The Quintessential Charlotte Luxury Magazine
THE ARTS ISSUE Wall Poems takes to the streets, 20 women changing Charlotte's art scene, and more inspiring stories of artistic drive and creativity.
In The Studio With Scott Avett A look at the visual art of Scott Avett as the acclaimed Avett Brothers musician prepares to open his first solo exhibition — I N V I S I B L E — at the North Carolina Museum of Art. NO.6 1 | SEPT/O CT 2019
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The Exclusives 140 Poetry to the People An inside look at Charlotte’s Wall Poems project
148 Art For All Twenty Charlotte women shaping the Charlotte arts landscape
156 Colorshow Scott Avett presents his first solo art exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art
Photos of Scott Avett by Emby Taylor Photography
THE DEPA RTMEN TS
41 THE CULTURE ARTS, STYLE, AND WELLNESS
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A New Life For Charlotte's arts scene Chris Watts is at the forefront of an art movement
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Fall Works The Queen City’s iconic tradition continues
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Adventure on a Plate South End's Hawkers
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Dig In Meet The Dumpling Lady
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Feels Like Home Alexis Lorraine Howard's art Fine Fragrance Scents by Jules & Vetiver
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Pretty In Pink The Pink Hanger Boutique
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FOOD AND DRINK
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Slow Fashion Charlotte's Two Fold Clothing
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Peek into the Past Charlotte’s premier curator of all things vintage
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“There’s nothing more powerful than a wave of ideas whose time has arrived.”
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Sukoshi's Lobster Rolls A delicious roll in Uptown
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Futo Buta's Rice Crispy Squares A tasty treat on the Rail Trail
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Yume's Plum Rose A delicious pomegranate and plum cocktail
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Oku's Fire & Smoke A carrot juice concoction you'll love
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E X PA N D A B L E
DIAMOND ETERNITY BANDS
THE DEPA RTMEN TS
96 THE FOLIO HOME AND DESIGN
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An Expert's Eye Patrick Lewis elevates the style of Charlotte homes Restful Space Charlotte’s premier bedding and home décor store, Bedside Manor
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A Belmont Treasure A gorgeous living space from Shea Custom
All In The Details A sophisticated space from Lucy and Company Plush Elegance A Plaza Midwood space from Grandfather Homes
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An Artistic Haven Laura Casey blends functionalist design with stunning art in Myers Park
112 THE EXPLORED
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TRAVEL AND SPORTING
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A Deluxe Durham Stay Enjoy a vibrant, lively week in the growing Piedmont city
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A Carolina Treasure Edisto Island is a beach backdrop for relaxation
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Taking on New Heights A spectacular sight at Statesville’s Carolina BalloonFest
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A Potter's Haven Seagrove is home to an artistic family of potters eager to share their craft
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104 “A restful space will enhance the quality of your life, both physically and mentally.”
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THE NOTE
Artists featured from left to right: Chris Watts, Elisa Sanchez, Scott Avett, Evelyn Henson
No. 61
W
e have always put a special value on creators and artists because we rely on them every day to make our magazines possible, from graphic artists and illustrators to photographers and writers. So each year, when we get to share our Arts & Culture issue with you, we take great pride in curating quality content full of the finest stories and artists this city has to offer. We feel this year's issue is no different. We share some marquee cultural events of the season, including the popular Fall Works and Cristina Cordova's exhibition with Hodges Taylor. We introduce you to some of our city's makers, including Two Fold Clothing and Jules & Vetiver, share some of our favorite artists from up-and-comer Chris Watts to the twenty female painters transforming the Queen City, and visit some of the artsiest spaces in town, from a gorgeous Lucy and Company living space to an art-centric Laura Casey design. We also take a trip to the Triangle to stay in the art-focused hotel The Durham and visit the pottery capital of the South, Seagrove. We meet up with Amy Bagwell of Wall Poems to share the importance of street art, and more specifically her poetry movement, and finally, we go inside the studio of Scott Avett of the Avett Brothers to talk about his upcoming and first solo-exhibition ever — I N V I S I B L E — and to share his incredible visual art story. Sincerely, Jon-Paul Grice, Editor | Brett Barter, Publisher
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THE EV EN TIST
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EDITOR’S CHOICE
October 12, 2019 - February 2, 2020 Scott Avett: I N V I S I B L E
This fall's solo exhibition features Scott Avett’s large-scale oil paintings. These are psychologically charged and emotionally intense portraits focused on his family and himself. Like his songs with The Avett Brothers, Avett’s paintings speak to universal issues of spirituality and struggle, love, life, heartache and joy, as well as some of his more personal stories of career, family, and growing up in the South. The exhibition also includes prints and paintings related to Avett’s musical career. Image courtesy of North Carolina Museum of Art ncartmuseum.org
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The Eventist // Sept/Oct 2019 EDITOR’S CHOICE
September 13 – November 29, 2019 | Cristina Cordova's cuerpo exquisito at Hodges Taylor Hodges Taylor Art Consultancy | hodgestaylor.com
9.1.19 Labor Day at Whitewater Center Celebrate Labor Day with fun outdoor activities such as a flow yoga class, a climbing competition, and a 5K/15K Trail Race. usnwc.org 9.4.19 Paddle to Table The U.S. National Whitewater Center will be hosting a guided paddling session down the Catawba river followed by a chef-curated meal with craft beer and wine options. usnwc.org
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Till 9.28.19 Summer Selects The Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art presents a collective exhibition featuring a variety of works from the gallery’s roster of artists. These works include an array of mediums including glass, sculpture, painting, drawing, and collage. eldergalleryclt.com 9.10.19 - 9.29.19 Disney's Aladdin Aladdin is brought to thrilling theatrical life in this bold new musical that will sweep you into an exotic world full of daring adventure, classic comedy,
and timeless romance. It’s an unforgettable experience that includes all the cherished songs from the Academy Award-winning score and more written specially for the stage. blumenthalarts.org 9.12.19 Henry Kellem Kellem is an authentic storyteller, with a real story of how to turn poverty into abundance. Experience a night of inspiring storytelling, comedy, and rich entertainment as Henry Kellem returns to his home state. blumenthalarts.org
This exhibition is presented to the community by
Funding for the conservation of this artwork was generously provided through a grant from the Bank of America Art Conservation Project. Additional conservation work supported by generous donations from Yvonne and Richard McCracken, Lee Rocamora and John Thompson, Cassandra and David Wagner.
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art at Levine Center for the Arts | 420 S. Tryon St. | Charlotte, NC | 704.353.9200 | bechtler.org Roy Lichtenstein, Modern Tapestry (detail), 1968, wool and cotton. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein.
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The Eventist // Sept/Oct 2019 9.13.19 Shain Gallery Come check out new art at the Shain Gallery. The gallery opens the Eric Olsen and Brandon Blane McMillan exhibit from 6 - 8pm. shaingallery.com 9.14.19 - 11.2.19 Esteban Vicente The Jerald Melberg Gallery presents the artwork of Esteban Vicente, a member of the first generation of Abstract Expressionists. Vicente’s exhibition will include both paintings and collages. jeraldmelberg.com
For a limited time, go on an island adventure and discover the Cuban experience through exhibition and film.
IMAX® Film opens September 28 exhibition OPENS November 9 The ¡Cuba! exhibition is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York (amnh.org) in collaboration with the Cuban National Museum of Natural History.
9.20.19 - 9.21.19 Sinatra and Beyond In this critically-acclaimed tribute to the legend of Ol' Blue Eyes, crooner Tony DeSare delivers a fresh take on old-school classics like “Come Fly with Me,” “New York, New York,” and more. charlottesymphony.org 9.20.19 - 9.22.19 Festival in the Park The Festival in the Park will take place in Freedom Park and will feature music, art, games, and food for locals and visitors. There will be big band music and Camelot exhibit tents featured by the lake, with all children and pets welcome to attend. charlottecultureguide.com 9.21.19 Bilingual Stories & Music The Mint Museum welcomes parents and children to attend the Bilingual Stories & Music program. This program features performers using a variety of music, instruments, puppets, and games to interact with the audience and encourage bilingualism. mintmuseum.org
Get the full itinerary at discoveryplacescience.org
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9.28.19 ArtWalk & MusicFest The town of Matthews would like to invite all to come down and explore
Esteban Vicente (1903-2001)
September 14 - November 2, 2019
An exhibition of paintings and collages by one of the leading members of the American Abstract Expressionist movement
EVOCATION, 1995, Oil on Canvas, 42 x 36 inches
625 South Sharon Amity Road Charlotte, NC 28211 704-365-3000 gallery@jeraldmelberg.com www.jeraldmelberg.com M-F 10-6 Sat 10-4
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The Eventist // Sept/Oct 2019 the beautiful historic downtown while also enjoying a variety of art and music, including craft vendors and live music and dance performances. The festival will also feature a small “Sip n Stroll” area, where guests are invited to try local wine and beer. matthewschamber.org 9.27.19 - 9.29.19 Piano Concerto No. 1 Maestro Warren-Green opens the Classical Series with some of Tchaikovsky's greatest works. Then Tchaikovsky's exhilarating First Piano Concerto, instantly recognizable by its triumphant opening theme, is an essential work for any virtuosic pianist and is among the best known of all piano concertos. Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 is a journey of haunting melodies, shocking climaxes, charming elegance, and joyful abandon. Pianist Inon Barnatan, hailed by The New York Times as “one of the most admired pianists of his generation," joins your Charlotte Symphony for the sweeping melodies of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto. charlottesymphony.org
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10.5.19 Charlotte UNITE Festival The Charlotte UNITE festival is a multicultural event to celebrate diversity in the Charlotte area. The festival features local artists, local food vendors, NoDa Brewing’s brews, and community speakers. There will also be a Kids Zone with crafts and games. The popular festival will take place at the NoDa Brewing Company from 12 pm - 8 pm. queencityunity.org 10.5.19 Afternoon in the Park The town of Mint Hill in conjunction with the Arts and Science Council will sponsor the afternoon in the park event, featuring art of various types including painting and sculpture, music, and festival foods. This
The Eventist // Sept/Oct 2019 event will take place at the fountain in front of Town Hall and will honor the memory of the late Commissioner Tina Ross. minthillarts.org 10.11.19 Karen Hollingsworth The Shain Gallery presents the artwork of Karen Hollingsworth from 6pm - 8pm. Hollingsworth’s art features large oil paintings with minimalist subject matter related to interior spaces. Her latest collection features a new style of “windowscapes,” meant to leave viewers with a sense of solitude and well-being. shaingallery.com 10.12.19 Hola Charlotte Festival The Hola Charlotte Festival is the largest Hispanic heritage event in Charlotte. The festival features representation of 15 different Latin American countries, including nationally recognized entertainers and a Latin American village. holacharlottefestival.com 10.17.19 Rise & Shine Charlotte Come out to Carmel Country Club and support Arts for Life, an organization that supports the arts, creativity, and discovery for children with serious illnesses in the Carolina areas. Arts for Life also offers support to the families of these children. The breakfast benefit will be hosted from 8:30am - 10am. artsforlifenc.org 10.19.19 South End Wine Festival Enjoy wine, craft beer, and cider tastings from 50 different vineyards, breweries, and cider works. The festival also features live music and food trucks. blumenthalarts.org
128 S. Tryon St., Suite 860 (Corner of 4th/Tryon) • Charlotte, NC 28202
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10.24.19 - 10.26.19 Leonce and Lena Christian Spuck, Artistic Director for Ballet Zürich, brings to life this
ERIC OLSEN
Blue Pines 48x40 Oil on Canvas
OPENING RECEPTION: SEPTEMBER 13, 2019 Meet the Artist 6-8pm
Shain Gallery | 2823 Selwyn Avenue, Suite K | Charlotte NC 28209 704-334-7744 | www.shaingallery.com
The Eventist // Sept/Oct 2019
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19th century satirical romantic comedy — the tale of betrothed Prince Leonce and Princess Lena. Casting aside convention, they both flee on the eve of their wedding only to meet as strangers and fall in love. Described as having “all the skill and wonder of classic ballet, but with a sweet story [and] gothy ambiance,” this highly theatrical production is more “Tim Burton” than “Disney!” charlotteballet.org 10.26.19 The Machine Plays Pink Floyd Christopher James Lees conducts The Machine, America's most popular Pink Floyd tribute band, who has been touring for 30 years. Experience the wonder of Pink Floyd as The Machine performs 1973's masterpiece Dark Side of the Moon and other greatest hits. charlottesymphony.org 10.27.19 The Temptations & The Four Tops The Blumenthal Performing Arts Center proudly presents the Motown legends The Temptations, accompanied by The Four Tops, for a night of all their legendary hits. The music will be the greatest hits of these classic Motown bands, featuring songs from the 1960s and onward. blumenthalarts.org 10.29.19 - 11.3.19 Les Miserables Cameron Mackintosh and the Ovens Auditorium presents the new production of the Tony Award winning Les Miserables. The show features new staging and reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo. It also features all of the best-known musical numbers from the original show, including “On My Own,” “I Dreamed A Dream,” and “Bring Him Home.” blumenthalarts.org
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Begona Martin, Sea Gazing - 1D, oil on canvas, 59” x 59”
Craig Alan, Motivo, oil on canvas, 48” x 60”
@PictureHouseGallery @picture_house_gallery @PictureHouseGal
A R T S , S T Y L E , A N D W E L L N ES S
T H E C U LT U R E
A N EW L I F E FOR CH A R LOTTE'S A RTS SCEN E Chris Watts is at the forefront of a movement that’s changing and challenging Southern art. words SUNNY HUBLER / photos JAMEY PRICE photos of art courtesy CHRIS WATTS
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The Culture // Musings
I
In the midst of what some are calling Charlotte’s “art renaissance,” artist Chris Watts’ work doesn’t play it safe or small. Rather, Watts has chosen to use his art to challenge conventions and to raise conversations around cultural hierarchies and some of the most pressing socio-political issues of our time. In 2019, Watts has held a studio in the prestigious McColl Center for Arts + Innovation, and his recent work was displayed in the Elder Gallery’s Transparency exhibit. His art isn’t confined to one medium, but Watts does tend to work most foundationally with paint and drawing as he weaves together the whole of a project (that may also include video, sewing, and other mixed media). His hunger for art seems born of an innate curiosity and a refusal to shy away from questioning. From the dialectic between a surface and its transparency, to an assemblage of spaces where the distinction between what is real and what is represented is thoroughly confused, to interrogating representation and identity around black narratives, Watts explores a variety of social and experiential tensions. Watts was brought up in High Point, North Carolina, but much of his artistic inspiration was cultivated from summers spent in San Diego with his grandparents during high school. Feeling drawn to creativity at nearly every turn, he decided to pursue a dual BFA in the College of Art + Architecture at UNCC, where the relationships he formed helped him realize
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“I seek to revise, interrogate, and reexamine social and personal narratives through the transfiguration of painting, drawing, video, and installations.”
his potential; namely Maja Godlewska, Watts’ UNCC painting professor and mentor, whose prolific career as an artist firmly solidified Watts’ own decision to become one. He continued his education with graduate work at Yale, and finally, settled for good (for now, anyway) in Charlotte. His focus is singular, and his dedication to creating and challenging the old guard runs deep. “There’s nothing more powerful than a wave of ideas whose time has arrived.”
