North Carolina Arts Council

Telling North Carolina’s Story in a Digital Age

In a digital age when accessing information is instantaneous and measured in Gbps, billions of bits per second, there’s little time for pause. Most young professionals are equipped with blackberries in belt holsters that rival old West revolvers in quick draw speed. Personal blogs sport RSS technology in order to make even the most private of thoughts accessible to anyone. But some twenty-and thirty-somethings are changing the cultural mindset of North Carolina with their use of technology.

One of many avenues to convey their love of and respect for the traditions of their ancestors, hot-button technology trends like MySpace and Facebook pages promote string band music and blogs promote pottery, painting and a host of other traditional art forms. Using new media to promote old traditions, these hipsters are making life more about authentic, age-old process than massed produced, readily made products.

Identifying with past traditions and finding comfort in knowing their own culture, North Carolina’s younger generations know the stories of their predecessors and are eager to use technology to teach others the traditions that they feel are important for tomorrow.

Wheel-Thrown Legacy

Having thrown his first pot at the age of two, Travis Owens, age 22, is no stranger to family tradition. The son of Vernon and Pam Owens, two famed Jugtown potters, Owens finished up a Bachelors Degree in Art and Design at North Carolina State University this past May with plans of returning to his family’s pottery in Seagrove.

“I always said from the time I was a little boy that I was going to make pottery for a living, but it’s hard to know you’re going to do it until you’ve stepped away from it,” Owens said of his years at N.C. State.

Owens started encouraging younger audiences to explore the medium several years ago when he and his younger sister, Bayle, created a special feature for an interactive Web site created by the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, the Mint Museum of Art, the Mint Museum of Craft + Design and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The Web site, called Hands On Crafts (www.handsoncrafts.org), is a virtual studio for elementary age children featuring pottery, quilting, weaving and basketry. Children have the opportunity to learn about different kinds of pottery—coil pots, slab building and face jugs—in addition to several other craft processes.

As part of his own education at N.C. State, Owens ironically spent more time focusing on disciplines other than pottery. “Coming to school has been great—but I know I want to go back to pottery. The more I try different things, the more I understand that pottery is what I want to do,” he said.

Owens returned to his family’s pottery, focusing on utilitarian pots—such as churns and jugs—and their traditional way of making. The youngest in the line of several generations working at the pottery and calling Seagrove home, his works will undoubtedly be featured on the studio Web site, www.jugtownware.com.

The business Web site documents the history of the pottery and the family’s place in Seagrove history. Owens’ father, Vernon, learned the same techniques from his father, M.L. Owens, who operated Owens Pottery.

Chronicled online, readers will find that at the age of fifteen, Vernon worked for C.C. Cole, making up to 200 small pieces each day. After the Second World War, Vernon’s work was functional and it made money—two qualities important for a good product and a slow-moving economy. Although he considered himself anything but an artist, in 1994 he was recognized with North Carolina’s highest honor for traditional artists—the North Carolina Heritage Award—and again in 1996 with a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts.

After purchasing the pottery in 1983 and marrying Pam Lorette, the elder Owens made Seagrove a place for his family. Now, these stories are the same ones that fuel the work of the younger Owens and lead him to talk about technique with others his age that don’t know quite so much about pottery.

The quality of the craft isn’t just important to Owens, as he recognizes it takes more than durability to keep good pottery around. It takes interest, and that’s something he wishes more young people had. With most of their studio visitors baby boomers and beyond, he sees it increasingly important to educate a younger audience on the process and the tradition behind the work.

“Not a lot of younger people come out to the potteries and buy,” Owens explained. “Many of them think it’s antiquated and it’s not their thing, and that’s why it’s important for us to get out and teach people and bring people in to see what we’re doing and why it’s important to keep that tradition alive.”

Visitors can experience a bit of the pottery online. A pair of his elegant Cobalt Chinese Blue vases recently graced the pages of their family’s Web site. Taking a chance to work in the family pottery when he’s not occupied with school assignments, Owens is improving on his craft. An engaging process, his family digs the clay locally, processes it and mixes it for the pieces they create. They also fire in a wood fire kiln and control the pieces from beginning to end.

Encouraged by some of his more detailed projects at the University, Owens understands the importance of the process. In the digital age of instant feedback, he finds it even more important to appreciate the authenticity that painstaking process has to offer.

“I know where it started and I can see it through the whole process,” explained Owens. “In manufacturing, people take one thing from here, one thing from there… They don’t get the sense of completion from seeing it all the way through. If you can’t feel a connection to what you’re working on, it probably isn’t worth making.”

The Owens family extends their virtual network to other artists and craft collaborators, encouraging visitors to check out links to area artists and the Seagrove Area Potters Association (http://www.discoverseagrove.com/). By encouraging other young people to value his pottery’s authenticity, Owens is ensuring that the Seagrove pottery tradition will last for other generations. In educating visitors on process and the family traditions, his product isn’t just a pot anymore. It’s history.

“You can buy thousands of manufactured items all stacked up and in a row, and it’s okay, but when you get something that somebody has put their heart into making, it shows,” he said. “There’s no substitute for that. I want people to see that.”

Encouraging Curiosity

Many of the artists responsible for passing on North Carolina traditions gain their understanding and appreciation of art forms by learning from members of an older generation. Rather than rushing to complete a product, many are sitting up, asking questions and taking notice of the nuances in refined processes.

• Only through repetition, diligence and curiosity do young artists grow into the timeless traditions of their elders.

Andrew Fansler, a twenty-five-year-old painter-sculptor living in Winston-Salem, has inherited his grandfather’s sense of adventure and curiosity. Fansler describes his grandfather, Robert Goforth, as a “whiz handyman kind of guy.”

Learning to build and design from his grandfather wasn’t always serious business, which may explain some of Fansler’s innate interest in how things work. “One of the funniest things my grand dad built was a fishing rod holder-thing. When a fish bites your bait, the light goes off and let’s you know you have a fish,” he said, grinning.

Several weekends spent with his grandfather when he was a boy have inspired numerous works of art that are often described as fun and exploratory. His goal: making his work easy to enjoy and access.

With the assistance of the Internet, Fansler’s cast plaster and latex installation works are debuted on Flickr, an online photo sharing and management system provided by Yahoo! Hundreds of friends check the progress of his work there and wait for new uploaded photos.

Fansler learned how important it is to keep things interesting from his grandfather. He often invites visitors to immerse themselves in the exhibition of his works by playing with them, as a child would. The curiosity drives his work and causes him to create objects that appeal to viewers on an intuitive level.

Asserting that art is to life as dreams are to the brain, he works with latex experiments that look anti-gravity and objects that are recycled and repurposed. He encourages his audience to ask questions, explore, and create on their own in the same way Goforth encouraged him.

A prime example of what it means to be a tech-savvy artist, Fansler uses several online mediums to show friends, family and complete strangers his artistic challenges and successes. MySpace is a forum for bulletin updates about upcoming shows and links to his recent work.

He also shares an alternate MySpace identity with cohorts from the Werehouse (www.myspace.com/werehouse), one of Winston-Salem’s hottest venues for live music, art, performance and film in the underground arts scene. The Werehouse, a former meat packing plant, is now home to a residential collective of artists that share Fansler’s curiosity and affinity for innovation. The venue also houses a non-profit, volunteer-run art gallery, the Electric Moustache, where Fansler shows some of his work. How does he get the word out? He sends out regular updates via e-mail listserv.

His playful colors and quirky combinations are about making the arts fun, and through online bulletins, photo-sharing and e-mail updates, he’s succeeded in passing his grandfather’s love of learning to one more generation.

Old-Time Gets New Life

Many artists working in traditional media also use channels of technology to teach others. E-mail, web space and blogs allow Internet visitors to glean more about the art forms by reading, looking at digital images and listening to music samples. As younger and younger children are exposed to technology, it is easier for practicing artists to reach younger generations and provide information early.

Reaching younger audiences is a special talent of African-American string band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Named for one of the few recorded black string bands, Tennessee Chocolate Drops, and legendary music makers Howard Armstrong, Ted Bogan and Carl Martin, Carolina’s own Chocolate Drops go into schools, festivals and public demonstrations to explain old-time music.

