Forty top student artists from across Chatham County Schools conclude their daylong clinic with a free public show at Seaforth High School featuring art produced during the clinic and other work the student artists choose to exhibit.

JM Artists Selected to Participate
Eimy Acosta Valdez
Jocelyn Cano Morales
Yazmin Cobos
Sayuri Escalona Nunez
Dulce Herrera Duarte
Natasha Herrera-Rodriguez
Gisele Lopez Hernandez
Joceline Marroquin Pacheco
Zyniuh Marsh
Tashaun McKinney
Kenny Pablo Mateo
Carolina Rice
Shawn Roblero Morales
Leslie Valesco Marin
Gabriella Whitman

The clinic for students opens with a choice of workshops led by local artists Ric Harber and Jane Eckenrode followed by a presentation on the business of art. After lunch, students also participate in a workshop on promoting their work and preparing for a show.

A native of Oklahoma, Harber started doing leatherwork in the 1980s, refining his craft while traveling around the world before retiring in North Carolina. He is author of several journal articles on leather crafting and regularly sells his work at local markets.

Working from her studio uphill from the Haw River, Eckenrode specializes in depictions of nature, a love that began early in life and intensified in 1996, when she moved to North Carolina to create exhibits for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. She earned the BFA in painting from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and spent three decades painting dioramas and models for science museums in California, Taiwan and North Carolina.