Penick Village
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Penick News
February 6, 2008
Penick Art Show and Sale Features Vaud Travis
BY STEVE BARNEY: SPECIAL TO THE PILOT
At the end of the 1920s, four-year old Vaud Travis Jr. and his father drove from Tahlequah, Okla., to Berkeley, Calif., in a deluxe automobile, a 1929 Hudson four-door sedan, acquired secondhand from an Osage Native American. From there to the third annual Penick Village Art Show and Auction (Feb. 29 and March 1) has been a long journey.
The driving adventure was so vivid in young Vaud's mind that he still remembers it, especially the labored climbs over the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas. Even as a boy he wished he had a camera so that he could record the trip. He had too little language to describe it, even to himself.
As a second-best alternative, he started a collection of picture postcards, decades later sold to a dealer in New York.
That childhood desire finally came to fruition when Travis and his wife, psychologist Dr. Vivian Travis, moved to Southern Pines in 1978. Here he was appointed as a dean at Sandhills Community College. By then he had followed in his educator father's footsteps and received his doctorate in administration in higher education at Oklahoma State University. He came to the Sandhills from a position as vice president of Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, which had expanded to 28,000 students. He had served in the Army in World War II, and raised four children. The Travises now reside in Penick Village.
Realizing his early dream, Vaud Travis became a serious photographer. At the college here he took a course in "creative photography" from an inspiring teacher, Bill Stoffel, who was one of the founders of the Sandhills Photography Club. Travis himself served as president of the club in later years.
After 1986, when he retired from his life's work as an educator, the couple have been able to travel extensively in Europe and Asia. A trip to China was a fertile source of many of his acclaimed photographs.
Selections from his China series were the basis of exhibitions mounted at Campbell House for the Arts Council of Moore County, and at the library exhibition spaces at Sandhills Community College and Winthrop University.
Two Cibachrome photographs taken on trips to England will be offered at the February show. "Tangled Rites of Spring," taken on White Horse Mountain in southern England, depicts a wonderful generational story: a father is untangling the string on a fallen, colorful kite, while his young son standing by is concentrating on the ice cream bar he is eating. The other, "A Gypsy's Pride," shows an energetic brace of horses drawing a gypsy wagon, with the driver and his dog. These and many other works of art, mainly from area artists, are for sale at the show. Proceeds go to Penick's Benevolent Assistance Fund, which supports residents who have depleted their resources. Penick Village's policy is never to turn out a resident whose financial means are depleted.
Among items offered are a weekend at an Emerald Isle beach house, wood sculptures by Penick resident David Forrest, a collection of fine wine contributed by the Penick Village Board of Directors, and a June week at a lakeview house at Lake Tahoe.
The preview party and silent auction will take place Friday, Feb. 29, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Admission is $40 per person. The art show and sale will be held Saturday, March 1, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. -- admission is free. Both events will be in the North Building of Penick Village on East Rhode Island Extension in Southern Pines.
For information, call the Penick Village Development Office at 692-0381.
Penick Art Show and Sale Features Vaud Travis
BY STEVE BARNEY: SPECIAL TO THE PILOT
At the end of the 1920s, four-year old Vaud Travis Jr. and his father drove from Tahlequah, Okla., to Berkeley, Calif., in a deluxe automobile, a 1929 Hudson four-door sedan, acquired secondhand from an Osage Native American. From there to the third annual Penick Village Art Show and Auction (Feb. 29 and March 1) has been a long journey.
The driving adventure was so vivid in young Vaud's mind that he still remembers it, especially the labored climbs over the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas. Even as a boy he wished he had a camera so that he could record the trip. He had too little language to describe it, even to himself.
As a second-best alternative, he started a collection of picture postcards, decades later sold to a dealer in New York.
That childhood desire finally came to fruition when Travis and his wife, psychologist Dr. Vivian Travis, moved to Southern Pines in 1978. Here he was appointed as a dean at Sandhills Community College. By then he had followed in his educator father's footsteps and received his doctorate in administration in higher education at Oklahoma State University. He came to the Sandhills from a position as vice president of Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, which had expanded to 28,000 students. He had served in the Army in World War II, and raised four children. The Travises now reside in Penick Village.
Realizing his early dream, Vaud Travis became a serious photographer. At the college here he took a course in "creative photography" from an inspiring teacher, Bill Stoffel, who was one of the founders of the Sandhills Photography Club. Travis himself served as president of the club in later years.
After 1986, when he retired from his life's work as an educator, the couple have been able to travel extensively in Europe and Asia. A trip to China was a fertile source of many of his acclaimed photographs.
Selections from his China series were the basis of exhibitions mounted at Campbell House for the Arts Council of Moore County, and at the library exhibition spaces at Sandhills Community College and Winthrop University.
Two Cibachrome photographs taken on trips to England will be offered at the February show. "Tangled Rites of Spring," taken on White Horse Mountain in southern England, depicts a wonderful generational story: a father is untangling the string on a fallen, colorful kite, while his young son standing by is concentrating on the ice cream bar he is eating. The other, "A Gypsy's Pride," shows an energetic brace of horses drawing a gypsy wagon, with the driver and his dog. These and many other works of art, mainly from area artists, are for sale at the show. Proceeds go to Penick's Benevolent Assistance Fund, which supports residents who have depleted their resources. Penick Village's policy is never to turn out a resident whose financial means are depleted.
Among items offered are a weekend at an Emerald Isle beach house, wood sculptures by Penick resident David Forrest, a collection of fine wine contributed by the Penick Village Board of Directors, and a June week at a lakeview house at Lake Tahoe.
The preview party and silent auction will take place Friday, Feb. 29, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Admission is $40 per person. The art show and sale will be held Saturday, March 1, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. -- admission is free. Both events will be in the North Building of Penick Village on East Rhode Island Extension in Southern Pines.
For information, call the Penick Village Development Office at 692-0381.