Don’t be Cruel
I am writing in response to the art review written on Christopher Clamp’s exhibition Common Place Treasures: Narrative Still Life Paintings at Jerald Melberg Gallery (“Hard Acts to Follow,” by Linda Luise Brown, March 1). I feel that this critique was very brutal and it felt to me to be very personal. I feel that she left out information on the artist, calling him “low-key,” and didn’t give much on his accomplishments.
She failed to mention that he was featured in the Arnot Museum’s biennial Re-Presenting Representation exhibition in 2005, which is a great accomplishment for any artist. It’s amazing that they, a reputable museum, saw his work not as “mundane” or “insipid,” and featured three of his works in an invitation-only show. The three featured in the Arnot show are currently on display at the gallery. One featured in the museum show was “Aftertaste,” the one that your critic said had “no unique quality.” She also failed to mention that Clamp has twice been included in the publication New American Paintings for emerging artists. He was also included in the South Carolina State Museum’s Triennial Exhibition in 2001. It seems that many respected members in the art community appreciate his work.
I feel sorry that your critic cannot see the stories behind the paintings and because of this she feels that she has to belittle the artist and the work. I was at the opening reception for this exhibition and saw first-hand the connections individuals made with each of the paintings. The paintings and their subjects are vague enough so everyone can see and feel the story. It seems your critic was very much cut off from feeling this and it makes me wonder if it is really the work or just her.
— Emily Barnes, Charlotte
Up with Gentrification
I enjoyed reading Karen Shugart’s article in this week’s CL (“Katrina with a Wrecking Ball,” March 1). I am a 6 year resident/homeowner on Morningside Drive and am a big proponent for the proposed development of the Morningside Apartment complex. Being from NYC originally, I look at it this way: If a complex like Morningside Apartments were four miles from the financial district in Manhattan, this development would have been razed years ago. The “east side” really does needs something like this, especially as one sees all the improvements that have occurred or have taken place in neighborhoods like Dilworth, Elizabeth and Chantilly. We feel like it’s finally “our turn”!
I do feel for the people that are going to be forced to move, but when you have a motivated buyer and seller, it’s just the reality of things. As a homeowner, I know I will get a lot more use of this new development in terms of the proposed shops and Veteran’s park as opposed to actually fearing going to the park today.
Here’s to Progress,
— Michael J. Clarke, Charlotte
Nice try, Michael. The mammoth Alfred E. Smith housing project is just 1.6 miles from 11 Wall Street, the heart of the financial district in Manhattan.
Gimme Back My Bullets
John Sugg’s odd fixation on the South has reached a new level. His latest anti-Southern hit piece sports his most lurid title yet: “Still Divided: The racial nightmares that haunt the South” (Feb. 22). Yikes! Where’d you come up with that one, John? It sounds like you’re channeling Bulwer-Lytton and Stephen Colbert at the same time.
Almost amusingly, Sugg argues that the bad ol’ South is still racist by quoting, of all people, Neal Boortz and Bill Bennett. Although he is presently based in Atlanta, Neal Boortz is from Pennsylvania and has often expressed contempt for the people in Georgia who are working to restore the real Georgia flag. His favorite epithet for them is “flaggots.” Just how is this man representative of the South?
And that self-appointed defender of morality, Bill Bennett, is a prickly, presumptuous Yankee from Brooklyn, New York. How he qualifies as a Southern spokesman is also a mystery.
I could explain that the racial conflicts that marred Southern black-white relations in the past were fueled by Reconstruction. During that tragic period of military occupation, many whites were denied the right to vote, and former slaves were elevated to positions of power by the triumphant Northern armies (while many Northern states denied blacks the ballot and implemented their own version of Jim Crow — see C. Vann Woodward). The real story of Southern race relations is the incredible progress made despite the racial provocations the Radical Republicans used skillfully to consolidate their power.
But I’m sure you don’t want to hear this. Go back to your obsession and pretend that all the nation’s problems would be cured if the South would just disappear.
— Michael C. Tuggle, State Chair, North Carolina League of the South,
Charlotte
Department of Corrections
A caption in the March 8 Urban Explorer story “Prepping for the Big Sleep” misidentified the embalmer in the photo. His name is actually Joel Blady.
Corrections to the “Monk Business” Urban Explorer story: The Basilica was first built in 1893 as a cathedral, not in 1876. The monks recite the Psalms only three times a day, not four, and their vows are of stability, obedience and fidelity to the monastic life.
This article appears in Mar 15-21, 2006.
