Hands dangle from the ceiling in a studio with bucolic views of the Blue Ridge Foothills. Casually unsettling, life-size heads stare blankly among table saws, planers, sculpting tools, a woodstove, and a Bruegel engraving. This is where artist Bob Trotman sculpts businessmen and -women enraptured — or captured — by their careers. A giant, pure-white man wearing a suit, a signet ring inscribed ME, and a disturbing grimace, strains against a wire tether. Life-size or knee-high, carved or cast, Trotman’s creations are purposely ambiguous. Are his inanimate humans reaching for freedom or grasping for wealth? Fleeing their desks or forging chains to their cubicles? “I’m not unsympathetic,” Trotman says, and smiles.
Trotman’s work is inspired, in part, by traditional religious carvings and the figureheads once found at the prows of ships. See his work at bobtrotman.com.
In the latest episode of Away Message, we find out how a quiet place in the foothills went crazy for the Mountains-to-Sea Trail.
This year, we’ll wave flags in Wilmington and Waynesville, fire up the grill in Fayetteville and Fuquay-Varina. Most of all, we’ll reflect on the earliest days of our country and the true meaning of Independence Day.
Blackberry cobbler, peach ice cream, spiked blueberry lemonade, and tacos with watermelon pico de gallo: These fresh fruit recipes are fit for a Fourth of July feast — and all summer long.
Find out what an award-winning photographer and an expert guide have to say about chasing North Carolina’s stunning cascades — and how to snap frame-worthy photos of your favorite falls.
