—Arshia Simkin, The Underline
Hillsborough writer and musician John Claude Bemis is no stranger to the creative arts, although his latest artistic endeavor may be a surprising one: mask making.
Bemis, who was an elementary school teacher for over a decade and who now teaches writing workshops, is best known for his work as a writer. He is the author of two popular series of middle grade books (The Out of Abaton series—a reimagining of the classic Pinocchio tale—and The Clockwork Dark Trilogy, a fantasy series that engages with American folktales), with a new graphic novel—Rodeo Hawkins & The Daughters of Mayhem—slated for publication next year.
He’s also a musician, and now—with a debut solo show of his sculptural masks at the Hillsborough Arts Council gallery, running from April 20 to June 23—a visual artist.
Bemis is a North Carolina native who has long been inspired by nature, animals, folktales and fantasy. In both his writing and his mask making, he enjoys world building, creating mythologies and using existing myths and legends, and exploring “imagination, wonder and magic,” he said. While making the masks, Bemis said he liked to picture what fantastical woodland creatures “might live on the banks of the Eno [River],” which runs through the woods where he lives.
Bemis’ first foray into masks was two years ago, for Hillsborough’s biannual Handmade Parade, a community-organized walking parade, which features music, costumes, and dancers. Since then, Bemis has spent the past two years using the masks as a creative outlet while continuing to write and teach. The mask making has been a welcome respite from simply “staring at the screen,” as writing so often requires, he noted.
On the website for his masks, Bemis describes them as “sculptural crowns and masks based on woodland spirits.” The masks contain some recognizable animal forms: a cat, a wolf, a squirrel, a fox, a rabbit, owls, and some human faces, but they are distorted—and made riveting—by the uncanny; the fox’s ear contains a painting of human skulls, the rabbit’s hollow eyes drip long, beaded tears; the cat’s expression hovers somewhere between placid and menacing.
Bemis constructs his masks using papier-mâché over balloons or martin gourds—which he especially likes for the organic, snout-like shape the gourds provide. He sculpts the faces from a lightweight clay and often incorporates found objects such as twigs, black walnuts, or buckeyes from the woods, where he spends much time walking.
Bemis said that he often shows the masks-in-progress with his daughter, a high schooler who is a visual artist herself, and enjoys hearing what suggestions she has for him.
Bemis is especially intrigued by the concept of a mask as artistic object because it is “loaded with symbolism” and “almost has a life of it’s own,” he said. He also enjoys that viewers can start to form their own narratives about the masks. “They can be inherently creepy,” he said, with a laugh. But for Bemis, their mysteriousness and slightly unsettling nature is part of the allure. “To me,” Bemis said, “they are almost like fairies or spirits or something, or demigods and deities that would exist in this kind of woodland area where I live.”
Bemis noted that he probably wouldn’t be making masks if he didn’t live in Hillsborough, which is “such an extraordinary place to live and work as an artist,” he said. He concluded: “It makes you want to make art.”
Learn more about Bemis’ masks and writing at mask website https://www.studiobemis.com/ ; author website: https://www.johnclaudebemis.com/; and on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnclaudebemis/
