Professor Perry Johnson keeps his wheels turning, designing posters and ads for the Little City Roller Girls. Recently, he was asked to create a cover for the Loafer, a local arts and culture periodical.

Design for these publications was done mostly in Adobe Illustrator CS5.

Find out more about roller derby at the website of a local team, Little City Roller Girls.

His moving kinetic sculpture “Trinity” is installed  at the University Mall in Chapel Hill, N.C., as part of the Sculpture Visions Outdoor Exhibit, an annual national competition.

The exhibit runs through October 2011.

“One of the fascinations in working in the sculptural medium is the act of balancing a work – making the visual balance and the physical balance work convincingly together. Kinetic sculpture adds another element to the mix, movement,” Tadlock says.

“Trinity” is a wind-activated, self-righting, pivotal type kinetic work. It has three independently operating blades that move on knife-sharp edges in response to the slightest breeze.

He says, “Seeing each of the blades respond differently to the wind invites the viewer to gaze just a few more moments, maybe attempting to determine some type of programmed order existent in the work – of which, there is none.”

See it in motion on Dr. Tadlock’s website.

Tadlock has a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and received a doctorate in education from the University of Georgia. Many of his works are on permanent display throughout the Southeast, including the VI campus. He is a frequent exhibitor with numerous awards and accolades.

Here’s an excerpt from TOMS.com.

TOMS Shoes was founded on a simple premise: With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One. Using the purchasing power of individuals to benefit the greater good is what we’re all about. The TOMS mission transforms our customers into benefactors, which allows us to grow a truly sustainable business rather than depending on fundraising for support.

Dr. Tadlock currently has an exhibition at Bridgewater College. He writes the following:

The work selected for this exhibition was completed over the last seven years, and varies in size from one to seven feet in height. While two of the larger pieces, “A Bomb Sculptor” and “Lest We Forget -a tableaux in straight lines” were actually done using sketches on paper as references. Many of the other works were created directly in the studio -hence the show’s title, “Sketches in Steel.” Sculptors working additively in steel, at least this one, tend to follow the studio tactics of the great modern sculptor David Smith …with a basic idea in mind, compose and design as you go. David would often kick metal pieces around on the studio floor until an idea clicked that pleased him. Much studio time is spent looking for just the right piece, or cutting a new piece, to make the sculpture really come alive in its design!

Other design considerations are used when forging red-hot steel with the power hammer. Instant decision-making must take place in this creative technique, as the work heat only lasts for a half a minute or so. When forging steel, design builds much the way it does for a potter, with each action dictating a reaction. A successful forged piece requires knowing when to stop, just as much as it depends on that critical last 300# hammer blow!

While examples from each of these processes are present in this show, most of my work is additive, with some forging for accent and texture. I admire blacksmithing greatly, but in no way consider myself a traditional blacksmith. My goal in creating a successful sculpture is to build a piece that seems effortless in its balance and construction …a work that looks as if it were simply meant to be!

A description of the program from the museum’s website follows:
Van Gogh Outreach takes the art room directly into the second grade public school classroom four times a year with SOL-based lessons and an emphasis on the visual arts using the study of China, Egypt and Native American Indians. Classes are 90 minutes in length with a 30-minute lecture and a 60-minute art project.

Evening Glow

Inhibition Lost by Appalachian landscape painter Kyle Buckland opened Thursday, Sept. 2^nd at the Virginia Intermont College gallery in the Anne R. Worrell Fine Arts Center.

The show runs through October 14^th and features a series of Buckland’s impressionistic landscapes of the region’s mountains and valleys, as well as more uninhibited works that deal with the deconstruction of subject matter into abstraction.

In addition, the artist offers a rare creation of his studio to display both unfinished and finished traditional works “so that the viewer can experience, as directly as possible, the creative challenges and processes that many artists face.”

Buckland is a plein air painter living in Southwest Virginia. His understanding of the complex philosophies regarding impressionism and his ability to capture sunlight and colored atmosphere are considered uncanny for an artist his age. As a self-taught painter, he has worked with oils since he 16, stretching and priming his canvases and hauling his gear out into the surrounding fields and woods. In these seasonal excursions spanning 10 years, Buckland, who is now 26, estimates that he has completed more than 1,000 paintings of the Appalachian landscape, many now in private and corporate collections around the country.

With Inhibition Lost, Buckland experiments with the abstracted landscapes “to allow me to explore some very personal themes in the landscape and are a temporary break from my more traditional work.”

Virginia Intermont’s gallery is free and open to the public weekdays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Washington County, Va.

Cregger is an art teacher and was selected by peers for his “enthusiastic teaching style and his love for the students.”  A native of Smyth County, Cregger earned a Bachelor of Arts in art education PreK-12 at VI. He also studied graphic design. In addition to teaching, he is active on High Point’s technology team, the Relay for Life team, and also helps with P.T.A. programs.

Elyse Gerstenecker explores the role art had in the history of women’s colleges in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. The Curator of Decorative and Folk Art at the William King Museum in Abingdon, Va., she has a master’s in the History of Decorative Arts and Design and a bachelor’s in Historic Preservation and Art History. VI students and alumni will enjoy this presentation and the corresponding exhibit at the William King Museum.