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The Culture // Musings
“There is a renaissance of sorts happening here that isn’t being recognized. North Carolina-born artists in my generation are making challenging work that’s serving as the basis of rigorous, object-based debate.” What do you think has really helped you turn a love of art into an actual career pursuit? Persistence, persistence, persistence. Embracing change. When I wasn’t included, I showed up anyway. The institution that is the art world is often cold, but having good people around me helps keep everything worthwhile. How has the art you make evolved throughout your life? My world changes in situations when I don't have a place to make large scale paintings or consider installations. I used to create film projects and do post production on my computer, or render smaller sketches for future projects and mock up larger ideas. A perfect example is when I was studioless and living in Paris; I didn't make a single painting while I was there and I was seeing enough to be inspired to make several. 44 • QCEXCLUSIVE.COM • SEPT / OCT 2019
You say you’re “drawn to human emotion” in your work — what about that interests you as a field of exploration? I would say I seek to revise, interrogate, and re-examine social and personal narratives through the transfiguration of painting, drawing, video, and installations. This re-examination is not to simply supplement a new narrative but to create a project of disruption. My work often looks at Black culture, its dynamics, its history, and its lineage. From where do you draw the inspiration for your pieces? I find myself gravitating to themes and practices that are relevant to my current interests. Without a doubt my knowledge of artists of African descent informs my work. Artists that constantly move me are Sigmar Polke, Degas, Sam Gillian, Hammons, and Steve McQueen.
The Culture // Musings
“There’s nothing more powerful than a wave of ideas whose time has arrived.”
What advice do you have for up-andcoming artists or those contemplating making a career out of art? You are a small business. So, learn business and marketing models early — art school won’t teach you that. Push the boundaries of conventional politics. That's done by refusing America’s ideological promises of work intended for easy media consumption. Breaking that mold takes courage and the lasting reward is much greater.
Because it’s about more than just great hair. 1800 Camden Rd., #103 • Charlotte, NC 28203 • 704-626-0827 • kennakunijo.com
How would you describe Charlotte's art scene, and your place within it? There is a renaissance of sorts happening here that isn’t being recognized. North Carolina-born artists in my generation are making challenging work that’s serving as the basis of rigorous, object-based debate. This recognition is not yet happening in the Southern museums, or the galleries; and honestly, I’m not sure if some communities here are ready for it. But we are here, and we will document this crucial time. We will support and write about our fellow peers, championing the work and their tireless efforts… My place within it all is unique. Where can our readers find more of your work? In 2019, I have had work in Charlotte at Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art, in Transparency. It’s an exhibition featuring a diverse group of artists who use materials, forms, and ideas about transparency to explore how we to see and experience the world. I will also be holding a studio at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation through the winter and spring months.
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info iamchriswatts.com / @Iamwatts
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The Culture // Marquee
C
L EONCE A N D L ENA
Leonce and Lena is a performance you have to see from October 24-26, 2019. words L AUREN GRIFFITH
Christian Spuck, Artistic Director of Ballet Zürich, brings to life this 19th century satirical romantic comedy by German author Georg Büchner. A classic tale of defiant love, the ballet tells the story of Leonce, Prince of Popo, and Lena, Princess of Pipi, who have been betrothed to one another since birth but have never met. Casting aside conventions of the day, they both flee on the
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photo TODD ROSENBERG
eve of their wedding only to meet as strangers and fall in love. This highly theatrical production has been called “the perfect ballet for ballet-doubters. info charlotteballet.org / @cltballet
Charlotte. Immersed in Light: Studio Drift at the Mint September 21 – April 26 Dutch artist collective Studio Drift has transformed the intersection of art, nature, and technology. And now, The Mint Museum is organizing Studio Drift’s first museum exhibition in the U.S. Five breathtaking works of art will be on view, including one never-before-seen installation premiering in Charlotte. Come intrigued, leave inspired.
mintmuseum.org
Immersed in Light: Studio Drift at the Mint is organized by The Mint Museum and presented by PNC Bank. IMAGE: Studio Drift. Fragile Future 3 (Detail), 2018, installation at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
The Culture // Style
A PEEK I N TO T H E PAST VTG CLT is Charlotte’s premier curator of all things vintage. words L AUREN GRIFFITH portraits JAMEY PRICE market photos courtesy VTG CLT
“Vendors want to support each other—it’s community over competition since they feel that Vintage Charlotte connected them in a new way.”
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A
Amy Herman, the force behind VTG CLT (Vintage Charlotte), is a photographer, artist, and the owner of her own small business. Originally from Michigan, she was selling vintage pieces in college. That was the start: a simple passion for vintage attire coupled with her realization that there was no Charlotte outlet that completely filled her need for that expression. Today, she holds pop-up shops throughout Charlotte to sell her treasured vintage finds, as well as hosting two major markets a year for locals to come together over their adoration of previous eras. Amy opened up about the process and rewards of running VTG CLT and her other creative pursuits.
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The Culture // Style
“Knowing that there are other people in small businesses out there that are doing the same thing and experiencing struggles can be refreshing. Seeing Vintage Charlotte connect small businesses is really special. ” What is your favorite part about owning a business like Vintage Charlotte? Probably the sense of community that has been formed around it. Vendors want to support each other—it’s community over competition since they feel that Vintage Charlotte connected them in a new way. I think sometimes that vendors and artists can feel isolated making their craft. Knowing that there are other people in small businesses out there that are doing the same thing and experiencing struggles can be refreshing. Seeing Vintage Charlotte connect small businesses is really special. Can you go into depth about both the warm and cold weather VTG CLT markets? This is the eighth year of a warm weather market. The winter market has been at The Fillmore every year—about 65 venders can fit there. The summer market has moved around quite
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a bit, but this will be the third year in a row that the warm weather market will be at Camp North End. What is so great about having it at Camp North End is that we can really expand a little bit; we can have about 80 vendors, various food trucks, and a beer vendor. What preparations do you have to make to get this ready? I usually start planning the next market about a month after the last market, for a total of about four months. I like to announce the markets about three months before the event because that gives vendors enough time to apply, get and receive notification that they are participating, prep all their products, get ready, and design the booths. My side of it is really keeping everyone organized, finding the layout, trying to find ways to keep it fresh and creative each time, and then doing the marketing.
The Culture // Style How do you choose vendors to represent the markets? The market is a jury, and members are pulled from local experts who own retail shops or have sold vintage, and have the skills to look at the products and brands that have applied and really evaluate if they would be a good fit for Vintage Charlotte. What are a few of your favorite vintage items that someone could pick up at one of the pop-up markets? Well I have very strange and less general taste in vintage now that I have been in it for so long. So I specifically look for things that I have not seen before, because my favorite thing is being surprised. I think that things that could be found at the market, in all shapes sizes and forms, are really incredible clothing finds, unique pieces of furniture, tons of home decor, really interesting cameras, and other technology items. Any advice for someone starting their own business? I would say that you have to be willing to put yourself into the business and live for it. It is hard, it kind of sucks, but sometimes people don’t give themselves permission to work super hard. I think the small business life isn’t for everyone but it definitely is so rewarding. info vintage-charlotte.com / @vtgclt
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The Culture // Handcrafted
M
SLOW FASH ION
Meet Morgan Wagstaff, the creator of Charlotte's Two Fold Clothing label. words SUNNY HUBLER
photo courtesy TWO FOLD CLOTHING
Morgan Wagstaff’s mission is not unlike the products she creates: simple, unified, and organic. Two Fold is the name of her label, a line of handmade, small batch fashion released in capsule collections twice a year. The look is simple but striking. Her clothing is classic, feminine, and natural, all made to order and created in-house. Two Fold stands for two things: environmental and social consciousness. In terms of environmental impact, the team uses only the highest quality certified organic and sustainable fabrics, as well as 100% recycled packaging supplies in their shipping. The social piece comes in to play with Wagstaff’s commitment to helping those in need, working with organizations like 410 Bridge, assisting communities in the developing world to bring them into economic stability. “We are continually looking for ways to lower our waste and be gentler to our planet,” Wagstaff, a Charlotte native, explains.
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Two Fold started after Wagstaff interned for a small, ethical brand and was able to see how a start-up really works. She began with a dream and a crowd-funding project to help fund the first production run. “Step by small step, I simply worked daily to help the idea become a reality.” Over time, her team has grown, and Wagstaff has been able to step back from sewing and hand-making every single piece herself, but the mission has stayed steady. How can people learn to shop more ethically and why is that important? The first suggestion I have in learning about the importance of shopping ethically, especially in the apparel industry, is the documentary The True Cost. It’s an endless cycle, unless we start doing things differently. We have the power to stop this
The Culture // Handcrafted
cycle by changing our buying habits. Just remember, every purchase has a cost beyond the price tag.
Unlike our previous collections, this one has been guided by these evolvements.
Who were some of your early style inspirations? I really looked up to the Olsen twins (and still do). I also grew up watching Friends religiously and wanted nothing more than to look and dress just like Rachel. What has been the greatest lesson you have learned since starting your business? I think one of the greatest things I’ve learned is that running a business is hard work, and it takes a strong backbone and resilient spirit. There have been countless curve balls thrown my way in the last two years of running this business, and some days it feels like my job is to simply put out fires. Starting and running a business is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it’s been so rewarding to see myself rise to the occasion and get the job done.
Can you describe to us some distinct differences between how y'all source, design, and produce versus other brands? The main difference between the “fast fashion” and “slow fashion” industries is how quickly products are designed and produced. “Fast fashion” companies are selling goods at an extremely low price point: The only way they can survive is to continually offer more for consumers to buy. So, they produce and offer new styles continually throughout the year, sometimes new collections every single week. At Two Fold, we create collections twice a year. Our pieces are made to last, and we pay meticulous attention to detail when producing our clothing. By only launching twice a year, we can take the time to source natural, environmentally-friendly fabrics and materials and make sure our quality meets our high standards.
What is the inspiration behind your newest collection? We are currently working on our “core” collection, with pieces that are the bread and butter of Two Fold. The ethical fashion community is working to become more inclusive of all ethnicities, sizes, and genders, and we are starting by extending our size range to include larger size options and have included short and tall lengths in applicable styles. We’ve also been photographing our pieces on models of all ethnicities and sizes.
What does your day-to-day work look like? Every day is a bit different than the next. Currently, my days are filled with emails, working on our new website, training new sewers, sourcing and ordering materials, managing inventory and all of our projects, etc. My days used to be filled only with sitting at my sewing machine, but as I’ve stepped away from that role, I’ve been able to keep better track of all the goings-on and day-to-day production.
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The Culture // Handcrafted
What is the greatest reward of owning the business? I think a month ago I would have said my greatest reward is seeing the fruition of the things I’ve only dreamed of doing, but, honestly, seeing the impact the brand has had on the people who have purchased from, worked for, or been a part of it has been the most rewarding. Seeing the growth in my sewers and studio assistant has made it all worth doing. And,
I’ve so enjoyed the conversations I’ve had with customers about the ways they have changed their purchasing habits and mentality around being more conscious about our planet and the people on it. info twofoldclothing.com / @twofoldclothing
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The Culture // Photography
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F EELS L I K E HOM E The life and artwork of Alexis Lorraine Howard. words RACHEL DRESSEL photos JAMEY PRICE
When you hear the word “home,” many things can come to mind. It could be your house from your childhood, the town you live in, your family... For Alexis Lorraine Howard, home is all of those things but then with some added nuance. It is relationships from today and the past, keepsakes in your drawer, or even the memories that creep into your head when you least expect. The Space in Between is a series by Howard first exhibited in 2018 that explores the many instances of “home.” It is a feeling and an object, and each can combine to make particular memories come back to life. Howard turned this concept into an opportunity: she reached out to close friends asking them to send her a hand-written letter describing their idea of “home.” They also included objects that reminded them of the artist or their
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friendship. Howard used the note and the objects to create a photosculpture. With each object formed into a recognizable house shape in a custom frame, a resin cast, or a shadow box, shared memories become tactile. Howard works at Salt Paper Studio where she is a Studio Manager, Photo Retoucher, and Digital Tech. She also documents work for other artists and does event photography for music performances. Her time for her own creative projects is spent in multiple media, to say the least. She creates photography, collages, wall hangings, and enjoys learning new processes. Sometimes, many of these processes combine to create something completely her own. Here, Alexis Lorraine tells her story.
The Culture // Photography
“Home is much more than the vessel we live in — it’s a feeling.” friends to mail me handwritten notes recording what comes to mind when they think of the word “home,” and to include objects that remind them of our relationship. I enclosed all of the collected material in the recognizable house shape, which represents the connection between my friends and I and their connection with home. Home is much more than the vessel we live in, it’s a feeling.
You have several media that you work in; what drew you to them? I have always had a love for photography, but when I began college I had the opportunity to explore much more than that, including classes that specialized in sculpture, printmaking, and weaving to name a few. Since then, I have really developed an interest in making photographs, which are usually seen as two dimensional, and making them three dimensional by adding elements such as stitching, casting objects in resin, and making non-traditional frames. The Space in Between “cues one to slow down and examine the space in between one soul and another.” How has this series shown the connection between people? My series The Space in Between consists mainly of photos of close friends and relatives; in each image, I pay close attention to incorporating unique light, whether natural or through the use of shining light through objects, as an element to show the warmth and love they bring into my life and the lives of each other, we are all connected in some way. How does combining photographs with objects better convey your message? The objects themselves have very personal meaning to both myself and the subject of each photograph. I began by asking close
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How has your personal concept of home inspired this series? After graduating, many of my closest friends began to move away and begin different journeys in their lives. Because of this, I’ve found myself needing to hold onto the time I spend with them. This ongoing photo series began as a way to make the most of the time I have with them, and as a way to strengthen relationships with those I am not as close with. I deliberately shoot with film for this series so that I can slow down and really spend time with each subject, asking them about their life and how they are doing. Ultimately, it is much more about being with the person in the here and now. When you photograph live events, what elements of your fine art and portrait photography do you implement? When photographing live events, it is important that I elevate the scene to the same standard I hold my fine art photography to. I strive to make each shot feel unique by paying close attention to color and composition, and matching the energy of the performers. Who are some artists/creatives that inspire you? Marlee Grace, Tallulah Fontaine, KangHee Kim, Laura Hendricks, Brooke Didonato, and Kyle Thompson. What do you have in store for the last half of 2019 — anything we should know about? In 2019, I’m looking forward to photographing more people in their homes with hopes of creating a book someday. For now, I’m submitting to exhibitions on both a local and national scale and continuing to work on my photosculptures by experimenting with new materials and processes. info alexislorraine.com @alexislorraine_art
The Culture // Beauty
FINE F R AGR A NCE A chat with Katrina Sellers of Charlotte’s Jules & Vetiver
C
words L AUREN GRIFFITH photos by CARRIE ALLEN
““I want our fragrances to be about you, not us.”
Cruelty-free and locally-made luxury perfume sounds almost too good to be true. For that reason, along with a host of others, maker Katrina Sellers has single-handedly premiered one of our area’s first in-house perfume brands. Originally from New York, Katrina was interested in fragrance and beauty for many years before making her move to the bustling city of Charlotte and finally deciding she wanted to pursue a hands-on career. From there, it felt only natural to create a fragrance. We sat down with Katrina and she opened up about Jules and Vetiver’s respective ingredients and customizable scent option. What led you to create a fragrance entirely your own? I wanted to know exactly how the perfume was made and how ingredients work together. I wanted to really get to know the inner workings of a perfume, because it was always interesting to me, but completely opaque, because pretty much every single fragrance out there refuses to disclose what's in it.
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The Culture // Beauty
How did you choose the name “Jules & Vetiver”? I knew I wanted a name that would be a little playful, not too feminine (since we're a unisex brand), and inspired by raw materials. I've always loved the name “Jules” and vetiver is one of my favorite botanical ingredients to work with. What elements of mainstream fragrance were you trying to steer clear of? The traditional way of buying perfume is baffling and opaque, and we end up buying things for all the wrong reasons because we're skewed by looks and labels. The more we remove the traditional barriers that make perfume feel confusing and unapproachable, the more we can provide so people can learn about how fragrance is built and layered. How do you go about selecting ingredients for each batch? I start off with a scent brief to sketch out a vision for the scent. For me, this usually involves noting a few key ingredients or accords that I want to build around. It ends up being a lot of trial-and-error. Getting feedback is also vital. I want to gather as much data as possible about everything our clients like, and use that to innovate the artistry of our scents.
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Tell us more about your customizable fragrance services and what customers can expect from the process? We've just started rolling out this offering. We start with a detailed questionnaire to start sketching out your scent profile. We blend three rough scents based on that initial data, and then do a couple more rounds of calibrating until we land on a final scent. At the end, you have a scent that's tailored for you. Eventually, we want to perfect the process where we'll focus a lot more on customization. I want our fragrances to be about you, not us. How has the process of starting your own business gone? Perfumery is an amazing balance of art and science, and being able to tirelessly work away on something until you've made what you love is incredibly rewarding. Being small can be scary, but it means I can make small batches and calibrate the brand until, collaboratively with client’s feedback, we've built a brand and a portfolio of fragrances that we love. I already feel like we have made great strides. info julesandvetiver.com / @julesandvetiver
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FALL IN LOVE
704.771.1747 PPSCLT.COM
STAY CONNECTED: Museumofthenewsouth.org | @levinemuseum
Levine Museum of the New South brings Charlotte’s culture and history to life through programming and exhibits. We foster authentic, productive, and important dialogue about today’s critical issues within the context of history. Experience the stories of Charlotte in a new way!
Levine Museum of the New South 200 E. Seventh Street Charlotte NC, 28202
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The Culture // Fashion
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PR ETT Y IN PI N K
Inside women's fashion boutique The Pink Hanger words BRIANNA WILMOTH photos JAMEY PRICE
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Whitney Avishar has helped shape Charlotte fashion for years now, which is its own special form of art. As the owner of The Pink Hanger, a women’s fashion boutique carrying some of the most ontrend styles from today’s top designers, she is the guiding force behind this bright, airy space and its mission to provide Charlotte women with a look for any occasion. The store, a contemporary boutique nestled in the Cotswold neighborhood, is the kind of locally-owned business that keeps its customers coming back. In a day and age where brick-and-mortar can face steep challenges, Whitney has made her shop a vital part of the community by being involved and present for each customer who steps inside, and spreading her fashion expertise wide and far. Have you always loved clothing and fashion? Yes! I grew up the child of parents who were in the retail/buying world, so I have many memories of sitting in on vendor meetings at a young age. When I opened The Pink Hanger ten years ago, I saw a need for a boutique where the primary focus was customer service and making each person feel valued. My family has always had a very entrepreneurial spirit so they really encouraged me and helped give me the confidence to make it happen.
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The Culture // Fashion
“Customers need to see you and see that you are invested in your business. They want to get that love and attention from the owner.” Where do you get fashion inspiration from today? A lot of inspiration comes from small or local fashion influences. I love seeing what Trish and Ari are up to, and Johnny Fly out of NoDa also provides inspiration. We have been carrying them in store for a couple years now and our customers can’t get enough of their glasses. I also love going to market in Atlanta and New York. What is your day-to-day like at The Pink Hanger? I used to be the manager, buyer, sales assistant, accountant, and cleaning crew. When you’re first starting out, you do it all. Now I have two amazing co-managers, Chelsey and Lily, who run the show day-to-day. I’m happy to say that besides the accounting, my main responsibility now is just being with the customers and styling them! That was my first love, and it’s great to have the time to refocus on the fun part of being a store owner.
Why did you pick Charlotte for The Pink Hanger’s location? Providence Plaza was our first and only location. I loved that this location at the intersection of Providence and SharonAmity is on the border of so many great neighborhoods: Cotswold, Myers Park, Eastover, and SouthPark. We love hearing from our customers how convenient our location is and that they can just pop in before carpool, after a session at FlyWheel, or really whenever. What advice would you give to other people who are thinking about starting their own business? It’s a long, tough road, but it’s worth it. When you start out, be prepared to work all the time. Customers need to see you and see that you are invested in your business. They want to get that love and attention from the owner. Once you are established and have a fantastic team in place, which I am so lucky to have, you can step back a bit.
— info — pinkhangeronline.com / @pinkhangercharlotte
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FOOD AND DRINK
T H E S PR E A D
A DV EN T U R E ON A PL ATE Hawkers brings the energy and flavor of Asian Street Food to South End words RACHEL DRESSEL / photos JAMEY PRICE
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The Spread // Eatery
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When you hear “street food,” you probably think of food trucks parked outside a brewery or lined up at a festival. Maybe you can order a taco or a grilled cheese, but either way it’s nothing you haven’t seen before. In Southeast Asia, street food is taken to the next level. Hawker centers are open-air complexes where high-quality food is ordered and shared with family and friends. If you’re looking to feed your culinary curiosity without flying to Singapore, Hawkers in South End is open and ready to serve you authentic, adventurous dishes. Walking into Hawkers is like being transported into those streets of Southeast Asia. The Industrial elements of concrete, steel, and wood are ornamented with neon lights and hand-designed posters. The restaurant is a scratch kitchen where all of the plates are conceptualized and prepared like you would find them at a hawker center. Long booths are available for friends to gather together and order food that is created to be shared. The Hawkers story began in 2011 in Orlando, Florida. Originally from Penang, Malaysia, Executive Chef Allen Lo grew up in his parent’s restaurant in New York City learning how to make his family’s dishes. Inspired by his
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2216 Freedom Drive. Charlotte, NC 28208
noblesmokebarbecue.com
The Spread // Eatery
“We love to experiment with our food, and we get really excited when people are pumped to go on that journey with us. South End is ready for the journey, and we could not be more excited.” childhood and traveling throughout his life, Lo assures us that the kitchen uses ingredients that are true to the region from which they came. “We do try to source locally when possible, but our main concern is making sure that our ingredients are authentic to the regions we are representing on our menu. So many of our ingredients are so indigenous to Asia that it’s hard to source locally. However, this is also one of the aspects that ensures prime authenticity in our food. We also ensure the utmost authenticity by making each dish from scratch, and preparing everything fresh, daily.”
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With Lo’s emphasis on authentic flavor, even common dishes will be remarkable. Their pad thai, for example, is one of the most popular menu items. Created with expertlyprepared ingredients and served right after its taken out of the wok, their pad thai becomes a fresh, one-of-a-kind dish. Not only are their numerous small plates, noodle, skewer, and salad dishes to try, Hawkers has a cocktail and sake menu to explore as well. You can stay classic with a gin fizz, or sip on a signature cocktail with an Asian twist. Their Kimchi Bloody Mary, for example, is made with Tito’s vodka and Hawkers house-made kimchi mix.
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The Spread // Eatery
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Whenever you are ready to explore the bold flavors of Southeast Asian street food, Hawkers is excited to serve you. Chef Lo is especially happy to be in the South End neighborhood. “Not only is the community full of just really awesomely nice people, but it’s full of people who crave culinary adventure. We love to experiment with our food, and we get really excited when people are pumped to go on that journey with us. South End is ready for the journey, and we could not be more excited.”
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The Spread // Tastemaker
T
DIG I N The Dumpling Lady, Charlotte’s beloved food truck, finds a home at Optimist Hall. words ELEANOR MERRELL photos JAMEY PRICE
The Dumpling Lady has become a much-loved staple of city life. NoDa Company Store, Gateway Village, Resident Culture, One Wells Fargo, Triple C— The Dumpling Lady and her red and blue truck make the rounds every week, delighting taste buds from Uptown to Sedgefield to Plaza Midwood. Also known by her real name, Zhang Qian, The Dumpling Lady has a loyal spice-sampling, noodle-
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guzzling, line-forming lunch and dinner crowd across the city. Her fans now also have the convenience of finding Qian and her delectable dishes at a fixed physical location within Optimist Hall, an emerging mixed-use space in a former mill building just northeast of First Ward. The brick and mortar iteration of the food truck opened four years after Qian started slinging
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Artisanal The Spread // Tastemaker
“I love Sichuan noodles. I make them from scratch and follow traditional recipes. It reminds me of China and my family's cooking.” dumplings. Charlotteans first discovered Qian’s culinary gifts at a table outside of Hattie’s Tap and Tavern, before Qian expanded to sell frozen dumplings at the NoDa farmers market and Atherton Mill. Her frozen dumplings sold like hot cakes, but there was one problem: “People loved our frozen dumplings but weren’t sure how to cook them!” recalls Qian. So, in 2016, she outfitted a trailer in order to bring her recipes fully to fruition. Across the front of the pre-truck trailer, delicate cartography proclaimed “Authentic Sichuan Cuisine,” and authentic it is indeed. Before settling in Charlotte, Qian lived in the Sichuan province of southwest China, where she grew up cooking with her grandmother.
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“My grandma taught me all the foundations,” said Qian. “She essentially raised me and would cook for me every day. I learned from her. The rest has been dedicated studying and, of course, trial and error. I've taken classes at a few top restaurants in Chengdu, as well.” In fact, it was in Sichuan where Qian met the American who would one day become her husband. The pair studied together at Sichuan University and courted for four years until 2015, when Qian moved to North Carolina, where he was working, and the two were married. Since then, the Dumpling Lady food truck has been one of Qian’s gateways to the city.
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The Spread // Tastemaker
“It's a ton of work, but we can go to different parts of town and share our food with Charlotte.” At the same time, it affords Qian an anchor to her past. “I love Sichuan noodles. I make them from scratch and follow traditional recipes. It reminds me of China and my family's cooking.” Sichuan noodles are made with Sichuan peppercorn, a unique spice that not only packs a punch but also ever so slightly numbs the parts of the mouth they come into contact with. Crispy and delicious, these are just one of the mouthwatering noodle dishes available from The Dumpling Lady food truck, in addition to dumplings, of course. Once the physical location opens, Qian will expand the new menu to include additional noodle dishes, soup dumplings, and dim sum. “We're gonna pump up the spice level on some items, too,” Qian promises. From table to trailer to truck and, finally, to stall, The Dumpling Lady has spiced up the far corners of Charlotte, and we can’t wait to see what this next chapter brings. info thedumplinglady.com @thedumplingladyclt
1235 East Boulevard:Suite A Charlotte, NC 28205 www.storeyhomedesign.com 704-496-9902
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The Spread // Plated
SU KOSH I
LOBST ER ROL LS words SUNNY HUBLER / photo JAMEY PRICE
Don’t be fooled by the use of the Japanese word for “a tiny bit” — Sukoshi, the fast-casual sister restaurant to South End’s beloved O-Ku — offers more than just a little of the good stuff. With a 30-minute omakase, grab-and go-options, and the ability to order ahead on their app, this is quick and easy gourmet eating at its finest and most convenient. The Fugo Lobster Roll was amongst my first to try at Sukoshi. Rolled in black squid ink rice, the poached lobster, beets, and snappy asparagus come topped with a crunch of volcano salt and a cilantro aioli. It’s a modern take on Japanese traditions; a roll that swims the line between buttery and rich, while still remaining bright and clean from the crunch of produce and cilantro zest. If you’ve yet to try Uptown’s newest sushi spot, this is a dish that embodies all Sukoshi does right. — info — sukoshi.com / @sukoshisushi
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The Spread // Plated
F U TO BU TA'S
R ICE CR ISPY SQUA R ES words SUNNY HUBLER photo JAMEY PRICE
Chef Michael Shortino’s ramen shop of the South does more than a few things right, which is why you can find this little, wood-detailed, stereo-turned-up-loud eatery, right on South End’s light rail, packed out nearly any day of the week. There are a couple dishes that keep us coming back, but the rice crispy squares may just reign supreme. This shareable starter is comprised of squares of sticky rice, fried to perfection, that come out alongside a jar of spicy, sushi-grade raw tuna. Top the rice with just the right tuna ratio before dipping it into the wasabi soy for a bite that nails everything from flavor to texture to freshness, and everything in between. It’s an unexpected delight of a dish, surprisingly simple and yet totally unique — this is a starter best ordered in twos. info futobuta.com @futobutaramen
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The Spread // Poured
Y U M E'S
PLU M ROSE words ELEANOR MERRELL / photo JAMEY PRICE
Yume Ramen Sushi & Bar is, unsurprisingly, well-known throughout Charlotte for their flavorful ramen and sushi. What restaurant-goers don’t know is that they put just as much thought and creativity into their bar menu as they do their food menu. Nowhere is this more apparent than with their Plum Rose cocktail. Made with PAMA pomegranate liqueur and Japanese plum sake, the drink allows both the plum and pomegranate to shine without one overpowering the other. The cocktail is finished off with Prosecco, an Italian sparkling wine that balances out the sake and liqueur. The addition of Prosecco gives the drink a crisp, refreshing taste that doesn’t die out after the
first few sips. This makes the Plum Rose enjoyable to drink alongside any meal or even on its own. Yume takes the time to make the Plum Rose stand out when served. It looks just as enticing as it tastes. A beautiful shade of translucent plum, this cocktail does its best to match presentation with taste. The orange peel and flower garnishes add extra elements of color that cause the hue of the drink to pop. No matter how you feel about Instagramming your food, you’ll definitely want to snap a pic of the Plum Rose. This delectable drink pairs well with any of Yume’s sushi or ramen dishes. Order one alongside their Thai coconut curry ramen or their signature sushi rolls to get the most out of the Yume experience.
— info — facebook.com/yumeclt / @yumeclt
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The Spread // Poured
O -K U 'S
SMOK E & FI R E words SUNNY HUBLER / photo JP GRICE
From O-Ku’s innovative bar manager Larisa Yanicaks comes one of our favorite drinks in the Queen City: the brilliantly colored, deeply flavorful Smoke & Fire. Though the carrot juice base can change seasonally to include other fresh produce (beets, etc.), this orange-colored version embodies everything we love about the drink: unique, refreshing, and smoky-sweet. Made with mezcal, freshpressed carrot juice, ginger simple syrup, and finished with a sprinkle of togarashi salt, this is the perfect pairing to O-Ku’s delicious sushi menu.
— info — o-kusushiclt.com / @okucharlotte
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SEPT / OCT 2019 • @QCEXCLUSIVE • 95
Visit Majestic Bath today to make your dreams come to life. 621 S Sharon Amity Rd Charlotte, NC 28211 704-366-9099 https://www.majesticbathcharlotte.com
T H E F OL IO
H O M E A N D D ES I G N
An Expert's Eye Patrick Lewis uses his unparalleled experience to elevate and style Charlotte homes. words L AUREN GRIFFITH portraits JAMEY PRICE photos of work MICHAEL BLEVINS
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The Folio // Profile
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Patrick Lewis was drawn to design from a young age. Growing up, he would give the spaces within his own home various makeovers and transformations, and before long, as an adult, he put that early fascination into action. Lewis moved to New York City to officially begin his career as a textile designer and later worked with a high-end bedding line. His passion for pattern and texture in particular sparked during this time, and he began to focus on how much these two elements can command a space.
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Upon his eventual arrival in Charlotte, Lewis took a role as the in-house interior designer for Circa Interiors, where he remained for nearly two decades. It was a position he loved, but in 2015, with a wide swath of experience behind him, Lewis took the leap to open the doors of his own interior design firm: Patrick Lewis Interiors. Today, as a business owner and lead designer, Lewis stands by three guiding principles in transforming any space: clean, minimal, and classic. He enjoys adding natural colors, clean lines,
The Art of Simplicity.
What’s your style of luxury? At Bedside Manor we offer classic modern, traditional, sophisticated bohemian and so much more! Let us help you discover a new way to sleep!
Specialty Shops SouthPark | 6401 Morrison Blvd | Charlotte NC 28211 | 704-442-4006 | bedsidemanor.com
The Folio // Profile
““My aesthetic is founded on a simple approach: I like things modern and classic in design but practical for everyday life.” and light eye-catching details to complement his trademark sophisticated-yet-simplistic look. Lewis’s designs could be described as traditional channeled through a contemporary lens. A few key pieces of a Patrick Lewis design include subtle silhouettes with layered details and use of differing textures throughout the home. While conducting a planning session with clients, Lewis brings each of his techniques to the table to use in collaboration with the homeowner’s own dreams and aspirations. He prides himself in
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the ability to develop a personal relationship with each client, beginning during their primary design consultation in the client’s current home to give Lewis a sense of the client’s personal style and interests. The homeowner shares their ideas and visions, and Lewis then contributes his own ideas, marrying the two in a cohesive presentation. Clients are able to watch their ideas take form with a large vision board on a 10-by-4 foot table full of color schemes, fabric swatches, and inspiration photos of furniture and accessories. Working
The Folio // Profile
with Lewis is a true collaborative effort to create a floorplan to best fit clients’ needs and lifestyles. Most of Lewis’s work is residential, but he has done quite a bit of commercial work: He has contributed his efforts to many restaurant interiors and recently finished renovating Old Town Club, a luxury golf club in Winston-Salem. The pristine interior is exquisitely crafted with crisp white, soothing gray, and light blue accents, neutral furniture staples, and lovely additions of artwork on the walls. One of his favorite recent projects was a recent remodeling of a vacation home in Cashiers, North Carolina. The 10,000 square foot English manor sits perched atop a peaceful mountain, and benefits from Lewis’s additions of intricately classic furniture pieces and neutral accents with vibrant green pops of color. “Although Charlotte was traditional in scope for decades, it is transforming into an eclectic mix of aesthetics from modern to classic Southern traditional,” Lewis says. “I think that’s a true reflection of how Charlotte is evolving.” With his signature, elegant take on traditional design roots, Lewis is the perfect complement to a burgeoning Southern city. info patricklewisinteriors.com @patricklewisinteriors
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The Folio // Foundation
“Our mission is to inspire and reconnect people to invest in better sleep.”
A
R EST F U L SPACE
Charlotte’s premier bedding and home décor store, Bedside Manor, aims to help people invest in better sleep. words LIZA CARRASQUILLO / photos JAMEY PRICE
A good night’s sleep is something everyone needs but, it seems, fewer and fewer people actually get. Bedside Manor, a dedicated bedding and home décor store located in Specialty Shops SouthPark, has steadily been changing that. Bedside Manor sells a variety of items, from luxury bedding and furniture to table linens and loungewear, all designed to make each home a peaceful retreat that’s just right for resting. We sat down with Laura Fitch to find out what’s made the store so successful.
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Explain what Bedside Manor’s overall mission and goal is to our readers? Our mission is to inspire and reconnect people to invest in better sleep. We believe a restful space will enhance the quality of your life, both physically and mentally. We spend time learning about our customers’ sleep patterns and design needs. Together, we can help our customers create a comfortable and aesthetically beautiful space.
Providing quality interiors as individual as each client Charlotte
Lake Norman
Atlanta
www.kellycruzinteriors.com 704.895.2530
The Folio // Foundation
“We believe a restful space will enhance the quality of your life, both physically and mentally.” Describe how Bedside Manor has evolved over the years. Over the past 25 years, Bedside Manor has weathered many storms, including a downturn in the US economy, changes in European trade policies (where many of our products are made), cotton production issues in Egypt, and increased competition from department stores and online retailers to mention just a few. We’ve survived by maintaining our identity and continuing to provide customers with carefully curated merchandise and luxury home décor — at all price points. Each member of your staff is trained in all aspects of textiles and materials, from color to chemistry. Tell us more about that. It’s important that our staff is up to date on the products we sell. We offer hundreds of different bedding products with thousands of colors, sizes, and custom options. All of these choices can be overwhelming for a customer. We’ve equipped our sales staff with the most comprehensive training so they’re better able to assist customers in selecting the products best suited for their lifestyle, sleep style, and budget.
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The Folio // Foundation
“Don’t forget to utilize all of your senses when creating a relaxing room. A fragrant candle, a cashmere throw, and a gorgeous soft light will all help you create that soothing space.”
What products would you recommend for clients hoping to shift the overall feel of their bedroom area into more of a relaxing, tranquil space? To create a truly luxurious room, start with simple, pure colors. Keep clutter to a minimum, but don’t forget to utilize all of your senses when creating a relaxing and tranquil room. A fragrant candle, a cashmere throw, and a gorgeous lamp to provide soft light will all work to help you create that soothing space. You are celebrating your 25th year in business. What do you attribute that longevity to? Because retail is a service business, we need to provide our clients with the best in everything we do. That means we treat people the way we want to be treated, and we offer the best quality products on the market. We are constantly asking ourselves, “What will it take to do our best work and how do we continue to create an environment with products and services that people will be attracted to?” We hope to be a generational business and would love to be serving our clients and their children another 25 years. As Bedside Manor continues to grow, Fitch plans to expand into new locations across the Carolinas, as well as to unveil a private bedding line. Visit their website or follow their blog to keep up with news and design tips from Bedside Manor. To revolutionize the way you sleep and relax at home sooner rather than later, stop by the SouthPark location yourself. info bedsidemanor.com / @bedsidemanorhome
Sophisticated Design, Personal Approach.
( 7 0 4 ) 3 7 2 - 0 9 2 7 | w w w . m y r o n g r e e r. c o m
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Inspired by the You have a vision for your project. How it looks, how it feels and most importantly, how it reflects your style. At Windsor Windows & Doors, we’re passionate about your vision and it’s our mission to produce high-quality windows and doors that exceed your expectations. Countless style options, expert craftsmanship and high-performance technology – if you can dream it, we can build it. From new construction to renovation and replacement, Windsor can bring your vision to life. Just imagine what you can do... Visit ImagineWithWindsor.com to see performance information, hardware and glass options, and download our product guide.
The Folio // Vignette
A BEL MON T T R E ASU R E words LIZA CARRASQUILLO photo JOE PURVIS
Homebuilders should do more for their clients than just show them a cookie-cutter book of floorplans. They should do everything they can to make each house feel like a custom home. Shea Custom, a homebuilder serving the Charlotte and Greensboro areas, takes pride in doing just that. One of their latest projects brought to completion includes a house located in the master-planned community of McLean in Belmont, NC. By customizing their Ellington floorplan to suit this client’s particular style and preferences, they created a house that was not only stunning on the outside, but also well-designed on the inside. The interior features a subtle bohemian flair, incorporating
pops of pink hues throughout the chosen décor and dark hardwood floors to balance out the white walls. The one-and-a-halfstory house makes excellent use of its square footage, boasting a main-floor living area, kitchen, dining space, great room and bedroom—all on the first floor. By creating a flex room with barn doors, Shea Custom turned the singular living space into a beautiful lounge area and private office. The home’s bohemian décor continues up to the second story, which features a recreation room, a secondary bedroom, and a bathroom. With a floorplan that’s open where it should be and private where it shouldn’t, the rooms flow together in a way that’s suitable for both entertainment and privacy.
— info — sheacustom.com / @sheahomesnc
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40th Annual GRAND OPENING & SALE Saturday, October 5th!
11729 Carolina Place Parkway Pineville, NC Shop in-store & online! PeppermintForest.com
The Folio // Vignette
A L L I N T H E DETA I LS words L AUREN GRIFFITH photo MEKENZIE LOLI
Lucy and Company is an interior design firm, located in Charlotte’s bustling South End, that specializes in original, bold designs and effortlessly modern spaces. Beth Keim, owner and principal designer, takes pride in her carefully crafted color concepts and marvelous details. She recently revamped a home in Hickory, North Carolina that was originally designed by Albert Hadley. The home already consisted of expert design aspects, but needed a facelift in the form of new pieces and an updated palette. Beth collaborated with the homeowners’ existing pieces to add to the artistic interior. The home’s living space is a clean, simple aesthetic with white and dark contrasted against gold accents and modern details to bring it to life. Keim kept pre-existing staple pieces
in her design, such as the homeowners’ light gray sectional, and the crisp molding and wide windows that allow a flood of natural light inside. To add ease with entertaining, new metal barrel chairs and a refreshingly modern coffee table were implemented as the perfect space to chat and unwind. Details are Keim’s specialty: The gold chandelier catches the eye immediately upon entry, and stretches across the ceiling in a delicate yet commanding manor. It also brings in the room’s slight gold accents such as the curtain rods, brassy shelving, and tones of the centerpiece painting. Beth’s husband, Keith Keim, created this work with paper by Porter Teleo. They say if something isn’t broken don’t fix it: Beth Keim’s gentle yet effective design touch gave this living space exactly what it needed to rise to its full potential.
— info — lucyandcompany.com / @lucyandcompany
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JIM PHELPS COLLECTION LUXURY DESIGN AND CONSULTING WWW.JIMPHELPSCOLLECTION.NET | C O N C O R D, N C 2 8 0 2 5 | 7 0 4 – 2 3 9 – 5 3 7 2 | @JPCSTU_D_O
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The Folio // Vignette
PLUSH EL EGA NCE words RILEY COHEN / photo JOE PURVIS
With a plethora of stunning custom builds under their belt, Grandfather Homes approaches each project as its very own, bringing the client’s vision to an unimaginable reality. This custom Grandfather build in Plaza Midwood’s Cramer’s Pond is both timeless and contemporary. Interior designer Tammy Coulter was thrilled when the homeowners came to her with their vision of a color-rich design, exemplified in this dining area. The airy space draws the eye toward the luscious greenery visible from the vast kitchen sink window. Its vibrant
color palette is pleasantly offset with a rustic white brick backsplash and white trim. With luxury appliances in mind, including an expansive refrigerator with matching cabinetry, a wine cooler, and 48-inch stove range, the space adheres to a chic simplicity desired by the client. Acrylic dining chairs paired with plush velvet wing chairs contribute to the quirky yet refined feel of the home. Polished brass accents carried throughout the space make for a distinguished look, alongside the eclectic, bohemian-style chandelier that ties the whole room together.
— info — grandfatherhomes.com / @grandfatherhomes
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A.D.G .
Home by Kingswood Custom Homes
design | landscape | planning
Aba te D es ign Group www.a ba tedes ign g rou p.c om
karenkettlerdesign.com
luxur y kitchens and bathrooms
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The Folio // Blueprint
A N A RTISTIC H AV EN Laura Casey Interiors blends functional designs with stunning art in this Myers Park home. words LIZA CARRASQUILLO / photos CHRIS EDWARDS
The Folio // Blueprint
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As a child, Laura Casey spent her days surrounded by art in all forms. Her mother, an artist, took her to countless art exhibits and museums, where she learned to appreciate great art in all shapes and sizes. By also growing up in an older house, Casey learned to spot the artistry in the home’s traditional design and stunning architecture. That appreciation didn’t end with age. Now, as the owner and operator of Laura Casey Interiors, Casey does her best to bring that same artistic touch to each of her clients. Her keen eye and refined sense of style made her the perfect person to design this Queens Road West Myers Park home. “Our focus was to elevate the level of interior design of the home and to expand the client’s art collection,” says Casey. “Original art and custom light fixtures make each room unique, yet the design still feels cohesive. We achieve this by using a sophisticated color palette, tailored furniture and custom pieces.”
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Guests can see the home’s subtle grandeur right when they enter the front door. The double-height foyer not only makes the space feel open but also gives guests the feeling of entering a modern-day castle. This distinct style is carried throughout each room with unique lighting fixtures that highlight the home’s art, such as the living room’s chandelier. “Each glass piece is hand-pressed,” notes Casey. “The result is a striking, yet timeless addition to the room.” In addition to finding lighting features that work with the architecture and the artwork, Casey also strikes a delicate balance with the home’s nuanced color palette. Too strong, and the art would become lost among the design. Too weak, and each space would look dull. With the light-colored walls and bursts of deep burgundy, the client’s art collection remains the center of attention against a pop of color. Casey also designed the home with functionality in mind. The playroom features performance fabrics and
The Folio // Blueprint
built-in storage to conceal toys and games. Continuing with the home’s artistic theme, it also displays kid-friendly pieces along the walls. The home office maximizes concentration and creativity with custom pieces and simple office features. “We wanted to design a special, feminine office,” says Casey. “It feels like a jewel box.” That jeweled box holds custom artwork from Charlotte-based artist Stephen Wilson and silver chinoiserie wallpaper on the walls and ceiling. Sourcing original artwork for designs is a major part of Casey’s process. “Investing in art does not have to be intimidating,” affirms Casey. “We present options from both emerging and established artists and assist the client in selecting pieces that resonate with them.” As Laura Casey Interiors continues to grow, the firm plans to take on more large-scale residential projects throughout Charlotte. info lauracaseyinteriors.com / @lauracaseyinteriorsclt
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T R AV E L A N D S P O R T I N G
T H E E X PL OR E D
A DELU X E DU R H A M STAY Enjoy a vibrant and lively weekend in the growing city of Durham. words L AUREN GRIFFITH / photos courtesy THE DURHAM
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The Explored // Weekender
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Bursting with color and modernism, The Durham Hotel is an eclectic breath of fresh air for the hotel industry. This boutique hotel, located in the heart of downtown Durham, North Carolina, allows guests to experience luxury and comfort without straying too far from home. The Los Angeles-based firm Commune custom-designed the rooms of The Durham to incorporate contemporary shaped furniture and dashes of modern artwork. The fun, vibrant aesthetic of the hotel may draw
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guests in, but the amenities that it provides beg for another night’s stay. With a panoramic view of the downtown lights, The Roof is a trendy rooftop bar and lounge that acts as a lively aspect of the hotel, serving both guests and locals until early morning hours throughout the week. Guests are welcome to celebrate their getaway in the sunny, 3,000 square-footed open space complete with an indoor bar, lounge seating, and private penthouse that can be reserved for events. A signature “The Durham” cocktail
The Explored // Weekender
beckons for a sip, or guests can choose from the carefully handcrafted cocktail list. Local breweries and family wineries contribute to the ever-changing bar list, and a small kitchen with a raw bar is also offered. During chilly winter months, the roof is enclosed, heated, and laden with warm blankets. Hot clam chowder can be expected on the daily menu. In the summer, a weekend party commences every Sunday on the Roof with spritzers, dancing, and sizzling oysters. The hotel coffee shop brews from early morning to early evening for early-risers and for a necessary vacation coffee boost. Counter Culture Coffee provides rich lattes, drip coffees, and loose leaf tea to allow guests to grab their liquid energy without leaving the comforts of the hotel. Dining at The Durham includes a seasonal menu chock-full of farm-fresh ingredients from North Carolina, and freshcaught fish from local fishermen. Selected for Good Food 100 Restaurants, the hotel’s elegant restaurant must be visited at least once during your stay. For dinner, the chef roasts a wide selection of savory oysters, a delectable Moulard Duck Breast, and the much admired Durham Dry-Aged Steak. For brunch,
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enjoy a crisp mimosa and a wide selection of organic dishes. Lunchtime comes alive with the inspired Sea Island Pea Cake Sandwich or perhaps a deliciously layered salad. Venture through the streets of Durham, North Carolina by foot with a walking tour leaving just feet away from the hotel. This tour will lead you through the highlights of downtown, including art pavilions, galleries, and the Local Farmer’s Market. The alluring trifecta of meaderies, wineries, and distilleries in the downtown area are a must-go. Enjoy the natural beauty of Durham at Sarah P. Duke Gardens or Orchard Park by strolling through fresh blooms and trees less than two miles from the hotel. Nearby historic sites such as Duke Homestead and Bennett Place dig deeper into Durham and North Carolina’s past. The underrated and quickly expanding city of Durham, North Carolina seeping with history, culture, and natural beauty, which can all be experienced during your lively stay at The Durham Hotel. info thedurham.com / @thedurhamhotel
ASSISTED LIVING & MEMORY CARE
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The Explored // Carolina Town
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A CA ROL I NA T R E ASU R E Edisto Island is the perfect pristine beach backdrop for relaxation. words L AUREN GRIFFITH / photos JAMEY PRICE
Edisto Island, located deep in the lower corner of South Carolina’s coastal passageway, is one of the very few preserved raw beaches left in the United States. Edisto is nestled in between Charleston, Beaufort, and all of their surrounding islands and beaches, but it truly holds its own. The beaches of Edisto have been pristinely preserved over the years with unspoiled sand and unique fallen trees. The absence of commercial resorts leaves Edisto secluded and laid-back. The beach is a few miles in length but never crowded, providing just enough space for families or individuals on vacation to take a nice swim or relax with a book by the tide.
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There are a host of dry land activities too: shopping opportunities interspersed through the island, art classes and guided tours during colder months, and movies in the park, live music festivals, and art exhibitions in the spring and summer. Edisto also offers surfing, paddleboarding, and fishing rentals for exciting excursions without having to leave the beach. A breezy bike ride down Myrtle or Billow Street is also a nice way to spend island time. The Plantation Golf Course on Edisto Island is an underrated but beautiful 6,200 yard course woven throughout the island, offering an enjoyable golf experience. The favorable
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At Saint Mary’s School you can immerse yourself in a vibrant learning and living experience. Our innovative curriculum and real-world learning opportunities let you explore new ideas and interests in a community that values and respects your unique voice and talents. You want to better understand the world and your place in it. We can help. Find what you need at sms.edu/myplace . in grades 9—12. Saint Mary’s School is an independent, college-preparatory Episcopal boarding and day school for girls Saint Mary’s School admits girls of any race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin
The Explored // Carolina Town
year-round climate makes it easy to play golf no matter the month that your Edisto visit commences. Wildlife such as arrays of oak, magnolia, and palm trees presents a beautiful backdrop for the game as well as additional challenges. Perhaps a pelican or egret could be seen watching the golf from afar. Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve is one of the most photographed locations in the South, and the epitome of the natural beauty the area houses. The preserved Bay, an Edisto Island gem, is a vast plantation area rich with Lowcountry history. A 6.5 mile driving tour of Botany Bay commences with the bright green of loblolly pine and the state tree while cabbage palmetto trees frame each side of the road. The tour displays several plantation ruins, and ends
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with three miles of natural beaches decorated with a “boneyard” of gorgeous eroded trees and unique shells. Fine dining can be found on the island with the seafood and beverage concept Ella & Ollie’s. The transitional interior consists of brick walls, deep hardwood floors, and white windows for guests to enjoy the island view. Popular menu items include their veal parmesan and the signature Edisto shrimp cake. Freshly caught and locally grown ingredients make for delicacies, and the expert mixologists have crafted an elegant bourbon and whiskey driven cocktail menu with the addition of a large wine and beer list. Edisto Island’s separation from commercialism and large crowds invite guests to partake in the activities and tranquil, natural beauty that it has to offer, without any distractions.
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The Explored // Adventure
TA K I NG ON N EW H EIGH TS The Carolina BalloonFest invites you to marvel at the mass ascension of spectacular hot air balloons.
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words L AUREN GRIFFITH / photos JAMEY PRICE
Picture this: Massive orbiting art in the form of balloons right over your head, close enough to visualize each detail on the inflation. Carolina BalloonFest makes this amazing vision a reality each year in Statesville, North Carolina. This year, the festival falls on the breezy fall weekend of October 18 - 20. Sport or special-shaped balloon flights take place twice a day, in the morning and late afternoon. Guests are encouraged to observe at least one flight, as the takeoff is unlike anything you’ve seen before.
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The Explored // Adventure Although the hot air balloons are the focal point of the festival, there are many activities to partake in between flights. Eat Street is a delicious street food experience within the festival gates, and there are craft beer and wine tastings for guest enjoyment. The opportunity to take part in the flight is presented with tethered or high-flying balloon rides, offering the enjoyment of floating above the ground or obtaining a bird’s eye view of the festivities. When they take a break from balloon viewing, guests can shop at an artisan marketplace for local goods and treasures, or perhaps kick back while watching live entertainment. After the exciting events of a day at the BalloonFest, it only makes sense to unwind on a blanket and watch the balloons descending into the evening. On Saturday night, the Balloon Glow, our favorite event, commences. Each balloon in the sky glows from within, highlighting their designs and patterns in an orange gleam under the moonlight. It makes for a breathtaking end to the day. info carolinaballoonfest.com / @carolinaballoonfest
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Want Nothing More. The life you’ve always dreamed of exists - the wide beaches, the salty air, the time to dream bigger and play longer. It’s the magic of Kiawah Island, SC
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Real Estate Sales & Rentals Kiawah Island • Seabrook Island • Historic Charleston
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Home of the 2021 PGA Championship
The Explored // Crafts
A POTTER'S H AV EN Seagrove is home to an artistic family of potters eager to share their craft.
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words L AUREN GRIFFITH / photos JAMEY PRICE
The Handmade Pottery Capital of the United States is located just fifteen minutes outside of Asheboro, North Carolina. Seagrove potters work around the clock to create individual handcrafted pieces for visitors and locals to marvel over. Visitors from across the globe come to experience the wonderment of this whimsical community. A popular way to get through the potter’s paradise is caravaning through with a group. North Carolina has celebrated the art of pottery for decades, but this town is perhaps the essence of the expertise. Seagrove became a pottery heavy community in the 1700’s, with a large
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production of pots, jars, and dishes of red clay by colonial potters. The pottery industry almost faced extinction in the early 1900s, but a large surge in demand for the goods saved Seagrove, and now over 100 artists share their detailed craft. The rich history of the area is still incorporated today with potters using outdoor kilns to fire burn their clay vessels to perfection before they are glazed. The North Carolina Pottery Center is the first stop along the pottery tour and the only facility in the nation to display statewide pottery. Pottery crafted throughout history to the present
THE TIME FOR LUXURY LIVING IS NOW
The Explored // Crafts
Classic and timeless describe 2100 Queens perfectly. Located in the desirable Myers Park neighborhood, our spacious floor plans and high-end finishes make our apartment homes unlike any other. We set the standard of five-star living in Charlotte. Schedule a tour to see Charlotte’s iconic luxury apartment community. 2 1 0 0 Q U E E N S .C O M | 8 3 3 . 4 0 5 . 9 1 0 9
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is highlighted beginning with models Native Americans pit-fired creations, transitioning to colonial potter’s shop pieces, and finally current exhibitions and local works. The center is an informative introduction to the pottery craft in general and the multitude of studios to come along the journey. The dozens of pottery studios are separated by The North Carolina Pottery Highway, leading into scenic farmlands and countryside. There are brightly colored signs along the drive sprinkling the road to point to the direction of closest studios and workshops. Guests have the ability to experience the process of an artist spinning their wheel or shelving a new dish in their shop. All of the year-round pottery shops and studios are family owned and operated, and their handcrafted, unique pieces are offered for purchase. Many different styles of pottery are presented, including earthenware, stoneware, porcelain, and Raku. The potters pride themselves on creating both functional pieces for home use, and decorative pieces intricately etched for a pop of art addition to an interior design. Some pieces are inspired by distinct cultures, but each style is constantly evolving; incorporating new techniques and ideas. For an extended stay, Seagrove offers two cozy bed and breakfast inns; each of course displaying a wide collection of pottery. The Seagrove Stoneware Inn and Pottery Gallery encourages a comfortable stay with three pottery-themed rooms, a quaint guest kitchen, and a porch to unload on after a day of pottery gazing. There is a studio within the inn; and hosts offer tours, demonstrations, and hands on experiences for guests. Duck Smith House offers four luxurious rooms and papers guests with ice water, fresh cut flowers, and delectable breakfast in the mornings. For pottery and art lovers across America, Seagrove is an important part of artistic history and an eclectic gem found in the tip of North Carolina.
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The Exclusives
POET RY TO TH E PEOPL E An inside look at Charlotte’s Wall Poems project — a venture that is bringing a different type of art to the streets — with its founder, Amy Bagwell. words ELEANOR MERRELL / photos JAMEY PRICE
The Exclusives
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Over the past six years, something delightful has been happening on the streets of Charlotte. Like vibrant flowers pushing through the cracks of an urban sidewalk, breathtaking poetic murals have cropped up on exterior walls throughout the Queen City. Words and imagery meld in cohesive designs that range from two feet to over 50 feet high. This welcome addition to our city’s tangle of concrete, asphalt, and steel is the work of Amy Bagwell, who started this project while participating in Queens University’s MFA program. “The mission and purpose of the wall poems is simple: to get poetry to people, to whom it belongs,” says Bagwell.
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The First Wall A co-founder of Goodyear Arts, an English instructor at CPCC, and a visual artist in her own right, Bagwell is always up to something staggeringly creative. Inspired by the Leiden Poems, a series of 101 poems transformed into murals across Leiden, Netherlands, Bagwell’s wall poems were but a dream for years, until her former student and fellow painter Graham Carew gave her the nudge she needed: “(He) told me to stop thinking about it and start doing it!” Carew secured their first site in 2012—the side of Dandelion
The Exclusives
“Designing the wall poems is a trick in avoiding the obvious, which would diminish the poems’ impact. At its best, it’s creating a way to visually present the poems that helps something in them sing a little more—but we never, ever want to get in their way. The words are beautiful.”
Market on 5th Street—and set the wall poems in motion. Bagwell invited graphic design students at CPCC to submit proposals and then recruited her friend and muralist Scott Nurkin to paint the winning design. Bagwell’s former employer, Johnston, Allison, and Hord, footed the bill. With this initial success in their portfolio, Bagwell and Carew pitched their project to Daniel and David Levine, requesting permission to paint a mural on the side of Treloar House. Instead, the Levines offered six distinct walls throughout Uptown in service of Bagwell’s vision.
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The Wall Poems Process At first, Bagwell and her team approached building owners to request access to their exterior walls. But soon, building owners were reaching out to her. “You have to prove something once for people to see it and believe it can be done and that it should be done,” observes Bagwell. The murals can now be found in Uptown, Plaza Midwood, NoDa, the town of Matthews, and elsewhere in various sizes and featuring designs created by a plethora of artists. At Camp
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“The reading of them is the point. I don’t want to prescribe any specific reaction. That’s part of the reason the teaching of poetry has calcified; people dictate meaning and impact rather than encouraging readers to let poems wash over them and then bring themselves to the poems.”
North End, Bagwell collaborated with artists Holly Keogh and Blaine Hurdle to create an exterior, hanging, overhead installation of three poems on more than 50 six-foot-long boards. All of the poems featured in the wall poems project are the work of North Carolina poets selected by Bagwell (but with some input from the building owners). “I’ll never put up a poem I don’t love. Bad poetry (like any bad art) speaks poorly for all poetry, and it doesn’t do anything for people who encounter it.” Each mural is a study in the relationship between language and imagery. Artists must design murals that complement, rather than overstate or detract from the poems. “Designing the wall poems is a trick in avoiding the obvious, which would diminish the poems’ impact,” says Bagwell. “At its best, it’s creating a way to visually present the poems that helps something in them sing a little more—but we never, ever want to get in their way. The words are beautiful.”
What’s Next As the wall poems project preps for a new mural at Queens University, it’s tempting to see this as a fitting conclusion to the installations, since Queens is, after all, where the project began. Regardless of whether the installations continue, the impact of the existing murals will remain. “The reading of them is the point,” says Bagwell. “I don’t want to prescribe any specific reaction. That’s part of the reason the teaching of poetry has calcified; people dictate meaning and impact rather than encouraging readers to let poems wash over them and then bring themselves to the poems.” Thanks to Bagwell’s hard work, it’s easier than ever for Queen City readers to “bring themselves to the poems;” they need only look up.
info amybagwell.com / wallpoems.com / @wallpoems
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A RT FOR A L L Twenty Charlotte women who are shaping the Charlotte arts landscape. words SUNNY HUBLER / photos JAMEY PRICE
M Y L OA N
DI N H
T Y L E R
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M U R PH Y
M A RY
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MyLoan Dinh — MyLoan’s is art that’s very much of the world—often socio-political in nature, her mixed-media relics are imbued with new meaning as she deftly places them in different contexts. Look up her work and you’ll find thought-provoking installations and paintings, as well. With an art degree from UNC and a degree in visual arts from Wollongong University in New South Wales, Australia, she has exhibited internationally. She is a member of the Asian American Women Artists Association, and, with husband Till Schmidt-Rimpler, became founder and artistic director of a non-profit project called Moving Poets. Tyler Helfrich — Davidson College graduate Tyler Helfrich was a poet and an interior designer before dedicating herself to painting. Now, she spends her days in a small home studio, producing jaw-dropping portraits, landscapes, and abstracts that burst with color. For Tyler, color affords a rare oppor-
tunity to “sit in nuance, to experience the beauty available in it,” and her work challenges others to do the same.” Helfrich paints categorically, selecting a subject to paint and repaint until she has produced an entire collection, painting to the core of her subject in the process. Kathleen Murphy — Between making her own jewelry and now her fine art line, the creative spirit within Kathleen Murphy is nothing short of infectious. Kathleen says her first motivation to make her own jewelry as a child came when she couldn’t find what she wanted anywhere else. Fine art came later, as the same type of hands-on solution to an inability to find exactly that which she was seeking. Today, Kathleen is the winner of Belk’s Southern Designer Showcase, and she continues to break the mold, drawing attention from interior designers like Beth Keim of Lucy and Company in the process. Rare materials and delicate, light features make her work fine and airy—capable of being an augmentation or the focal point.
