taught in Wilmington for many years [this goes for Arrow Ross of Denmark as well] ) also participated in this endeavor. Elizabeth Darrow initiated the event where we took over 6 historic homes in Wilmington, and turned them into galleries for 3 days. Most of us were represented by Simmons Wright Gallery before their closing. Our opening night on Friday drew more than 500 visitors. We had such a great turnout over the weekend that we will do it again in 2008.

I am unable at this time to email media coverage, or an announcement. We received coverage from Star News,Encore Magazine, Currents magazine (Star again),Focus on the Coast as well as coverage by WHQR Public Radio. Currents was the most thorough with one of the artists on the cover and a color spread on all of us inside.Next time we’ll go for a more wide spread exposure. I would consider this an event.
2. Administrator Says:
November 27th, 2006 at 4:14 pm e

[This was sent to us from Jane Lawton Baldridge, presumably of Wilmington.]
While Doug Stuber gives a passionate and lengthy account of the
international side of No boundaries and its founders, it is a bit unjust to
our provincial little Wilmington to make believe that is the only game in
town. There are too many galleries to list and they don’t all deserve
mentioning but I will say people should be watching the rise of Three Hounds
Gallery on Front Street. Not as elaborate of a space as Simmons/Wright, but,
Kate and Holly Smith, the owner, are staging some excellent shows utilizing
some very special local talent. Most recently, Wayne McDowell, Jeff Chase,
and jewelry by Emily Parker. Before that was an all woman show dominated by
Jennifer Page and Jane Baldridge also including Christa Sylvester-ceramics,
Haley Hall-photograhy and Emily Parker-jewelry.
3. artsRambler Says:
November 27th, 2006 at 4:18 pm e

Perhaps a little editorial clarification would be timely here. Writers write about the visual arts that move them. They are not reporters, but writers of art. Thus, there is no reason for Mr. Stuber to give equal time to other wilmington venues.
But the GOOD News is artsramble accepts submissions from y’all, everybody and youse guys. That’s right! If there is a discussion that needs to be started, we cordially extend the invitation to start it. Follow the guidelines found on the “About and Editorial Policy” page and keep those cards and letters coming in.