No visit to a city is complete unless I check out the local version of my favorite store. Sadly, I found nothing to buy.
I should say that the ladies' room in the bookstore (graffiti in last post) provides piles of colored chalk so that people can write. The place is covered in it, and none of it is nasty. We went into the bookstore for coffee and I could have spent ages there, among the shelves. The best gallery was a place called Ariel. Their website doesn't begin to show the beautiful, beautiful work that is there.
The Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway is a showplace for high-end crafts made by members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. A must-see if you are in Asheville. My hostess Rita works there, so I was lucky enough to visit the place twice. 
AND - let's not forget a visit to the famous Earth Guild, at left, mecca for crafts supplies of all sorts. www.earthguild.com but their website seems to be down. Color and texture everywhere. Looms, basket supplies, dyes, paints, you name it. Yummy. And Ellen was able to find Golden's GAC 900 there so she could use her acrylic paints on fabric without changing the hand.
Gee, I almost forgot to mention the workshop. Everybody had such a good time that they have invited me back. So if you were on the waiting list, you'll have another chance in 2008.
Meantime, I need to have my morning coffee and continute unpacking/re-packing for my next trip to spend 2 weeks in West Palm Beach. Need to bring a ton of supplies so I can work while I am there.
4 comments:
Hi Rayna -- Reading about your travels & adventures brings me all kinds of vicarious pleasure! It also makes me realize that at least one of the motivations for starting a blog must be that it forces one to get out and so something interesting EVERY DAY, just to have something to write about.
I guess photography has served that purpose for me. The thing I like about photography is that it's intensely experiential -- you actually have to BE THERE to make a photograph. My own approach is about as simple as it gets: I hang my little $10 plastic camera around my neck, carry it with me everywhere I go, and photograph pretty much whatever crosses my path. The real secret, I've discovered, is to find interesting paths to follow....
It looks like Ashville is a very artful place! I've never thought about going there before, but it looks like a place I'd like to visit now that you've sparked my interest! Thanks!
Hi Ted. Glad you're traveling and adventuring with me - although I wish EVERY DAY were interesting enough to write about.
Just wait till I get to West Palm Beach to spring my mother from rehab and spend every day for 2 wks getting things organized settled, and hiring help for her.
Now THAT should be interesting.
Are you shooting black & white with your little plastic camera? Since you can post to this blog, how about sharing a few of your pix?
I agree,I observe my surroundings differently when I am carrying my camera. And as much as I love my digital, it isn't fast enough and I miss a lot. But I have improved since I attended the Molly Rosenberg School of Photography, where I learned to cut off people's heads and photograph the inside of my pocketbook while it is closed.
Ah yes, Asheville. I have fond memories of that city from an experience some years ago when I was teaching summer workshops at Penland School of Crafts (nestled up the the Blue Ridge Mountains, about sixty miles away).
Back then (and maybe still) North Carolina allowed alcohol sales to be regulated on a county by county basis – and as luck would have it, Penland was in a “dry” county. So once a week we’d send a runner off to to buy gin & related beverages from the nearest “wet” county that had a state-run liquor store, which for us turned out to be in Asheville.
Well, the second or third time our courier went into the Asheville ABC store, the clerk took his list, returned with the requested items, placed them on the counter, looked both ways, and then added, “Here’s your order, but if you’d like the REALLY good stuff….” --- at which point he proceeded to reach under the counter and pull out a jug of 200-proof bootleg WHITE LIGHTNING moonshine! At the State Liquor Store!
Suffice it to say that the spiked lemonade at our parties that summer became a permanent addition of the legend & lore of Penland. All thanks to Asheville....
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