Noyes Capehart Long:
The Carolina Decades

July 6 - October 7, 2001

by Noyes Capehart Long

"I came to Boone and the Art Department of Appalachian State University in August of 1969 after having been with the University of Mississippi from 1967-69 and for the four years prior to that (1963-67) at the University of Missouri in Columbia. I obtained my BFA at Auburn University in 1958, and my MA at the University of Missouri in 1967. At the time of my retirement from Appalachian State University in 1997, I had completed over 32 years teaching studio techniques at the university level.

"I began exhibiting at the local, regional, and national level in 1958, and have participated in more than a hundred competitive exhibitions and a number of invitational shows. My work has been represented in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Greenville Museum of Art, and the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Many people have found my work worth collecting; fifteen of the approximately 87 works included in the Carolina Decades have been graciously loaned to the Appalachian Cultural Museum for the occasion. Since my retirement from Appalachian State University I have presented 23 studio workshops throughout the southeast. In addition to this active studio involvement, I have adjudicated several regional exhibitions. In addition, since 1995 I have been writing a novel based on my years in New York as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"This exhibition, The Carolina Decades, features the evolution of my art over four decades, from the 1970s into the new millenium. Although some stylistic changes will be seen in the eighty-plus works on exhibition, onc central concern seems to permeate this body of work: an intentional focus on composed visual story-telling. From the Anonymous Man series of the early seventies to the now-familiar Private Diary pictures, I take you into the world of my own subjective priorities. Most, if not all, of the works on exhibition reflect images that seem to fit comfortably with the physical world, but I try to use my penchant for paradox to provoke something other than a representational read.

"My art is really a mirror to the events and circumstances of my life. I consider myself a realist, but only to the extent that I am seeking to touch the reality of my own feelings and emotions. In my sixty-seven years on Planet Earth, I have been blessed with a life rich in its diversity. The truly wonderful moments of my life have been tempered by times of disappointment and pain, and it is the blend of these extremes that I try to celebrate through my pictures. I find myself frequently thinking about a comment made over a hundred years ago by Vincent van Gogh: 'I want my pictures to touch people.'

"Almost every artist has his/her sources of inspiration and influence, and I am no exception. When I think of the influences that have shaped me as an artist and a person, I would have to begin with my three years at Auburn, 1955-1958. By sheer good fortune, I fell into a Camelot-like time and place. Not only were my teachers (Hugh Williams, Roy Staples, Harry Lowe, and Louis Abney) extraordinary artists and visual motivators, but my peer group was of equal importance in the moulding and shaping of my values. Norman Kohn, Louis Pruitt, and Bob Nance set such standards in our studio courses that one never permitted oneself to submit anything except the very best work that could be realized. (One member of our "Auburn Circle" was Anne Rivers, perhaps better known throughout the country as Anne Rivers Siddons, the successful novelist.) The second major influence on my development as an artist came with the three years I spent at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art. First as a guard and then as a night watchman, I was surrounded by some of the finest art in the world. I was privileged to have the opportunity to get to know the Met's holdings on an intimate level. I was able not only to see these grand works but, more importantly, to absorb their significance. On a more personal level, I have been profoundly influenced by some of the mistakes I have made, and by those individuals --- dear friends and colleagues, my children and step-children, and most especially my wife Suzanne --- who have placed their faith and trust in me."

Some of these works are offered for sale. Please contact the artist directly at capehart@boone.net.

Name Index

1970s, Images 1-12  |  1970s, Images 13-14
1980s, Images 1-12
1990s, Images 1-12  |  1990s, Images 13-24
1990s, Images 25-36  |   1990s, Images 37-39
2000 and Beyond, Images 1-12  |  2000 and Beyond, Images 13-18

Acrylic, Images 1-4
Etchings, Images 1-9  |  Ink, Images 1-7
Mixed Media, Images 1-12  |  Mixed Media, Images 13-24
Mixed Media, Images 25-36  |  Mixed Media, Images 37-45
Pencil, Images, 1-3
Watercolor, Images 1-6  |  Woodcuts, Images 1-7