For the Love of Graphite

Mary and Tim Murray

Raleigh reading Tim Murray's
retrospective catalogue.
Cover image: Murray's North Slope Search, 1985

Yesterday I re-met the man that turned me on to graphite. I've thought of Tim Murray--my first art professor--several times over the years, but yesterday I saw him for the first time post leaving Brevard College some double digits ago. Tim has had an impressive career. When I first met Tim in 1985 he was creating huge drawings with pastels, enamel, and--my favorite--graphite (imagine 8B lead) as well as 3-D work. Tim was incorporating the same frenzied, rhythmic lines with his sculptures as his drawings, and I think that's my favorite element in this period of his work. An "X" plays a role too, and if you could look at his 40-page retrospective catalogue that my daughter is looking through in the pic, you could get an idea of how Tim may have influenced my development. Tim's website doesn't include much work from this period, but this print (1975) shows some of the marks that I like, plus Tim's method of obscuring the subject with line.

Mountain Forest Pottery Shop, Brevard, NC.

Tim's wife Mary is also an artist and former art prof at Brevard College and she specializes in clay. Here's a picture of her shop and studio, located on Hwy 295 just outside of Brevard, NC (or 2395 Greenville Highway, Brevard, NC 28712, 828-885-2149). Tim has art hanging as well as his own clay pieces in the shop. It was great to see them both, and it added a great deal to my already fantastic vacation!

Mary Murray's pots waiting glaze.