"I have always found peace and solace in the outdoors and in nature. Wildlife photography combines many skill sets including ruggedness, patience, knowledge of the subject, knowledge of your camera, composition and noting the way light does its magic within your preconceived image." A selection of Hickory native Gaines' photographs will be on display at HMA between September 26, 2015 and January 10, 2016.

“There’s a quality to the picture, an ambiguity in her expression, that is intensely striking. Not quite a smile, not quite a frown, a mixture of curiosity and wariness in her eyes that people respond to.” (Steve McCurry, on first seeing what he had created.)

” He was an intuitive painter, using a mix of media including oils and watercolor, with a strong sense of color, draftsmanship, and composition. ... Boyce’s [eyes] really twinkled! He had a wonderful personality.”

"He was on medication, but art was a significant part of his therapy also." He loved the bipolar highs which was when he did much of his painting. In his own words, he was a “junk assembler, a garbage collector … a waking sleeper. A regular-kind-of-guy who just happens to know for certain he is an artist.”

"It all goes back to the knowledge and enthusiasm from my elementary art teacher.  It was then I fell in love with art."

“I’m a blessed, gut paintin’, greasy liver mush eatin’, fast car drivin’ Ninja Turtle Goonie inspired, gator huntin’ cardinal watchin’ public vandalizin’, North Carolina family rooted, Grandfather Mountain lovin’, colorist, educated hillbilly artist."

“Sam uses bold shapes and bright colors to make joyful paintings of happy times. People are dressed up and having fun. Skies are blue, the sun is shining, birds have houses, and chickens come in lots of colors. His paintings are turning up around every local corner nowadays.” (from Mike’s Art Truck web site in 2014.)

"Printmaking for [Elizabeth] Catlett is a consciously political practice. At the same time, however, her prints – some intricately detailed and others elegantly spare – manifest her understanding that the power of an image resides in the artist’s command of form, sensitivity to materials and technical proficiency."

Catawba County native Carl Moser's avocation was photography, mostly of rural and mountain landscapes, wildflowers, and portraits. A member of Catawba Valley Camera Club since 1955, he often led photographers on field trips.

Hickory resident Eddie Hamrick has crafted gifts for seven presidents, four North Carolina governors, andAndrew Lloyd Webber. He gave President Obama a banjo, Charlie Daniels a fiddle and Bob Costas a stein. But he’s also gone broke seven times and he’s cheated death a couple of times.

During HMA's retrospective exhibit of Hamrick's works in 2015, Hamrick's face i was on a billboard alongside Interstate 40 in Hickory, beckoning drivers to come to the Hickory Museum of Art. It showed Hamrick dressed as Geppetto, with a sculpture of Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket.