Smoky Mountain Living Feb. 2013

M I X TA P E M U S I C

L I V I N G

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Celebrating THE

Southern Appalachians

Adornment ASPECTS OF

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BY ARTIST PAUL MARCHAND FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • VOL. 13 • NO. 1

ORTHOPEDIC O RTHOPEDIC S SERVICES ERVICES

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TYING ON THE FLY • MARCHAND’S BOTANICAL BEAUTIES • LIVING CREATIVELY • GETTING INKED

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FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR

I was a little too young to own “real” jewelry, but I wasn’t too young to be fascinated by the pretty, shiny things in the brightly lit glass case. Gold link bracelets, watches, and gemstone rings glinted magnificently, their location directly in front of the department store’s double entrance doors so strategic, so compelling that one simply had to look before doing any other shopping.

It was there by that case that I first fell in love. The object of my affection was a small, gold ring. A filigree mounting held a marquis cut natural opal. The stone’s milky translucence sparkled with blues and oranges. Each time my mother and I visited the store, I had first to stop and visit my love.

Mostly I just peered through the glass case. I was just tall enough to Sarah E. Kucharski look down upon the ring, shifting slightly from side to side so that the opal’s colors changed.

But the affair grew more complicated. My mother went so far as to allow me to try on the ring, which, of course, fit perfectly. However, my coveting—“Gollum-esque,” though it was—was tempered by my already well-developed sense of practicality. I didn’t need the ring. Although not extravagant, the ring cost as much as my Nintendo Entertainment System that I had saved a year’s worth of gift and allowance money to buy. My worry was that the ring would be gone, scooped up and carried off by some other woman who would fail to fully appreciate its beauty, before I could save up that kind of money again.

And one day, weeks after I had first seen the ring, I went to visit it in its case to find that I was right—it was gone. I was crushed. I searched the lines of tiny ring boxes to see if perhaps the ring had simply been misplaced. No. It simply wasn’t there. My hands were propped on the edge of the glass case, and my shoulders slumped. A forlorn expression mixed with consternation marred my face. There was little I could say to my mother other than simply, “It’s gone.”

Though an only child, I never was prone to tantrums or

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otherwise manipulating my parents as to get my way. Our relationship was based on rational discussion—an explanation as to why I couldn’t or shouldn’t do something generally was enough to curb any of my bad behavior. I had never really expected to have the ring. It wasn’t practical. But that meant that it wasn’t practical for anyone else to have the ring either, so it should stay in the department store’s glass case and allow me to visit it forever and ever and ever.

My mother, standing quietly beside me, slowly reached into her purse and removed her wallet. Her fingers sorted through a few small slips of paper before selecting one and wordlessly offering it to me to inspect, a smile upon her face.

I looked at what obviously was a receipt for what I recognized to be the amount of the ring, but nothing about the receipt made sense to me. Why would my mother have someone else’s receipt?

I blinked. I cocked my head. I furrowed my brow. I looked at my mother. “You have to promise to act surprised,” she said.

I had never really expected to have the ring. It wasn’t practical. But that meant that it wasn’t practical for anyone else to have the ring either, so it should stay in the department store’s glass case and allow me to visit it forever and ever and ever.

Incredulous, I clutched the receipt and hop-skipped in the direction of a rack of men’s clothing, spun back around, and beamed at my mother. “Really?” I asked. “Really really?” She smiled mischievously. “Really,” she said.

More than 20 years later, I still have the ring. The opal—a notoriously fragile stone—is slightly chipped on one of its marquis points, and my fingers are no longer as tiny as they once were, but the ring nonetheless is still special to me.

This issue of Smoky Mountain Living is dedicated to adornment. Our stories share the lives of musicians and artists from various walks of life, each bringing his or her creativity to the world. As the ancient Greek philosopher Epicetus once said, “Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.” Perhaps after reading this edition, you too will find the adornment that speaks to your soul.

— Sarah E. Kucharski, managing editor

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

About our writers VOL. 13 • NUMBER 1 Publisher/Editor . . . . . . . . . . . Scott Mc Le od editor@smliv.com General Manager . . . . . . . . . G re gBoothroyd ads@smliv.com Advertising Sales Manager . . Hylah Smalley hylah@smliv.com Managing Editor . . . . . . . Sara h EKucharski . sarah@smliv.com Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . Travis Bumgardner travis@smliv.com Graphics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mi ca h Mc Clu re Finance & Admin. . . . . . . Amanda Singletary Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G re gBoothroyd, Whitney Burton, Scott Collier, Drew Cook Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scott Collier Editorial Assistants . . . . . . . . . . Col by Dunn, Glenda Kucharski Contributing Writers . . . . . . . . . . . Chris Cox, Paul Clark, George Ellison, Don Hendershot, Joe Hooten, Anna Oakes, Rebecca Tolley-Stokes, Bill Studenc, Garret K. Woodward, Élan Young Contributing Photographers . . Charlie Choc, Paul Clark, Diana Gates, Joe Harris, Margaret Hester, Shannon Horton, Anna Oakes, Sue Revels, Kyler Robbins, Ken Shook, Pattie Starzynski, Rebecca Tatum, Garret K. Woodward

Élan Young is a freelance writer living in Walland, Tenn., a small town in the foothills of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where she spends many Saturdays hiking with her husband. She is an avid reader and writer of poetry and loves discovering new places, people, and music.

Chris Cox lives in the Crabtree community of Haywood County, N.C., and has been teaching English and humanities at Southwestern Community College for 22 years. He is a graduate of Appalachian State University and the author of “Waking Up In A Cornfield,” a collection of his columns.

Currently, his column appears in The Smoky Mountain News. He likes to write in the same brown chair, always while listening to the Miles Davis album “Kind of Blue” and drinking lots and lots of coffee.

Contributing Illustrator . . Mandy Newham

Anna Oakes is a reporter for the

Smoky Mountain Living is published bi-monthly

by SM Living LLC. Smoky Mountain Living has made every effort to insure listings and information are accurate and assumes no liability for errors or omissions.

Watauga Democrat in Boone, N.C. Raised at the base of the Blue Ridge Escarpment in Caldwell County, Oakes is proud to be a mountain girl and a graduate of Appalachian State University. She tolerates the harsh and downright offensive mountain winters in exchange for the heavenly summers of the High Country, where you’ll find her on the river, dancing to an old-time string band, or attempting a vegetable garden.

For advertising information, contact Hylah Smalley at 828.452.2251 or hylah@smliv.com.

For editorial inquiries, contact Sarah Kucharski at sarah@smliv.com.

Smoky Mountain Living assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Queries should be sent to Sarah E. Kucharski at sarah@smliv.com. ©2013. All rights reserved. No portion of this magazine may be reprinted without the express, written consent of the publisher.

Smoky Mountain Living is published bi-monthly (Dec/Jan, Feb/Mar, Apr/May, Jun/Jul, Aug/Sep, Oct/Nov) by SM Living, LLC, 34 Church Street, Waynesville, NC 28786. Application to Mail at Periodical Postage Prices is pending at Waynesville NC and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: please send address changes to Smoky Mountain Living, PO Box 629, Waynesville, NC 28786.

Garret K. Woodward grew up in the tiny Canadian border town of Rouses Point, N.Y., spending his childhood on the shores of Lake Champlain and in the mystical woods of the Adirondack Mountains.

He also enjoys immersing himself in different

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communities, living on the Dingle Peninsula (Ireland), Teton Valley (Idaho) and currently in Western North Carolina.

