A visit with John and Patti Hill - part II

Saturday, July 5, 2008.

John and Patti took me to Asheville to gallery hop for the day. We started at the Grovewood Gallery, near the Groveport Inn. I stayed at the Groveport Inn several years ago and was really impressed with the place. I didn't know about the Grovewood Gallery at that time, so I'm very glad I had a chance to see it during this visit.

There is a lovely sculpture garden, studio space, and a gift gallery inside, plus the furniture society gallery space. That's quite a package deal.








We walked through the sculpture garden first. It was slightly drizzling at the time, but not enough to be a bother.


This garden panel is by Grace Cathay.














Patti looks like a pixie sitting on this butterfly bench by Cricket Forge.










What a pretty water garden.














Gretchen Lothrop - "Frolicsome Fountain"

















Wind garden sculptures by Lymon Whitaker. John and Patti have one of these near their patio.
















"Ballerina" by Stefan Bonitz. This is a huge sculpture!

















I think this is another Stefan Bonitz sculpture.
















"Buoy" by Ralph Berger. This is from a steel buoy that has been pierced - probably using some cutting torch. I really was drawn to this one.











The loop for the anchor makes this sculpture look like a huge Christmas tree ornament.















"Contemplation" by Tinka Jordy - this is a ceramic sculpture.














This aluminum sculpture is by Scott Strader and is called "Anulus"

















"Wild horses" by Cricket Forge













I didn't catch the name of the maker on this or the next one, but I really enjoyed how whimsical they were. Both brought a smile to my face.






























"Duet" by Dale Rogers

















This was a lucky break.
















The artist is Carl Powell and it was really great to meet him and see the work in progress, plus a lot of finished pieces on display.









Laminated glass and stained glass panels were the primary work on display.














I loved how the light from the windows played off the sculptures - it was eye candy, for sure!














Woodturners often have a shop dog that hangs around the studio. Carl has a studio dog who took up a lot of floor space and had no reaction what-so-ever to all the foot traffic in the studio.











Detail images of some of Carl's installations












Tools and sculptures












Concrete, steel and glass - cool combo.

















The cover of a book showing Carl's work.












You can tell from looking at the studio that this is an active place when tours aren't being given.














The stained glass work was really interesting.












Glass pieces waiting to be placed.














This one was pretty different than th others in that it didn't have concrete or steel as part of the sculpture. It has an entirely different feel than the other ones in the studio.
















This a a good example of a contrast between the glass base and some other medium.













Carl is pretty comfortable with explaining his work and the process of making. I enjoyed hearing about his installations and sculptural pieces.











I always enjoy seeing the sketches that go with a finished or planned piece.












I think this is a polishing or grinding wheel for shaping the bevels and finishing off edges.

















Here are some of the diamond polishing wheels that go with that piece of equipment.












I really liked this body of work. If I had a larger home and no kids or pets, I'd be very tempted to buy one of these sculptures for my collection.














A panel that's either finished or nearly so.


















Detail of the last one, showing some of the interesting graphic design.












After touring through Carl Powell's glass studio, we walked through the gift and furniture gallery. I bought some dangling earrings here.









An example of how some of these craft items are presented.












The furniture gallery is upstairs and I really enjoyed seeing the variety of pieces on display.













This is the kind of art you can live with and use.











The wall sculptures and panels were also very interesting. This one was woven metal that had different kinds of patina.












More eye candy.













Ditto.












This cabinet was particularly interesting with the carved surface.

















A detail of the top.












Next gallery was the Blue Spiral - a wonderful place to visit.









First, though, Patti wanted to go look for a Tilley hat like the one I've been wearing for the past year. This one was cute on her, but wasn't a hemp hat like mine.







After all that gallery hopping, we had dinner and then went to "Shindig on the Green," which is a weekly event during the summer. Musicians gather to jam and then share tunes on stage. There are a lot of bands that play, formal and pick-up ones seemed to be in equal measure.

