Emily Parrish grew up in the small North Carolina town of Yadkinville, smack in the middle of tobacco and NASCAR country, about a half-hour drive from Winston-Salem. That Southern heritage informs Parrish’s work, which is on view in the exhibition “Used to Be” at Two Rivers Printmaking Studio in the Tip Top Building in White River Junction.
Parrish, who is 26, left North Carolina after graduating from Appalachian State University, with a major in weaving and a minor in printing. After a few years in Oakland and Berkeley, Calif., she moved to White River Junction for two years with her partner Kane Lynch, a Californian who recently graduated from the Center for Cartoon Studies. Parrish works for a San Francisco graphic design company and also interns at Two Rivers.
But you never really leave the place you grew up, and in recent work Parrish has returned to the North Carolina Piedmont, delving into both her family and Southern history.
The South wraps its people in the past — or at least that’s its prevailing image outside the South. So while the past is immutable, Parrish said, she is continually deciding which parts of Southern history “to embrace and which to overcome.”
Her ancestors came to North Carolina in the 1600s, settling in what is now Forsythe County. Forebears fought for the Confederacy and more immediate family has worked in the tobacco industry.
In trips back home, Parrish has been delving into family history after finding a trove of old photographs of family on her father’s side. She takes some of the photos and uses them both in prints and on woven textiles.
“I’m working with concepts of memory and its fallibility,” she said.
One print shows a teenage girl on her bike. She has dark, irrepressibly curly hair — much like Parrish herself — and heavy glasses, and stares implacably at the viewer. “She looks kind of sweaty and annoyed, she’s challenging you,” Parrish said.
In another print, taken from a photo made perhaps in the 1940s, three women in light summer clothing, all relatives on Parrish’s father’s side, look amiably at the viewer. Some smaller prints, placed together, show a ceiling fan and a baseball cap reading New Orleans. The cap belongs to Parrish’s father, and he wears it when he mows the lawn, Parrish said. (Her parents are divorced, and she spends more time with her father, she said.)
With more distance from her native North Carolina, Parrish has more appreciation for it, and a recognition that she is perhaps more Southern than she realized.
All the things that were just part of the fabric of growing up — kudzu, lightning bugs, cicadas and what she calls Southern kitsch — now strike her as distinct and memorable. The often-repeated phrase “I might could do” seems a very particular and useful way of saying “maybe, maybe not.”
“You definitely run into people who think that being Southern makes you an idiot,” Parrish said. “But a lot of people like to pretend that racism is only in the South, and that’s definitely not true.”
Parrish has a website (emilycreatesthings.com) where she sells her prints and comics, and textiles, wearable and otherwise. Although she studied making fine art textiles in college, she is “having a blast seeing people wear my scarves,” she said.
At the moment, both Parrish and Lynch are contemplating whether to stay in the Upper Valley, or move elsewhere for jobs. Parrish wouldn’t rule out a return one day to North Carolina, but not immediately. Among other things, North Carolina’s recent legislation banning transgender individuals from using public bathrooms that correspond to the sex with which they identify doesn’t sit well with Parrish.
“They’re going to have to shape up before I move home,” she said, wagging her finger.
“Used to Be,” prints by Emily Parrish, is on view at Two Rivers Printmaking Studio through June.
The Aidron Duckworth Art Museum holds a reception Saturday from 3 to 6 p.m. for Philadelphia artist Steven Ford, who will show linocut prints, collagraphs and collages. The works of East Corinth sculptor Terry Lund are on view on the grounds of the museum. Both Ford and Lund will give talks at 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., respectively. Ford’s work is on view through July 24; Lund’s sculptures will be on view through Oct. 30.
“Quartets,” a show by artists Janet Cathey and Kristen Johnson, is on display at the Tunbridge Public Library from Sunday through Sept. 3. There’s an opening reception Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the library.
AVA Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon holds a reception Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. for artists Brenda Garand, William Haust, Dan Gottsegen, Greg Gorman and Liz Sibley Fletcher, all of whom are showing their work in the galleries through July 13.
Liz Sibley Fletcher, of Mason, N.H., exhibits free-standing and wall ceramic sculptures. She will give a gallery talk on Saturday, June 18 at 4 p.m.
Garand is a professor in the Studio Art Department at Dartmouth College who will show recent work in “It’s Like Falling into Water: Sculpture and Drawing.”
Gorman, who lives in Lyme Center, is a well-known maker of stained glass, and will be showing recent work. His gallery talk is Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Gottsegen is a Woodstock artist showing “(Mostly) Recent Paintings,” he will give a gallery talk on Wednesday, June 22 at 6 p.m.
Haust, a retired professor of art at Plymouth State University from Ashland, N.H., shows recent pastel work. He’ll give a gallery talk on Wednesday, June 29, at 6 p.m.
Arabella, Windsor. The gallery exhibits works by local artists and artisans in a variety of media including jewelry, oils, acrylics, photography, watercolors, pastels and textiles.
BigTown Gallery, Rochester, Vt. “Director’s Choice,” a show of work by Varujan Boghosian, Ira Matteson, Helen Matteson, Nicholas Santoro, Hugh Townley, John Udvardy, and Pat dipaula Klein, continues through July 9.
Cider Hill Art Gallery and Gardens, Windsor. Gary Milek exhibits egg tempera paintings in the show “Plant Forms” through June.
Converse Free Library, Lyme. The collages of Barbara Newton can be seen through June 30.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon. Watercolors by Marlene Kramer, digital art by Eric Hasse, photographs by John Rush, oil paintings by Emily Ridgway, and pastels, acrylics and oils by Gail Barton, are up through June.
Aidron Duckworth Museum, Meriden. “Color–A Theory in Action,” a show of works by Duckworth runs through July 24.
Great Hall, Springfield, Vt. An exhibition of photographs documenting life in Springfield, taken by students participating in the Springfield Photovoice initiative, continues through July.
Hall Art Foundation, Reading, Vt. “Landscapes After Ruskin: Redefining the Sublime,” curated by photographer Joel Sternfeld, continues through Nov. 27.
Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College. The Senior Major exhibition is on view in both the Jaffe-Friede and Strauss Galleries through June 19.
Howe Library, Hanover. “Paths, Streams and Days of Small Things,” a show of more than 25 pastels and water colors by Lynda Knisley, runs through July 27.
Library Arts Center, Newport. The Juried Regional Exhibition, a group show, runs through June 16.
Local Buzz Coffee Shop, Bradford, Vt. Portraits by members of the Dodson Studio Group are on view through June 30.
Long River Galleries and Gifts, Lyme. “Paradise Found,” a show of oil paintings by South Woodstock artist Liliana Paradiso runs through July 4.
Royalton Memorial Library, South Royalton. The exhibition “The VLS Community,” which features art work by people affiliated with the Vermont Law School, is on view through June 18.
Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish. ‘Arrangements,” work by the 2014 Saint-Gaudens fellow Kirsten Hassenfeld, is on view through July 18. The park is open for the season through October.
Scavenger Gallery, White River Junction. “Cataclysms,” a series of pastels of cyclones by Randolph artist Laurie Sverdlove, are on view through June 28.
White River Gallery at BALE, South Royalton. The oil paintings of Charlotte, Vt. artist James Vogler are on view through June.
Nicola Smith can be reached at nsmith@vnews.com.