“Mapping to Achieve Your Best Art” Two-Day Workshop with J. Chris Wilson on March 19 and 20

WILSON, N.C. — The Barton Art Galleries and the Barton College Friends of Visual Arts is pleased to sponsor “Mapping to Achieve Your Best Art” Workshop, led by professor emeritus of art and artist-in-residence J. Chris Wilson. This two-day event will include a lecture by Wilson on Tuesday, March 19, from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m.  On Wednesday, March 20, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., there will be appointments on the hour (by reservation only) for individuals to create their own personal mapping plan with the assistance of Wilson.

The Mapping Workshop will be held in Case Art Building on the campus of Barton College. There is no cost for the lecture or the individual mapping appointments, but reservations are required. Please contact Bonnie LoSchiavo at 252-399-6477 or email artgalleries@barton.edu to make your reservations for one or both days.

“Mapping means to plan or delineate, especially in detail or arrangement,” Wilson explains. The planning process for creating your best art will be covered in Wilson’s lecture on the first day of the workshop and individuals in small groups will plan their personal mapping process during appointments scheduled for the following day. “The mapping process will highlight the need to clearly establish objectives, the value of using a successful problem solving process, the necessity of creating your best visuals, the importance of establishing a fool proof color concept, and how to effectively add the finishing touches to a painting or other medium,” Wilson continues. “Further, the purpose is to become intentional in the art process and personal artistic development. The payoff for successful mapping is better art, less frustration, and a greater, more fulfilling, joy in the creative process.  The Mapping Workshop will be equally valuable for any artist regardless of their medium.”

For those who participated in the Mapping Workshop at the Arts Council of Wilson in summer 2012, the lecture on Tuesday, March 19, will be a summary review of that all-day workshop. For new participants, the lecture will be essential to be introduced to the importance of successful planning before beginning a work of art.

On Wednesday, March 20, appointments on the hour (reserved in advance of the event) will provide an opportunity for individuals to create their own personal mapping plan with the assistance of Wilson. Participants may choose to bring images or photographs of their work as a planning tool. Each participant should finish the workshop with an individualized, short-range and long-range art plan that will lead to increased success and the production of art.

Wilson, having served on the Barton College faculty for 38 years, was named professor emeritus of art in spring 2012. With a passion for bringing art into the community, he has been involved in symposia, community presentations, and publications on art, decorative arts, and historic preservation. Wilson has also served on the boards of the Edgecombe County Cultural Arts Council, the Arts Council of Wilson, the Board of Advisors for Preservation/NC. He currently serves on the board of the Blount Bridgers Museum/Hobson Pittman Memorial Foundation and the Board of Directors of Preservation/NC.

Most recently, he is working on a 100-painting series “From Murphy to Manteo—An Artist’s Scenic Journey” of which several works are currently on view at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh.

He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Georgia, where he also completed post-graduate work, with Lamar Dodd as his major professor. He has exhibited throughout the Southeast and all across North Carolina. Wilson’s art is represented in numerous public and private collections in the United States, especially in the Southeast, and in England, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

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