Mary Erickson — When Mary Erickson starts to paint outdoors, on location, she moves quickly. Painting the landscape in front of her means nothing is stagnant. The light source that’s present when she begins will shift in about an hour, forcing her to recall certain visuals from memory. After finishing this small painting—or field study, as she calls it—Erickson will return to her studio in High Ridge Gardens to work her reference into a larger piece. Her paintings, dreamy but realistic, respectful renderings, are influenced by the tradition of the artists that come after the French Impressionists of the 1800s. Melissa Herriott — Taking in Melissa Herriott’s art, you’d never guess that she took a break from painting… for 20 years. Her pieces look as though they flow fluidly from her, no matter whether the medium is acrylic or ink. Abstract and color-driven, Herriott’s work showcases in spaces through-
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out Charlotte. Regardless of the subject, Herriott’s work never fails to stun, assuring her position on our list of female Charlotte artists to keep your eye on. Evelyn Henson — Evelyn Henson is the talent behind the now-iconic Confetti Hearts Wall and the Confetti Stripes Wall in Charlotte’s South End. “I set out to create something colorful that would inspire passersby to walk away happier and more filled with love and kindness,” Henson says of the 40-foot murals. Her other work is just as bright and joyful as the mural and, through her website, her designs are available for purchase in a variety of forms, including on mugs, prints, and stationery. Elisa Sanchez — Elisa Sanchez is a Charlotte illustrator who draws and creates strikingly unique work on a wide variety of surfaces. Her work explores the juxtaposition of harsh and soft, organic and rigid, even life and
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death. She uses ink and fire, paper and paint, to create sculpture and images that you won’t soon forget, from paper taxidermy to pyrography and painted ‘tattoos’ using a brush and india. Rosalia Torres-Weiner — Rosalia Torres-Weiner is an artist, activist and community leader. Her work is featured in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum has been exhibited in venues including the McColl Center for Arts and Innovation, Levine Museum of the New South, UNCC’s Projective Eye Gallery, the City of Raleigh Museum, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, and the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington D.C. Her public murals celebrate the rich history and changing demographics of the South, and Rosalia uses her art to document social conditions and raise awareness. The issues she explores are typically those affecting immigrant communities like family separation, racism, and moving beyond common stereotypes.
Lita Gatlin — Lita Gatlin is an artist of many subjects and mediums. However, you’ll most often find her painting her personal take on a contemporary landscape, full of bold color and often rendered with oil paint. Lita began drawing with ink and pencil as a child, but didn’t make it her full-time pursuit until after she had spent nearly two decades in the banking sector and become a mother. What called her back to art was simple, a passion that couldn’t be ignored. Mary Kamerer — For some thirty-odd years, Mary has pursued creative arts of all sorts, including ceramics, watercolor, stained glass, photography, and even a one-year goldsmithing apprenticeship. Painting, however, is what calls her most often, and she says she has become enchanted with capturing the charm and simplicity of life in the rural South. An emphasis on textures, light and shadows can be seen in her impressionistic paintings of Carolina landscapes.
E L ISA
Windy O’Connor — Windy’s aesthetic evolved from her earlier work in abstract still life, landscape, and figures to a “non-subjective abstract.” This style gave her the freedom to express herself and to pull more heavily from her life and her surroundings; she describes her style as “atmospheric, mostly colorful and organic,” and she cites Pablo Picasso and Cy Twombley as seminal figures of inspiration. Windy dabbles in multiple media, such as paper, cold wax, string and graphite, in addition to experimenting with different ways to manipulate paint to create varying degrees of textures and thicknesses. Amanda Moody — Although she studied studio art at UNCG and Appalachian State, most of Amanda Moody’s artistic education is informed by trial and error. She has learned to be patient during the creation process, to wait for the
layers of each piece to unfold before adding more paint. This is especially important given that Moody rarely begins one of her pieces with a plan in mind. Moody’s creative process and the trance-like effect of her finished pieces replicate the processes and effects of nature, which she identifies as a primary form of inspiration. To Moody, nature is a model of symbiosis, connection, and complexity, in which she finds not only inspiration, but also comfort and fodder for meditation. Kathryn Godwin — Studio Cultivate, created by Kathryn Godwin, was formed to offer intricate, bespoke creations for a variety of spaces including commercial, residential and event spaces. The team works with a variety of materials, and aims to continually challenge space and process to create whimsical, meticulously crafted, and awe-inspiring installations and experiences. An installation artist and stylist, Kathryn has dedicated her career to the
SA NC H EZ
technicality of printmaking and photography and to the layered richness of fiber and textile work within installations and sculptures. Irisol Gonzalez — Irisol’s current body of work includes colored pencil drawings, oil paintings, mixed media, sculpture, and music. With color, texture and sound, she explores the sentiments and physical experience of being a brown, immigrant woman in today's American political atmosphere. She has traveled to Mexico and Central America to study Latin American Culture and its roots to the Hispanic identity that currently exists in the United States. Julia Lawing — Artist and longtime North Carolinian Julia Lawing synchronizes color and texture to capture the essence of a moment and evoke the emotion and energy of life’s mundane beauty. Lawing’s work has been exhibited throughout the Carolinas, and
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even has been displayed within Charlotte’s own cityscape through ArtPop Street Gallery billboards. Kristle Parchman — Kristle Parchman is inspired by moments; her catalogue is a pastiche of places and times not easily forgotten, preserved in the gentle haze of nostalgia. According to Parchman, her paintings “are dramatically positioned to communicate the memory of a vacation journey mixed with dreamlike images that go beyond memory of a ‘happy place.’” She is an adept abstractionist, but her striking figure studies have gained growing attention as well. Amy Moffatt — A full-time Wells Fargo employee and mother of two, Amy Moffatt has to squeeze her artistry time from the inbetween minutes of her days, dashing to the easel in her kitchen to paint a few strokes at a time. Although known in
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the Charlotte area for her signature angels, Moffatt also paints landscapes and abstract pieces. The success of Moffatt’s art enables her to flex her philanthropist muscles, as she often donates proceeds from her art sales to Cookies for Cancer, St. Jude’s, and Project Alive. Alexis Lorraine Howard — Alexis has exhibited her photography throughout the Carolinas and works with both digital and paper film. Though she received her B.F.A. at Winthrop University with a concentration in Photography, Alexis also has experience with a range of different media, including developing black and white negatives and prints in a wet darkroom, using alternative processes to print on paper, and creating and retouching digital photographs in a studio setting. Monique Luck — Luck is an award-winning international artist and muralist, and she models the
features of figures and natural forms using fragments of found paper. She has exhibited her work frequently at galleries and museums across the country, including The African American Museum of Dallas, The South Carolina State Museum, and the Heinz History Center Museum in Pittsburgh, and she was chosen to create an ArtPop billboard and an installation for the Cornelius Community Garden. In Pittsburgh, she painted murals for the August Wilson Center and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Shannon Whitworth — Shannon’s swoon-inducing, folk-inspired musical style found its first showcase in her Asheville-produced solo debut, 2007’s No Expectations. Whitworth has appeared everywhere from Philadelphia Folk Festival to Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Shannon balances her own time on her Brevard, NC farm, painting in the barn she repurposed as a visual art and music studio.
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Scott Avett presents his first solo exhibition with a collection of his art spanning two decades.
Inside Scott Avett’s Concord, NC studio, we get a glimpse into his creative mind, from the songbook to the canvas. As he’s made a name for himself through music and The Avett Brothers, he has maintained a connection to his visual art that’s been unshakeable. This is the artistic expression that he says feels most primary, while music has required more effort. Already known widely as a prolific creator, this is a look into Scott’s art making in a brand new way.
words SUNNY HUBLER photos EMBY TAYLOR PHOTOGRAPHY
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Scott Avett sits on the front porch of his Concord, NC studio. Journals upon journals can be found neatly stacked on the floor there. Scott shows us one of the many pieces leaning against the studio's walls: a large format journal entry.
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On The Farm — It’s a late July day in Concord, North Carolina, the heat rising with steamy steadiness alongside the climbing sun. Farms and ranch houses assemble around us, making a mosaic as far as the eye can see. From the mouth of a short gravel driveway, Scott Avett comes into view, stooping to pet a tongue-lolling, summer-cut Old English Sheepdog. Straightening up with his furry companion beside him, he offers a little half wave to mark our passage onto the picturesque piece of Piedmont he owns here in his hometown. With a wood-stacked open barn, scrubby grass washed yellow from the heat, even a shining pickup truck waiting, it’s exactly the sort of place you’d expect to find the elder Avett on any given weekday morning. Well, you might had The Avett Brothers never happened. Nowadays, it’s more of a rarity to find Scott at home with a few hours to spare. Still, you get the feeling Scott would have found himself in the same spot, with the same trappings, no matter what future unfolded. Even as the band’s success has steadily grown, it doesn’t appear that much of Scott’s private life has been nudged along by the gilded hand of fame. As a friend walks by at one point, Scott asks, “Hey, did you find that chicken…?” Younger brother Seth Avett lives less than a mile down the road, and their parents are nearby, too. Scott’s is a life intentionally inseparable from the land that surrounds him today and the stories it holds, even if his day job might have led you to envision him residing somewhere more... rock n’ roll. The origins of the group that has largely defined Scott’s adult life date back to 2000, when he and Seth both shelved other musical projects and began playing together under “The Avett Brothers” name. The simple monniker called out something growingly evident: Theirs is a sum greater than its parts, knit together by the bond that lets them share a name. Scott and Seth are arbiters of a musical prowess realized in childhood (perhaps even before, if you believe in that sort of thing). ‘Round here in Cabarrus County, music has leached into the water. George Clinton was born here, and the Avetts signed onto their first record label with another Concord native, Dolphus Ramseur of Ramseur Records, with whom they maintain a relationship to this day. Father Jim Avett is a gospel/country artist, their sister, Bonnie, sometimes joins the boys on stage, and the North Carolina native, late bluegrass legend Doc Watson encountered Seth when the youngest Avett was a mere 14-yearsold. This is a breeding ground for folk and country, but in the brothers it birthed something entirely new. Fast-forward two decades, and you’re looking at a group rounded out by bassist Bob Crawford and cellist Joe Kwon. Together, The Avett Brothers have released an impressive sixteen albums (a seventeenth forthcoming October 2019), garnered three Grammy
nominations and a Gold album in 2009’s I and Love and You. That album was the beginning of their joined forces with Rick Rubin, one of the most prolific and legendary producers. The co-founder of Def Jam Recordings and producer of everyone from Run DMC to Justin Timberlake and Johnny Cash is effusive about the Avetts; he’s called their music “completely unique and original.” On top of all that, their real bread and butter is the grueling touring schedule they maintain, hitting the road year after year after year for ever-swelling crowds. Even with artists’ souls, they seem to have been unable to shake that old farmer work ethic. But the band’s not the end of the story. That lazy type of reticence to allow performers to fit into more than one box is defied wholesale by Scott’s obsession with story-telling and the metering of human experience through artistic measure. His interests carry beyond the stage and the songbook, and as he tells it, always have. “I’m not anything first—not painter, musician, writer, printmaker, performer—before I am an artist,” Scott once said simply. But, he added, “I am always thinking in visual terms... Even when I’m writing, I’m thinking visually, and I feel like everything trickles down from that.” Rounding the corner past the barn, Scott leads us into his art studio.
“I like my relationship with my studio to be like doodling on a scrap piece of paper; nothing critical about it, simple existence.”
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An Artist’s Roots — Late summer 2019 marks a time when Scott’s work is about to hit a new crescendo. Alongside a calendar full of touring, his painting and printmaking, longtime complements to the music, have been keeping him particularly busy. Preparation is in full force as the North Carolina Museum of Art gets ready to open Scott’s first ever solo exhibition, I N V I S I B L E, on October 12. The NCMA show, set to run through February 2, 2020, marks a special moment, when the art reflecting a period of Scott’s personal life, spanning two decades, can come together in one place—and his home state no less. His work is sometimes abstract, like his journal excerpts, but often figurative, playing with faces, features, and movement. Scott says he has “no way to know how to describe” his particular style. “I figure making the images is my best way to explain it. My process is all about discovery... Like a good conversation with someone telling a great story that you’ve never heard, or like a great book, it’s a journey to find out something I didn’t know before. Another key element in my process is joy. I like my relationship with my studio to be like doodling on a scrap piece of paper; nothing critical about it, simple existence.” Over the decades, while The Avett Brothers were allowed to take center stage, Scott kept his visual art a quieter and less readily consumable province, not quite entirely solitary but not nearly as public. The impetus for his visual art—mostly mani-
fested now in acrylic, silkscreen printing, and oil painting— dates to his youth. In the Avett household growing up, art, like music, was all around. “Dad drew some very funny [pictures]... In fact, most of our church sermon time was spent drawing cartoons of members of our church body and laughing. And Seth is a visual artist, too. He’s a brilliant draftsman and very gifted at caricatures.” During schooling, a sixth or seventh grade art teacher encouraged his efforts, and then later, while earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from East Carolina University, a few notable professors (Leland Wallin, Scott Eagle, and Michael Ehlbeck) echoed the notion that art could be something careerist for Scott. He’s continued the endeavor ever since. Which came first—visual art or music-making—seems immaterial, or at least has now become too blurrily transposed in his memory to parse. Many of the same themes (love and longing, contemporary life, spirituality) that capture his imagination in writing lyrics surface in the paintings and prints, too. I N V I S I B L E is a fitting cross-section of what makes Scott’s creative mind whole: The richly textured, often brightly colored prints and paintings contain nuanced lifelines to his family, his Southern upbringing, and the music, too. His subjects, in song and on canvas, aren’t tethered to the medium: All of Scott’s art tends to explore the emotionally charged, vulnerable, and nakedly truthful. You’re allowed to peer at snippets of personal moments—sometimes in the form of literal journal excerpts—that contain within them overarching universal narratives.