Several students make use of the Chocolate Drops’ online pages and e-mail addresses to ask questions after they see the group in concert at their local schools. Always eager to respond with advice and encouragement, the Chocolate Drops enjoy seeing other youngsters who want to learn traditional music. Unlike many musicians in their discipline, the trio didn’t grow up playing traditional instruments. They are well aware of the stereotypes and barriers that they have to overcome in order to present the music.

When the band travels to schools, most children don’t realize the value of the music immediately. Perception is that the Chocolate Drops are a young, African-American group performing in what is typically thought of as a genre belonging to old, white mountain-dwellers.

• “We go to schools and the first thing we try to teach is exposure,” said North Carolina native and band member, Justin Robinson. “Most of the kids haven’t heard it before and they don’t know its place in history. They think it’s relegated to a kind of Hee-Haw type music with hillbillies—we have to break down the stereotypes.”

Their music isn’t rap, it isn’t hip-hop, but it isn’t really bluegrass either. Theirs is a marriage of musical legacy and their own slightly more contemporary tastes. “Our biggest thing is to teach them that contemporary music came from somewhere,” said Rhiannon Giddens, the female member of the Chocolate Drops. “Hip-hop and rap didn’t come out of a vacuum, and we used to play instruments just like these. We didn’t always play a turntable.”

Specializing in a type of music from the North Carolina foothills, the Chocolate Drops have been working with Joe Thompson, a music legend and one of the last black traditional string band players in the state. Their goal is to make the music enjoyable and accessible for audiences of all ages so that the musical traditions of the state can be revived.

They continue to reach new audiences and tell their story through their Web page www.carolinachocolatedrops.com, which features a bulletin board with questions to the artists about instruments and upcoming shows. Any visitor to their site can post to the message board, or even sign up for an electronic mailing list. Their CDs are also available for purchase through the site.

Music samples, a list of upcoming shows and information about the band can also be found on their MySpace page (www.myspace.com/carolinachocolatedrops). With more than 32,000 views to the page, the Chocolate Drops continue to educate site visitors by letting them listen and read information about the band and the music. They also list musical influences, one of which is Thompson.

Self-proclaiming that they sound “a bit like Joe, a bit like the first ‘Drops, and a lot like [them]selves,” the band is finding a new identity in old roots. Robinson explains that the music is much like the oral tradition of storytelling. “My music is a personal expression—I think all folk music is—and everybody who learns what they do from someone else takes it and applies it to what’s around,” he said. “I’ve learned a great deal from Joe Thompson, but I don’t play quite like he does. Joe learned to play from his dad, but he didn’t play the same style because he thought it was old-fashioned. I learn from others and put my own kind of personal expression into it.”

As much as the actual music, Chocolate Drop members enjoy the learning process and the time it’s taken to find their unique musical niche. Valuing their jam time with Thompson, they record digital audio files and digitally film some of their sessions. They also keep in touch with others who have come to play with Thompson. With a library of hundreds of Thompson’s recordings, the Drops are using the most modern technology to preserve music from an older age. They hope that the collection will be used to expose more and more people to the music and its meaning.

“I’m just amazed that we’re doing this,” said Dom Flemons, member of the Chocolate Drops and native Arizonan. Starting out playing some folk and sixties revival in bars and restaurants, Flemons was at first as unfamiliar with traditional music as he was with biscuits and sweet tea.

“Just sitting with Joe has been a casual but amazing experience,” said Flemons. “Learning music from a person and just sitting with them—you learn so much abstract stuff that you can’t even explain. Joe is the last fiddler in his family, and we have the opportunity to feed into that culture and give some of it back.”

Getting the word out—in whatever way possible—is even more important because the Chocolate Drops know that music has the power to change lives. Their careful and continued work ensures the life of North Carolina’s musical heritage.

Robinson remembers his own experience. After hearing Thompson play the fiddle on National Public Radio, he knew he wanted to fiddle, and he wanted it badly. “Every once in a while, it hits me that I’m doing something that people have been doing for a long time,” he said. “I was searching for something in my life that kind of spoke to my culture. I couldn’t find anything, but when I found that music… it solidified a lot of things for me. It was personal.”

 

 

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