March 2021

Presenting the winners of the third annual Wrightsville Beach Magazine photography contest — including some amazing images taken after the sun went down. We asked for the best shots from area photographers and boy did you deliver! Our third annual photo contest drew nearly twice as many entries as last year’s, making it even more…

At first glance, it may be hard to tell if this is a custom-designed art gallery overlooking the Cape Fear River, a showcase for an interior designer and local architect, or a chic urban penthouse filled with modern finishes and fixtures. The simple answer is all three, but in a residence that blurs the line…

Curtis Krueger grabs a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and applies several droplets onto his image as it floats in a tray of water.  “Watch this,” he says. The image is of cypress trees, taken with a Nikon D300 at Blue Cypress Lake in Florida from a kayak one foggy morning. Instantly, the chemical reaction of…

1. Wilmington photographer Curtis Krueger mixes together equal parts ammonium ferric citrate and potassium ferricyanide, the two required chemicals for the cyanotype process. 2. The mixture of the two chemicals is then applied evenly onto watercolor paper.  3. An image of cypress trees, previously printed as a negative, is positioned on top of the dry…

{Off Frying Pan Shoals aboard the menhaden ship H.W. Anderson, Oct. 1, 1960} “Fish!” shouted the captain as the H.W. Anderson’s powerful 500-horsepower twin diesel engines roared to life. High above the ship, a bright green Piper Super Cub spotter plane, brilliant against a cloudless azure sky, descended in a tight bank, circling low over…

From the very first trip with my dad, I was totally enamored with anything related to fishing. My first fish was caught on the last piece of shrimp that I had discovered as we were gathering gear to leave. Dad agreed to let me try one last cast and it netted me the largest croaker…

Presenting the life and work of Tom Risser with clarity and accuracy is an intimidating proposition. To put it simply, this sculpture artist/entrepreneur/engineer/skateboarder has a lot of irons in the fire and a seemingly endless supply of energy. The idea that a work of art is a gift an artist bestows for the world to…

Public outdoor sculpture gardens hold an important place in the American art world. The significance of these installations as a cultural destination and a center of inspiration has only been reinforced in the past several months, as the pandemic forced most art galleries and museums to shutter their doors. One of the foremost examples in…

Home is more than a literal place or shelter. Home is a feeling, a comfort, a space to go when your bones are tired and you’re ready to hang your hat for the day. For over 500,000 Americans, this is more of a dream than reality. That’s how many homeless people there were in the…

Westerners who have heard of moringa oleifera might think it is a relative newcomer to the canon of superfoods. But for a lot of the world, particularly Asia, Africa, South America and the Caribbean, the leafy green vegetable has been an important dietary staple for centuries. Originally, it was believed to have been discovered at…