NCWC News: Haliwa-Saponi Art Exhibit Opens March 21 At North Carolina Wesleyan College

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March 18, 2003

Haliwa-Saponi Art Exhibit Opens March 21

At North Carolina Wesleyan College

Rocky Mount, N.C.—The Haliwa-Saponi Masters Art Exhibition will open on Friday, March 21, with a free public reception at 7 p.m. in the Mims Gallery at North Carolina Wesleyan College’s Dunn Center for the Performing Arts. The exhibit features three artists born and raised in Hollister, N.C. The public will have an opportunity to meet and talk with watercolorist Karen Lynch Harley, decorative potter Senora Lynch, and gourd carver Arnold Richardson.

Although each of the three artists has a specialty, all work in art and craft materials outside their specialty areas. They also contribute much of their time and knowledge of their art and of the "old ways" to young tribal members and to the outside community. Harley, Lynch, and Richardson all have been recognized as leaders, teachers, and masters in the greater Native American community in the United States.

Karen Lynch Harley, called "Yxomme" in her Native American tongue, is a prize-winning watercolorist whose artwork is displayed in national collections such as the Pequot Museum. She is a member of the Society of North Carolina Native American Artists. As a resident of Glen Burnie, Maryland, she has served three years on the Maryland Commission of Indian Affairs.

Senora Lynch lives in Hollister, N.C., and is nationally known for her decorative style of bi-chrome pottery featuring plant and animal patterns that have significance in Saponi traditions. Lynch uses a special technique of scratching patterns through a white clay surface to reveal the red clay underneath. Many of her works are in American art collections, including the Smithsonian Institution. Her development and concerns as a tribal artist are the subject of a book, The Contemporary Southeastern Indian Pottery of Haliwa-Saponi Artist, Senora Lynch by Christopher Everett, published by the University of Richmond Press in 1994.

Tsa’ne Do’se is the Native American name for gourd carver Arnold Richardson, who recently moved from Kentucky back home to Hollister. Gourd carving is a Native American tradition that has gained status as a category of American folk art. However, it is as a flutist and composer of traditional and contemporary Native American music that Richardson has become famous. Among his seven CDs, his 2002 "Spirit and Soul" received a national award.

The Haliwa-Saponi exhibition will continue through May 16. Gallery hours are 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Tours and school visits are welcome. Call 252- 985-5268 for more information.

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