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That’s part of what is so appealing about the Avetts’ work to their many fans: Their willingness to mine their own most personal moments and intimate observations creates a sense that not only do you know what they’re going through, but they might understand you as well. “I have faith that my personal experiences are familiar, in some way, to all other humans,” says Scott. “In other words, that [my experiences] connect. I also trust that any social, political, and spiritual ‘truths’ that I possess are present in my work.” Over the years, he has exhibited his work in New York and St. Louis, among other cities, and his art has been purchased by several prominent private collectors. A close relationship with Chandra Johnson of Charlotte’s SOCO Gallery—a place he calls a “beacon” for North Carolina’s art scene—helped solidify him a spot to show his work close to home. “I knew Scott first as a musician then as a friend,” Chandra says. “His visual art was a huge discovery as this was a creative pursuit he kept private for many years. After seeing his work and hearing about his practice, I felt strongly about bringing him into our gallery program. I have enjoyed watching Scott’s career as a painter unfold.” There have been a lot of others throughout the years, too, and Scott is quick to acknowledge their influence on his abilities, a habit honed perhaps by decades of the collaborative, shared nature of band members. (Every song is attributed to “The Avett Brothers” rather than in individual credits).
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“I have received encouragement from many, and I have used it to its fullest. An artist and dear friend, Eric Fischl, many of my peers, and all of my family have helped guide me in knowing who I am,” Scott explains. “Since the time I met Eric in 2015, I have made more work than in the previous fifteen years. His encouragement, artist to artist, means the world to me. And Tom Schulz, an artist based in Asheville, was so unbelievably supportive of my work at a very early stage; He worked very hard to assemble teams to help me show work in ways I wanted to, and I am forever grateful for that.”
A Oneness — Inside the modest ranch—Scott's workspace and studio—are an unfinished few rooms, replete with paint-splattered plywood floors and a lofted upstairs. The little ranch’s most defining characteristic is the sprawl of artistic detritus—buckets of paint brushes, dried kaleidoscopic palettes, oil paint tubes, and scraps of paper proliferate across any surface that can hold them. Doodles are tacked to the walls, half-thoughts scribbled haphazardly with pen on a cupboard door. Stacked against the walls, like well-ordered books on a library shelf, are canvases upon canvases, so many that walking from room to room has become a delicate maze. In varying sizes, picture-frame to ceiling height, each was built by Scott by hand. Some of the art looks surrealist and cartoonish, like a gaping clown face, and others strikingly lifelike. From one corner,
“I have faith that my personal experiences are familiar, in some way, to all other humans. In other words, that [my experiences] connect.�
The Exclusives the artist himself, in self-portraiture, gazes into the ether, as does the image of one of his young sons, rendered almost true to size. Dozens of other canvases lean in upon their closest mate, their stories clandestine if only for now. Much of the art housed here is rendered in staggeringly large scale, made by an artist seemingly willing to unfold the less public side of his life with no equivocation. You can see Scott’s wife, looking exhausted while bouncing a wailing baby. His older child, in pajamas, brushing his teeth over a sink. A baptism is performed by a serious-faced priest. The tendency to bare their souls is almost reflexive for the Avetts at this point; Scott’s visual work contains every bit the depth of emotionality that the Avett Brothers’ productions have become synonymous with. Indeed, The New Yorker noted The Avetts' “extreme musical honesty” and, in a 2013 Rolling Stone interview, Rick Rubin explained, “The first thing that struck me was the sincerity in their vocals. I really believed them... They feel life in a deep way.” All around us in the studio is the continuity of those proclivities: The visual art of Scott Avett is not that surprising of a departure from his music, nor is it unclear how he holds the two in tandem—It’s all like one broadcast of artistic consciousness, with a few different channels. “Music always felt like a ‘look at me!’ or ‘listen to me!’ type of endeavor,” Scott says, “where painting and printmaking is like, ‘look at this!’ or ‘look what I made!’ I love doing both: I always loved show and tell, and I always loved attention.” Scott does seem as comfortable here in the studio as on the stage, a man naturally performative and used to gleaning inspiration from both the banal and the extraordinary in his immediate surroundings. How it will manifest—a song lyric, a photograph, a sketch—well, each seems equally likely. As we stand around, perched carefully so as not to knock anything over, he’s generous and thoughtful with his descriptions of each piece, pulling out one after another, enthusiasm tangible. The other clear thread in Scott’s life work is, unglamorous though it might sound, volume. It’s been said that the essential step to making art is to simply show up, and that’s clearly an element with which Scott doesn’t struggle. On the contrary, he’s a pursuant of a seemingly endless production of music and visual art. The studio is almost literally overflowing with art, while plenty more lives elsewhere, in homes, galleries, and collections. As he’s putting the finishing touches on the NCMA show, he’s also getting ready to release that seventeenth Avett Brothers album and has been logging hours in the studio with another record he produced, performed, and co-wrote on with the band Clem Snide. That one is due out early 2020. It all starts to sound a little… head-spinning. For a man on the road touring more than half the year, and with three young children and a partner at home, keeping time on his side sounds like a full-time job itself.
But Scott seems nonplussed by the idea, shrugging off any implication that his cup might runneth over. “Simply put, I try not to waste time,” he says. "And I prioritize the practice of doing nothing when it is right. I feel a surplus of time when I’m in this practice.” Fair enough, but voluminous creation doesn’t always mesh well with the fleeting type of inspiration that visits artists. “I have some ideas that come in a flash, and often I do nothing with them even though I know they are beautiful,” Scott muses. “I trust that the true ideas will stick with me and eventually be made. I also think inspiration is very ghostly in the way that the conceptual idea of something may not even exist for me until after I’ve made a picture... In this regard I could randomly flip through ideas or visions in my life and just draw one. The next thing I know, there is a very mysterious and interesting image on canvas. In other words, just like doing nothing is the answer sometimes, other times just doing something, literally whatever, is the answer.”
“At this point, I am interested in the unification of all things.”
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The Making — Back in the biggest room of the studio, natural light streams in and a chair sits smack in the center of the floor, angled toward the one painting that’s on display. Scott sits here sometimes just to
take in where he’s at in the process of a piece. Today, it’s the baptism painting, half still in sketch and half filled in, that’s on the easel. “At this point, I am interested in the unification of all things,” Scott is explaining. “My visual work, as well as any song I write, has to partake in unification or it is not interesting to me. In this regard they, song and picture, are from the same stream. [But] I have to prepare myself to be painter and singer in different ways… The expressions are coming from the same place, but the vulnerabilities show up in different ways.” There are a few window frames laying about, too, relics Scott found from the house he grew up in. Fascinated by the form and the memories they held, he replaced the glass with plexi and inserted a screen-printed, cut-out image of his young son doing a cartwheel-handstand type maneuver. He’s already churned the image out in several other iterations, too, “pushing it” over and over again to see what he could create. It’s an image he says will be with him all his life, and the old Avett home windows will come to rest all across the country, housed in different galleries. He perches on the worn chair for a bit, initially for a few portraits, moving aside a little childhood tooth fairy pillow handstitched by his mother so he can settle in. Looking ahead at the in-process canvas, he stays put longer than needed for the camera’s demands, ruminating aloud on the direction he plans to take the unfinished image. Before long, Scott hops up to ask if we want to see another piece from the stack behind him. It takes two people to haul out a canvas that grazes the ceiling once righted. In earthy, warm tones of green and gold, his young sons come
into focus; with rounded bellies and hands grasping, they wade in a pond on the Avett property. It’s richly textured and full of movement, breath, and childish energy. Scott’s paintings, in their intimacy and specificity, are like tangible versions of eidetic memories: At any moment, it looks like the boys could spring to life, noisy and splashing. In its scale alone, it’s clearly a canvas Scott logged many hours on. How, one of us wonders aloud as we look on, did he know when the piece was “complete”—or for that matter, when to be done on any one of them? “If I remove myself and my ego from it, whether it’s good or not, then I can see how it was great a long time ago,” Scott says. “It can be great a lot of ways but it will only be great in one way. That’s really important, same with songs. There’s maybe an infinite amount of ways that a song can turn out exactly like it’s supposed to, but it’s only going to turn out one. Until you’ve stamped it and it’s gone, you really don’t know… So I just paint and then move on. And sometimes I overthink it and don’t stop when I should have.” To this point, he pulls out another smaller piece, laughing as he recalls painting it in colors he says he shouldn’t have, to the point in which a buyer, interested in the original, unpainted form, turned down the purchase when he saw the final product as it lives today. “See,” he gestures at the painting in his hands. “There are ways that it can not be great as well—there’s probably more window for that, for it to be dishonest. The painting—it told me. I should have stopped, but I didn’t have the confidence... or maybe I wanted something more out of it. The life of the painting, if I
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try to perfect it, just starts to die or turn into a representation of the image which is less…” he trails off, looking at it. It seems that inherent challenge is part of what drives Scott, rather than defeats him, which may be part of the secret of his ability to churn out so much damn art. Rather than meditating on perfection or lamenting an overflowing schedule, he shows up and works. “Artists are like spiritual teachers in that they are computing mysteries in front of people... It’s the same singing a song, especially when you aren’t a great singer, because you’re finding the pitch and finding your sound in front of people. The struggles have always made the best art. I get pretty bored with what most people call masterpieces because ‘domination’ of a medium is not what it’s about. It’s about going so far that you lose all control and then people see your unguarded soul, your real humanness. That’s really art to me.”
Onward — As we’re wrapping, extending thank yous and chattering on everything from CrossFit (Scott says incorporating exercise on the road has helped his vocal abilities) to his kids heading back to school, Scott asks, do we want to see the upstairs? “It’s part of it,” he offers. Unsure what else there is to see, we file up the narrow staircase that cuts through the profusion of art and its remnants to see that Scott has cleanly sectioned off a small recording studio. The walls are sound-proofed (in part with a thick moving blanket tacked up like a curtain) and it's dimly lit. A piano absorbs one entire wall, and two guitars hang nearby. Scott’s framed Gold album is here, too.
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Standing upstairs, you can look out over a little balcony that opens up over the paint splattered floor and chair below where Scott just sat for us. Up here, there’s not so much as a stray paintbrush: Housed within one space is a nice, cleanly sliced divide. The upstairs exists as the missing piece to the studio below, the unabridged version of Scott’s art. With the ease surely born of muscle memory, he drops down into the piano seat, and, in another act of generosity, performs for us a single song. It’s not fancy up here but the music swells with spot-on acoustics. He mentions the work he’s been doing up here recently: The Avett Brothers album coming in October, and the Clem Snide project. This fall, he says, there will be a lot of shows to play. “I’m having so much fun performing for and connecting to people on that realm.” Before the solo exhibition opens at The North Carolina Museum of Art in October 2019, Scott’s art will be at the Seattle Art Fair and at William Shearburn Gallery in St. Louis, with Q&A’s at select cities along the way. And that’s it; we exit through the porch of the little ranch, dumped back out into the scorching sunlight to return Scott to his many orders of business. “It’s a gift; the fact that I’m able to do this is a total privilege,” Scott says. “I have no clue how it was able to happen, I just know that it’s a gift from an order of events and a higher power that I can’t explain. My parents started that by just protecting our time, saying, ‘You go to school. And if you don’t want to go to school, go to work and be best at whatever you do, whatever it is.’” info scottavett.com / ncartmuseum.org / soco-gallery.com
“The struggles have always made the best art. I get pretty bored with what most people call masterpieces because ‘domination’ of a medium is not what it’s about. It’s about going so far that you lose all control and then people see your unguarded soul, your real humanness… That’s really art to me.”
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Art Galleries of the Queen City The Queen City's must-visit art galleries for the discerning enthusiast and collector. Table of Contents ELDER GALLERY OF CONTEMPORARY ART | GROVEWOOD GALLERY LACA PROJECTS | SOZO GALLERY | SHAIN GALLERY
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CONTEMPORARY ART
ELDER GALLERY OF CONTEMPORARY ART South End
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ocated in the heart of vibrant South End, Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art represents a robust variety of contemporary artists who create in a broad range of mediums. The gallery exhibits museum quality glass, paintings, sculpture, mixed media works, drawings, and collage. Their diverse roster of artists work locally, nationally, and internationally, and their frequently changing exhibitions offer purposeful programming that invites introspection, dialogue, and engagement with the artists. The light-filled gallery is a place where contemporary art can be experienced and acquired. They specialize in assisting new and seasoned collectors, as well as corporate clients, design professionals, and insti-
1520 South Tryon Street
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tutions build quality collections from their emerging, mid-career, and established artists. They are dedicated to a personalized, professional approach that includes concierge service to save their clients time and accommodate schedules outside of regular gallery hours. Even those among us who cannot put oil to canvas, carve stone into shape, or coax molten glass into sculpture can appreciate and learn from the artist’s interpretation of the human experience. Through their chosen mediums, the gallery's artists tell stories that broaden perspectives and foster understanding. Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art always looks forward to welcoming you. Come curious. Leave inspired.
Charlotte, NC
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704-370-6337
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eldergalleryclt.com
Gallery Hours Tue-Fri 11am-6pm Sat 11am-5pm
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@elder_gallery_clt
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HANDMADE ART
GROVEWOOD GALLERY Asheville, NC
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Gallery Hours Mon-Sat 10am - 5:30pm Sun 11am - 5pm
111 Grovewood Rd.
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stablished in 1992, Grovewood Gallery of Asheville, NC is nationally recognized for its dedication to fine American art and craft. Located in the historic Grovewood Village adjacent to The Omni Grove Park Inn, the gallery is noted for its charming, old-world setting, and its rich craft heritage. This site once housed the weaving and woodworking operations of Biltmore Industries, an arts and crafts enterprise— originally backed by Edith Vanderbilt—that played a significant role in the Appalachian Craft Revival during the early 20th century. Today, Grovewood Gallery offers two expansive floors of finely crafted furniture, ceramics, jewelry and more, contributed by over 400 artists and craftspeople
Asheville, NC
• 828-253-7651
•
from across the United States. The gallery also boasts an outdoor sculpture garden, which includes works by Utah artist Lyman Whitaker, who is considered a master in the kinetic sculpture discipline. Lyman’s “Wind Sculptures” are responsive to the slightest breeze, yet also designed to endure galeforce winds. Throughout the year, Grovewood Gallery presents rotating exhibitions, special events, and live craft demonstrations spotlighting local and regional artisans. Spoonin’, a showcase of handcrafted spoons (both functional and sculptural), opens on September 14, with a reception from 2 5pm. This exhibition will remain on view through Sunday, October 13.
grovewood.com
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@grovewoodvillage
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LATIN AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY ART
LACA PROJECTS FreeMoreWest
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atin American Contemporary Art (LaCa) Projects, established in 2013, is a uniquely beautiful gallery located in Uptown Charlotte. With a satellite office in Buenos Aires, LaCa Projects is a multi-faceted, cultural enterprise consisting of an art gallery, creative studios, and a café. Founded by Argentinian art collector Walter Dolhare, Creative Director Juan Dolhare, and former Mint Museum Chief Development Officer Neely Verano, the gallery’s mission is to create a gateway for connecting contemporary Latin American artists with the increasingly diversifying arts scene of Charlotte, as well as to provide a location in the Southeast region of the United States for art collectors to develop and foster an appreciation for the visually striking narrative of contemporary Latin American art.
