Former dean of Appalachian State University’s Department of Art Noyes Capehart visited the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts on Wednesday night as part of the Turchin Center’s Fall ARTSpectrum Lecture Series.

The talks allow “contemporary artists to speak about their individual practice in order to offer deeper insight to our audiences,” Turchin Center Director Hank Foreman said.

Capehart is both an accomplished artist and fiction writer. His talk included a reading of his latest novel “The Devil’s Mark,” which is a historical thriller intertwining Michelangelo, an art forgery ring, the famous Medici family and stolen Nazi art.

The artist went into some depth describing what it is like to be both a writer and a visual artist.

“I don’t see any separation,” he said.

One of Capehart’s friends in the audience asked where the artist’s energy comes from after so many years.

“It’s through the writing and the painting that you get the energy,” Capehart said. “It’s the fun, the sheer pleasure of doing it.”

In 2006, Dancingfish Press released a culmination of his work over the previous 35 years called “The Private Diary,” and in 2008 a short segment about Capehart’s career titled “An Artist’s Reflections” garnered an Emmy award.

“To have a person like [Capehart] in Boone, that blows my mind,” professor in the Department of History Peter Petschauer said.

Capehart’s friends and longtime coworkers were not the only ones to express deep admiration.

“Devil’s Mark” is available in the University bookstore, on Amazon Kindle and at capehart.org.

The next ARTSpectrum speaker isNorth Carolina poet laureate and professor in the Deaprtment of English Joseph Bathanti on Nov. 6.

Story: SAM LINEBERGER, Intern A&E Reporter