Holy Smokies

My first week at Arrowmont went soooooooooooo fast!!! I got here last Friday and it has been a whirlwind ever since.

Okay, maybe I should back up:) This summer I am spending 4 weeks in Gatlinburg, Tennessee at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. I applied and was given the opportunity to come and work as a studio assistant. For every week I work, I am able to take a class here. That means I get to take two classes! Arrowmonts work study and studio assitant program is a wonderful opportunity for artists of any age in any stage of life, see more here. On the weeks that I work I am responsible (along with other studio assistants) for making sure all the studios here run smoothly, as well as various other duties. I had an Artists Books class last week with Dan Mayer...it was a blast! This week I am working, but next week I will be in a metals class with Jim Meyer! So excited!

Check out some pics from the first week here:

Flew into Knoxville, TN...a very different landscape than the 115 degree desert that I left!

The first night I was here, Arrowmont had their Art Auction, which raises money for programs like the one that allowed me to come here! I'm so grateful to all the generous artists who gave work for the auction, and also to all the buyers who spent their money so that I could be here!

Left-Jacob Meders, Right-Dan Mayer. Dan taught the artists books class that I took last week, and Jacob was his assistant. They are both from ASU as well, Dan a professor and Jacob a printmaking grad.

Our class hard at work!

This was some Vanderbuilt mansion we drove to one day...it was crazy huge.

View from the porch.Filled with Arts and Crafts revival furniture and decor. SOOOooo gorgeous!This fireplace was ginormous!One day we went into Ashville, North Carolina and hit up all the art galleries. My favorites were The Blue Spiral, and Ariel Gallery. More on those later! Every night there are slide presentations by the instructors here, and also the residents and the studio assistants. So, I've been getting to hear lots of amazing people talk about their work! And I've also gotten more practice myself, even though its pretty much my least favorite thing to do!

Well, thats all I have time for at the moment. Tons more to blog soon.