Weaverville Art Safari Studio Tour, April 27-28

Most safaris spotlight megafauna like African elephants, Barbary lions, and Cape buffalo. But during the Weaverville Art Safari Studio Tour, painter Kim Austin wants to call attention to the tinier lifeforms among us. “I find joy in discovering and presenting the personalities of frogs, bees, and birds,” she tells Asheville Made. “In our busy lives, we often overlook the small creatures and how similar we are.” Crows are gregarious gossipers, for instance. If one discovers fresh carrion or senses a hawk nearby, it will communicate the information through a series of vocalizations. Austin captures this in her piece “Neighborhood Gossip,” which was spurred by two chatty corvids outside her Weaverville studio. “My art has been an exploration of different mediums and styles, ranging from emotional abstract in my college years to more realistic in my later life,” says Austin. “But after moving to Western North Carolina in 2000, nature has become my inspiration.” Austin is one of several dozen artists participating in the self-guided studio stroll, which stretches from the Reems Creek area in the south to Barnardsville and Marshall in the north. Participants can expect to see a murder of mediums, from fiber art to photography.