Billy Roper: Visual Storyteller

The exhibition Billy Roper: Visual Storyteller will be held January 11 to February 22, 2007, in the North Georgia College & State University Fine Arts Gallery, Hoag Student Center, Dahlonega, Georgia. There will be a reception and book signing of the exhibition book of the same title on Thursday, January 18, from 5 to 7 P.M. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public. The Fine Arts Gallery hours are Monday – Friday, 9 – 5 P.M., and Saturday, 12 – 4 P.M. For more information on the exhibition, please contact Pam Sachant, Director Fine Arts Gallery, psachant@ngcsu.edu or 706-864-1512; for more information on or to purchase the catalogue, please go to www.upnorthgeorgia.org or www.billyropervisualstoryteller.com.

Billy Roper: Visual Storyteller, the book accompanying the January-February 2007 exhibition, explores the intrinsic link between the visual and the verbal in RoperÂ’s art, and the notion of his paintings as a form of visual storytelling. Billy Roper and his art will be the lead article in the February issue of Southern Living magazine.

Both the exhibition and the book have been generously funded by the Appalachian Studies Center, the University Press of North Georgia, the Nix Family Living Heritage Fund, and the Buisson Family Foundation.

Billy Roper is a contemporary North Georgia painter and sculptor whose art is held in collections around the United States. Based upon traditions found in Appalachian vernacular and mainstream art forms, Roper works in a variety of formats and styles in two- and three-dimensional media. His subject matter ranges from minutiae of his childhood memories to contemplations on his cultural heritage, and from an accounting of the dayÂ’s events to reflections on the nature and meaning of life.

RoperÂ’s paintings offer him a means of twice telling a story: on the front, in the form of a visual representation; and on the back, as a written narrative. He sees the two as complementary, and does not consider one to be a complete telling of his story without the other. The combination of visual and written narrative in RoperÂ’s art broadens our knowledge and understanding of his art and artistic intentions, and of the artistic traditions he and his work spring from. The emphasis on the verbal in RoperÂ’s art coincides with current popular and scholarly interests in storytelling and oral histories as vehicles for preserving personal, family, and regional biographies that are generally omitted from conventional approaches to documenting history. Storytelling is an integral part of Appalachian culture and is often key in the work of artists from the region; its importance has been examined at length in the religious and visionary work of such artists as Howard Finster.

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