Community Objects
Coal Ash Art
COMMUNITY OBJECTS
Objects Collected and covered with Coal Ash (Chalk and Graphite)
Title: Jewelry Box
Artist: Caroline Rutledge Armijo
Community Member: Caroline Rutledge Armijo
Date of Work: 1979
Medium: Ceramic Floral Jewelry Box, chalk and graphite
Price: NFS Borrowed from The Artist
Dimensions: Object H: 2 1/2” W: 5 1/2” D: 5 1/4"
The jewelry box reminds Caroline of her childhood in Walnut Cove, the coal ash covering the community, and the love she found through the advocacy over the last decade.
Accompanied with audio file in gallery setting
Title: “The Sky is Blue” by Charlotte Zolotow, pictures by Garth Williams
Artist: Caroline Rutledge Armijo
Community Member: Rev. Leslie Bray Brewer and Meghann Evans
Date of Work: 1963
Medium: Book, chalk and graphite
Price: NFS Borrowed from The Community Member
Dimensions: Object H: 8 1/2” W: 10” D: 1/2"
Rev. Leslie read “The Sky is Blue” to her daughter Meghann and her siblings. The story promises that some things never change, but in Walnut Cove those things were changed by the neighboring power plant.
Accompanied with audio file in gallery setting
Title: Great Grandma’s Water Dipper
Artist: Caroline Rutledge Armijo
Community Member: Tracey Brown Edwards
Date of Work: 2022
Medium: metal dipper, chalk and graphite
Price: NFS Borrowed from The Community Member
Dimensions: Object H: 2” W: 31” D: 10’
Tracey drank fresh, cooling water using the water dipper at her great-grandmother’s well, which would eventually be adjacent to the coal ash pond, built in the early 1970s.
Accompanied with audio file in gallery setting
Title: Rocks from Danbury
Artist: Caroline Rutledge Armijo
Community Member: David Hairston
Date of Work: 2022
Medium: found river rocks, chalk and graphite
Price: NFS Borrowed from The Community Member
Dimensions: Object H: 2” W: 31” D: 10’
David’s mother, Mildred Hairston, brought these rocks from their family home place in Danbury to landscape her yard when she moved her family into the Walnut Tree community in 1972.
Accompanied with audio file in gallery setting
Title: Wasp Nest
Artist: Caroline Rutledge Armijo
Community Member: Mayor Nellie Brown, Mayor of Walnut Cove
Date of Work: 2022
Medium: found wasp nest, chalk and graphite
Price: NFS Borrowed from The Community Member
Dimensions: Object H: 2” W: 31” D: 10’
Mayor Nellie selected the wasp nest because it reminded her of the legacy of the strength of the Walnut Cove community and reflects the hexagon shape of the coal ash encapsulated posts.
Accompanied with audio file in gallery setting
Title: Hymnal
Artist: Caroline Rutledge Armijo
Community Member: Rev. Gregory Hairston
Date of Work: 2022
Medium: hymnal, chalk and graphite
Price: NFS Borrowed from The Community Member
Dimensions: Object H: 2” W: 31” D: 10’
Hymns were used throughout the Belews Creek environmental movement. Rev. Hairston selected “Some Bright Morning” as a model for justice from the harms inflicted on the community.
Accompanied with audio file in gallery setting