Announcing the Eighteenth Annual Sculpture Invitational

The Annual Sculpture Invitational is a juried show and sale premiering exciting original new work by both nationally recognized and local artists. All work is available for sale and the artists will be on hand to discuss their work. The exhibition will be held at the studio and gardens of Tinka Jordy at 1902 Borland Road, Hillsborough, NC. For more information go to garden-art-gallery.com or call 919 968-2115. Twelve accomplished artists will be exhibiting their work this year:

Jim Adams                  Mixed Media Sculpture

Carmen Elliott             Clay Sculpture

Virginia Gibbons         Mixed Media Sculpture

Jeff Hackney               Mixed Media Sculpture

Mark Hewitt               Clay Vessels

Paul Hill                      Mixed Media Sculpture

Tinka Jordy                 Stoneware Sculpture

Mike Roig                   Metal Sculpture

Sam Spiczka                Metal Sculpture

William Moore            Marble and Clay Sculpture

Susan Moffat              Marble Sculpture

Wayne Vaughn           Metal Sculpture

Long Version with History:

The Annual Garden Sculpture show in Hillsborough that has been held every spring in Tinka Jordy and Mark Donley’s garden for the past 17 years will take place this year on the first 2 weekends in May.

Tinka Jordy has been a professional artist for the past 35 years and works in high-fired stoneware clay.  She moved here with her husband from New Orleans in 1987. “Growing up in New Orleans I was used to small controllable patio gardens.  I had not gardened much.  My husband, Mark Donley, whom I met in New Orleans, had grown up in Massachusetts so he had a very different concept of gardening than mine. He also had more experience than I did.  As we slowly cleared places for beds we were hit with the gardening bug in a serious way.  I soon discovered those spots in the garden that nothing seems to want to grow in.  Creating sculpture for the spaces was an obvious next step.  Mark believed in (and still does) developing the "bones" of the garden first.  Bones are the evergreens and plants that form the structure, that are very evident in the winter landscape.  While these trees were first starting out they needed room and it was the perfect place, again, for sculpture that could be moved once the space was needed. I was hooked, and my work eventually went from indoor sculptural vessels to full size figures. We started to garden with the placement of sculptures in mind.  I have been told by our patrons that seeing the work in a natural home setting really helps one envision their own garden with art in it.”  They decided to have a joint art and plant sale in 1994 with their neighbors Val Tyson and Richard Erhardt and invited another sculptor William Moore to join them.  That was the beginning.  Although there is no longer a plant sale, you can still enjoy the sculptures that flow from the more intimate garden beds to the pastures next door.

Past and present art work can be seen at  www.garden-art-gallery..com