Public Radio for the Piedmont and High Country
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Greensboro artist showcases mixed media in N.C. A&T exhibition

Greensboro artist Natalie Schorr brings humor to what she calls "analog collage." WFDD/NEAL CHARNOFF

Greensboro artist Natalie Schorr brings humor to what she calls "analog collage."  WFDD/NEAL CHARNOFF

Natalie Schorr began her career as an artist focusing on realistic drawings and watercolors. These days, Schorr has been focused on mixed media, employing collage and printmaking to create unique works one might call “Renaissance patchwork.”

Her portraits mainly portray oddly scaled female figures, sprouting wings, halos, and body sections inspired by the likes of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, assuming those artists had been familiar with platform shoes. Schorr’s latest exhibit, "Flash Fiction," is on display at The University Galleries at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University through October 13.

WFDD's Neal Charnoff spoke with Schorr at WFDD's studios. 

Interview highlights: 

On the materials one might find in her studio:

"You would find magazines from anywhere from the 20s on up, books from the 1700s on up. I'm a great scavenger of stuff ... paper stuff, and wallpaper. I love vintage wallpaper!"

On the piece entitled 'Her Improvised Wings':

"It actually comes from a story that when I was doing motion pictures, we were shooting in a convent, and a nun and I were talking. And she was telling me how in her society when she grew up, you only had two choices in life, and one was to be a mother, and the other was to be a nun. And so she said that if you wanted to travel, if you wanted to do something different with your life, you became a nun. And I never really had thought of it that way. And so 'Her Improvised Wings' kind of grew out of that story."

On how Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci play a role in her work:

"Well, you grew up with all these art books, and certainly in college and grad school, you know, I amassed a lot of them. And one day I just, I don't know, I looked at them and I went, 'It's time for these to change,' and I just started cutting them up."

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

Support quality journalism, like the story above,
with your gift right now.

Donate