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Local artists displaying wares at ClydeFest By SUSAN FARRINGTON PITTSBORO - There's food on the menu, but the General Store and Café just off the roundabout in Pittsboro is more than a restaurant. It's a meeting spot for artists and writers, a Mecca for their work and a place where they can gather to exchange ideas and the latest news. Two Pittsboro artists,
Katherine Ladd and White Buffalo Spirit, A relative newcomer to the artist's world, Greenslade says his interest was stimulated when he went "not very willingly, I must admit" on the December Open Studio Tour in 2001. "I came home, turned on the television and was watching Martha Stewart making garden troughs when I thought, 'wonder if I could do anything artistic.'" Greenslade says his background is probably as far removed from art as anyone's could get. Educated as a molecular biologist, he has conducted clinical research at the Atomic Energy Commission and in the pharmaceutical industry in New York and New Jersey. He is an adjunct professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the UNC-CH School of Public Health and recently served as president of Ipas, an international women's health organization. Now, in what he refers to on his Web site, www.forrestgreenslade.com, as his dotage, Greenslade fashions "Forrest Dwellers." These are fanciful creatures made of cement and peat moss on chicken wire or hardware cloth frames stuffed with newspaper. "I sculpt these with my fingers and carve, mostly using a chopstick, to get the details. As a lark, I made several and sent a picture to a gallery in Carrboro, which sold them as fast as I could make them. "Reinventing yourself is a lot of fun."
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aka Michael McCormick, are on hand to be interviewed and photographed with
some of their creations that are positioned throughout the General Store
amidst works by many other artists. They are joined by Forrest Greenslade,
who lives at Fearrington Village, and a 100-pound cement and peat moss
garden sculpture called "Black Tie" that perches perkily in the
bed of his pick-up truck.