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Clyde Edgerton named 2015 Azalea Festival Artist

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Critically-acclaimed national author, college professor, talented musician and modern-day Renaissance man, Clyde Edgerton, has been selected as the 2015 North Carolina Azalea Festival featured artist.

The official poster artwork of the 2015 N.C. Azalea Festival by Clyde Edgerton.
The official poster artwork of the 2015 N.C. Azalea Festival by Clyde Edgerton.

His painting for the Azalea Festival was unveiled during the official unveiling sponsored by Wilmington Health at The Terraces on Sir Tyler, Thursday, Oct. 16.

“I’m honored to be this year’s Azalea Festival artist, especially in view of the fact that all sorts of excellent but little-recognized artists perform and work in our community,” Edgerton said. “The mission of the Azalea Festival-to showcase nationally the rich array of Wilmington’s art, gardens, history and culture-is spot on. Within our borders are communities and cultures that exist within a broader Southern culture of inclusion . . . art, gardens, history and culture. The Azalea Festival will continue to bring our Wilmington communities together-to make things happen in a big way.”

Edgerton took up oil painting after discovering the art of local architect and artist Chip Hemingway. En plein air landscapes are Edgerton’s forte, though he is also beginning to work with human faces, human form and abstraction.

Along with being an accomplished artist, Edgerton is well-known for his illustrious literary career. He has published 10 novels, a memoir and a nonfiction book about fatherhood. He is the Thomas S. Kenan III Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at UNCW, where he teaches fiction and nonfiction writing as well as-currently-a course on literature, race relations, community and culture in the South. He lives in Wilmington with his wife, Kristina, and their three children, Nathaniel, Ridley, and Truma.

“Clyde is one of those rare individuals who can creatively do it all. I feel that as an artist who is a writer, he tells a story within each of one of his paintings. The festival is so fortunate to have him as our featured artist,” says 2015 North Carolina Azalea Festival President Liz Carroll.

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