When not wandering and writing about the high peaks and low-lying valleys of Southern Appalachia, he spends his time seeing live music, running, hiking, and starting conversations with strangers over a cup of coffee at a diner.

Bill Studenc is senior director of news services at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C. Studenc, who grew up in Black Mountain, has worked as a reporter and editor at The Mountaineer in Waynesville, editor of The News Record in Marshall and sports reporter for the Asheville Citizen-Times. He lives near Lake Junaluska with wife Margaret, daughter Neva, son Will. An unrepentant headbanger, he still listens to 1980s heavy metal bands.

Paul Clark is a resident of Weaverville, N.C., and has worked as a journalist for more than three decades. He is currently studying photography and videography.

Joe Hooten was born in Macon, Ga., but spent his formative years surfing the beaches near his home in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. He eventually found his way to Western North Carolina. Hooten taught public middle and high school history in Hendersonville, Cary and then Raleigh for ten years before moving back to Asheville with his wife and three young kids in 2008. Hooten writes about his alltime favorite hobby—music—for The Smoky Mountain News and Smoky Mountain Living. A second-rate guitarist, he can be found most evenings pickin’ some tunes on the back porch while enjoying the beauty of the Appalachian Mountains.

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Contents

FEATU RE STO RIES

BOTANICAL BEAUTIES Artist Paul Marchand’s first work for Grandfather Mountain was a collection of wildflowers. He took to the fields and woods of Grandfather to collect rare and endangered species found in the mountain’s unique ecological community. The collection of his works is the largest outside his hometown of Buffalo, N.Y.

BY ANNA OAKES

PAGE

THE ARTIST’S LIFE Paul and Rachel Clearfield explore their creative visions from their mountain home.

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

PAGE

30

EXPRESSED IN INK

TYING FLIES

Tattooists bring life to skin’s blank canvas.

Mimicking nature with hook and hair.

BY PAUL CLARK

BY DON HENDERSHOT

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40

PAGE

46

54

DIY DÉCOR, HANDMADE HEIRLOOMS Learn to craft at the region’s renowned schools & studios.

BY ÉLAN YOUNG

PAGE

60

FEBRUARY 2 Fasching, 7 p.m., Helendorf River Inn & Conference Center Front Room. 706-878-1908 9 Valentine’s Celebration, Babyland General Hospital. 706-865-2171 16-17 38th Annual Fireside Arts & Craft Show, Unicoi State Park Lodge.

1-800-573-9659 22-23 Helenblitz Mini Cooper Car Show, Helendorf Inn. 706-878-2271

APRIL 6 Springfest 2013, 6-11 p.m., Festhalle. 706-878-1908 www.helenchamber.com 13 Cabbage Patch Tea Party, Babyland General Hospital. Reservations required. 706-865-2171 27 Taste of Sautee, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sautee Village. 706-878-0144

MARCH 3-16 2013 Youth Art Competition and Pottery Studio Exhibit, Helen Arts & Heritage Center. 706-878-3933 16 St. Patrick’s Celebration, Babyland General Hospital. 706-865-2171 23 Magical Easter Eggstravaganza, Babyland General Hospital & White County Chamber of Commerce. 706-865-2171 or 706-865-5356 30 Easter Fun, Unicoi State Park. 1-800-573-9659 30 24th Annual Trout Tournament, Helen Chamber of Commerce.

706-878-1908

1-800-392-8279 whitecountychamber.org

Contents MOUNTAIN VOICES

DEPA RTME N TS

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

States of adornment—or the lack thereof.

MOUNTAIN MUSIC

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An album born from the perfect mix tape.

OUT & ABOUT

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The Smokies Trails Forever program perseveres.

OUTDOORS

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Mountain biking in the national forests.

MOUNTAIN LETTERS ARTS

A young buck in Cades Cove, Tenn., dons a dab of snow. All of the Great Smoky Mountain National park is a haven for white tailed deer.

CUISINE

MALCOLM MACGREGOR PHOTO MALCOMMACGREGORPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Spicy jambalaya and hunting for winter mushrooms.

MOUNTAIN VIEWS

Resources

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A vine of the times—decorating gone wrong.

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10th Annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition.

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Lark Crafts teaches DIY book- and quilt-making.

ON THE COVER

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Eastern Tennessee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Waynesville, N.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Select Lodging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

To adorn is to beautify, bedeck, bedazzle—yet we see a world in which beauty is intriguing and unexpected. In this edition, Smoky Mountain Living’s readers captured moments in which Nature seemingly adorns herself.

Kyler Robbins

Charlie Choc

Shannon Horton

“True ornament is not a matter of prettifying externals. It is organic with the structure it adorns, whether a person, a building, or a park.”

—Frank Lloyd Wright

Ken Shook

Diana Gates

Sue Revels

“Symbolism exists

to adorn and enrich, not to create an artificial sense of profundity.”

—Stephen King

Pattie Starzynski

“Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.”

—Epictetus

Diana Gates

Jo Harris

Kyler Robbins

The next edition of Smoky Mountain Living will focus on the theme “Journey.”

Where are you going? Where have you been? Does your journey take a literal or a figurative path? Send your images to photos@smliv.com by Feb. 6, 2013. For more information, visit smliv.com.

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MOUNTAIN VOICES

A jaded point of view

BY CHRIS COX

CHRIS COX PHOTOS

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hen approached about the possibility for writing a piece on the theme of “adornment” for this magazine, I must confess that my first thought on the subject was…well, nothing much at all. Adornment? Frankly, I have never had much of a feel for it, never developed much of an interest in it, as far as I can tell. I look around my house and take a quick inventory: a painting of a blooming tree (a dogwood, I think) my wife picked out someplace in Asheville, an African wood carving my brother gave me as a Christmas present a dozen years ago, assorted family photos, a few candles, an atomic clock, three plants hanging on for dear life against our collective negligence. My sole contribution is a jade vase I bought on impulse at an art gallery in my hometown last year. When I saw it, I remember thinking, “I need more beautiful things in my life. I need something different, some new way of thinking, some new way of being.”

I guess I thought that paying the equivalent of a car payment for a vase that wouldn’t hold half a quart of water would be a significant step in the evolution of my personal aesthetic, a critical shift in my consciousness, a tangible and daily reminder of a seismic change in my priorities. I might have spent the money on an assortment of vintage jazz records, or a weekend in Atlanta to see the Braves play a doubleheader, or on an Ipad. But I didn’t. I bought a jade vase, and I was already thinking about how best to feature it in our decidedly Spartan living room. I imagined it being as essential as The Dude’s rug in that timeless classic “The Big Lebowski.”

“Say, Chris, that jade vase really ties this room together,” visitors would remark.

Furthermore, I imagined that the vase would be just the beginning of a brand new interest in meaningful adornment. In a couple of years, our home would be literally teeming with provocative, attractively framed and matted works of art, perfectly chosen pottery, edgy black and white photographs, tapestries, who knew what all? I was, of course, not yet evolved enough to think in terms of unifying themes, at least not themes that reflected what I would consider good taste and an acceptable level of cultural literacy.

Indeed, the very notion of decorating themes was repulsive to me. It was one thing for my eightyyear-old grandmother to decorate her house in stuffed bears and woven baskets—everywhere in her house, cute little bears were peeking out at you from inside of their baskets, where they hibernated year round. It was another thing for my mother to decorate her rental cabin in apples. Apple wallpaper, apple-shaped potholders, wax apples huddling together in a fruit basket on the kitchen table, and wood-carved apples shining like little red moons on the end tables.

