North Raleigh News, March 5 2013

High: 61° Low:  34°		38°
5-Day Forecast

HOME
NEWS
SCHOOLS
PUBLIC SAFETY - SPORTS- FALL SPORTS- SPRING SPORTS-  FOOTBALL SOCCER-  COMMUNITY-  ARTS -




COMMUNITY - ART NOTES
Tuesday, Mar. 05, 2013

Art After Hours Painter Uses Art To Help Community

BY SARAH BARR - SBARR@NEWSOBSERVER.COM

Painter Tammy Sorrell knows inspiration can turn up when you least expect it.

She keeps a camera at the ready to record the scenes that captivate her so that she can paint them later. And she has found a way to use her art that she didn’t expect – by working in the community to help at risk youth with problems such as cutting, depression, and drug addiction.

The Local-based artist, who paints under the name T. Angelique, is the featured artist at The Cotton Company,. The gallery will hold an artist’s reception Friday for Art After Hours.

Tammy Sorrell

Sorrell usually paints portraits, still lifes and landscapes in oil and acrylic. Children at play are a favorite recently, too.“Whatever suits my fancy, I paint, she said ” Sorrell has long used her art to fulfill a sense of mission or purpose, such as by painting murals in schools, she said. But she recently found a whole new way to use art when she met a young woman who was struggling with a variety of problems.

Sorrell introduced her to art as a way to cope, and the young woman turned her life around.

She told Sorrell that when she was painting, it was the first time she had ever relaxed.

Sorrell hopes that’s the kind of transformation she can continue to foster. And for her, it’s also a way to connect her faith and her art.

Sorrell said art allows people to be a creator. When they add a layer of paint or try a new technique, they see change happen – an experience that lets them see how their own life can change.

“God is a creator god; so when you repaint over and over, you see the way God can change your life,” she said.

Sorrell has started a nonprofit called Hosanna Covenant Ministries-Art for Transforming to continue her work in the community.

In the summer, she worked with two students to paint a 20-foot by 60-foot mural for the Converting Hearts Ministry, an addiction rehabilitation center for men in Creedmoor.

The men at the center also helped, and Sorrell said their dedication to the project was “amazing.”

“It was so exciting to hear their stories,” she said.