Join us for a gallery reception for artist Tamela Stith.

Reception:
Thursday, March 7, 2024
5 p.m. – 7 p.m.

Showing
Exhibition: March 7-April 30, 2024
FREE ADMISSION

ABOUT TAMELA STITH

As a native of Roanoke Rapids, NC, Tamela Stith never set out to be an artist and certainly didn’t plan to be a teacher. And yet, she was both. 

“Tamela was an amazing abstract artist,” said Dee Dee Oliver, visual arts coordinator for the Arts Council of Wilson. “It’s clear that she was as passionate about her own artwork as she was teaching her students.” 

Stith’s father was in the Army, so she spent her childhood moving from place to place. Born in Roanoke Rapids, Stith lived in Germany twice and several places in the United States. The family settled back in North Carolina, and Stith ended up attending Elizabeth City State University and thought she was headed for a degree in information technology.

After college graduation, Stith thought her career path might lead her to working in museums, but that never worked out. She got a job as an art teacher in Harnett County schools, where she worked for almost two years. She left teaching, moved to Virginia and worked various jobs for a few years before getting back into teaching, working at a private school in Virginia.

Seven years later, Stith moved back to North Carolina to be closer to her parents and began working as an art teacher in Nash County and then in the Wilson County school system. Her dream was to open her own art therapy practice, helping people through art.

She started out doing portraits and progressed into abstracts. Stith said, “It’s more therapeutic, and you don’t have to have things a certain way. It kind of flows on its own. When I paint, it flows and goes along with my mood.” Art has become a family affair with Stith’s father now involved in painting, specializing in landscapes and seascapes.

For more information, contact Jan Volz, Gallery Art Curator at 252.985.5268 or jvolz@ncwu.edu and sign up for the email list at ncwu.edu/artgalleries.