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Rocky Mount, N.C.—The Mims Gallery at North Carolina Wesleyan College will host an international art show that opens with a reception and an opportunity to meet the artists on Friday, September 27, at 7 p.m. The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, displays works of a quilter, a carver, and a photographer who represent art from Africa, Australia, and Spain. All three artists currently live in North Carolina.

The artists are John Gumbo, a pastor and master carver from Zimbabwe, Africa, who will exhibit a variety of sculptures in various materials; Wendy Ferguson, a quilter from Australia, who uses bright fabrics to make fanciful animal-scapes and undersea vistas in stitched fabric; and Consuelo Marin, a photographer from Cadiz, Spain, whose work chronicles her world travels from North Africa to North Carolina.

The exhibit will continue through October 27 in Wesleyan’s Dunn Center for the Performing Arts. Mims Gallery hours are 9 –5, Monday through Friday. The exhibit is free to the public, and schools are encouraged to bring students for a gallery tour. Phone 252-985-5268 for information.

An international prize-winning sculptor from Zimbabwe, Gumbo is pursuing graduate studies at Southeastern Baptist Seminary in Wake Forest and is a popular guest speaker in North Carolina churches. He has been carving and fashioning sculpture for nearly 25 years. His sculpture is made from mahogany, ebony, and different types of stone. Some carvings are realistic, depicting animals from his native land, while others are abstract modernist forms.

Gumbo learned his craft from village elders and developed his love for sculpture from his mother, who worked in clay. He also studied art at the De Fontaine Roman Catholic School of Art in his native country.

As pastor of the Free Will Baptist Church Missionary School in the small city of Mashingo, Zimbabwe, Gumbo trained 15 carvers and made sculpture a village industry. He has been an ordained Baptist pastor in Mashingo for the past 16 years and holds a diploma from the Baptist Theological Seminary in Zimbabwe.

Wendy Ferguson, a native of Australia who lives in Roanoke Rapids, is a lead teacher and art specialist at Nash County’s Edison Elementary School in Swift Creek. She is president of the Roanoke Valley Quilters Guild and has conducted special art classes at the Ben Franklin Crafts Store and T. J. Davis Recreation Center. She is also an active Rotarian.

Ferguson recently was awarded the position of trainer for USA Edison, a unique corporate educational system that collaborates with public schools to enhance learning worldwide.

Ferguson is an imaginative artist who uses many fabrics, colors, and textures in her art. "It is the beauty of nature, its colors, tones, and textures that excites me most," she says. She has displayed her quilts in Australia, New York, and in North and South Carolina. A 1976 graduate of the State College of Victoria, Australia, she later gained international certification as an art teacher from Monash University and has been teaching art since 1977. She has taught in North Carolina since 1999.

Currently a Spanish teacher at Weldon High School in Halifax County, world traveler Consuelo Marin uses photography to document where she has been, what she has seen, and what in her travels has touched her. She says, "I take photos not for beauty only, but to record the moment, the feeling, and the experience. Traveling and photography, for me, go together, unable to be separated. My inspiration is the sun and lively colors." Her photos in the Wesleyan exhibit were taken in Europe, North Africa, Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States.

Marin is from Cadiz, Spain, where she earned her bachelor of arts degree in modern languages at the city university. She did graduate work at Manheim University in Germany and at Oxford University in 1993. Since then, she has taught Spanish in English and American schools and colleges.

Marin and her Spanish classes at Weldon participated in the 2001 Post Millennium International Mail Art Exhibition called "The Story of Noah," held in North Carolina Wesleyan College’s Civic Gallery. Marin and her students contributed photos, drawings, and Spanish poetry that expressed reflections on Hurricane Floyd.

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