Touch of Gray - January / February 2006

Habitat for Mirna
Bill Koehnline

Habitat for Mirna
   “Thank you so much for helping me and God bless,” responded Mirna Rodriguez as Carolina Meadows Executive Director Rob Boening presented a check to Amy Powell, Executive Director for Chatham Habitat for Humanity at the Carolina Meadows Residents Association meeting.

   With the presentation of the check at that June meeting, Rodriguez, who has worked in the housekeeping department at Carolina Meadows for over five years, was well on her way to realizing her dream of owning a home of her own. “You have responded again to assist one of your own. She is making it happen and so are you,” Powell said at the meeting. Later this month Rodriguez, her son, two daughters and eight-month old granddaughter will be able to move into their new home.

   Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1976 with the goal of providing decent, affordable housing for those who need it. Today Habitat for Humanity is constructing homes in more than 3,000 towns, cities and villages in more than 80 countries worldwide. Three factors make Habitat houses affordable to low-income people: houses are sold at no profit, with no interest charged on the mortgage, homeowners and volunteers build the houses under trained supervision and so save greatly on construction costs and financial support is provided through donations from individuals, faith groups and corporations.

   “Two million North Carolinians can not afford a decent place to live according to the Campaign for Housing Carolina,” said Powell. “This is a crisis that must be brought to an end.” Chatham Habitat for Humanity was established by community volunteers in 1989 to address the local problems of inadequate and unaffordable housing. All Habitat for Humanity affiliates agree to tithe a portion of the money raised locally to fund construction of homes in other parts of the world. For each home completed in Chatham County, $1,500 is sent to Habitat International.

   “It is wonderful to see how our relationship with Habitat continues to grow and evolve,” remarked Kevin McLeod, Carolina Meadows CFO. For years Carolina Meadows has regularly donated household fixtures, furniture and appliances to Habitat as villas and apartments changed hands. Carolina Meadows residents are regular volunteers at the Chatham Habitat Home Store and residents who are members of the Carpenters' Club contribute $25 each time a new Habitat house is dedicated. In 2003, Carolina Meadows residents not only fully funded a Habitat House, but also assisted with its construction.

   Knowing this strong history, the Volunteer Committee for the United Church of Chapel Hill approached its member Myles Walburn, who lives at Carolina Meadows, and asked if Carolina Meadows would become involved in assisting the church in sponsoring a Habitat House for Rodriguez, who is also a member of the Church.

   Habitat for Humanity of Chatham County would fund $25,000 through a no-interest loan, but an additional $25,000 needed to be raised. The United Church of Chapel Hill would donate $12,500 towards the house and Walburn went to Boening to see about raising the remaining funds.

   “Rob felt that we should definitely help in assisting a valued member of our extended Carolina Meadows family,” said Walburn. It was decided that if Carolina Meadows residents could raise $6,500, Mirna’s employer, Carolina Meadows Inc., would match those funds. A letter was sent out to all Carolina Meadows residents. Not only did the residents meet their goal in less than five days, they surpassed that amount and raised $8,725!

   Now that the funds had been raised, there was work to be done! While Habitat subcontracts for HVAC and plumbing, volunteers, Habitat Partners and the future homeowners perform the bulk of the construction labor. Working with the construction volunteers were Carolina Meadows residents Jack Parry and Bob Newton. Playing a big part in getting the interior of the house in shape was the Meadows paint crew, which consisted of Phil Penberthy, Myles and Barbara Walburn, Bert and Lois Morhart, Dick and Pat Ballard, Allen Evans, Bob Kent and Vickie Badrow.

   What remains now are the finishing touches. There is carpet to be laid, appliances to be installed and window shades to be hung. Then it will be up to Rodriguez and her family to actually make it a home. What a great way to ring in the New Year! -- Michelle Westrom

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Bill Koehnline
   When Bill and Phyllis Koehnline arrived at Carolina Meadows in 1995, they had thoughtfully instructed their movers to unload first a well-worn rug cut to fit the garage floor in their new villa. Since then, no car has ever rolled into their garage. The space is Bill Koehnline’s studio for the construction of art objects, which he accurately calls “indescribable.” Today his finished and unfinished works rest under plastic covers in the garage, awaiting completion or exhibition.
 
   His basic building material is styrofoam, the porous plastic often used to pack goods in shipping cases. He acquires it in all sizes and shapes, and then fashions it into imaginative objects, covered by other materials, almost all of them having served a useful life before becoming part of an art object. Cracker boxes and file folders may find a home in a Koehnline creation, then there are the cylindrical shapes, often the cores of rolls of toilet paper, paper towels, or Quaker oatmeal boxes. In one object, a section of plastic sewer pipe serves as a construction element. Such surfaces hold paint better than styrofoam.   The constructions are held together by Elmer’s glue, which Bill buys by the gallon. He estimates he has used some 200 gallons in pursuit of his muse.

