Supporters give nod to two Smyth artists by nominating them for award

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

Two Smyth County artists will be honored Oct. 9 in Abingdon for their nominations as contenders for a 2008 Governor’s Award for the Arts.
Jack Taylor of Sugar Grove and Rebecca McGhee of Chilhowie were among 345 nominees from whom 10 winners were selected. In Southwest Virginia, nominees also included the Grayson County High School Band, Independence; Wayne Henderson, Mouth of Wilson; and Stuart Shenk, Galax.
The nominees will be recognized on Oct. 9 at the opening night performance of The Desperate Hours at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine presented the awards on Sept. 17 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.  A release from Kaine’s office said the awards “recognize outstanding achievement by artists, arts organizations and supporters of the arts.  Further, they call attention to the depth and breadth and diversity of the arts throughout the Commonwealth.”
For Taylor, who was five when he first developed speech problems, art was a medium through which he could communicate his needs to his parents. Taylor said he was four or five years old when he first exhibited art at the Virginia Museum of the Arts in Richmond.
He said he studied briefly at the Ringling School of Art in Florida before becoming a tool designer and technical manual illustrator for military contractor Brunswick in Marion. He started New World Studio, selling his paintings and sculptures.
Taylor has long exhibited in the Virginia Highlands Festival and the Hungry Mother Festival. He has published cartoons in local media and illustrations for a fitness equipment company magazine.
Taylor taught art for eight years at the Job Corps center in Marion and said several of his students “did well,” including one who won a national art contest.
He is a member of the ‘Round the Mountain network of artists and artisans and plans to create an art society based in Sugar Grove for fine artists.
“It’s the Grove Art Society – GAS,” Taylor said, laughing. “When I tell people that, they don’t take me seriously any more.” He envisions a center with an amphitheater – Taylor has directed and produced Sherwood Anderson plays – and facilities where international artists could work in residence.
He was nominated by Martha Biggar of Pulaski where he serves on the board of directors of the Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley.
Rebecca McGhee teaches art at Fort Chiswell Middle and Scott Memorial Elementary schools in Wythe County.
“I teach Art I to eighth-grade students as an elective at Fort Chiswell Middle School,” McGhee said. “I also teach seventh- and sixth-grade exploratory classes and an Art I elective to eighth-grade students at Scott Memorial Middle School.”
McGhee said she commutes daily between the two schools, traveling to Fort Chiswell Middle School in the morning and then to Scott Memorial Middle School. “Art is my primary area and I feel very lucky to teach something I love,” she said.
To Wythe County, McGhee commutes daily from Chilhowie. “This is my fifth year commuting and teaching art in Wythe County,” she said. “I enjoy my job and it is worth the travel time to teach at schools that support their art programs. There are many talented art students and I am very proud of the work they create.”
George Bishop, technology education instructor for Fort Chiswell Middle School, nominated McGhee for the Governor’s Award. Bishop said he worked with McGhee “as she incorporated computer technology into her subject matter.”
Bishop said he nominated McGhee because she “consistently and constantly demonstrates the qualities we strive to get in the education profession.  She has the utmost patience with students while still challenging them to achieve to the highest level possible. She provides opportunities for each student to create an expression from within themselves in the form of drawings, painting or clay that the student can hold and display for others to see.”
Bishop noted the success of many of McGhee’s students who have “proudly displayed their artwork in local businesses as well as the New River Valley Fine Arts Center in Pulaski.”
Bishop called McGhee “a credit to the teaching profession and to the human race and is in fact one of the most modest people with whom I have ever taught.”
McGhee said she was “very honored that I was nominated for such a prestigious award.”