The women are cast in a warm glow, vessels of dignity and courage — either ancient or timeless, depending on one’s angle of view. They are flawed beings each in their own way, but blessed protagonists in God’s drama.

Jeff Taylor describes his artistic style as that of a kid with attention deficit disorder. In college, Taylor’s art professors would implore him to focus on a single theme and develop a series of sculptures based on a common thread.

“In other words I was broke,� Johnston said, laughing. “While I was waiting to get into the nursing program, I started grabbing random items from furniture to décor to anything I could make something out of and repurposing, using mixed media, and it started to sell.

Kelly de Silva pointed out one of her recent expressionist paintings — a work entitled “Compass” — hanging in her workspace housed inside Artmongerz Gallery as a perfect example of how she utilizes personal life experiences as inspiration for her artwork.

Authoring Action artistic director Nathan Ross Freeman conducted the collaborative sessions in which the community manifesto was created. Freeman credited the students with finding their individual voices and then blending them together to express the hopes, dreams and aspirations of an entire city.

“As a former potter, I am very interested in the spontaneous, the uncontrolled, the ‘happy accident,’” Myers said. “As a student and fan of jazz, I am intrigued and thrilled by improvisation, by the great things that happen when self-criticism, self-doubt and fear are banished and emotion, heart and creativity are given free rein.

Stanley Leigh Rodenbough III, or “Leigh” as he likes to be called, slowly made his way through Ambleside Gallery in downtown Greensboro earlier this week to talk about his current exhibit of oil and pastel paintings, Timeless Reflections.

The Nutcracker, an annual production of the UNC School of the Arts, premieres Saturday at the Stevens Center in Winston-Salem. Directed by Ethan Stiefel and supervised by Douglas Gawriljuk, the 2011 Nutcracker will debut with a 2 p.m. matinee followed by a 7:30 p.

Duggan, a Buffalo native who now resides in Raleigh, pays homage to her experience growing up in the Rust Belt of upstate New York by arranging mannequins wearing garments comprised of various combinations of alpaca, wool, cotton, hemp, and Tussah silk.

Arbus’ “love of the freaks” and her prodigious talents catapulted her into the stratosphere of 20th century American photographers. Forty years after her death, Arbus’s work remains simultaneously influential and controversial. Like Arbus, Causey strives to capture storytelling moments that extend well beyond the frame.

“A gift from France to the United States,� he said. “Doesn’t that sound wonderful?� But the controversy arose from several fronts. When the statue was erected in 1886, a country fresh off the Civil War preferred military-style statues. There was also some flack because the piece was not American in origin — designed by a Frenchman, Frédéric Bartholdi.

Among the slate of more than 100 independent and international films screening at the 17th annual Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington this week are short films by UNCG students Mariah Dunn and Adrienne Ostberg, as well as faculty member Michael Frierson.

After years of marriage, most couples can finish each other’s sentences. Charlotte and Erik Strm finish each other’s paintings.

Renegar and Spease begin their tour of Triad ghost stories with a visit to one of the oldest settlements in North Carolina — Old Salem. The tale of the Little Red Man, otherwise known as the ghost of Andreas Kresmer, is one of the more fascinating tales in the Old Salem chapter of the book.

According to definition, the eight-way handtied is a time-honored construction method using a series of coils, each tied — from front to back, side to side and diagonally — eight times.

Im always trying to find some kind of emotional substance because I feel like a lot of what we see or is produced doesnt have that, he said. Its so easy to lose hope.

Inter_Section Gallery and Art Space; 629 N. Trade St.; 336.817.1248; www. intersectiongallery.com.

Thirty years ago, artist Kathy Cooper, a Winston-Salem native, stumbled across a piece of canvas in her studio in rural Maine and decided to create a customized floor mat to invigorate her kitchen. She didnt realize at the time she would be embarking on lifelong adventure.

It feels a bit like Christmas this week at Reynolda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem as the museums staff is busy installing the latest exhibition, Modern Masters from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which will open Oct. 7.

A life-sized sculpture of an H2 Hummer serves as a centerpiece of Mexican-American artist Margarita Cabreras exhibit The Space in Between, currently on display at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem.