Kristen Feighery of Sanctuary gallery. (Alex Gregor photo)
Actress-turned-gallery director sets up shop on Main Street
By ALEX GREGOR
DavidsonNews.net
Exhibits and art events calendar below.
When Kristen Feighery moved to Davidson with her family about a year and a half ago, she left behind a career as an actress to spend more time with her husband and daughters. She also began looking for a creative outlet to replace the stage. Experimenting with mixed media, Mrs. Feighery combined poetry and visual art by composing verse and painting it on old cabinet doors and other found objects.
When her friends started to notice her art, Mrs. Feighery began selling some of her pieces. One sale led to another and she became interested in creating an art gallery. This summer, Eric Vogen, art collector and partner at Vision Capital, offered space in the building he owns at 108 N. Main St., next to the Village Store By early September, Mrs. Feighery had opened the doors of Sanctuary of Davidson, a fine art gallery and gift shop that fills the space formerly occupied by So Alive! Gallery at 108 Main Street. The gallery hosted its grand (re)opening on Oct. 8.
Sanctuary of Davidson showcases fine art and gifts by local artists. Mrs. Feighery says that about “95 percent of the work in the gallery is local.” The purpose of the gallery is to give artists from the Davidson area a place to showcase their work and to give town residents a place to interact with local artists. “There’s a ton of us [artists] living here. The art scene is getting bigger and bigger,” Mrs. Feighery says.
Sanctuary is organized as a cooperative. While the gallery displays the work of numerous artists, four have joined Mrs. Feighery to help staff the gallery. Audrey Foster makes jewelry out of vintage and found objects while Rosa Murillo transforms tarot cards, cigar boxes, and other found objects into multi-layered paintings. Jan Copeland specializes in painting and portraiture. Dione Goyette, who paints in acrylic and makes belt buckles, has also created the “Art in Hand” project, which profiles local artists on a deck of cards.
Mrs. Feighery’s own work is also on display. She continues to experiment with poetry and mixed media presentations. Much of her painting is based on decoupage. Using this technique, she embellishes furniture and found objects, creating images by building layers of collage, sealed with varnish and sanded down, to create an impression of depth and inlay work.
ART CLASSES, TOO
Sanctuary offers more than your typical gallery space. Mrs. Feighery notes, “I wanted it to be a place where local artists had a venue and a place where they could teach classes in Davidson on Main Street.” Along those lines, the gallery hosts introductory and advanced art classes for adults, as well as a series of classes designed specially for children. Oil painting, jewelry making, photography, fashion design, and edible art are all on the menu.
Mrs. Feighery is also working Drew Crawford, owner of the Wooden Stone gallery on South Main Street, and several other businesspeople and artists to set up quarterly gallery crawls around Davidson. Mrs. Feighery hopes to build on the success of April is for Arts, possibly creating regular gallery crawls in a new venture for the Downtown Davidson Inc. (DDI), a nonprofit group that works to promote downtown.
Speaking about the idea for the gallery crawls, Ms. Feighery noted, “It’s not just great for the galleries. It’s great for the other businesses as well because the artists will put their work in the banks or in Summit so that all these businesses will get the traffic from the art crawl as well. It’s good for everybody.”
Sanctuary is a vibrant new addition to Davidson’s art scene. As Mrs. Feighery offered, “Art touches people in ways that other things that just don’t.”
Sanctuary of Davidson
108 S. Main St., next to the Village Store, Davidson
Hours: Mondays to Fridays, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Phone: 704-892-0044
www.sanctuaryofdavidson.com
GALLERIES & ART EVENTS
MONDAYS, 6-9 p.m., Creative Art Exchange, Cornelius – open figure drawing sessions, hosted by David Smith. $10 model fee. Contact davidbsmith@bellsouth.net to be added to the notification list.
FRIDAY, NOV. 6 and SATURDAY, NOV. 7, Friday 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., various studios – Lake Norman Studios invites the public to tour several different studios and see art in a casual atmosphere. Details: www.lknstudios.com.
SATURDAY, NOV. 7, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Daveste Vineyards, Troutman – Lake Norman Art League presents a multimedia printmaking workshop with Noyes Capehart, an artist and author and juror of the art league’s current fall show. All skill levels welcome, bring your own supplies. Details: www.lknart.org.
MONDAY, NOV. 9, 7 p.m., Ada Jenkins Center, 212 Gamble St. – The Lake Norman Art League presents an oil-painting demonstration by Gordon James, an award-winning fine artist, portrait-painter and illustrator. Details: www.lknart.org.
DAVIDSON COLLEGE VISUAL ARTS CENTER, Smith Gallery, Davidson College, 315 N. Main St., at Griffith St. – Exhibit runs Oct. 16 to Dec. 9. “Picturing Davidson: Bill Giduz and His First 30 Years,” an exhibit of photographs by longtime college news office writer and photographer Bill Giduz. Also through Dec. 9, “Staring,” an exhibit of paintings and drawings by Doug Auld and Chris Rush, photographs of Weegee, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, and work by other artists. For more information click here. See David Boraks’s Oct. 15 preview of the show, “30 years in Davidson, through the eyes of Bill Giduz.”
CORNELIUS ARTS CENTER/COMMUNITY ARTS PROJECT, Oak Street Mill, 19725 Oak St., behind the police station, Cornelius – Through Oct. 30: paintings by Manny Rashet. Details: 704-892-7323 or www.creativeartexchange.org
LAKE NORMAN ART LEAGUE, gallery in South Main Square, 442 S. Main St. – Through Nov. 12: 2009 Fall Show. Gallery hours: Weekdays, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Also, artists of all media are invited to enter work in the 2009 Small Works Exhibit and Sale. The exhibit will run Nov. 16 through Jan. 8 during gallery hours. Entries are accepted Nov. 13 6:30-7:30 p.m. and Nov. 14 10:30 a.m.-12 p.m. Works will be on display during Christmas in Davidson: December 3-5, 6-9 p.m. with awards announced on December 5 at 8:00 p.m. Details: 704-620-4450 or www.lknart.org.
MERRILL-JENNINGS GALLERIES, 463 S. Main St. – Hours: Mon-Fri 10–5, Sat 10–3. For more information call 704-895-1213 and visit the website at www.merrilljennings.com
DAVIDSON TOWN HALL Atrium Gallery, 216 S. Main St. – Paintings and other works by Jane Ellithorpe. Open weekdays during Town Hall hours, and other times during Town Hall events.
CHRISTA FAUT GALLERY, 19818 North Cove Road, Jetton Village, Cornelius – Gallery hours: Tuesdays to Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., or by appointment. Information: www.christafautgallery.com or 704-892-5312.
WOODEN STONE, 445 S. Main St. – Functional fine art and hand-made objects. Special event Friday, Nov. 13, 6-9 p.m., and Saturday, Nov. 14, 2-6 p.m.: Lithography demonstration by John Furches of Elkin. He will be printing a historic Davidson landmark lithograph on site. During the demonstrations, a Yadkin Valley wine tasting to benefit Davidson Cornelius Day Care. Also, Nov. 14, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Chef Charles cooking class; 12 spots available. Call Chef Charles to register, 704-423-8300. Gallery hours: Mondays to Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. 704-892-1449. www.woodenstonegallery.com.
SANCTUARY GALLERY, 108 S. Main St. (next to Village Store) – Fine art and handmade crafts by local artists. Gallery hours: Monday to Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
