Paul Hartley, painter, dies at 65

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The artist as mentor

One of North Carolina's most influential painters and educators will be honored with a large exhibition of works by his former students.

"The Legacy of Paul Hartley" will be divided between two Glenwood South galleries for a six-month run beginning today.

Hartley's representative, gallery owner Lee Hansley, has been putting the show together since Hartley's death on Thanksgiving. The result is nearly 200 works, mostly paintings, by 100 artists from across the country. The artists were all students of Hartley, who taught at East Carolina University in Greenville for nearly four decades.

Artwork donated to NCCU museum

Earlier this year, an Atlantic Beach couple lent several paintings by noted African-American artist A.B. Jackson to the art museum at N.C. Central University.

With the exhibition's end came a surprise: The couple, Mary Jo and Dick Bell, donated the paintings and others -- 14 in all -- to the museum.

The collection is valued at nearly $200,000 and is the largest gift the museum has ever received.

Stories vividly painted

The simple, colorful painted stories drawn from her past have made Ruth Russell Williams one of North Carolina's most original artists, according to Kenneth G. Rodgers, director of the N.C. Central University Art Museum, which opens an exhibition of her works today.

"She occupies a prominent place among self-taught artists," Rodgers says.

Her achievement is especially noteworthy because she built her reputation and commercial success through a yearly exhibition that she held in her own home in the little Vance County town of Williamsboro.

Firing of DATA manager illegal

City officials said Wednesday they remain committed to a diverse work force in the wake of an arbitrator's ruling last month that the company hired to operate Durham's bus system unlawfully fired a white general manager in 2005 because of his race.

MV Transportation was ordered to pay Thomas Hartley $172,844 for replacing him with a black woman of "questionable qualifications," according to Jonathan Harkavy, a Greensboro attorney brought in by a judge to arbitrate the case with the consent of both MV and Hartley.

Federal law states that race shouldn't be considered when making any employment decisions, but the city will give preferences to minorities and women if their qualifications are equal to those of nonminority applicants, Human Resources Director Alethea Bell said.

Painting's clues point to artist

It's like learning the dusty table in your attic is Philadelphia Chippendale.

In 2001, the Duke University Museum of Art sent a curator to France to shop for its permanent collection. In the elegant office of a Paris dealer, curator Anne Schroder saw a dramatic painting of Clytemnestra.

Dealer Etienne Breton warned her that he had no idea who had painted it. The only clues: the initials "FG" and the year 1787.