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LOCAL ARTIST TO APPEAR
ON PBS’S
“ MISSISSIPPI ROADS”
On Thursday, October 23, at 7:00 PM Mississippi
Public Broadcasting’s program, “Mississippi Roads” aired its fall premier.
The new season started by exploring some of the cultural resources of
Northeast Mississippi, including Woodall Mountain, Pontotoc’s
Bodock Festival and Booneville artist,
Oneta.
On a hot
summer day in June, the crew of “Mississippi Roads” slipped quietly into
town to film Oneta Cole and her artwork. Series
Producer, Key Ivy, and videographer, Jeremy
Burson, spent over eight hours filming
Oneta at work, conducting classes, and spending
time with her family in her home and at her studio on 9th
St. in Booneville.
Oneta
has been a Booneville resident for most of her adult life but her work is
known and sold around the world. For much of the last twenty years she has
traveled extensively, promoting, showing and selling her artwork. Although
she works in many different media, the show’s main emphasis will be on her
unique paintings on feathers.
In these, Oneta uses an assortment of feathers
as natural canvases, slowly building up layers of paint to create truly
original works of art. Chains and stores throughout the North and Midwest,
as well as in other countries including England, Switzerland, and Canada
sell these paintings and prints.
Arriving at
mid-day, Ivy and Jeremy quickly set up shop in Oneta’s
studio, taking advantage of an opportunity to film
Oneta teaching her art classes. They went on to film close-ups of her
art and interviews with her, her family and students. Even family pets got
in the picture as they moved outside into the yard and garden.
Oneta
said the idea of being filmed for the show was, “terrifying…everyone kept
saying how exciting it must have been, but all I could think of were the
lights, cameras and microphones. Afterwards I wondered if I had said
anything intelligent or important. I thought of a thousand things that I
wished I had said. I do think it was easier being filmed here, at my home
and studio with my family, friends and pets around me rather than in an
impersonal studio. Key Ivy and Jeremy were great and worked hard to put
everyone at ease. Jeremy was especially good with my youngest son, Rayne,
explaining how the lights worked and even letting him run a camera.”
The episode was featured in the October
Highlights section of Mississippi Public Broadcasting’s monthly guide, “Fine
Tuning”’ and on their website, www.mpbonline.org
The show premiered on Thursday, October 23 at
7:00 PM and will repeat Saturday, October 25, at midnight and again
on Sunday, October 26, at 5:30 PM.
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