my weekend.

This past weekend I had the fortune to be the guest of my friend and studio mate Tim Tate at the Annual Penland Auction. Tim generously donated a fantastic piece to the auction

four seasons by tim tate

Check out his facebook page to catch a glimpse of the effect that penland has had on tim and his life.
no way i could try to capture that here. i'll just say that Tim's speeches get everyone all teary, his work drew cheers as it came on stage for the auction, and it garnered $25,000 for the school. all in all very powerful stuff. hit him up on facebook if'n you want to know more.

The weekend was full of seeing art, and artists, and writers, and visiting studios and chatting with lovers of art. and eating and drinking. really, not much more one could ask for.  well... a good coffee shop would have been nice.

happy hour at the printing studio

I got to talk with a few of my art crushes. the cool wood worker Sylvie Rosenthal, the quirky machine maker Leah Frost, the badass iron worker Hoss Haley.  lots of wonderful people were there. so much talent.

A highlight for me was meeting and seeing the work of Cristina Cordova . This piece, entitled Isla nearly brought a tear to my eye when seeing it. Unbelievably beautiful and skillful. One of those pieces that just takes my breathe away and inspires me in a way i wish i could describe. it's one of the most beautiful pieces of art i've ever seen. and i've seen a lot of art.


I got to learn more about the residency and the core student fellowship that Penland offers. There was a tour of the resident studios including the cool works of Amy Tavern, Tom Shields, Gwendolyn Yoppolo 
the tour included a free coffee mug by a former core student Jason Bige Burnett.

During the auction there was an unbelievably moving speech by a former Core Student Fellow Wes Stitt.  That brought a tear to my eye too. it really is a place that, for me, has a very powerful draw and an unbelievably creative and welcoming energy. Wes captured that in his talk.  I'm dying to take some classes there, and i would encourage anyone else to also.

A shot of the auction tent.



The view of the mountains from around Penland



and besides, who wouldn't want to work in this metal shop: