THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 7, 1996 TAG: 9607050018
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 32 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Ellen Riddle
LENGTH: 77 lines
Didi Tupper always makes me laugh.
Her ideas on art are so beautiful, so filled with truth that mirth just bubbles up inside me.
I laugh when I'm touched deeply by something. Occasionally I laugh and cry in the same breath. And people think I'm really weird.
But not Didi, because she understands people and art and the emotions it all creates.
Over scrambled eggs and toast, she talked excitedly about what it's like running Greenleaf Gallery in Nags Head and Duck.
Poking at a pile of grits in between reaching for a pen to jot down some of her thoughts, I listened hard. After an hour, I left the restaurant, the screen door banging behind me, having barely touched my food.
My mind was busy digesting our conversation that revolved mostly around creating dialogue between the gallery customer and the exhibiting artists via their art.
In other words, according to Didi, art talks.
``We need to maintain the personal link,'' Didi said. ``We cannot let that little personal dialogue disappear. When somebody totally strange walks in the gallery and they stop dead in their tracks and they look at something and say, `This is beautiful,' that is dialogue. That is culture. And that is what keeps us together.''
Didi sees the Outer Banks as an outpost at the end of the world. Outside the gallery doors resort life thrives. But within, using magnificent art and fine art crafts, she works to link American artists to Greenleaf visitors.
Pitted against a world that canonizes technology which distracts us at every turn, Didi has a tough task. But she takes it on willingly.
Greenleaf, said Didi, is as much an educational institution as a selling one. Her eyes dance when she talks about how art affects her customers. She works hard to keep the gallery full of eye-popping pieces.
Wood-turned bowls, ceramic garden stools, blown glass martini glasses and even handmade coffee mugs are nestled among fine art paintings and sculptures. It takes two galleries, one in Nags Head and the other in Duck, to hold such a variety. And variety is essential to peaking curiosity - variety not only in style and media, but in price.
While Greenleaf's emphasis is on introducing customers to artists using art as proxy, sales are obviously necessary and encouraged. Didi can masterfully steer a customer who has fallen in love with a wooden bowl created by an artist whose work is in the White House collection to a simpler piece - also in wood - that is more within that customer's budget. The love of wood is born and preserved as a result.
Didi maintains this mixed media atmosphere at Greenleaf because, as she puts it, ``People live a mixed-media life. We grab a mug, sit on a stool and look at a painting,'' she said. That's why you'll find coffee mugs for sale smack dab in the middle of a gallery filled with fine art.
And the ``dialogue'' doesn't stop at Greenleaf. By taking home art that's provoked feeling and allowed the viewer to connect with the artist, we create living sanctuaries in our homes.
This year, both of Didi's galleries have four shows on tap, including a glass exhibition that just ended at their Duck location. Zillions of coffee mugs will be on display there beginning July 22. A wood-turning show is scheduled after that, followed by an invitational of local, portable works of art to spice up the upcoming winter holidays.
At the Nags Head location, look for a startling landscape show by Virginia artists, a mother and daughter print exhibition, Rick Tupper's bi-annual showing and an extension of the portable art show that will run simultaneously in Duck.
Be prepared to ``connect'' with artists of nearly every genre, all part of the exquisite collection that Didi labors over in her effort to preserve artists amidst the sweeping tides that threaten to stop the ``dialogue.'' MEMO: Mary Ellen Riddle covers Outer Banks arts for The Carolina Coast.
Send comments and questions to her at P.O. Box 10, Nags Head, N.C.
27959. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by Mary Ellen Riddle
Gallery owner Didi Tupper sells wood-turned bowls, garden stools,
martini glasses and mugs along with fine art paintings and
sculptures. by CNB