   While Bill has a concept behind each of his objects, the concept is not always apparent to the casual viewer. When the creator explains his purpose, it generally dawns on the viewer that the idea is indeed there, imaginatively expressed. Most of his constructions convey whimsy, humor, and a cheerful outlook on life. But one of them, standing at about the height of the creator, which is a bit more than six feet, may represent evil in the world. From several panels the sharp ends of nails protrude, ready to take their toll of human flesh. A cavity is painted to suggest that a human skull has been there, while three-dimensional plastic bones complete the idea. A balcony-like protrusion represents a platform from which political prisoners in some malevolent dictatorship were forced to leap to their deaths in a pile of stones at the edge of a sea. Another recently completed assemblage features a large gold cross lending a note of blessing to the whole.  The viewer is entirely welcome to view any object in a fresh context—perhaps even one that had not occurred to the creator.
 
   Koehnline is not intent on describing his objects in conventional art terms. They are three-dimensional, but not "sculpture," a term that might occur to the uninitiated He rejects the term “abstract,” because, as he says, “In abstraction you start with a recognizable object and it becomes something else. An abstraction is a synthesized version of reality.” He prefers the term “assemblage.” The artist identifies his philosophy with that of the architect Frank Gehry, sometimes described as expressionist and postmodern, whose sculptured, asymmetrical buildings are landmarks from Bilbao, Spain, to the Music Experience Project in Seattle and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

   Bill and his wife, Phyllis, have deep roots in Chapel Hill. The two met while Bill was a graduate student at UNC and Phyllis an undergraduate. When they became engaged, Phyllis decided that if she were going to marry someone deeply involved in modern art, she should at least be conversant with the subject. After some courses at UNC, she was able to join in his enthusiasm. They were married in 1950.
 
   After both had earned their degrees at UNC, Bill taught English at a series of colleges in the Midwest, receiving his Ph. D in English from Ohio State University.  Continuing his teaching, he served successively as chairman of the English Dept. as Academic Dean.   In 1970 he became the founding president of Oakton Community College in Morton Grove, IL, a Chicago suburb.  During his presidency, an arts quarterly magazine published an article on Bill’s work, and this led to a community cable television station producing and broadcasting a documentary on his offbeat art. Since his retirement in 1984, Oakton's William A. Koehnline Gallery has become the Koehnline Museum of Art.
 
   Phyllis carried on her own career as an ordained Presbyterian minister and pastor of the Evanshire Presbyterian church in Skokie, IL, their home for 25 years. A touch of the artist has moved down the generational line. The Koehnlines’ son, Jim, assembles two-dimensional collages in a wild variety of materials, then uses a computer to adjust colors and composition to produce images of beauty that never existed in the real world. He is also an accomplished painter in oils, adhering somewhat closer to objective reality in his subjects than does his father in his. Daughters Lyn (for Evelyn) and Carrie (for Carolyn) are also talented and productive artists. Lyn is the conservator at the Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill, and Carrie creates whimsical illustrations for her own stories.

   Many years ago, Bill gave a large construction mostly of styrofoam to a sorority at the Champaign-Urbana campus of the University of Illinois. The new owners left it in place as an out-of-doors conversation piece until it was penetrated by ivy roots and collapsed.
 
   One of the rewarding aspects of Bill Koehnline’s work is sharing his creations with children who often penetrate to the heart of his pieces more readily than do their elders. A friend, Lisa Lord, who teaches the fourth and fifth grades at the Club Boulevard Humanities Magnet School in Durham, persuaded Bill to donate some of his works for a PTA fund-raising auction. Students and their parents entered written bids for the works, all thirty of which were sold.

   Most of the students were subsidized by their parents, but one little girl insisted on using her own money to buy a piece that she liked. With a smile of satisfaction and stroking her new possession, she said, “I never imagined that I would have my own original work of art.” Another student, a young girl who was born in India, selected a piece done in warm reddish orange, turquoise, magenta and bright yellow, possibly because it reminded her of the colors used in art in her homeland.

   The budding young art enthusiasts dubbed one previously untitled piece with two blue bulges “Blue eyes”. A school secretary who bid on one object failed to attend the final auction, and was outbid by a nickel. One young student who figured that he had grasped the artist’s intent, scrawled, “For further information, see Ian McLean.” He was Ian McLeain.

   Recently Bill arranged a special showing of his work for students at the University Presbyterian Pre-Kindergarten School on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill.  The five year olds enjoyed stretching their imaginations with an object made of clear plastic, about 30 inches in length, its design taken from a Pepsi Cola logo, suggesting a fish swimming in the deep sea.  With a little encouragement, they thought also of a bird, a cloud, and if it were green?  A leaf!

   The children are studying recycling, and were delighted with Bill's gift of three of his objects which illustrate their interest in the conservation and re-use of resources.  In return they sang for him their recycling theme song, to the tune of "We wish you a Merry Christmas:”

   We wish you would all recycle
   We wish you would all recycle
   We wish you would all recycle
   And save our good earth.”

   Bill has also played host to youngsters attending a day camp that is a regular summer event at Carolina Meadows. He arranged the pieces on the driveway of the villa, and attracted the attention not only of the visiting children but also of residents driving by who stopped to enjoy the outdoor display and the children.

   Bill Koehnline has never sold any of his work because commerce is of no consideration to him. He is more interested in presenting an artist’s unique view of the world around him—and as a sub-text, delivering a message on recycling and the environment. -- Bob Parker, Resident

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