Passive Architect

The next day we entered Asheville from the south, beneath a tunnel with a large old tree growing on top of it. People in Asheville were more earthy than healthy. Light hiking and sleeping beneath the stars was more desirable than extreme mountain climbing like the athletes of Colorado’s wilderness. People here were laid-back, accepting of every walk of life, age, and job; there was enough fresh air in the city for good living. Every shop owner had positive things to say…’Oh you’ll hear the drum circle on Friday night… Did you eat at Bouchon?.. Oh you two will love the River Arts District!’ So, we went down to the river.

Surprisingly, the River Arts district had so many blank spaces. The arts had, within the last five years, come to inhabit the industrial spaces at the river. We walked around their workshops and galleries that inhabited the same spaces.  Each building was spread apart from the next. Over two streets, held together with a hill in between and laced with the railroad track, the River Arts district didn’t really seem to be a place.

But, there were great places in each separate building! At the Riverside Studios I found two phenomenal artists. Brit J. Oie and Jon Graham.

The painting above is by Oie. She works in the Riverside Studios along with Graham, whose painting is below. His painting struck me to answer a question I always have about word art, and I appreciated how he represented words in painting.

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The Curve Gallery was refined. Three smaller building centered around a pea gravel parking lot. There was a reception for neurosurgeons arriving as we left.

This river area was desolate at five on a Saturday except for The Wedge Gallery where all kinds of people were gathered to try the beer. I had a Derailed brew and Phil and I sat to watch all the people in conversation or playing corn hole. The crowd was so diverse. This is what made the city so great, the diversity and the acceptance of it.

The last night ended at the mellow mushroom. A slow grown wisteria canopy covered the entry way. Our table swayed on the unsettled stone. We talked about people and places, piano lessons, Maryland and Italy. We talked about our travels and then went to grab a coffee to go at the Old Europe cafe. It was a packed little world of grownups. Two pretty women were behind the counter. Many patrons were bent over to look at the refrigerated glass case. Would it be a tiramisu or a fudge cupcake? I was proud to leave this city… going forth with a vision to be more tactile in my work -happy I could fend for myself by gardening and sewing. (The probable happiness most likely spawned by the cup of good coffee I was holding.)

Old Europe brings real, homemade Hungarian pastries to friends and visitors of Asheville, North Carolina.  – Old Europe pastries

Under the slow slope of snowy rhododendrons

the forest has taken leave

I am along for the ride

a passenger taking notes

driving down a frozen road

the fog is pierced by the black mountains

the frozen ground is purple

Asheville’s watershed holds bright yellow trees

the double falls in Linville Gorge

capture light for a  few minutes before sun down

we glimpse the light green fungus on the fir trees

and listen to the rushing pools

Our first day in Asheville is spent on an urban hike. We have a path through the city which we frequently turn off to stop in an art gallery, find a bookstore, eat lunch or drink a beer. But the path is our direction. I wonder if our trips into the forest are more pleasing because of the direction, and am inspired to create a psychological experiment by following  a trail in the city. I think it worked.

Asheville is where the south meets the mountains. Artists in the Woolworth Walk gallery are incredible with renderings, photo layering, and 3D Painting on cabinet doors by Deona Fish. Deona Fish describes the inspiration of meeting artists and how they have enhanced her own personal work, meeting them and getting into discussions at different art shows over the years.

This amazing work above is by Cynthia Decker, at Curious 3D . The piece below is by Red Head Press, Megan Stone who makes journals and collage books. I think I like her for a few reasons!

And now…

~The Battery Park Bookstore at The Grove Arcade~

Asheville shops are full of estate furniture and heavy framed portraits, and this book store was not an exception. We stopped for a while in the Battery Park Book Exchange and Champagne bar where women, book clubs and group dates get together and discuss poetry, home schooling, adoption and dogs.. This place also caters to dogs. I see a man holding his poodle while looking through the shelves. Bookshelves and all types of lamp lights, spot lights, track lights, and pendants help to make each velvet chair space spectacular. Most books are $1. I leave here feeling like any 10 x 10 space making homemade clothes would make you a living here in Asheville, and the feeling of destiny control is overpowering.

The above and below photos were found on their site.

That night we took a pub crawl tour lead by Chris of Better Tours of Asheville. We met at Treasure Keepers -a small antique shop at 12 Church Street. There were trays of old jewels, a plush love seat pushed against the wall, four floor to ceiling portraits of men in armor that bear modern signatures, and in the back, a wine bar.  (Lots of businesses offered a tap in the back!) A pale girl with black hair and red lipstick asked us if we’d like to try a glass of red wine and we sat down to take her up on it. She was a little antique-ey herself.

Down the street a one room comedy club held a show in the small light of an interior bricked building. Open steps led down to a hidden stage. Outside, on the dark street, there wasn’t a soul to be seen, except for the five in our tour group party, listening to the ghost stories of Church Street.

We ended the night hearing historic tales through the Yacht Club tiki bar, The Vault cocktail lounge, and trying by the end to listen on while sipping one of the thousands of brews offered at the Bier Garden. It was a good night-cap, the discussion with new people over the course of an evening,  listening to the different lifestyle choices and resulting circumstances. A honeymooning couple had tried every tour Asheville had to offer, and that shed new light on the city. Our guide was one of the few local Ashevillilians working here. He suggested hiking Pisgah, which we did do the next day, and trying the Wedge Brewing company in the River Arts District.  Saturday’s plans were set.

Cotton Mill Studios, photo taken from this site.