Last Arrowmont Post: The Resident Artists

Okay....this is it for my posts about Arrowmont! I saved the best for last! One of my absolute favorite parts about going to Arrowmont this summer was getting to meet the resident artists. One of my best friends, Victoria Altepeter, is the new metals resident this year. The other residents are Martina Lantin (ceramics), Thaddeus (TJ) Erdahl (ceramics), and Kent Perdue (wood). They are a very talented group and it was so fun getting to know them.

Each week they did open studio tours for everyone to come in and see what they were up to.

Here is TJ in his studio.Victoria's studio.Martina's studio.

Kent's studio.

Take a look at their work on the arrowmont residents blog, and also each of their individual blogs. Seriously, well worth your time!

Victoria Altepeter

Martina Lantin

Kent Perdue

Thaddeus Erdahl

They put up an exhibition of their work this summer right before I had to go home. It looked so good! Check it out...Kent Perdue's chair rings and bench (above and below).TJ's work. (above and two below)Victoria's belt buckles and brooches (above).Martina's wall tiles/plates (above).

Okay...now you have a taste, go check out their blogs!

The Fabricated Ring with C. James Meyer

While at Arrowmont this summer I had the opportunity to take a ring fabrication class with Jim Meyer. Jim was the metals dept. head at Virginia Commonwealth University for 25 years (I think) and is now the professor for the jewelry study abroad program in Cortona Italy. He was a wonderful teacher and I had a great time with all the other ladies in the class!

Here is some of Jim's work, these are two brooches.

This is from a series Jim makes of jewelry with little box environments that go with them. The picture above shows the ring in its place in the box. Below you see the ring outside of the box.

Here is what I made during the class...a few rings and a few random other things!This ring was a trade I did with one of the other studio assistant girls. I got an awesome encaustic painting from her and made her this ring with a rock she found at Arrowmont.Simple band with larimar.Finally did a forged ring...it was actually a lot of fun!I loved this embroidered one...I did it with a celadon colored silk embroidery ribbon. I traded this it away for a necklace from Jessica Calderwood (Ill post pics soon!) but I totally need to make another one because I wanted to keep it!This was a funny little experiment...not sure I like how it turned out...it looks too much like a flower!And I traded this one for some plates from Martina Lantin, one of the ceramics residents. Ill post pics of those soon too.Two little embroidered pins.And something I am actually pretty excited about...spoons! I found these at the flea market there in sevierville. They were pretty thick steel and a pain in the butt to embroider but I like how they turned out and cant wait to make more!

I still have a few more arrowmont posts coming...stay tuned and thanks for reading!

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.

Arrowmont in Trouble

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts is in danger of loosing its land. If you care about the arts and crafts community and education, please read this post! Even if you have never been to Arrowmont, you should understand the importance of preserving an institution that promotes education in the art and craft field.

The Pi Beta Phi fraternity is currently in negotiations with developers to sell the property that Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts resides on. This will have an incredible impact on the school. The property and many of the buildings are not owned by Arrowmont but rather leased to them by the fraternity.There is talk of the developers wanting to use the property to build new condos and an indoor water park.

Please check the following link to see the fraternity's statement.

http://www.pibetaphi.org/pibetaphi/

Arrowmont posted an official statement on their website today as well. http://www.arrowmont.org/arrowmontnews.html

If you want to help save Arrowmont, you can sign a petition that states the following...

"The Pi Beta Phi Fraternity, specifically the seven person Grand Council, has started negotiations to sell and develop the property they have owned and used for education since 1912 and has been home to the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts since 1968. According to Emily Tarr, Grand president of the fraternity, "this development is another opportunity to benefit the community." Mrs Tarr is completely wrong. The development of the Arrowmont property will do nothing to benefit Gatlinburg. Building more tourist traps of excess consumption and greed is of no advantage to the community. Please sign this petition to send a message to Mrs. Tarr and the other members of the Pi Phi Grand Council that you do not support this development and you want to save Arrowmont!"

SIGN THE PETITION HERE.

Arrowmont: The Instructors

While at Arrowmont, I met some really amazing and talented people. One of my favorite parts of Arrowmont, was that everyone there was so kind, so willing to learn and share. There were no cliques, no judgement, and no competition. Everyone was there to make art and friends. I have to say, it was very different from the realm of graduate school that I normally confine myself to. Anyway, I thought it would be nice to show you the work of some of the instructors that were there while I was there. They were all so nice and so down to earth, and after seeing their work, I came home very inspired.Michaelene Walsh was there teaching ceramics. These cups were in the faculty show. The images below are taken from the Dubhe Carreño Gallery website. "Elegy""Bittersweet""Ghost"Another instrctor that was there, was Jennifer Angus. I have to admit I was a bit starstruck when I met her...I only give lectures to my students about her work a couple times a semester! Jennifer creates huge installations using real bugs. She creates a wallpaper like pattern on the walls of a room using little insect bodies. Her work is beautiful. She was super nice and everyone who took her class had a great time. Check out her website here. This is one of her installations.This is a detail from a different installation. All the colors of the bugs are natural. Isn't it just beautiful?
Another one of the instructors that I really enjoyed meeting was wood artist and furniture maker Michael Mocho (his work above). While working on my undergraduate degree, I took many woods classes and was the wood shop monitor at ASU, so I have a soft spot in my heart for woods. Michael let me go down to the wood shop and bug him a few times. I am trying to talk him in to coming to AZ for our Yuma Symposium. Anyway. he too was very nice, and his work was stunning. I wish I could find more images to show you...
This was the wood shop where all the lathes were.
This is the shop where Michael was teaching box construction (and probably wondering why I was taking a picture of him from the looks of it). I wish I could have taken this class too! I got some images of his work (below) off the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship website, where Michael has been an instructor.
"Enso Flask #1""Bubinga Swirl"

David Ellsworth was also there teaching wood turning. I didn't really get a chance to meet him, but I enjoyed listening to and watching his slide show. These are some of his hollow turned vessels. (above and below) I also got to meet Printmaker and Book Artist Diane Fine. (One of her collaborative works above). She was very nice and I really liked her work! Check out more images on her website.
And last, but not least, is Becky Chader McDonah. Becky is the metals professor at ASU, and the reason I was able to go to Arrowmont. The piece above is what she had in the faculty show at Arrowmont. It was hard to get a picture of because it is actually supposed to be mounted on the wall. Its a little cootie plaque. Becky's work always makes me smile.This is a raised bowl she made as a reliquary for dandelion seeds.

This one is a reliquary for mosquito repellant. It was really fun to get to spend the week with Becky, and all the other people at Arrowmont. There were other instructors there that I am not showing you, but these are the ones that I was able to meet.

I had a lot of fun last week and met so many great people. I know that I am changed from my experiences at Arrowmont.