1429
Bryant
Street
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Charlotte,
NC
In addition to its ongoing exhibitions and related programming, LaCa Projects remains a significant contributor to the rapidly-growing arts scene in Charlotte through numerous collaborations and partnerships, and is a strong participant in the arts at a national and international level. LaCa Projects kicks off the 2019-2020 art season with its first inaugural women’s collective exhibition, Convergence and Crash, in September featuring works by regional, national, and international contemporary artists. In November 2019, LaCa Projects will host Cristina Toro’s third solo exhibition at the gallery, which will feature brandnew works by the native Puerto Rican painter and collagist.
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704-837-1688
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lacaprojects.com
Gallery Hours Tue - Friday 11am - 6pm Sat 11am - 2pm Sun Closed
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@lacaprojects
SEPT / OCT 2019 • @QCEXCLUSIVE • 169
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CONTEMPORARY ART
SOZO GALLERY
Uptown
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pon walking into Sozo Gallery, tucked in a small storefront in Uptown’s Hearst Tower Plaza, you will feel an instant sense of warmth. There are people from all walks of life, seasoned collectors and newcomers, residential and corporate clients, all connecting with what they see. That was Hannah Blanton’s goal when she opened the doors of her gallery in 2013. Sozo Gallery supports both their artists and buyers by treating artwork as an extension of each person’s story. Sozo translates to “create or inspire” in Japanese, which is the gallery’s mission — to inspire soulful connections. Sozo represents over
Gallery Hours Mon-Fri 10am - 4pm Sat 11am - 4pm Sun Closed
214
N.
Tryon
St.
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Charlotte,
NC
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704-575-6777
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30 eye-catching national and international artists in a variety of styles, subjects, and mediums. Blanton and her team, through engaged, personalized consultation, help clients connect to the art they are procuring and treat them not as business transactions, but as true art appreciators. Here, you will be offered exposure to a breadth of artists and fresh experiences, and you will be welcomed with the kind of graciousness you can only find at Sozo. On the evening of Thursday, October 17, Sozo is proud to present Vivid a group show featuring the colorful 2D and 3D works of Ed Nash, Kurt Herrmann, and Herb Williams.
sozogallery.net
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@sozogallery
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FINE ART
SHAIN GALLERY Charlotte, NC
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fter Gaby Shain first opened the doors in 1998, Shain Gallery has become not only one of Charlotte's top art destinations but also one of the most influential galleries in the Southeast. For twenty years, Gaby spotlighted Charlotte's local artists while also bringing new artwork to the community. The gallery has built up an impressive clientele in the process. Carrying on that legacy is former Gallery Director and now owner Sybil Godwin. Sybil continues to uphold Gaby's precedent by spotlighting upand-coming artists, such as Louisiana's Lynn Sanders, bringing in new works and supporting Shain's current artists.
2823 Selwyn Avenue
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Shain Gallery offers works from over forty artists at varying values allowing anyone a chance to find a piece they can afford. To ease even the most novice of collectors into Charlotte's growing arts scene, Shain Gallery offers consultation and acquisition assistance, and will travel to a client's home with a piece. "It's one of my favorite parts of my job," says Sybil. "I encourage it. You kind of have to see the painting in your home before you buy it." Visit Shain Gallery in the heart of Myers Park to see their impressive selection and upcoming exhibits.
Charlotte, NC
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704-334-7744
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Gallery Hours Mon-Sat 10am - 5pm Sun Closed
shaingallery.com
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@shaingallery
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Designers & Artisans Charlotte's talented interior designers and artisans changing the city's aesthetic. Table of Contents JACLYN EHRLICH INTERIORS | PHEASANT HILL DESIGNS THEORY DESIGN STUDIO | URBAN EDGE | BLACK DOVE INTERIORS
photos of Jaclyn Ehrlich's work (this and opposite page) CHRIS EDWARDS
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INTERIOR DESIGNER
JACLYN EHRLICH Charlotte, NC
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ocusing on residential design in the Charlotte area, Jaclyn Ehrlich utilizes her keen eye for style and color to provide beautifully unique spaces for her clients. After many creative and artistic endeavors from New York City to the Queen City, the busy mother of four found a love for interior design and opened her own design firm. Her personal design style is cultivated from her travels around the world; namely the white, clean spaces of the Mediterranean and the feel, charm, and history of European country estates. She appreciates neat lines, natural materials, and amazing architecture. Jaclyn says, “Having a love and
appreciation for many styles allows me to tap into what my clients really want — spaces that reflect them, their personality and things they love.” Helping clients find and define their style is rewarding and essential to Jaclyn’s creative process. Jaclyn’s personal favorite projects occur when her clients allow her creative freedom to express her visions for them. Being a specialist in top level full service project management and high-end project design, Jaclyn considers her designs with great intention. She prides herself in the ability to take care of all the client’s details, resulting in an amazing finished space.
2820 Selwyn Avenue • Charlotte, NC • 704-989-7160 • jaclynehrlich.com
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@jaclynehrlich_interiors
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INTERIOR DESIGNER
PHEASANT HILL DESIGNS Charlotte, NC
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stablished by owner and lead designer Kendra Tardif White, Pheasant Hill Designs has been offering their expert interior design services and creating beautiful spaces and homes throughout the city since 2001. From communicating with homeowners, contractors, architects, and even vendors, Kendra and her team are able to provide their clients peace of mind knowing their home will be in the most capable of hands, without the worries that renovations often bring. Kendra’s style is a rather unique blend of timeless pieces and fabrics influenced by her time spent living in Spain and traveling throughout Europe. “Living in a foreign country really molds
kendra@pheasanthilldesigns.com • 704-604-0167
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your ideas of culture, aesthetics, and beauty,” she explains, “ but I have been in Charlotte for twenty years, so at this point Charlotte is definitely home.” Kendra’s approach to design is collaborative and organized, with a personal dynamic that is customized for every client. “I believe that we as designers are charged with translating our clients’ style and lifestyles into their most personal of spaces… their home.” Whether it is a home addition, project management, a kitchen renovation, or full service Interior Design, Pheasant Hill Designs always delivers a finished project with their client in mind, leaving them with a beautiful home and an enjoyable experience.
pheasanthilldesigns.com
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@kendrapheasanthilldesigns
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INTERIOR DESIGNER
THEORY DESIGN STUDIO Charlotte, NC
T
heory Design Studio is an award-winning interior design firm located in the Dilworth neighborhood of Charlotte. Their designers have combined experience of over 20 years in the interior design and merchandising industry, and Theory is widely recognized as a definitive authority on design and style. Delivering the highest level of service to their clients, they balance aesthetics, function and budgets with exceptional design solutions. Led by owner and designer Emily Hudgens, Theory offers full design services for both residential and commercial projects, in addition to working with homebuilders to design and merchandise timeless model homes. The seasoned, friendly designers are eager to navigate each client’s style and budget to create a space com-
1405 East Blvd.
plimentary of their specific day-to-day needs. In addition to their design craft, Theory’s boutique located on East Blvd. is a home décor and gift retail front offering the same expertise. With artwork, lamps, accent furniture, gifts, and more, this boutique has a variety of on-trend goods and timeless local lines. The store’s Design Consultants are delighted to assist and are adept at finding unique pieces to help complete any design or space. When visiting Theory’s retail boutique, you’ll be welcomed by the enthusiastic and accommodating Design Consultants as well as their furry CEO, Maximus, pictured above. He’s a ham when the camera comes out, so don’t be shy to snap a picture with him! Look no further than Theory Design Studio for all your home and design needs.
• Charlotte, NC • 704-900-0840 • theory-designstudio.com
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@theorydesignstudio
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CUSTOM DECOR
URBAN EDGE Charlotte, NC
U
rban Edge Wood Furnishings, in Charlotte’s South End, is a purveyor of custom-made, handcrafted furniture with an unlimited amount of design options at their fingertips. Created with the client in mind, owner and creator Heidi Ebbert brings a unique dedication to the details, and works carefully with each client to combine the individual’s ideas and personal style to make a unique, special piece that cannot be copied. Heidi is also focused on crafting custom furniture that can take on the aesthetic of the space it’s intended for: She combines industrial ele-
1115 S. Mint St.
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Charlotte, NC
176 • QCEXCLUSIVE.COM • SEPT / OCT 2019
• 704-929-2932
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ments such as concrete and steel to create bold pieces, but also creates pieces to showcase the natural, singular beauty of wood. “Urban Edge is a fun, creative space. I enjoy having the client involved in the process. We work together to watch how their idea or design comes to life. They take pride in that.” Urban Edge is a local, communityminded business that can fit your needs, style, and space. Pay them a visit today, and become involved in realizing a piece you’ll be proud to have in your home for many years to come.
facebook.com/liveurbanedge
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@liveurbanedge
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INTERIOR DESIGNER
BLACK DOVE INTERIORS Charlotte, NC
A
mber Cagle, the founder of Black Dove Interiors, has always exhibited a special passion for art and design. Following her graduation from Appalachian State University’s interior design program, she worked eight years at a local commercial architecture firm. When the recession hit, Amber packed her bags and her little dog and moved to Cordoba, Argentina. For over two years, she honed her design skills working on projects all over the world, from Dubai to L.A. “There’s nothing like a foreign expat experience to enrich and enliven your life and career, and to challenge and strengthen you,” says Amber. “Nothing can compare to that experience, and it broadened my design and architecture skills tenfold.”
With a bit of faith and a big dream, Amber returned to Charlotte four years ago and founded her firm Black Dove Interiors. Designing both residential and commercial properties, Amber’s team treats every new project with a personal approach. This ensures that the client’s style and needs are reflected in everything from the overall concept down to the very last accessory. “We believe in creating unique, truly special places, where spaces turn into stories,” explains Amber. “Each project should unfold over time, to reveal spaces that redefine expectations, create an art out of atmosphere, and leave a lasting imprint on an emotional level.”
2005 Kenilworth Avenue • Unit B • Charlotte, NC • 704-550-1625 • blackdoveinteriors.com • @blackdoveinteriors
SEPT / OCT 2019 • @QCEXCLUSIVE • 177
IN DEX 2100 Queens ................................................138 A Hoke Limited .............................................101 AGM Imports .................................................79 Abate Design Group ..................................115 Amina Rubinacci ..........................................22 Arcadia Homes ............................................35 Arthur Rutenberg Homes ........................63 Ascent Uptown ..........................................125 Ashley J Design........................ ...................26 Bechtler museum of modern art............31 Bedside Manor............................................ 99 Blackhawk Hardware ...............................74 Blue Ridge Mountain Club .....................122 Blue Waters Construction .....................12 Bruce Julian................................................ 60 Cadenza .........................................................91 Carolina Dental .........................................71 Classic Attic ...............................................54 Classica Homes ..........................................55 Closet and Storage Concepts ..............113 Cope And Stick .............................................81 Cottingham Chalk .....................................47 Couture Knots ..........................................103 Dermatology Laser & Vein Specialists.. 38 Delectables by Holly ................................80 Diamonds Direct .......................................180 Dilworth Facial Plastic Surgery.......... 34 Discovery Place .........................................32 Donald Haack Diamonds........................... 23 DwellNova .....................................................8 Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art.... 31 Elizabeth Bruns ..........................................17
Emerson Joseph............................................ 4 Engel & Völkers .........................................179 Fahrenheit ....................................................10 Ferguson .....................................................107 Gerrard Builders ......................................40 Grande Custom Homes.............................. 28 Grandfather Homes ..................................45 Hilton City Center .....................................80 Hood Hargett ..............................................93 Hopper Communities .................................33 Insight Automation ...................................27 Isabella .......................................................102 Ivey’s Hotel ................................................137 Jaguar of Charlotte ..................................19 Jerald Melberg Gallery........................... 33 Jim Phelps Collection ..............................113 Karen Kettler Design ...............................115 Kelly Cruz Interiors ................................105 Kenna Kunijo ................................................46 Kingswood Custom Homes .......................25 Lake Norman Realty ...................................53 Levantina Stone .........................................85 Levine museum of the new south............69 Lucy and Company .......................................65 Majestic Bath ..............................................96 McDevitt Agency .........................................15 Metropolis Branding ...............................87 Myron Greer ..............................................108 Nestlewood ................................................57 New Life Building Supplies .......................73 Noble Food Pursuits ..................................77 Novel Atherton ...........................................61
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Plan your next getaway, and experience a fun-filled stay packed with amazing amenities, including complimentary access to the Charlotte Athletic Club, as well as fine dining and much more! 704-377-0400 • omnihotels.com/charlotte
178 • QCEXCLUSIVE.COM • SEPT / OCT 2019
Novel Montford Park ..............................131 Oasis Outdoor ............................................111 Omni Hotel.................................................. 178 Overture Senior Living ..........................134 Pam Harrington Exclusives ...................135 Picture House Gallery .............................39 Premier Sotheby’s ........................................6 Providence Plastic Surgery ...................69 RK Motors .....................................................24 Reaching Quiet ............................................83 Red Rocks Cafe ............................................95 Rug Culture .................................................115 Saint Mary’s School................................ 129 Shain Gallery ..............................................37 Shea Custom ............................................... 59 Simonini .........................................................51 Storey Home...............................................86 Subzero Wolf ..............................................89 The Charlotte............................................ 127 The Mint Museum .........................................49 The Pink Hanger .........................................138 The Sporting Gent .......................................21 The Waterman..............................................95 Towne Bank ...................................................67 Umstead Hotel .........................................133 Uptown Charlotte Smiles ......................36 Walker Zanger ...........................................43 Watermark Lake Norman..................139 Windsor Jewelers ........................................2 Windsor Windows.................................... 109 Yu me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6
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Fine Homes In The Blue Ridge Mountains
Banner Elk, NC: Elegant mountain home at Elk River Club, NC. This 4,388 Sq. Ft. estate features indoor outdoor living with stunning mountain views.
Banner Elk, NC: Beautiful estate residence on top of the summit at Elk River Club, NC. This home features high ceilings, breathtaking views, situated on 7.88 acres for a private mountain get away. Tricia Holloway Ginger Karney +1 561-202-5003 +1 704-517-4944
Banner Elk, NC: This upscale cozy farm house, is super private with a outdoor fireplace patio, backyard waterfall, tree house, 4 beds, 5 1/2 baths, and a gorgeous pond. Located near town in the gated community, The Farm.
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Banner Elk, NC: A desirable location inside of Elk River Club, NC. Build an amazing home with beautiful Blue Ridge Mountain views on this 1.24 acre lot.
Banner Elk, NC: Easy living on one level, this 3 bed, 3 bath, 2 car garage townhome by the golf course at Elk River Club, NC is just the right size.
Tricia Holloway
Tricia Holloway
Tricia Holloway
+1 561-202-5003
Tricia Holloway
+1 561-202-5003
Tricia Holloway
+1 561-202-5003
+1 561-202-5003
Engel & Völkers Banner Elk Licensee of Master License Company 610 Banner Elk Hwy · Banner Elk · 28604 · Phone +1 (828)-898-3808 tricia.holloway@engelvoelkers.com · ginger.karney@engelvoelkers.com
©2016 Engel & Völkers. All rights reserved. Each brokerage independently owned and operated. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. Engel & Völkers and its independent License Partners are Equal Opportunity Employers and fully support the principles of the Fair Housing Act.
4521 Sharon Rd, Charlotte, NC 28211
(704) 532-9041
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