Textile Artist Grew Out of the T-Shirt Business
“Patterns are created in everything,” observes textile artist Michael Kane. Flying birds form an unmistakable pattern; rain on a still lake less obviously so….
“Disturbing the Comfortable” is Part of This Nurse’s Artistic Oath
As a child, Deborah Anderson was fascinated by pieces of animal skeletons she found in the woods. She’d take them home and try to…
Portrait of the Artist as a Born Instructor
Many middle schoolers can draw. Far fewer of them know how to critique the formal elements of a drawing, breaking down its use of line or shape. But…
When Backing Up is Not an Option
Painter Joan Lesikin attended the Art Students League in Woodstock, earned her BFA at Syracuse University, and completed an MFA at Rutgers. Her award-winning…
It’s Easier to Outwit the Southern Sun than to Be a Brooklyn Artist
The mother of self-taught illustrator and printmaker James Flames gave him the “new mommy” journal she kept when he was a baby. It contained…
It Was the Right Place (Must Have Been the Right Time)
When Rob Travis was a kid, he’d visit his grandmother once or twice a year in rural Georgia, and she taught him to identify…
Leaving the Corporate World Meant Landing in a Field of Flowers
“I had a great childhood,” says Susan Strazzella, turning the “suffering equals art” notion upside down. As though in gratitude, her painted world now…
Lauren Rutten on Doris Ulmann
Legacy Crafters Series | Part 3 Photographer Doris Ulmann was instrumental in documenting life in the rural South in the 1920s and early ’30s,…
Painter Turns Away from the River, Heads Deeper into the Forest
Cheyenne Trunnell was around 12 years old when she encountered her first piece of abstract art. So when she saw the painting, created by…
Mary Doornbos on Murray Martin
Legacy Crafters Series | Part 2 Murrial “Murray” Martin (1903-2005) supervised the John C. Campbell Folk School woodcarving program from 1935 to 1973. Her…
Picture Leaving Big-City Success to Visit Skeet Ranges
Colby Caldwell, an internationally esteemed photographer, took a risk by coming back to Western North Carolina. He’d grown up in Mills River, but moved…
Metal Sculptor’s Career was Sparked by a Love of Animals
Her dad, who refurbished guitars, taught her to work with tools. Her mom worked another angle, instilling a passion for wildlife. Every birthday, Mel…