The North Carolina Alphabet
My idea for a North Carolina alphabet was born out of three devotions -- teaching, geography and painting. When I was a beginning special education teacher more than 3 decades ago, some of the students I was teaching had not yet learned to read, even though they were in middle school. Few interesting, attractive materials were available for them. So one of my first successful projects was to create a set of colorful, textural letters using images they designed. Later, in Samoa in the South Pacific as a Peace Corps volunteer, I was teaching geography and had to use a book in which the map of Samoa fell into the book’s gutter -- not to be seen at all! We had to construct our own maps if class was going to make any sense. These experiences and my years of work as a professor of Educational Psychology has convinced me that learning materials work best when they are relevant to students’ lives.
As an artist, I love to paint landscapes with flora and fauna.. Each design in this alphabet is a landscape of sorts -- a large acrylic painting on canvas full of texture, botanical collage material and light. The letters were designed by Walter Brown, whose marvelous calligraphy danced right onto the canvases. The pure cool and warm colors are ones young children would likely choose, but the complex textures allow many layers of color to peek through. Look for the story of the making of the alphabet in Our State magazine's September 2005 issue.
BOOKS. The North Carolina Alphabet is now a children's book published by Carolina Wren Press (2006). The book is available from local and on-line book stores ($16.95; the press gives 10% discounts). The CW Press also sells a regular large poster of the Carolina ABC's. To order directly from the press, call 919-560-2738 or visit www.carolinawrenpress.org
FINE ART PRINTS. A limited, numbered edition of fine art prints of the letters and full alphabet can be ordered. Prints are made with archival inks and museum quality papers and are suitable for matting and framing under glass.
Full Alphabet - 23" x 17.5" - $155
Full Alphabet - 30" x 23" - $215
Individual Letters - 12" x 16" - $85
Giclee' prints, made with archival inks on canvas, suitable for hanging without matting or glass, can be ordered. These giclee prints are done by the artist and master printer in Raleigh. Call for details:
Pamela George, 919-490-6707, pamelageorge@mindspring.com
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Fulbright Fellowship in the
Maldives 2005
During 2005, I had the extraordinary experience of serving as a Fulbright Professor at the University in Male', the capital of the Maldives off the southern coast of India near Sri Lanka. The tsunami happened during my assignment and it swamped homes, schools, and farms of 300 of the 1000 islands.
The Maldives is an Islamic state and a seafaring nation and both sets of images filled my canvases there. Curvaceous dwellings, ornamented boat prows, colorful burkhas and Islamic iconography help tell the story of a handsome, brave and proud people whose lives are ever at the mercy of the sea.
Click on the thumbnails below to view the whole, complete image.
