Pastelist Knows the Road to Peace is Paved with Good Intentions
byElise Okrend’s canvases are far from private. They’re on daily display for thousands at a number of major hospitals, including locally at Mission in…
Mixed Media
High-Concept Installationist Doesn’t Recognize Your Arbitrary Deadlines
by“The reason we call ourselves the Faux Book Club,” says multimedia and installation artist Brenda Coates, “is that we got together to do a…
He Kicked All Traditional Art Forms Out of the Nest
byContemplating Mitchell Lonas’ work, the viewer might wonder, “How does he do that?” And Lonas doesn’t sound so sure himself. “When I first started…
Dryadic Figures Are the Ones that Transform Themselves
byAt a glance, it’s a statue of a woman. Her face is turned to the side as though she’s peering off into an unknown…
To Make It as a Healer, Speak Softly and Carry a Big Talking Stick
byWhen you call yourself a healer, you can’t be squeamish. Desiree DeMars has crafted amulets from metal plates and screws that came from clients’…
Crafter is a Menace to Society, and the World is Better for It
byFrankie Myers is always in motion. She’s reused thousands of pounds of discarded inner tubes, and has also managed to double-purpose her business’s quirky…
Book Artist Wants to Re-Plot How Viewers Consume Content
byGrowing up in the 1950s, Kristy Higby witnessed Brown v. Board of Education overturn Plessy v. Ferguson. She saw Jim Crow incite race riots…
Mosaic Teacher Leaves a Little Piece of Her Heart (and DNA) in Every Project
byIn the hands of Asheville mosaic artist and teacher Linda Pannullo, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Ten years ago…
Service-Industry Workers Do More Than Make Asheville Run
byThose who frequent Asheville’s coffee shops are used to latte art: the delicate swirls of hearts and rosettes made by steamed milk on the…
Sometimes a Googly Eye Sees More Clearly
byAs a child in the 1950s, Julia Burr hammered boards and crossed wires, constructing forts for her plastic cowboys and army-green soldiers. “I was…