
{"id":14196,"date":"2010-11-24T09:56:41","date_gmt":"2010-11-24T14:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=14196"},"modified":"2010-11-24T09:57:12","modified_gmt":"2010-11-24T14:57:12","slug":"portrait-of-a-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/11\/24\/portrait-of-a-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"Portrait of a mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Susan Dickson <\/strong><em><br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For more than 20 years, artist Edie Cohn has kept a collection of portraits safely stashed away in an acid-free box on a shelf in her Durham studio. Though she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know who the subjects of most of the portraits were, Cohn was sure that someday the renderings would mean something to the families of those depicted. <\/p>\n<p>Cohn drew the portraits in the early 1980s during a life-drawing class at The ArtsCenter, then located in Carr Mill Mall. She was in charge of finding models for the class, and grew tired of drawing the same types of models every week.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was just sort of bored of drawing skinny models,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, so she contacted the members of the Meet Your Neighbor Club, a group of seniors that also met in Carr Mill.<\/p>\n<p>The older models, paid $2 for their time, were \u00e2\u20ac\u0153still as can be \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00c2\u00a0an artist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dream,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cohn said, and provided a nice change of pace. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I just really like old people, and I was interested in drawing them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cohn said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much character in their faces, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not an expectation that they have to be smiling and happy. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just themselves.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Cohn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s observations are evident in her artwork, which depicts smiling, scowling, stoic and smug subjects of all colors. Over time, she drew more than 80 members of the club using charcoal, pen and ink, pastels and oil paints, and some of those portraits are now on display at an exhibit at the Seymour Center for Seniors. <\/p>\n<p>Cohn initially showed the portraits in an exhibit titled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Strength of Character\u00e2\u20ac\u009d at Carr Mill Mall in 1985, and has reprised that show in hopes of finding the portrait subjects or their families. Of the 80 subjects, Cohn has the names of 35, but still has only been able to find about 15 families.  <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A lot of the African-American families are still here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, adding that the families of the white people in her portraits have been harder to find. <\/p>\n<p>Cohn has been working with community leaders \u00e2\u20ac\u0153that know their communities and know their history\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to find the families. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brought the list of names to churches and community centers to find someone who recognizes a name. The show at the Seymour Center has had some successes too \u00e2\u20ac\u201c center regular Evelyn Thompson recognized her portrait in the exhibit during a recent visit. <\/p>\n<p>The show at the Seymour Center will come down the morning of Dec. 3, and at 10 a.m. on Dec. 11 Cohn will meet with portrait subjects and family members at the Seymour Center to give them the portraits. The Seymour Center is located at 2551 Homestead Road in Chapel Hill. <\/p>\n<p>After the show, Cohn will continue her search by hanging posters with a collage of the portraits in nursing homes, churches and health centers. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I just want to give them away,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I kept these all these years, and I knew the whole time that they would be special to the families.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>To view some of the drawings, visit Cohn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s website, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ediecohn.com\/\">ediecohn.com<\/a>, and click on the Senior Citizens button. <\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14197\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14197\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2010\/11\/24\/portrait-of-a-mystery\/pb1271451\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14197\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271451.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"PB1271451\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271451.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271451-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271451-84x113.jpg 84w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271451-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271451-60x80.jpg 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14197\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PHOTOS BY SUSAN DICKSON. The names of the people in these oil paintings, by Edie Cohn, are unknown. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2010\/11\/24\/portrait-of-a-mystery\/pb1271461\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14198\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271461.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"PB1271461\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-14198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271461.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271461-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271461-84x113.jpg 84w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271461-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271461-60x80.jpg 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2010\/11\/24\/portrait-of-a-mystery\/pb1271561\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14200\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271561.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"PB1271561\" width=\"400\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-14200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271561.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271561-111x150.jpg 111w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271561-83x113.jpg 83w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271561-222x300.jpg 222w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271561-59x80.jpg 59w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2010\/11\/24\/portrait-of-a-mystery\/pb1271511\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14199\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271511.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"PB1271511\" width=\"400\" height=\"336\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-14199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271511.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271511-113x94.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271511-134x113.jpg 134w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271511-357x300.jpg 357w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/PB1271511-95x80.jpg 95w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14201\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14201\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2010\/11\/24\/portrait-of-a-mystery\/edie-evelyn-portrait1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14201\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Edie-Evelyn-portrait1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Edie-&amp;-Evelyn-&amp;-portrait1\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Edie-Evelyn-portrait1.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Edie-Evelyn-portrait1-113x84.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Edie-Evelyn-portrait1-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Edie-Evelyn-portrait1-360x270.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Edie-Evelyn-portrait1-106x80.jpg 106w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14201\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PHOTO COURTESY OF EDIE COHN. Evelyn Thompson, right, regularly visits the Seymore Center, where her 1980s portrait by Edie Cohn is on display.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For more than 20 years, artist Edie Cohn has kept a collection of portraits safely stashed away in an acid-free box on a shelf in her Durham studio. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14196"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14230,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14196\/revisions\/14230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}