We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tony Alderman . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tony below.

Tony, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I’m a North Carolina artist with a passion for our coast. I’ve worked in this area for decades, and through my past projects, I have gained an affinity with the water, the people, the heritage, and the culture of the Carolina coast. I’ve always been driven to create culturally oriented work and I think the stories of North Carolina’s Down East are worth telling. From hidden whispers of a quiet cove, or the places around it: the towns, the people, and the buildings so full of history. These are the things that capture my attention

My way of telling stories is through my art. Over the coming years, I will be using that art to tell the stories of this area, capturing in real-time the change in both nature and culture.

As we go through this period of great change and realignment, these snapshots of time and place can remind us where we come from, and inform where we go.

I’m documenting a disappearing community in all its beauty and honesty, preserving it in pictures, so that future generations may continue to value and learn from the past.”

As a general rule, I find myself drawn to paint things that people have made, but not necessarily to paint the people themselves. I particularly enjoy painting structures: buildings, boats, water towers, and piers in all stages of disrepair. Things with age that show you a history., evoke stories in my imagination. There is something about the patina of age and the interaction of people with the surroundings that is exciting to me. That being said I also like to work on projects. In other words, my preference is to spend time in a certain area or place where I’m working so that I can be involved with the community as well as individual people. I can sink my teeth into it. Ever since I first started painting I’ve been this way.

I am presently working on a project in the area of North Carolina called Down East. It is an area of our coast that is, for lack of a better word, dying. It is because of overseas competition, ever-changing coastal conditions, new laws governing the NC fishing industry, and the natural attrition of young people leaving because the work is very difficult. The younger residents tend to get higher education and do not return to the area. The Down East area is changing quickly. I feel it’s important to capture images here because soon many of them will be gone.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

The passion of my art over the last ten years has been directed by two deeply intertwined love affairs: the first is my love for the North Carolina coast and all the things related to it, and my second love is how the passage of time affects the community as well as everything we see. As artists, our visual field is the canvas. The North Carolina coast with its natural beauty and historic communities, old fishing villages, and people, offers up a visual feast to this artist. Our coast’s beautiful salt marshes and sunsets, its deserted train stations and abandoned fishing vessels, its rusting water towers, old churches, and on rare occasions the elderly, life-battered, and unique individuals, have been inexplicably part of my artistic journey.

I believe that there is continuity in the movement of time. For me, all joy and life begin and end and begin again in the continuity of natural life, in the sky, the clouds, and the water. I feel peace, even in the midst of loss and decay. As I gaze out at a sunrise coming over the salt marshes of Lockwood Folly River or Pamlico Sound, I am filled with a powerful sense of peace. It is my hope that my paintings will convey that same sense of peace from these scenes of the natural and aging beauty of the North Carolina Coast.
As I have spent the last decade painting these images of decaying old Coastal towns. It is serenity and tranquility that I feel, even amid loss and decay. The people I have met have a proud history. They are fighting to not lose their way of life and their decades-long connection to the sea. Their lives and memories of the many people before them are reflected in the objects and scenes of my work. Shrimp boats, most built here in North Carolina, the old and soon-to-be abandoned nets, the railways, fish houses, piers, and reed marshes are not the focus but are a reflection, a moment in time, that captures the past, the present and even the inevitable future that ages and changes us all.
It is my hope and my desire that my paintings will convey to you that same sense of peace I feel from these scenes of the beauty and aging beauty of the North Carolina Coast.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think for me as a painter the importance of the print market is something that I did not appreciate early on in my career. I think we all wish that we could sell original paintings and that be the extent of it. But the print market is a way for people who may not be able to afford to buy an original to be able to support an artist. There is also the importance of social media.

Art strictly sold through galleries (although important) is old-school and doesn’t reflect how today’s markets work. There are lots of ways to be able to support artists and helping their media presence is probably one of the biggest ones. it may take 5000 people saying “Oh my God he’s amazing,” for one person to walk in and buy a painting off the wall but 5000 people saying you’re amazing doesn’t take 10 years anymore it could happen in a day. I think social media is huge and I think constantly reminding your patrons and anyone who follows you on Facebook or on Instagram to share your posts is important. Social media is the number one marketing tool besides word of mouth

The main thing society can do is to buy art, small purchases or large purchases, Doing this not only allows the artist to focus on their work but also makes the artists feel appreciated and believe that they are doing something that has meaning to someone else. So much so, that that person is willing to look at that piece of art every day.

The second thing society can do to help an artist is to share with their friends and family the work and their enthusiasm for that artist..

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, the most rewarding part of being an artist is the actual act of creating. I find that when I am working on a painting I am in my best state of mind and the creative juices are flowing. I also find that when I finish a painting I am ready for that painting to go to someone else. I generally do not have an attachment to my paintings once they are done but find great joy and watching someone’s reaction to that painting.      

Contact Info:

• Website: tonyaldermanarts.com
• Instagram: tonyaldermanarts
• Facebook: Tony Alderman Arts
• Youtube: @tonyaldermanarts5550