Old Depot Holds Special Place in Artist’s Heart
From the Iredell Citizen newspaper April 15, 1998 edition
Note from Discover Statesville:
As the Statesville Convention & Visitor's Bureau moves back in The Statesville Depot and prepares to open a Visitor's Center, we are reminded of all the history of this location and all the efforts of the community that went into saving the depot. It seemed fitting for this week's Iredell Citizen past feature to be this piece.
We also spoke with Jane regarding the gallery location. Fifty local high school students worked on a year long project painting local historical landmarks. The "Lands and Legends" gallery is now on display in the City Center building at 211 S Center St. open for public viewing from 9:00am - 5:00pm Monday - Saturday.
Old Depot Holds Special Place in Artist’s Heart
From the Iredell Citizen newspaper April 15, 1998 edition
By Burwell Whittenton, Staff Reporter
Vivid images of life in Statesville often come back to artist Robert Gantt Steele, even though his home is now all the way across the country.
Steele, now a resident of San Francisco, was back in his hometown this week to visit family and friends and to help keep the wheels moving on a project that has become dear to his heart – restoration of the Statesville Depot which was once the local hub of passenger train travel.
“One strong memory I have of Statesville,” he said during an Easter weekend tour of the depot, “was getting on the train and going on a business trip with my father. That’s what inspired me to work on this project.”
The old depot, abandoned for years after passenger trains stopped running through town, was in danger of being demolished when a group of local residents stepped in and had it moved across the tracks to a new site just off Shelton Ave. near the railroad underpass. The board of the Downtown Statesville Development Corporation, a non-profit agency, voted to spearhead the drive to raise funds for moving and restoring the property.
STATESVILLE DEPOT VISIT – Stopping at the Statesville Depot site for a quick visit over the weekend were, from left, Bryan George, treasurer for the Downtown Statesville Development Corp. board; local artist, Jane Jennings, director for the “Land and Legends” project; Robert Gantt Steele, lead artist for the project; and his son, Tyler. Through the “Land and Legends” project, paintings by more than 50 local artists depicting Iredell County history will be placed on the walls of the depot after it is restored. Plans call for the paintings to be hung in January in 1999.
Staff photo – Burwell Whittenton
To date, around $270,000 has been raised in the “Save the Depot” campaign, and about $100,000 is still needed to complete the restoration, according to DSDC Director Dwight Bassett.
Steele’s paintings of Statesville scenes, colorful and intriguing images that draw the viewer into the setting, have provided the key element for much of the fund-raising. Numbered prints of his painting of the Depot raised a large portion of the money, and prints are still available through the DSDC.
At the request of local artist Jane Jennings, who has devoted countless hours to the campaign herself, Steele produced 20 paintings of scenes depicting Statesville’s history, and these were auctioned at a fund-raising gala on November 17, 1995. Some of the scenes, including the City Hall building and the Fourth Creek Burial Ground, were reproduced in “Our State” magazine in October 1997. The cover art for the magazine was his remembrance of David Avenue School, complete with youngsters playing in rain puddles along the front sidewalk. One of his paintings was of a favorite Statesville hangout from the past, J.C.’s Toot ‘n’ Tellem. Another was a downtown Statesville street scene that includes the old State Theater and St. Charles Hotel.
Steele, now 50, lives in San Francisco with his wife, the former Alice Caldwell of Raleigh, and their two children, Tyler, 10, and Catherine, 12. A 1964 graduate of Statesville High School, he went on to earn a degree in architecture from N.C. State University, and then a master’s degree in architecture from Berkeley.
In California he worked first as an architect, but has since made the transition to full-time artist and illustrator. In addition to work on the Statesville project, he has illustrated a number of children’s books, as well as doing promotional art for a current revival of the musical “Showboat.” Other recent work includes a painting for King Juan Carlos of Spain, commissioned by New York University. His paintings are also sold in galleries on the West Coast.
The green, tree-lined landscape of Iredell County is still the kind of environment that makes him feel at home. The starker look of the West Coast has its own kind of appeal, but produces a different feeling, he says.
“It’s quite beautiful… but there is a difference between what’s beautiful and what you feel connected to.” He still feels more comfortable with the look of trees in the landscape, and that is the look he is often called on to depict in his paintings.
“People like the idea of small towns,” he said, and that small town feeling is often requested in his paintings. Although he lives on the West Coast, much of his work is done for publishers in New York and Chicago.
His work on the “Save the Depot” project has prompted him to recall many things from his growing-up days here. “I remembered certain things,” he said, “and as the project unraveled, it led me to remember other things… It’s like opening up an old book that has the pages stuck together. You peel them apart and find all these other things inside. It ties me strongly to the town.”
He and his family usually make trips back to Statesville twice a year. He often makes thumbnail sketches of images and then carries them back to his studio to develop into full-blown paintings.
Steele is lead artist in “Land and Legend… Where Do We Go from Here?” This is a cultural project which will culminate in the exhibiting of around 60 paintings in the restored depot, including art by Steele, Jane Jennings, and James William Wells, Jr., who is from Charlotte and has worked with the project since 1994.
A major part of the exhibit will be some 51 paintings by art students in the five high schools located in Iredell County. Each student is being matched up with a place or subject of historical interest in Iredell County, and will work with Jane Jennings and other artists on an intense study of the subject before undertaking an art project.
Each student will visit the site, keep a journal, and finally, complete a painting which will be hung on the depot walls in January 1999. The project is being financed by grants including $12,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts, $8,000 from the Iredell County Community Foundation, and a $500 seed grant from the Duke Power Foundation.
Another grant application has been submitted to the N.C. Arts Council.
On April 8 all the art students gathered around a work table at the front of Mitchell Community College’s Rotary Auditorium to see a painting demonstration by Steele. He gave them hints on how to prepare for their task of bringing Iredell County history to life through their art. He told them about keeping a workbook with notes to himself about ideas for his art, and about the value of quick pencil sketches to capture an idea.
Steele often uses himself and his children as models for his work. Once he asked his wife to take a photograph of himself and his son running, and then worked from the photograph for a children’s book illustration. “A photo reference is fine,” he said, “Degas did the same thing. If it’s good for Degas, it’s good for me.”
The young artists got tips from several other participants in the “Land and Legends” art endeavor.
“You are acting as a preservationist,” said Dr. Gary Freeze, Catawba College history professor who compiled the list of historical sites to be painted. “Your rendering helps us remember something really important to this community. This is a beautiful county…the heritage we have is something we have a chance to preserve.”
“Things are being lost from our history,” he said. “and artists can help keep our memories alive.”
Freeze advised the art students to “notice the little things” that give places their personality. “Your imagination can take you inside a house,” he said, and this can be used to make the painting more believable.
The students also heard from Joseph Bathanti, “Land and Legend” poet and chair of the Humanities Department at Mitchell. He read two of his own poems and urged artists to tune into the poignancy of their subjects. “It’s about imagination more than anything,” he said. “If you talk to buildings, they’ll talk back. One of the things the buildings tell you is who lived here.” James Wells, another lead artist, talked about the African-American perspective, bringing out a three-fold theme of determination, imagination and creativity. He spoke about all the “magic of art” and its ability to reach into the past in order to make the present and future better. He also paid tribute to Amy Steele who will be remembered for her dedicated work on behalf of the Depot restoration.
Jane Jennings, project director for “Land and Legends,” closed the orientation program for the young artists. “Students you will now be an integral part of this now,” she said. “You will connect with something very special. You will be reminded of the efforts of those who went before you to make things better… Give voice to the past and you will be heard in the future… you are the gift, and we will all share in it.”
