THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 2, 1997 TAG: 9702010085
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Teresa Annas
LENGTH: 148 lines
THIS AFTERNOON, art galleries in downtown Portsmouth will welcome browsers for ``First Sunday in Portsmouth.''
Since the cooperative monthly program began in the fall of 1995, a few of the participating venues have changed hands and sites.
Today, art lovers perusing the district will find ceramicist Wayne Potrafka in a new space - 728 High St., near Effingham.
In late November, Potrafka closed the doors of the enormous Washington Street gallery he had operated nearly alone since March. The 20,000-square-foot building hosted two special exhibits each month, plus work by dozens of local, regional and national artists, plus concerts, art classes, receptions and meetings of all stripes.
Now, Potrafka wonders how he did it all.
He gave up that space because he became physically and financially drained. Three robberies in his final six weeks on Washington Street merely worsened an already tough situation. He lost a fax machine, coffeepot, a microwave oven, a computer, and a bicycle. Thieves even took artwork, although most of it was retrieved.
``After I closed down, I really went into a period of grieving,'' he said Thursday. ``Then I sat back and looked at what my life had become.''
He had lost touch with friends and family. The 48-year-old artist had even suffered a heart attack, and practically overlooked it.
``Now I've got my life back. And it feels so good.''
The potter stood in the relatively small storefront gallery at 728 High, where his raku torsos and vessels were displayed alongside works by a few other artists, including his girlfriend Diana Davenport. Also shown were still life acrylic paintings by John Thomas, with whom he shares the studio that comprises about 75 percent of the property.
At Washington Street, Potrafka had the reverse - a gargantuan showroom with a very small studio, and very little time to create.
A month since the move, he's already sculpting and showing with a vengeance. ``I've already got two galleries in D.C. This year, my plan is to show in New York, Philadelphia, D.C., New Orleans and Key West.''
At the moment, he's working in three directions: He's making so-called torso pieces by pressing clay onto anatomically correct male and female mannequins, then raku-firing the clay form. He's also making torsos and bowls by pressing together hundreds of small clay bits; the result resembles nests. Finally, there are his ``Berthas,'' fetishistic clay women with copper wire curlicues for hair.
Potrafka Gallery will be open today from noon to 5 p.m., he said. The artists are at the gallery most days, but they are not keeping regular hours. There is no phone in the gallery. ``If people want to be sure and catch me, they can call me at home the night before,'' he said. Call him at 488-4013.
Meanwhile, Art Atrium has new owners. In November, Joan Rhodes-Copeland and her husband Wayman Copeland took over the gallery, and renamed it Art Atrium II Gallery.
Joan has a master's degree in business education from Columbia University. She lived in New York for 23 years before returning to her hometown a few years ago. She came back to run a business school, and ended up opening her own establishment.
``The opportunity came,'' she said. ``My love for art was developed in my years in New York. But the gallery also has a bookstore and a gift shop. Along with the art, it should be very profitable.''
The gallery's usual hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Today, Art Atrium II will be open from 1 to 5 p.m. for First Sunday. The gallery is at 629 High St.; call 393-1215.
The featured artist is the late Thomas C. ``Shane'' Green. About two dozen of his watercolors, woodcuts and etchings are on loan from his widow Sylvia, and will be displayed through Feb. 28.
Green apparently enjoyed art all of his life, but devoted himself to it full time when he retired. The longtime Portsmouth resident died in August 1994 at age 59.
A glance at his output reveals that here was a man beginning to tap into the depth of his talent. He appears to have been trying out various styles and media, and to have succeeded on each count.
On view are conservative paintings of waterscapes that make the rendering of such scenes appear easy. Also displayed are etchings of street scenes that, judging especially from the old-fashioned light fixtures, must be memory pictures - perhaps of a Portsmouth he remembered from the 1940s or '50s.
From 1991 to 1994, he was actively exhibiting in this area and as far as D.C. Sadly, his career was nipped before blooming in full.
The Arts Center of the Portsmouth Museums is participating in First Sunday by hosting a lecture by Steve Carpenter, art education program director at Old Dominion University.
Carpenter will give a slide talk at 2 p.m. today on African-American art that addresses and confronts issues of culture and race. Admission is $1. The Arts Center is at 420 High St. Call 393-8983.
The center's first floor galleries currently house a master's thesis exhibit by Norfolk State/Old Dominion University student Barbara Watson. The main gallery will be closed until Thursday at 6 p.m., when a retrospective of the work of Portsmouth painter E. Ann Stokes will be celebrated with a public reception. Admission: $1.
Also at High and Court streets, Olde Towne Gallery is featuring traditional Chinese brush painting by Nancy Cockman of Portsmouth. Formerly a resident of Hong Kong, Cockman keeps a studio at the d'Art Center in Norfolk, said Nate Mewhinney, who owns the gallery with his wife Heather.
The reception is today from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Her show continues through Feb. 28. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, until 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Free. 397-2787.
Tidewater Community College's Visual Arts Center is showcasing work by Jerry Jackson, Michelle Tillander and Karla Mann. The exhibit, titled ``Allegory,'' is on view through March 21 at 340 High St.
Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Free. 396-6999.
On the Peninsula
Chesapeake painter Ken Wright will give a slide talk next Sunday at 2:30 p.m. on his exhibit, ``Two Visions,'' on view through March 2 at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center in Newport News.
The show honors an area artist who is both a much-exhibited abstract painter and a commercial designer/illustrator. His most recent fine art development is his series called ``Primitive Heritage,'' which incorporates traditional African imagery. Wright will discuss these works during his talk at the center, at 101 Museum Drive, across from The Mariners' Museum.
The following week, the center will update the public on preservation efforts regarding the Rev. Anderson Johnson Faith Mission. Johnson lived in his family's home in southern Newport News from the 1940s until its demolition a year or so ago to make way for a new recreation center.
In the past two decades, Johnson created a folk art environment at his home by painting the house's facade. Folk art fans saved these murals, and are now seeking a permanent site to exhibit them. Through March 2, Johnson's artwork is on display at the center.
On Feb. 16 at 2:30 p.m., Valeria Hundley, a member of the Committee for the Preservation of the Anderson Johnson Faith Mission, will discuss the project. On Feb. 22 at 10 a.m., the preservation committee will join community leaders in a forum about the murals' future. All events are free. Call 596-8175 for more information.
For art's sake
The Nansemond-Suffolk Academy Art Show and Sale opens today with a free reception from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the lower school building, 3373 Pruden Blvd., Suffolk.
On view will be 700 artworks by 106 of the region's top painters, printmakers and sculptors. Virginia Beach painters Susan and Louis Jones are chairing the weeklong mega-show.
The exhibit continues Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and on Saturday and next Sunday from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. It ends next Sunday. Admission is free.
In case you're wondering, artists get a generous 65 percent from sales, with the remaining 35 percent supporting the school's fine arts curriculum. Call 539-8789. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by ART ATRIUM II GALLERY
``Sweet Grove,'' a woodcut by Thomas ``Shane'' Green, is on view at
the renamed Art Atrium II Gallery, which is under new ownership.