Asheville Arts & Crafts – Check out our new artwork [PICS]

This week we just wanted to showcase for you some of the great local arts and crafts that you can discover here at Mountain Made.

Did you know that Mountain Made is home to some 150 artists, craft persons and authors?

Yes, if you are new to Asheville or the surrounding Western North Carolina hills, Mountain Made is a wonderful place to find and take a piece of the mountains home with you.

For example, we have new artwork like…

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Uncommon Fiber Art by Bonnie Lucas

Bonnie Lucas started out as a quilter then journeyed into becoming awarding quilt designer and now creates “plant pounded” fiber art that is a unique expression of colors – all created from the natural pigment and dye of actual flowers, leaves, and even weeds.

Within the borders of each table piece or wall hangings she uses her own special thread technique that is applied over each design to highlight it’s rustic and organic feel.

We are happy that during this COVID lockdown, Bonnie was busy searching the forests and fields around her Western North Carolina home to produce some more of these wonderful handcrafted quilted wall hangings.

Here a short video of Bonnie Lucas at one of our live artist demonstrations in 2019.

Year 2020 Public Art Project Update – More Writings, COVID Rants & “Graffiti” from YOU, the People

As you might know, here at Mountain Made, we are hosting another of our slightly famous, “No Talent Required” Public Interactive Art Projects. This one is called “The Year 2020”. You can read more about it here > Year 2020 in Art.

Basically, an interactive art project is an a continuing event where YOU, the unsuspecting are lured into expressing your feelings through some type of public artwork.

Usually we offer some type of visual art like collages, doodles and finger-painting…yes, finger painting.

However, this year we decided to ask you for your own “graffiti” style painting along with poems, and short essays to express what you are feeling during this troubling time of COVID lockdowns, cultural changes and political uncertainties.

Through the touching artwork and writings you have shared with us – either live at the gallery or via email messages, we can see all the pains we all are experiencing laid out in the public project.

This is just a short update on what we have received so far… (more…)

More Local Poetry by Nancy Dillingham

Did you know that Nancy Dillingham – one of Mountain Made’s most popular local poets is our “virtual demo” artist for the year? This means that Nancy will be sharing her poetry and her 2020 experiences through her writings with our online audience every other week.

Writer and educator Nancy Dillingham is a sixth-generation Dillingham from Big Ivy in western North Carolina.

Her poems, short stories, and commentary have appeared in various literary journals and newspapers such as The Arts Journal, Bay Leaves, Asheville Poetry Review, A Carolina Literary Companion, Half Tones to Jubilee, The Lyricist, Victoria Press, Raleigh News & Observer, Asheville Citizen-Times, Mountain Xpress, Western North Carolina Woman, Weaverville Tribune, and Big Ivy News.

And her bestselling book HOME was nominated for SIBA Southern Book of the Year in 2011.

Here’s another installment of our continuing “virtual poetry reading” series by Nancy Dillingham…

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Thanks for the Dark but That’s Not Home: Poems and Stories (2006) by Nancy Dillingham.

Nancy says the inspiration for this short volume of poems and stories came from a dream, “I actually dreamed the title of the book. My sister Lynn took the cover photo. I was struck by one image in the photo: a single white flower among leaves and moss. Around the flower is what looks like a halo, causing the single flower to become the focal point in the photograph. The play of light and dark in the photo, for me, enhances the predominant themes of the poems in the book which offer commentary on “civil wars, civil rights, sexual wars, and lost highways.”

Mountain Made’s Books of Summer – 2020

Did you know that summer officially ends on September 22? Gosh, where has the time gone? Okay, we admit we’ve all be a bit more preoccupied than normal…but we won’t get into it here.

So if you are currently on a “staycation” and are just exhausted by all the bad news and too much binge TV watching, we have the fix for you.

We have books! A lot of books.

Yes, whether you reading poolside, at the lake or just under a shady tree in the backyard, there’s still plenty of summer time left if you haven’t reached your summer reading goals yet.

We invite you to come by the gallery and grab a few new books to read. Remember all of the books on our shelves are created by our wonderful Western North Carolina authors and writers!

Our 7 Popular Mountain Made Writers

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