Virginia
Virginia MOCA exhibit showcases sculptor’s bird-inspired creations
Spencer Tinkham’s artwork is for the birds. He encourages viewers to look at all the birds around us. He said we take them for granted because we see them every day.
“Their beauty and physiology have inspired people for thousands of years,” Tinkham said. “The work I do is for the people, so they can slow down, appreciate and investigate nature.”
Since childhood, Tinkham has been fascinated with their colors and freedom of flight. Birds migrated through his backyard, which was near a creek by the Elizabeth River. He started to observe and study them, and said birds were a means of vicariously traveling the world.
At 8 years old, Tinkham began carving and whittling sticks on the back porch with his grandfather. Shortly after, his grandfather died and Tinkham continued to carve to maintain a connection with him and their mutual love for the outdoors.
Tinkham, a wildlife sculptor, crafts his artworks from wood. His technique, macrosculptures, consists of hundreds of grooves. Each one is sketched on the wood in pencil, and it takes at least six different angled cuts with a box cutter to sculpt each individual groove. Once they’re carved, he hand sands each groove before sealing the artwork with marine varnish and painting it in oils.
“The heightened texture conceals or reveals colors,” Tinkham said. “It creates an exciting optical illusion as the viewer’s perspective shifts.”
Tinkham’s work is exhibited internationally and is currently on display at Virginia MOCA in his show titled “Witness.” The exhibit runs through June 9. It showcases the minute beauty of birds by magnifying the details of their feathers into creative carvings.
Featured birds include native, non-native, extinct and threatened bird species. “I look for interesting patterns and textures in the feathers,” Tinkham said. “My sculptures are inspired by dime-sized areas on the actual birds.”
On May 11, Tinkham will offer a master art class at the Virginia MOCA. Students will get a personal walk-through of the exhibition and then a behind-the-scenes demonstration of the artist’s sculptural techniques. Participants will sculpt and paint their own wooden bird silhouette to take home. Tinkham’s workshop will give students a better understanding of wood grain, wood species, sculpting tools, safety and wildlife.
Lee Belote, jlbelote@verizon.net
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If you go
What: Master class with Spencer Tinkham: Intro to sculpting with wood
When: May 11
Time: 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Where: Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, 2200 Parks Ave, Virginia Beach
Cost: $75 for members; $90 for nonmembers
Info: VirginiaMOCA.org
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(WSET) — More than a million Virginians are expected to hit the road for Memorial Day weekend — despite rising gas prices.
Right now, the state average is around $4.30 a gallon. That’s 50 percent higher than it was three months ago, before the war in Iran.
Right now, it will cost you $4.29 a gallon to fill up at the 76 on Langhorne Road. And prices could keep climbing, potentially making this the most expensive summer at the pump in years.
GasBuddy says the national average could hit $4.48 a gallon by Memorial Day, a big jump from $3.14 this time last year.
Prices may keep rising, averaging around $4.80 a gallon throughout the summer.
SEE ALSO: Veto halts bipartisan push to lower medication prices in Virginia
Despite this, experts say many Virginians are still willing to hit the road for the holiday weekend. They are just finding alternative ways to save.
Patrick De Haan, petroleum analyst at GasBuddy, said, “If you’re driving long distances, going 65 miles an hour instead of 75 can boost your fuel efficiency 10 to 25%. The equivalent of getting two gallons for free when you fill up.”
Unfortunately, there is no guarantee when these prices will drop. That is why experts say you should plan ahead and shop around. You can also save by filling up earlier in the week.
Instead of being supportive of the child’s educational endeavors or simply not responding, Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx chose this moment to respond with vitriol.
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Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina, taught a child a very important lesson. You’re never too young to learn that politicians will fail you.
Foxx made headlines in May when she responded to a 10-year-old Greensboro student named Christian Mango, who wrote to the congresswoman proposing a $5,000 tax credit for people buying electric vehicles. Christian sent the letter as part of a school project where the kids were challenged to write persuasive essays on topics of their choosing.
Instead of being supportive of the child’s educational endeavors or simply not responding, Foxx chose this moment to respond with vitriol, according to a letter dated May 1 that Christian’s mother, Emily, shared on social media.
“Please ask your teacher to explain propaganda to you,” Foxx wrote. “While I will never be able to know, my guess is that your teachers will not give you a good educational experience and help you learn to think, as they are too interested in indoctrinating you. How sad.”
This would be a wild response to receive as any constituent – let alone one who’s still in elementary school. Foxx – a former educator and the former chair of the Committee on Education and the Workforce – should know that the best answer to someone you disagree with is no response. Especially if the person you disagree with is a 10-year-old.
But beyond the embarrassing decision to respond in such a hateful way, there’s irony in Foxx’s response. She is clearly unable to see that the real “propaganda” in this country is coming from the mouth of President Donald Trump and members of the Republican Party. If there is anybody who knows what propaganda looks like, it’s the Republicans.
What is propaganda anyway? Here’s what Republicans have been up to.
In the interest of educating all of us, I decided to look up the term “propaganda” in the dictionary. According to Merriam-Webster, “propaganda” is “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumors for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.”
What does that look like? Well, it looks like everything we’ve seen out of President Donald Trump’s Republican Party for the last decade.
“Propaganda” is Trump’s insistence that he is always right. It’s him putting his name and face on everything. It’s him lying about an election being stolen for years. It’s harming media institutions that call lies into question, calling them the “enemy of the American people.”
It is disparaging immigrants as the source of the country’s problems. It’s using extremist rhetoric in White House communications. It’s posting an AI image depicting yourself as Jesus.
It’s lying to Americans about an economy that is clearly flatlining, that you claim is the best it’s ever been. It’s making promises you can’t deliver on. It’s claiming that tariffs will save the country while costs are simultaneously pushed onto consumers. It’s claiming huge trade deals with China without elaborating on the details. It’s saying gas prices are down when they’re not. This is all propaganda, and it’s affecting the day-to-day lives of Americans who take him at his word.
The GOP has mastered propaganda. They have convinced their supporters that they are the sole saviors of the nation, that they are the only ones who can make America great again, while they’re aggressively making it worse. Meanwhile, educators in this country have to deal with attacks on their profession while making a dismal salary and teaching children that their voices can make a difference.
North Carolina deserves better than Virginia Foxx
Christian’s mother was rightfully angry about the letter in her Instagram post.
“This is a totally inappropriate response to one of her youngest constituents,” Mango wrote. “Clearly she is out of touch. I’m embarrassed that she represents NC.”
Unfortunately, the congresswoman has a history of embarrassing remarks and controversies. She once said that Matthew Shepard’s death was a “hoax,” for which she later apologized. She used a racial epithet on the House floor in 2009. In the aftermath of the Capitol storming on January 6, 2021, Foxx was fined $5,000 for failing to go through metal detectors to get to the House floor. She’s been a loose cannon, and this incident is not out of character.
I’ve long wondered what it would take for Foxx to lose re-election in North Carolina’s fifth district. It seems that, like Trump, no reprehensible comment or behavior is enough to warrant her ouster from Congress. But the people here deserve better than a politician who talks down to anyone she disagrees with. Lord knows they deserve better than someone who chooses to have beef with a fourth grader instead of doing literally anything else that would improve the quality of life in the state.
I hope this incident peels back the curtain and shows Foxx’s constituents who she really is. I just doubt it’ll make much of a difference.
In the meantime, I’m sure Christian and his mother will find comfort in the fact that Republicans are making sure kids everywhere learn exactly what propaganda is.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on Bluesky: @sarapequeno.bsky.social
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