The music was bluegrass and old-time. No Celtic music at all - bummer!








The placed was jammed full of people who were enjoying the music.










The music was generally pretty good. I'm not as familiar with bluegrass and old-time music as I am with Celtic, but you can hear some similarities for sure. The big difference seems to be in how the melody is passed around from one instrument to another - it's more similar to jazz in that regard.







The Asheville skyline as seen from the park.








There were several opportunities for learning dances. I'll draw your attention to the very large woman in the hot pink top - she and her family were sitting in front of us during the concert. They were big time chain smokers who made it nearly impossible for us to breath. We finally had to pick up and move away from them. I was kind of shocked by how many smokers I saw there. Given the known health issues with smoking, I'm surprised that people don't kick that habit. Not to mention the wasted money and "ick" factor.

Oh well - to each his own, I suppose. I certainly enjoyed the day despite the local air pollution. To top it off, we spotted a bear on our way back to Weaverville. John took the back road and the bear was on the side of the road, and then crossed over in front of us. It was a pretty impressive sight to see.

A visit with John and Patti Hill - part I

I visited John and Patti a couple of days prior to my teaching engagement at Arrowmont School for Arts and Crafts. If you're a regular reader of my blog, you might recall that I stayed with John and Patti during my visit to the Carolina Mountain Woodturners in November, 2007. I had enjoyed that visit very much, and Patti invited me to come before the Arrowmont gig, so it was something I had been looking forward to since last autumn.


I arrived on July 3rd, which was the first Thursday of the month - a date reserved for the neighborhood association potluck / meet & greet.

It was a very friendly group of people who made me feel very welcome. The food was pretty good, too.






Everyone is very social and there was a lot of visiting going on.










One of the neighbors told a story as part of the evening's entertainment.







The other bit of entertainment was provided by John Hill. He was asked to serve as the auctioneer for a fund raiser (two baskets of flowers were auctioned off to raise money to support the monthly pot luck).

I've posted many pictures of John doing auctions for the AAW over the past couple of years, but I have to tell you that I really got a kick out of watching him work this crowd of neighbors. If anyone can squeeze blood out of a turnip, it's John.

I had reported last month that John auctioned off the donations at the AAW banquet and raised more than $60K, and then did the auction for Sphere's exhibit and raised $83K or thereabouts. Thus, I got a kick out of the intensity he had in raising about $50 for the neighborhood association. Nicely done, John!





4 July, 2008.

John and Patti have developed a series of trails up on the hill behind their place, and we started the day with a nice walk. I really enjoy traipsing through their woods. There are a lot of interesting things to see there and it just feels right, if you know what I mean.










Uhmmmm, yes - a bear does poop in the woods. . .


I didn't see a pope on rollerskates, though.







I just missed the 17 year cicada emergence, but the exoskeletons were still around.










Here's a latecomer, too.


I'm really sorry I missed this biological extravaganza. Cicadas spend anywhere from 11 to 17 years underground and then emerge enmasse (by the millions) to mate and die. The event is a real bonus for birds and other animals who feast on these insects until they are nearly to the bursting point. The cacaphony of sound during a cicada event is also amazing.









I was really jazzed to see this plant - it's Conopholis americana - a parasitic plant in the family I study, Orobanchaceae. It parasitizes oak trees, and it's a holoparasite - totally dependent on its host for water, mineral nutrients and reduced carbon. It can't go through the process of photosynthesis, so it gets all of its carbon from the host plant.












I think I did a similar photograph of an American Elm tree skeleton last time I visited, but it's still a cool composition.










John and Patti - two very nice people who enjoy being outdoors.
















John has a bit over 20 acres and he uses part of the land for farming. He raises guinea fowl to sell. His flock was in nesting season. John trades the eggs laid by the hens for wooden eggs, which they will sit upon. He puts the real eggs into an incubator to hatch them out.













He needed to check on the eggs after our walk - a process called candling.
















He pulled this batch out of the incubator and then. . .
















used a strong light source (in a darkened room) to examine the egg. Viable eggs have an obvious shadow inside where the soon-to-be chick is growing. I had never seen this process done, so I was interested in watching and posting it to the blog.
















After lunch we went to downtown Weaverville - don't blink or you'll miss the sights. . .









It's actually a very nice town - a nice example of rural America, but with an active arts scene.










I was amazed at how many art studios and galleries are in this area. Our first stop was to Magnum Pottery.
















This is Robert Magnum with some of his signature work in progress.










I don't know much about pottery methods of construction and so I was very interested to see the slab cut-outs used in the making of these interesting vases.
















I was also curious about this ceramic fretless banjo. I thought it might just be a wall decoration,












but Robert pulled it off the wall and played it for a bit. It has nylon strings and it's actually a nice sounding instrument. Robert is also a musician. There are a lot artists and musicians in the Asheville area. . .

I think I need to look for a place to retire to in this neck of the woods.






Here's a B&B down the street that has a sculptural piece by Robert Magnum.








The garden is nice and is a popular place for weddings.


The big event for the day was the fireworks display at one of the parks in Weaverville. We had ringside seats for all the action and it was a pretty spectacular show for a small town!

Extreme birding . . . and other stuff

June 28, 2008.

Steve and I went birding up at Hoover Reservoir with Charles Bombaci, primarily to look at the Prothonotary Warbler nesting area. It had been raining hard all week and the water was pretty high.

We started out along a road just to the west of Area N and we found a nesting pair of Yellow-throated warblers. Charles was pretty happy to see them.






Here's another view of the male.









We then went over to Area N, which is where the "extreme" part of the title for this blog posting comes in. The water was up so high that we had to do some maneuvering to get from one part of the path to another via a wet log. Well, my boots weren't up to that because the tread is so worn down from all my hiking in South Africa.

I slipped and fell into the water, but foolishly grabbed a branch on the way down and injured my shoulder. A month later, when I finally saw my doctor, I found out that I tore the bicep at the shoulder attachment and probably injured the tendon as well. Oh well. I'm working on some physical therapy and we're in "wait and see" mode until I get back from my Ireland trip in September. Anyway - here's a picture of a male Prothonotary Warbler - worth the discomfort, I think.






Next stop was Mudhen Marsh where we went with Charles along a path not usually accessible by the public. Charles is the naturalist for the Hoover reservoir reserves and so we were able to get into some places we've not been before.

We had a great view of a red-headed woodpecker foraging for its chicks.

The nest hole was up in this tree.









It found a gold mine in grubs and bugs on one of the rotting branches.
















You can see the big fat juicy meal in its beak after it pulled it out of the wood.












We came home in a light rain and the back garden was lit very nicely with the subdued light and the moisture, so I spent a few minutes doing some plant photo studies.


I liked the composition in black and white for this sunflower head about to come into bloom.






This is from the largest sunflower plant I've ever seen. It fell over onto the back patio and then started growing vertically from the bent over stem. The stem must be 5 or 6 inches in diameter near the base and the stem is about 12 feet long.







All of the sunflower bud pics are from this massive plant.




















It's been more than a month since I took these photos and the plants are in full bloom and going to seed. The American Goldfinches are loving them! It's so fun to walk out the back door and see all the goldfinches eating the seeds from our garden plants.






These next two photos are here for Malcolm Zander. He sent me some beautiful snapshots of the day lilies he grows in his garden and I love day lilies, too. These are amongst my favorites in my garden - a delicate pale yellow in color and very short - less that 2 feet tall.







I love the moisture on the petals, and that looks like a pollination droplet on the stigma.










My cone flower patch is another big draw for the goldfinches. I let this part of my garden grow pretty wild to attract as many birds and butterflies as possible. I'm sure it looks like a weed patch to my neighbors, but I like to think of it as my private nature reserve.