October 29, 1998

Rocky Mount, NC - Self-taught artist Clyde Jones, from Bynum, N.C., will be demonstrating his chainsaw sculpting techniques in a workshop for 4^th and 5^th graders, Tuesday, November 3, at 9:30 a.m., in the north parking lot of the Dunn Center. Groups attending are from Braswell, Johnson, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help elementary schools.

The schoolchildren will assist Jones with his sculptures by painting the wooden pieces. About 43 kids will be painting. Georgia Pacific is providing the workshop with tree stumps and Brewer Paints is providing leftover paints for the project.

Jones "critters" have been featured artworks at the North Carolina Museum of Art and recently in the South Carolina State Museum. Jones is also famous for his good-natured love of children and interest in involving them in the creative arts. He formerly worked in the timber industry and he was severely injured by a chainsaw accident in 1979. During his recuperation, he started cutting and assembing roots, stumps, and other pieces of wood into animals, using the same machine that had injured him. Making sculpture changed his life forever. What started as a pastime grew into a new productive role for Jones. In his Bynum home community, Jones dog "critters" protect yards, appear behind bushes, and line street fronts of village houses. A huge tree in the public playground, probably dropped during Hurricane Fran has been carved into a huge alligator with a garfish in its mouth.

North Carolina Wesleyan has one of Jones pieces in the Lynch Collection of Outside Art, titled "Critter." Jones sculpted the cedar piece in 1986.

# # #