Potter Gives Us the Dirt Behind Her Passion for Ceramics
Potter Samantha Oliver conjures exquisite eye candy that’s endearingly functional and fun to touch. She earned her BFA from Winthrop University, studied ceramics at…
Photographer Shifts His Focus Between Goats and Iron Horses
Jeffrey Stoner became enchanted by photography during childhood, but only began marketing his work in 2004. The images sold well, and in 2007 he…
Artist/Activist Gets the Word Out in Visual Language
Multimedia sculptor, painter, and all-around creative/community dynamo Tarah Singh believes artists have a responsibility to document history. She uses the term “herstorian” to describe…
Art Helped Him Answer the Million-Dollar Question
Onicas Gaddis taught himself to draw, and he learned how to paint from abstract expressionist Sarah Carlisle Towery, an alumnus of Black Mountain College…
Potter Ditched “Heady” and Went Down to Earth
“Functional pottery is a cool, subversive art form,” believes WNC potter/ceramicist Courtney Martin. “Without even knowing it, you internalize it. You hold it and…
Keeping It So Real Even the Paint is Handmade
Across America, a culture war is raging, says painter John Mac Kah. But he’s not referencing current social movements or political turmoil. “There’s a…
Architect Sets Up House in the “Beginner’s Mind”
In 1995, following a long career as an architect, Werner Haker — born in Germany and raised partly in New York City — moved…
College Football Player Tackles Glassmaking With Characteristic Intensity
Ohio native Samuel Spees was introduced to glassmaking while pursuing a degree in mathematics and playing football at Centre College in Kentucky. He became…
Inventive High Country Sculptor Puts the “Tile” in Reptile
The studio of ceramic, textile, and sculptural artist Shae Bishop is in rural Spruce Pine. But the multimedia artist, who’s also an amateur herpetologist,…
Theriault on Gray
{Legacy Craft Series} Ceramic sculptor Verdelle Gray was born in 1918 and moved to Asheville in 1962, opening her own art studio. She continued…