Sunday, November 18, 2007

Asheville's Village Arts & Crafts Show 2007

Saturday and Sunday, August 5 & 6, 2007, the campus of All Souls Cathedral in Asheville held the 35th annual Village Art and Craft Show. Some 125 exhibitors came from 18 states to display their products.

Saturday’s temperature was probably in the mid 90°degrees with high humidity, and the patrons and visitors all looked like they were from Dali’s studio or the produce section in one of Franklin’s grocery stores. Best exhibit was clearly the interior of the cathedral. It was dark, cool and hypnotic. Outside, the exhibitions ranged from wild to obscure. Three art exhibits stood out from the group.

Teresa Brown’s “Visually Speaking” mixed colors and textures in a series of interesting photographs. I had to ask if they were photos or painting, or a combination. The artist says she uses modification only to “remove imperfections, etc.” whatever that means. But her work is fascinating and should sell well since she is primarily presenting colors and textures. Her web site is www.home.earthlink.net/~digishot/ and most of her work appears a little above average perhaps but check out her section on “Still Life and Floral” . That is what she had on display at the show and you can see why it caught my eye. We can all learn a lot from her.

Stacey Brown uses cracked glass in his work, and makes a collage out of the glass and watercolors. Go to his site for more information www.sbrownart.com. I was mesmerized by his “Guitar Friends”, “Mr. Piano”, and “Full of Fun”. Those three and more are on his web site. This guy is good. He paints feelings.

Doug Cavanah makes “Lightscapes”, and they are photographs printed on canvas. The photographs are technically imperfect in many ways but the effect of seeing one of them is stunning. It will definitely stop you in your tracks. I looked at the photos he had there and noticed the lack of crispness in detail but then I kept thinking to myself “I wish I could make a photograph like this”. I began to suspect Velvia and asked him if he was using digital and he said “No!” So I asked him “Velvia?” He really didn’t want to talk about it so I finally dropped it. I did get that he uses Provia 100 and very long exposures. I was still fascinated so I went back and asked him what kind of a camera he uses and he blew my mind with his answer. I think he said it was a 10 X 14 or a 4 x 10, or something like that. Then he smiled for the first time. His business card says his web site is dcavanah@aol.com and I could not open it . At any rate his work is compelling and should sell well – remember these are very large prints, and they are on canvas.

So the day was hot and people walked around with partly open mouths as if needing more air. Eye lids crept down over slowly glazing eyes. Hair styles and smiles became abandoned as they slid on down like so much of a mud flow across their owners faces. I admired a couple of young ladies who wore a bit of a crinckly seersucker miniskirts and not much else, and the cathedral was the coolest place in town. A hell of a show.

© John Womack, 2008. All rights reserved.

1 Comments:

Blogger SBrownART said...

Thanks for the shout out! See you at the fair this year!

Stacey and Michele

8:56 AM  

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