Under these very particular circumstances, such adornment might be considered “quaint,” “cute,” even “adorable.” But the truth is that not only did I lack the imagination or the determination to see such themes through to these logical extremes, even if I did I would not be able to live among the bears or apples for a full week before I would be donating them all to charity, or, opting for a more satisfying catharsis, burning them in a bonfire in the backyard.

It may be that the roots of my distaste for adornment dig deeply into my childhood, when adults everywhere seemed to favor adorning the walls of their homes with the severed heads of dead animals,

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

I imagined that the vase would be just the beginning of a brand new interest in meaningful adornment. In a couple of years, our home would be literally teeming with provocative, attractively framed and matted works of art, perfectly chosen pottery, edgy black and white photographs, tapestries, who knew what all?

or the inert bodies of dead fish fastened to wooden plaques. Even at an early age, I understood the utilitarian value of hunting as a means of providing food for the family, but I found the practice of killing an animal in order to stuff it and then make it seem to be alive again in one’s living room a surpassingly strange and disturbing one.

In my own bedroom, I opted for rock and roll posters—Led Zeppelin, Cheap Trick, Fleetwood Mac—along with glossy photos torn from Sports Illustrated, the subjects of which depended on my age. Before I turned thirteen, I chose photographs of sports figures such as Steve Garvey and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Post-thirteen, I waited patiently each year for the annual swimsuit issue to arrive, then adorned my walls with thrilling photos of Christie Brinkley on Seychelles Island or Cheryl Tiegs in Belize, both in bikinis no bigger than

your average apple-shaped potholder.

I burned sandalwood incense pretty regularly and had a black light in the lamp on my dresser. I had a few bumper stickers pasted on my dresser mirror, including one that said, “You Can’t Hug With Nuclear Arms.”

That is about all I had in terms of adornment. While some of my friends went so far as to decorate their lockers at school with an array of decals, drawings, slogans, and other signs and symbols that they hoped would tell others something important about who they were, my locker was so plain that it might as well have been unoccupied.

Then there was the issue of automobiles as a form of adornment. The cars and trucks themselves were supposed to make some kind of statement. Barry’s black Trans-Am told us that he was a little dangerous…and that his dad had money. Carol’s little pink Honda told us that she was dainty and meticulous. Jeff’s muddy fourwheel drive truck with a gun rack told us that he would rather be driving around in the wilderness, looking for

things to shoot, than at school “getting civilized.” If he could have mounted a deerhead somewhere in his truck, I’m sure he would have.

I drove a brown ’72 Buick Electra, an enormous rolling feast of metal, a car that could have eaten four of those pink Hondas and still had room for dessert. I believe it got seven or eight miles per gallon. I was always stopping to get gas, it seemed, or looking for ways to avoid having to parallel park. What kind of statement was I trying to make, driving such a behemoth of a car? That I was indifferent to conservation? That I saw myself not as a high school junior, but as a balding middle-aged insurance salesman with a wife and two children?

No, the only statement I was making was that I was happy to drive whatever car my dad was able to procure for me, through whatever means, as long as I did not have to give up my extracurricular activities, both sanctioned and unsanctioned, to help pay for it.

I didn’t do anything to dress it up, either.

No fuzzy dice. Nothing glued to the dashboard. Not even a bumper sticker informing the world of my political prejudices or my quirky personality.

I guess it is fair to say that the only statement I was making was that I was apathetic about adornment as a teenager, as I have been ever since. At least until I bought that vase, which is not only beautiful, but a daily reminder that I should, at the very least, water my plants.

I imagined the vase being as essential as The Dude’s rug in that timeless classic “The Big Lebowski.”

“Say, Chris, that jade vase really ties this room together,” visitors would remark.

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MOUNTAIN MUSIC

Mix-tape masters make their own music

BY JOE HOOTEN

DONATED PHOTO

T

here’s a subtle sense of satisfaction that comes with constructing the perfect mix-tape.

Some would say it’s an art form in itself. Many of us have poured countless hours of sincere thought into making one. There’s the musical selections themselves, dissecting how the flow from one piece to the next can change mood and emotions, how the lyrics and context all blend together with the melodies into a unifying message—one that the receiver will hopefully enjoy and understand as much as the architect of the mix did when making it. A properly made mix-tape should be much like a story, with a beginning, middle, and conclusion.

North Carolina’s Shannon Whitworth and Barrett Smith have made their own version of a mix-tape, an album of covers that was recorded with passion and earnest admiration for the songwriters who have influenced them over the years. y barrettsmith.com “Bring It On Home” is an y shannonwhitworth.net album adorned with carefully arranged production, spiced up with the duo’s own embellishments. The end result is a fitting tribute to the original composers as well as a tip of the hat to Whit-

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worth and Smith, who have been steadily making a name for themselves in Western North Carolina and beyond over the past few years.

The idea was one that neither of the North Carolina songwriters expected to embark upon at this point in their careers, but on one particular tour a couple of summers ago, the duo began the early stages of envisioning such a project.

“Barrett and I were traveling through Canada on a tour opening for Chris Isaak,” Whitworth said.

“The drives between shows were quite lengthy, so we had hours and hours to talk, dream, and plan. During one of those talks we decided it would be great fun to record a project of some of our favorite songs by some of our favorite artists. The inspiration really was just the songs themselves.”

The pair continued discussing their ultimate song choices.

“Somewhere around hour seven of the drive, we start compiling our perfect co-created mix-tape,” Smith said. “Then the idea came to stop into the studio with some friends and have some fun messing around with all these great songs. Before we knew it, we’d put together enough material to make a whole album.”

The album is an inspiring compilation of songs that feels wistfully eloquent and ultimately timeless; “Bring It On Home” is one finely crafted record. The musicianship is convincing and enthusiastically

“Bring It On Home” is a

fitting tribute to the original composers as well as a tip of the hat to Whitworth and Smith, who have been steadily making a name for themselves in Western North Carolina and beyond over the past few years.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

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MOUNTAIN MUSIC

ornamented with attentive precision while allowing a mellow vibe to float among the twelve outstanding tracks, and it is as much a highlight as Whitworth and Smith’s shared lead vocals.

“Bring It On Home” features artists like Van Morrison, Sam Cooke, James Taylor, Leonard Cohen, among others. From the soulful “Bring It On Home to Me” to the deliciously chill take on “Moonglow” to the incredibly sultry “I Get Ideas,” the artists back one another with complimenting harmonies and accompaniments throughout the record. “Bring It On Home” is without a doubt one of the best records to emerge from any Western North Carolina artist in 2012.

Q&A with Barrett Smith SML: Do you remember the first mixtape you made for someone? What artists/songs were on it?

Smith: I’m picturing a mix-tape from my past. For the cover, I used a glue stick to attach a cool photo of a man climbing Mount Rushmore. He was hanging off one of the presidents’ noses. I think it was Jefferson. There was some Paul Simon on it, “Duncan” I think, which we ended up putting on Bring It On Home, “Trouble” by Cat Stevens, but a version recorded from a VHS tape of the movie, “Harold and Maude,” so there were some interesting sound effects in the background, “Pink Thing” by XTC, “Pigs on the Wing” by Pink Floyd, “Leader of the Band” by Dan Fogelberg… Pretty weird, I guess. I wonder where that tape is now.

How were you able to choose only twelve songs to record?

Somehow, it came pretty natural. The twelve songs on the album are pretty much the first twelve we considered doing. There are definitely some that we wish we could have included, but now we just say we’ll save those for a “Volume 2” someday. Shannon sings “As Time Goes By” from “Casablanca” really well. We’ve got a good version of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.”

On your album, there’s a great version of a Van Morrison song, “I’ll Be Your Lover, Too.” He also played “Bring It On Home To Me” in concert. Is Van one of

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your musical influences?

Yeah, definitely, as a singer and a songwriter and band leader, and I’ve deeply admired him as a dancer after seeing his purple jumpsuit performance in “The Last Waltz.”

Unbelievable. I usually put “Astral Weeks” on when I have company. I should probably get it on vinyl.

“There was a ton of structure and

Western North Carolina is filled with incredible musicians and artistic talents.

Does living here influence your — Barrett Smith, on the recording process of Bring It On Home writing and musical styles? ton of other friends and musicians passed Definitely. I couldn’t be more proud of through during the process. the music scene in Western North Carolina, especially right here in Asheville.

Echo Mountain Recording studio has From the old-time community to the produced several outstanding projects electronic music scene, and everything in over the years. What’s the secret to their between—Indie rock, bluegrass, avant success? garde jazz, folky singer-songwriter, hiphop, The atmosphere is great, the spaces are Celtic—there are just a ton of musicians in really special, and the people are cool. the area. It’s a very musical place. I love it.

Their in-house engineer, Julian Dreyer, was That’s why I moved here. And it’s bigger a huge part of the project. We spent hours and more impressive than anyone here and hours together trying to make it just even really knows. I feel really honored to right and enjoyed every minute of it. Can’t be a part of it. speak highly enough about the facilities and the people behind Echo Mountain.

There are some impressive musicians backing you up on the album. Was the What other projects are you currently recording process more spontaneous or involved with? carefully arranged?

My main project right now is playing and A lot of both. There was a ton of singing in Shannon’s band, which is structure and planning that went into it. sounding great these days, but I keep other But all of that went right out the window if bands going. Mike Guggino and Nicky some inspiration took us in a different Sanders (Steep Canyon Rangers) and I direction. There are so many great play regularly as the Guggino Trio. It’s all musicians in Asheville, not to mention the traditional Italian string music, which is musician friends who just happened to be weird and beautiful and fun. Cosmic touring through town while we were Possums is a great experimental bluegrass recording. Having access to so much band out of Columbia, S.C., that I play with musical talent is a real blessing, and it’s quite a bit, and I do shows under my own one of the main reasons we live where we name pretty regularly these days, which is do. Mike Ashworth and Jeff Sipe were probably my favorite thing to do. there throughout most of the recording. A

planning that went into it. But all of that went right out the window if some inspiration took us in a different direction.”

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

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VISIT

Eastern Tennessee

d e p a r t m e n t :

OUT & ABOUT

ANCESTORS OF WAR Ancestry investigators will find their kin among their kind at the East Tennessee History Museum’s monthly genealogy workshops.

A specially themed workshop for those interested in the Civil War and its effects on the family lineage will be held on March 23. “Civil War Genealogy on the Internet” will focus on finding one’s Civil War ancestor, service records, pension records, battle records, regimental histories, burials and obituaries. The course, which is limited to 22 participants, will be repeated on Aug. 10. A similar Revolutionary War genealogy workshop will be held Sept. 14, followed by genealogy tied to the War of 1812 on Oct. 26.

The East Tennessee Historical Society presents genealogical programs as part of the backbone of the group’s mission to preserve, interpret, and promote the history of East Tennessee.

The Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection and the Knox Country Archives are housed in the same building with ETHS, offering unique, on-site historical and genealogical resources. The McClung Collection is the foremost collection for East Tennessee history and genealogy research and one of the premier research libraries in the Southeast. While the collection has a strong regional focus, visitors will find a wide selection of materials for Tennessee and other states, as well as Cherokee and African American records.

Workshops are free and open to the public with prior-registration.

For more information, visit easttnhistory.org or call 865.215.8809. To view the McClung Collection’s digital collection, visit cmdc.knoxlib.org.

Tennessee was the last state to secede from the United States and the first state from the Confederacy to return to the Union. Despite the vote to secede after the firing on Fort Sumter, a large number of East Tennesseans wanted to remain with the Union. After the occupation of East Tennessee by the Confederate army, many of these men went to Kentucky to join the United States Army. Tennessee was the site of many battles on the western front of the war. Lt. I.B. Self (pictured) of Company C, 1st Tennessee Cavalry, was a member of the Union Army.

COURTESY OF C.M. MCCLUNG HISTORICAL COLLECTION, KNOX COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY

TRAIL BUILDERS FOR THE FUTURE The Smokies Trails Forever program, a partnership between the park and the Friends of the Smokies, recently took on the first phase of renovation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s Chimney Tops trail.

The Chimney Tops trail had been slowly deteriorating due to a combination of heavy use, abundant rainfall and steep terrain—it climbs 1,400 feet in 2 miles. It eventually became an eroded obstacle course of slick broken rock, exposed tree roots and mud.

A crew and 109 volunteers reconstructed the trail using sustainable materials to preserve the path and protect the trail corridor. The trail will remain open until late April 2013, when the second phase of the rehabilitation work is scheduled to begin. A similar Trails Forever reconstruction project was done on the Forney Ridge Trail between Clingmans Dome and Andrews Bald.

The Trails Forever program allows a skilled trail crew to focus on necessary trail reconstruction projects throughout Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

To get involved in trail restoration, visit smokiestrailsforever.org.

GOOD OL’ ROCKY TOP WELCOMES TOURISTS Tennessee’s Rocky Top Trail leads back in time to the state’s founding. John Sevier is sometimes called the “Father of Tennessee” for his instrumental role in shaping Tennessee’s statehood.

Born in Virginia in 1745, Sevier came to Tennessee when he was just 26 years old with his wife and nine children in tow. He was a Revolutionary War hero, a major landowner and a champion of Western expansion. He went on to spend three terms as governor of Tennessee, and was later elected to the Tennessee State Senate and U.S. House

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of Representatives. Major accomplishments under his leadership included new treaties with Native Americans and improved roads for wagons. Sevier is also famous as a bitter rival of Andrew Jackson; the two nearly dueled in downtown Knoxville in 1803.

Sevier County and the town of Sevierville are named after the leader. His property and frontier dwellings are at Marble Springs in Knoxville, but visit the Sevier County Heritage Museum, located in a former post office for local history, for exhibits of Woodland Indian artifacts to early settlers and farm implements they used. The museum’s collection also includes educational exhibits and tributes to local veterans from the Civil War through Korea.

For more information, call 423.453.4058 or visit tntrailsandbyways.com and explore the Great Smoky Mountains region’s Rocky Top Trail.

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d e p a r t m e n t :

Put some wildlife on your bucket list

OUTDOORS

Ogle’s cabin is near the entrance to the Roaring Fork trail in Gatlinburg, Tenn.

SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTO

ROARING FORK DRIVE TAKES IN SCENERY, HISTORY The Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail is a 6mile, one-way driving journey through the forest to enjoy the historic buildings and scenic beauty of the area. This drive offers rushing mountain streams, glimpses of old-growth forest, and a number of well-preserved log cabins, grist mills and other historic buildings. Along the way is the trailhead for the popular Grotto Falls and a “wet weather” waterfall called Place of a Thousand Drips.

Before entering the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, stop at the Noah “Bud” Ogle self-guiding nature trail, which offers a walking tour of an authentic mountain farmstead and surrounding hardwood forest. Highlights include a streamside tubmill and the Ogle’s handcrafted wooden flume plumbing system.

The trail is closed in winter, and buses, trailers and motor homes are not permitted. An inexpensive booklet available at the beginning of the motor nature trail details landmarks along the route. To access Roaring Fork, turn off the main parkway in Gatlinburg, Tenn., at traffic light number eight and follow Historic Nature Trail Road to the Cherokee Orchard entrance to the national park. Go just beyond the Rainbow Falls trailhead to begin the drive.

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The North Carolina Wildlife Federation has released its “Nine in North Carolina Not to Miss.” The list details the top nine places to enjoy wildlife and wildlife-associated activities in the state. As the Federation suggests, call it a bucket list, a wish list, or a life list. North Carolina is home to more than 825 species of fish and wildlife, 175 species of butterflies, and over 625 flora species.

The “Nine in North Carolina Not to Miss” list by no way includes all the special places the state offers hunters, anglers, campers, paddlers, hikers, photographers or birders, but it encompasses nine that are certain to capture the beauty and uniqueness that is North Carolina.

Seven of the nine sites are in the state’s rolling Piedmont hills or mountain region: Little Tennessee The Little Tennessee River is a perfect river for scenic River—known simply floating. LAND TRUST FOR THE LITTLE TENNESSEE PHOTO as the “Little T,” this river flows 25 miles from Franklin, NC to Fontana Lake.

Green River Game Land, Polk and Henderson counties—more than 18,000 acres of forests and whitewater rapids offering some of the most challenging deer and turkey hunting in the state.

Wilson Creek, Caldwell County—headwaters flow from the peaks of Grandfather Mountain.

Stone Mountain State Park/Thurmond Chatham Game Land Complex, Wilkes and Alleghany counties—more than 21,000 acres of oak-hickory forest, and September specific rewards of migrating birds including hawks, kestrels, peregrine falcons and bald eagles.

Cowan’s Ford Wildlife Refuge, Mecklenburg County—part of an Audubon-designated Important Bird Area.

Hanging Rock State Park, Stokes County—just breaking 2,000 feet, Hanging Rock offers a trail to the peak for big views.

For more information about any of these areas, visit ncwf.org.

PITY THE PANTHER, YET REVEL IN THE WILEY RACCOON Experience an area that, according to local legend, panthers once inhabited in less than a mile’s hike along the Norris Blackburn Trail of the East Tennessee Crossing. Although these majestic cats have since disappeared from Panther Creek State Park, the trail leads to the park’s covered wildlife observatory where park rangers ensure plenty of nearby natural food sources will tempt other wildlife. See wild turkeys scratch for seeds and bugs along the trail, white-tailed deer wade through the long blades of grass, and red foxes and squirrels scamper beneath the brush.

Those who stay until dusk just before the park closes may hear the rhythmic hoots of Short-eared Owls, while raccoons with their bandit markings steal through the shadows. Panther Creek State Park is open year-round.

For additional information, visit the Panther Creek State Park website at tennessee.gov/environment/parks/PantherCreek.

VSMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

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A DVERT ISING SEC T IO N

Winter Family Fun in the North Carolina Smokies!

This winter bring the kids and have a blast with affordable family fun in Maggie Valley, Waynesville, Canton, Clyde and Lake Junaluska.

Stroll the brick sidewalks of quaint downtown Waynesville, where you’ll discover everything from art galleries, bookstores and home furnishings to clothing, antiques and toys. Local cafés and restaurants provide the perfect respite.

With the KIDS STAY FREE KIDS SKI FREE program, children 17 & under can STAY FREE SKI FREE when accompanied by a paying adult. Cataloochee Ski Area, located in Maggie Valley, has 17 exciting slopes and trails for both skiers and snowboarders to enjoy. For a list of participating accommodations and rules visit www.kidsskifree.com Ride the crest of the latest wave in outdoor winter fun. Perhaps sledding, not skiing or snowboarding, is more your speed. Then you’ll definitely want to stop at Tube World, located just down the mountain from the ski area in Maggie Valley. The snow tube park offers fun for the entire family in the form of a five-run slope and the slide of your life.

Centrally located in the Southeast, Maggie Valley, Waynesville, Canton, Clyde and Lake Junaluska are the perfect base camp, allowing countless daily excursions throughout Western North Carolina to places of natural beauty, fun adventure, historical interest, and creative artistry.

For detailed information connect with us on Facebook at www.Facebook/SmokyMountainsNC or call 800.334.9036

Kids Ski Free Kids Stay Free

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If you are thinking about chillin’ in the mountains this winter, make some memories smack dab in the middle of the Smokies.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

visitNCsmokies.com 800.334.9036

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OUTDOORS

Take to two wheels in the ‘Whee

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utdoors enthusiasts and diehard mountain bikers soon will be taking to a new trail accessible by foot, or bike, from the Western Carolina University campus in Cullowhee, N.C. The trail is expected to be a vital link in a recreation system that may one day expand to connect county, regional and even state trails.

But immediate goals are to provide a close-to-home source of leisure for residents in the area, as well as university students looking to leave from their dorms or apartments and be on a secluded, wooded trail within minutes.

Josh Whitmore, associate director of outdoor programs at WCU, as well as the project’s point man, said it’s a shame many students come to Cullowhee because they’re attracted by the mountains and other outdoor features, but then realize it’s not so easy to pick up and enjoy them.

“One of great ironies of having a university in the mountains is that, yeah, there are great mountains around,” Whitmore said. “But, you have to get in a car to get to them. It’ll be nice to have something right on campus.”

Otherwise the closest mountain bike trails are either in the Pisgah National Forest, Panthertown Valley or the Tsali Recreation Area in the Nantahala National Forest.

The trail is single-track, about two to three feet wide, though its design limits blind turns and bikers’ speeds thereby accommodating walkers and cyclists on the same path.

Whitmore described the trail as intermediate in difficulty with steep mountainside terrain. Although the elevation change from the trail’s highest to lowest point is only a few hundred feet, there are lots of ups and downs.

There is potential for linking the new trail with the Tuckasegee Greenway—a multi-use path that, at least conceptually, will connect Whittier to WCU along the Tuckasegee River.

“Yeah, there are great mountains

— Josh Whitmore, associate director of outdoor programs at Western Carolina University

DONATED PHOTO

around. But, you have to get in a car to get to them. It’ll be nice to have something right on campus.”

Mountain biking in the National Forests y Pisgah National Forest, N.C.—The national forest is divided into three regions: The western part of the Appalachian runs along the N.C.-Tenn. line from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park north to Hot Springs. The eastern region covers the Blue Ridge Parkway, Roan Mountain, Mount Mitchell, Craggy Gardens. The Grandfather district lies in the eastern mountains of N.C. and includes areas along the Blue Ridge, such as the Linville Gorge Wilderness, and areas near Grandfather Mountain. Head to Bent Creek, Mills River or the Davidson River trailheads in the Appalachian district for great biking. For more rugged riding, look to Big Ivy. y Nantahala National Forest, N.C.—Tsali Recreation Area has long been considered a top destination for mountain biking in Western North Carolina with nearly 40 miles of trails. Trails alternate use between mountain bikers and horseback riders. In Panthertown Valley, trails bear a little less marking. It is advised to carry navigational tools or know the area before embarking.

Plan to set off on foot to visit some of the area’s waterfalls.

y Cherokee National Forest, Tenn.— The Tanasi Trail System offers more than 20 miles of trails shared by bikers and hikers.

Chilhowee Mountain Bike Trail System also boasts more than 20 miles from Parksville Campground at the bottom of the mountain to Chilhowee Recreation Area at the top. Because of the change in elevation (from about 600 feet to more than 2,000 feet) this trail system offers some challenges to both the mountain biker and the hiker. Many trails offer stream crossings.

Other trails provide opportunities to ride a mountain bike to a fire tower, through the woods, or around a lake. y Chattahoochee National Forest, Ga.—The well-known Aska Trail System with approximately 17 miles of recreational trails for bicyclists and hikers. Trails range in length from 1.0 mile to 5.1 miles and range in difficulty from easy to strenuous. The Jake and Bull Mountain Trail Systems have approximately 36 miles of recreational trails for equestrians, bicyclists and hikers. The systems connect to form a complex system of scenic trails within a four-square-mile area.

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MOUNTAIN LETTERS

Crafting on a lark

BY REBECCA TOLLEY-STOKES

F

or almost three decades Lark Crafts of Asheville, N.C., has published books celebrating the creative spirit and providing crafters with information and inspiration to leverage their skills beyond what they have imagined. While Lark publishes dozens of titles annually, two are particularly outstanding this year and relevant to readers wishing to adorn their homes with goods of their own making: Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays: 30+ Seasonal Patchwork Projects to Piece, Stitch, and Love and Making Mini Books: Big Ideas for 30+ Little Projects.

John Q. Adams, aka “Quilt Dad,” put together Pretty in Patchwork along with a bit of help from his friends. Based in Cary, N.C., Adams quilts, crafts, and shares his work online via his eponymous blog (quiltdad.com), writes for Fat Quarterly and designs for Moda Fabrics, a fabric line featuring colorfully patterned and trendily designed high-thread count bolts that quilters and crafters desire. Filled with gift ideas and projects, Pretty in Patchwork includes a plethora of projects sure to appeal to a variety of needs and tastes: Advent calendars, elves, pillowcases, penguin pillows, holiday bunting, stockings, ornaments, holiday tree skirts, heirloom quilts, wine bags, gift bags, and more.

Before eager crafters jump whole hog into projects, Pretty in Patchwork—the second in Lark’s Pretty in Patchwork series— includes advice on materials, fabric, embroidery floss, batting, tools, and other general advice. Would-be crafters are introduced to basic techniques needed to tackle the featured projects: cutting, working with fabric strips, log cabin quilt square assembly (it’s tricky!), English paper piecing, appliqué, embroidery, quilting, and two types of binding—whether to make your own or go for store-bought.

One of Adams’ own contributions is a felt pickle tree ornament.

Hanged deep within the holiday tree, the pickle is a pickle to find, and tradition has it that the first child who finds it is guaranteed a year of good fortune.

Each craft in the book includes step-by-step instructions and photographs illustrating trickier techniques. While most of the projects photographed for the book are color-coordinated for the holidays,

Making Mini Books: Big Ideas for 30+ Little Projects by Alisa Golden.

Asheville, N.C.: Lark Crafts, 2012.

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Adams points out how easily one could change the color palette to make projects suitable for year-round use. Other contributors include popular quilting and crafting bloggers such as Malka Dubrawsky, Amanda Carestio, Cathy Gaubert, and Jeri Harlan.

Kathleen McCafferty, Asheville resident and editor of Making Handmade Books by Alisa Golden, also edited Making Mini Books: Big Ideas for 30+ Little Projects, which is a charming collection offering instruction in bookmaking for visual learners.

Arranged from easiest to most difficult, the first few projects within Making Mini Books require only folding or stapling, thus each book may be as easy or difficult as desired. While the substitution of materials is allowed and encouraged, some techniques work best on particular media. Adding whimsical details such as rounded corners, different fasteners, or incorporating unusual materials into the book’s binding or pages—such as bark or moss—makes each book unique and a reflection of the artist’s creative spirit. Imagine making leather-bound journals, accordion-folded mini-books, and books featuring unique closures, rainbow stitching, stunning binding, and hidden interior pockets. The imaginative mini “books” included in this guide to projects expands our conception of what a book is and can be and allows artists and bookmakers to explore and play with that idea and remake the object into something serving a multitude of purposes. For example, projects like Mini Earrings and Red Strap Necklace turn mini books into jewelry.

Clear photos illustrate binding techniques which are essential knowledge for every bookmaker to grasp. Fast and easy, the book is an excellent resource for inspiring the bookmakers’ imagination and can be used as a starting point from which one can explore and combine various binding techniques to arrive at a novel arrangement. The illustrated stitch guide is an invaluable resource that novice bookmakers will refer to regularly.

Offering a wide range of materials and ideas, 22 bookmakers, many of whom offer their books for sale via Etsy stores online, contributed their designs and skill to the collection. As an added value to their readers, Lark offers two free, downloadable mini book projects from the Lark Crafts website at larkcrafts.com under “Free Projects,” but you’ll have to dig through the older entries to find these.

Fast and easy, the book is an excellent resource for inspiring the bookmakers’ imagination and can be used as a starting point from which one can explore and combine various binding techniques to arrive at a novel arrangement.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

Create

“We wish we had moved sooner.”

It’s the comment we hear most often from new Deerfield residents. They delight in our location and their new-found friends; love the state-of-the-art amenities; feel safe, secure and well cared for by our expert staff – their only complaint is that they didn’t make the decision to move sooner. Since the best time to move may have been years ago, then isn’t the next best time now?

Call to schedule a visit and learn how you can thrive at Deerfield – in body, mind and spirit.

A N E P I S C O PA L R E T I R E M E N T COMMUNITY

1617 Hendersonville Rd. Asheville, NC (828) 274-1531 press 1 www.deerfieldwnc.org

d e p a r t m e n t :

MOUNTAIN ARTS

Picture This

Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition

T

he 10th Annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition (AMPC), created as a partnership among Appalachian State University Outdoor Programs, the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, and the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, will culminate in a professionally curated exhibition open to the public March 1 to Aug. 16.

The contest celebrates the unique people, places, and pursuits that distinguish the Southern Appalachians and attracts entries from across the United States vying for more than $4,000 in cash and prizes.

A panel of jurors with a professional background in photography and love for the natural environment will select this year’s winning images. Jurors are Boone-area professional photographers Chip Williams, Jamey Fletcher, and Marie Freeman.

“Our jurors range from veterans in the photography world to up-and-coming professionals. It is a diverse group of jurors, and

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will provide a strong and varied perspective from which to view the images,” said AMPC Competition Director Rich Campbell.

Chip Williams, assistant professor of technical photography at Appalachian, has worked as a corporate and editorial freelance photographer for more than eighteen years in Chicago. He shot for national magazines such as Smithsonian, US News & World Report, ESPN the Magazine, Kiplinger’s, Money and Parade.

Jamey Fletcher specializes in event, wedding and portrait photography in the southeastern United States. He is the son of recently retired Appalachian professor Jeff Fletcher. From the time the younger Fletcher was old enough to stand on a stool and reach an enlarger, he was in the darkroom learning the art of making images. His photography career began at the age of 14 as he worked as a stringer and a staff photographer for the Watauga Democrat newspaper.

Marie Freeman is a seasoned photojournalist who has worked for both the Watauga Democrat and Mountain Times newspapers for nearly fourteen years. In 2008, she joined Appalachian’s University Communications team as university photographer. Her professional accomplishments include: fifteen North Carolina Press Association photography Top: Mount awards; first place LeConte Winter award in the Council

by Scott for the Advancement Hotaling, 2012 and Support of People’s Choice Award, Education for her Landscape snowflake category. Left: microphotography; Muskrat with and being published Ranger by in numerous state Banister Pope, 2012 Winner of and national Flora & Fauna newspapers and category. magazines including COURTESY ASU OUTDOOR the Washington PROGRAMS. Post, USA Today, the New York Times, Detroit Free Press and Our State magazine.

The Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition includes numerous categories. Williams, Fletcher, and Freeman will review all entries and narrow them down to approximately 46 images that will be displayed in exhibition at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts on the ASU campus. From those images, judges will select the final winners, which also will be showcased at the 17th annual Banff Film Festival Sept. 20 and 21.

For more information, visit appmtnphotocomp.org, or call ASU’s Outdoor Programs at 828.262.2475.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

Grammy nod for old-time music The Great Smoky Mountains Association’s “Old-Time Smoky Mountain Music� has been nominated for a Grammy Award. The album includes 34 historic songs, ballads, and instrumentals recorded in 1939 by “song catcher� Joseph S. Hall. The little-known Smoky Mountain recordings were collected when Hall was a young graduate student on a project to collect genuine Smokies speech and music. Songs featured on the CD include “My Home is in the Smoky Mountains,� “Don’t Forget me Little Darling,� “Mule Skinner Blues,�

Foxfire

Museum & Heritage Center

Experience Southern Appalachia as recorded, documented, and collected by the students of Rabun County, GA—and shared with the world through The Foxfire Magazine and The Foxfire Book volumes. Visit the legacy they created in honor of their neighbors and ancestors through 45+ years of work gathering and preserving their unique mountain heritage.

Museum gift shop offers regional pottery, crafts, Foxfire & other books.

Home of the Foxfire books– our newest:

45th Anniv.

Take US 441 to Mountain City, GA. Turn onto Black Rock Mtn. Parkway.

One mile up, follow the brown signs. -

Get a copy

Tradition. Vision. Innovation.

Old-Time Smoky Mountain Music is available for purchase from the Great Smoky Mountains Association for $14.95, with proceeds going to the benefit of the park. smokiesinformation.org.

Allanstand Craft Shop at the Folk Art Center

Milepost  Blue Ridge Parkway, Asheville, NC -ď™…ď™Œď™‹-ď™Šď™Œď™…ď™‹

Guild Crafts

ď™Œď™†ď™ƒ Tunnel Road/Hwy ď™Šď™ƒ, Asheville, NC -ď™…ď™Œď™‹-ď™Šď™Œď™ƒď™†

Jewelry: Barbara Joiner

“Ground Hog,� “On Top of Old Smoky,� and “Up on Pigeon River.� As part of the association’s effort to produce the CD and preserve the cultural history of the area, the producers issued news releases throughout the region to track down any surviving musicians featured on the recordings or their descendants. At least 18 relatives of the original musicians featured on the CD responded enthusiastically and sent photographs and anecdotes about their relatives. Two of the musicians who were recorded in 1939 were still alive. The photos and information received were incorporated into the 40-page liner note booklet that accompanies the CD.

The Southern Highland Craft Guild is an authorized concessioner of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior.

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d e p a r t m e n t :

MOUNTAIN CUISINE This jambalaya recipe was featured in Ellen Delatte’s Cajun Cooking: Mardi Gras Traditions in the Kitchen class at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon, Va. 1 lb. boneless pork, cubed 1 lb. smoked sausage, cubed 1 lb. ground pork 2 large onions 2 cloves garlic, crushed 4 celery ribs 1 medium bell pepper 4 cups white rice 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. black pepper ¼ tsp. rosemary ¼ tsp. oregano 8 cups water (chicken broth is tastier) Chop all meat and vegetables before beginning to cook. Meat should be chopped into 1-inch cubes and vegetables should be chopped into ¼-inch cubes.

Brown meats beginning with pork cubes; add sausage, then ground pork. Remove from pot and set aside while browning vegetables (next 4 ingredients). Drain grease.

Put meat back into pan. Add rice and stir until well mixed and rice is slightly browned. Add water, salt, pepper and herbs. Bring to boil stirring occasionally to loosen bits of meat and seasoning that have stuck to the bottom of pot.

If you use chicken broth, eliminate the salt and pepper. When most of the water has boiled out (when it is even with the top of the rice and there are holes in it), cover the pot and lower the heat.

Simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, uncover, stir to blend, and then serve.

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Youth get creative in the kitchen in the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center’s Cooking along the Crooked Road program. DONATED PHOTO

Learn to cook creatively “Cooking Along the Crooked Road,” a culinary program at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center, will hold special classes for cooks of all ages. Taught by local chefs and accomplished cooks, these noncredit, handson enrichment classes are open to the public. Classes meet in the culinary kitchen at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon, Va. Youth ages nine to fourteen can get cooking in “Valentine Sweets and Treats,” held Feb. 9. Pastry chef Kay Hughes shares some of her favorite cookie and candy recipes. Class is held from 10 a.m. to noon. Registration is $24.

During “Cajun Traditions: Gumbo, Pralines and Mardi,” Louisiana native and culinary expert, Ellen Delatte will discuss the southern pecan and its many uses while leading in the preparation of pralines and pecan rolls. The Feb. 9 class will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Registration is $35.

On March 2, Kristi Slaughter—the Gluten Free Guru—gets participants involved in hands on bread making. The class will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Registration is $35. In the afternoon, from 2:3o to 4:30 p.m., youth ages nine to fourteen may learn how to prepare gluten-free pizza and a gluten-free dessert, as well as pick up a few tips and tricks for living a gluten-free lifestyle.

To see a complete list of spring culinary courses and descriptions and to register online, visit swcenter.edu/cooking, or call the SW Virginia Higher Education Center at 276.619.4300.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

Mushroom hunters in winter

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ost people who hunt mushrooms do so in late summer and fall when an array of choice edibles are abundant or in spring when morels are in season. It’s easy to forget—or maybe never even know—that there are a couple of tasty “winter mushrooms” which appear during warm spells from late fall until early spring.

These winter mushrooms may not be quite so exquisite tasting as morels, milks, wishies, or a few other prime-season species, but when found in the dead of winter they’re especially welcome. Hunting for them on a bright wintry day is exciting, providing, an excuse—if you need one—to get out the door.

The “velvet foot” mushroom (Flammulina velutipes) is also known by many as the “winter mushroom” since it will survive freezing and continue to produce spores after thawing out. It has a viscid yellowish-orange to orange-brown cap that accounts for the genus name; that is, “flamma,” means “a flame.” The species tag “velutipes” means “velvet stalk” in reference to

the stem, which in maturity is dark brown or black in color, being covered with a velvety pubescence.

It’s common throughout Western North Carolina, appearing as a wound parasite in tufts or clusters on or near stumps, logs, roots, and living trunks of slippery elm, willow, poplar, and perhaps other trees. The deadly “autumn skullcap” (Galerina autumnalis), which fruits on wood in October and November, has a brown stalk but usually displays a ring, has brown spores, and a stalk interior that’s brown whereas velvet foot never has a ring and white spores.

To prepare velvet foot, dry or remove the viscid skin covering the cap and discard the fibrous stalks. A form cultivated and sold in markets as “enotake” or “snow-puff mushroom” looks very different from the wild species as it has almost no cap and a long pure white stem resembling a bean sprout.

The “oyster mushroom” (Pleurotis ostreatus) is very common throughout WNC, appearing singly or in shelving masses on stumps, logs, and living trunks of a variety of deciduous trees, especially poplar and walnut. It may be observed year around, being very white in warm months and more brownish-white in winter.

The genus name refers to the “pleurotoid”

SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTO

DON’T BE CHICKEN—GET A TASTE OF ROCKY’S LIP-SMACKING SPICES There’s a rumor that hot chicken is addictive, and based on the steady stream of clientele at Rocky’s Hot Chicken Shack in West Asheville, N.C., that rumor is proving more fact than fiction.

In fact, the demand for Rocky Lindsley’s poultry and its peerless lip-singe nearly drove the chicken master out of business.

Rocky’s first opened in 2009, but shuttered the shack in 2010 to avoid burnout. As a one-man operation, Rocky just couldn’t keep up. There was public outcry.

With a little help from a former Asheville restauranteur and retail designer, Rocky got his business model on track and re-opened at a new location on Patton Avenue in 2011. Thank goodness.

habit of the fruiting body; that is, it has a cap that may entirely lack a stalk or a stalk that’s noticeably off-center. The species tag “ostreatus” refers to this mushroom’s oyster-like fragrance and flavor. There are no poisonous look-alikes for this species that I know about, but still check a field guide every time you harvest something for the table. It does harbor beetles in the deep gill slits. These are easily removed by immersing the cap in water or by tapping the top of the cap and dislodging them.

The portion of the cap attached to the tree (and the stalk, if present) is tough and should be severed from the fleshy outer part of the cap.

An “oyster log” dragged home will supply successive crops of this tasty species. They are cultivated commercially in some areas. When breaded and fried, the oyster mushroom does resemble its namesake seafood. Both species can be made into soups or prepared as casseroles.

— By George Ellison This article first appeared in The Smoky Mountain News in Waynesville, N.C., where George Ellison is a regular columnist. He is the author of the forward to Horace Kephart's classic Our Southern Highlanders and regularly leads natural history and environmental workshops throughout the region.

If chicken isn’t your thing, there are coconut shrimp, salads, veg-friendly faux chicken, and sometimes a fish special—why go to a waterpark and play in the kiddie pool?

Whether it’s white meat, wings, or tenders, order up as spicy a yardbird as you dare. The new lemon pepper honey sauce is delectable with just a tiny touch of heat so as to let you know the pepper’s there. The “Mildium,” also known as “Inbetweenium,” earned this first-timer’s response—“It was good, but I thought I was going to die.” Medals of honor go to the two brave souls who made Rocky’s dinner bell ring with orders of the XX Hot, aka “Mount Saint Hell No!” At least one had the smarts to take his order to go, suffering goodly sweats and presumable gastrointestinal pain somewhere other than in public. As the saying goes, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Rocky and crew know what they’re doing though. There’s a separate register for customers to order extra beverages without having to wait in line. Side orders include tongue coolers such as coleslaw and potato salad. Make it through to dessert and reward yourself with Coco-Cola cake, banana pudding, or a root beer float. Everything is available for take out, and there are party platters and family-style serving sizes.

Visit Rocky’s Hot Chicken Shack at 1455 Patton Avenue in West Asheville, check out the menu at rockyshotchickenshack.com, and call in an order at 828.575.2260—or amble on up to the counter to pick your poultry and settle down at one of the restaurant’s tables (indoor and outdoor) to enjoy the endorphin ride.

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The Universal Language The Road to Love, Music and Nature

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

Ron Clearfield plays his restored 1696 French cello for his wife, Rachel.

GARRET K. WOODWARD PHOTO

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T

he road gets smaller and smaller to Ron and Rachel Clearfield’s home. Pavement turns to gravel, then to dirt, the route lined by majestic rolling hills and thick woods.

It’s Saturday and the sun is shining. Rachel is raking around her garden. She stops and waves with a smile. Soon, Ron saunters out of the couple’s house and extends a warm handshake.

Tucked away in the hills of Western North Carolina, the Clearfield’s three-acre property is located in Leicester, N.C. Rachel is a fine art painter, jeweler, and jack-of-all-trades. Ron is a professional cellist and conductor for the Asheville Youth Orchestra. They’ve been married almost 30 years and their story is as unique and rich as their humble abode, a place that’s now being opened up to the curious public. With the recent construction of a guest cottage, those looking for inspiration and solitude can now come and find a pleasant weekend in the countryside.

“We’ve manifested this place from what’s inside of us,” Rachel said. “We want to use this property for the greater good. The beauty of what we’ve made and what was already here, we want to use it to uplift people.”

Born and raised in post-World War II England, Rachel was an autodidact, a self-taught prodigy fascinated with anything and everything, jumping from one project or place to another without hesitation. She was a restless explorer, something that remains deeply rooted within her to this day.

“I was the middle child, so I could get away with everything,” she said. “I used to take my horse and just disappear into the moors where the red deer ran.”

Her family was upper middle class conservative, with her father running three movie theaters and a restaurant. Creativity was a common thread through their genetics. The seven children found some artistic niche to keep occupied.

“We were pretty wild,” she said. “There were so many kids they couldn’t keep track of us.”

Rachel knew from a very young age she wanted to be an artist. It seemed, to her, that there really was no other option. She was a gypsy child, one who let her imagination run wild.

“I never really had a choice because at school I was so spacey, a big dreamer,” she said. “The only thing I was really good at was art and handwriting.”

And as the “Swinging 60s” began to take shape in England and abroad, change was in the air. Rachel soon went to art school and immersed herself in an array of new ideas, from music to people, art to fashion. She found herself watching The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in small Newcastle clubs, years before 32

their sound exploded into mainstream society, forever changing the face of culture around the globe. Nothing was the same, everything was the same, and yet the world seemed like a much bigger place to her.

“I was really able to come from within myself and focus with the art and being with nature,” she said.

Though she was studying fashion, her heart yearned to paint. Her parents told her to stay with fashion, that she wouldn’t be able to make a living as an artist. But, her deep desires got the best of her and soon she left art school and took off for Amsterdam.

RACHEL CLEARFIELD PAINTING

“We’ve manifested this place from what’s inside of us. We want to use this property for the greater good.

The beauty of what we’ve made and what was already here, we want to use it to uplift people.”

—Rachel Clearfield

“And I didn’t want to be like my parents, God forbid. They were so straight,” she said. “They didn’t want me to marry someone that couldn’t provide me with our standard of living, so of course I was very rebellious.”

With a job in Amsterdam illustrating for an advertising company, Rachel found herself hitting a crossroads. The work paid the bills, but the stress and other factors didn’t seem to add SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

up. She eventually quit the agency and decided to illustrate as a freelancer, picking up things here and there. She was living paycheck to paycheck, a vast contrast compared to her upbringing, but now she was free and, most of all, had time to paint.

“When I painted, I was coming from somewhere deep inside,” she said. “I wasn’t spacey when I painted. It was my reality much more than the so-called reality of the outer world.”

On the other side of the Atlantic, Ron was growing up outside of Washington, D.C. He came from a long line of professional musicians. His grandfather a fine pianist from Russia, father a clarinetist, and mother a singer and music teacher.

“I was surrounded by musicians,” he said.

“There was always music going on around me as a child.”

With two older brothers, Ron and his siblings were destined to become musicians—at least that’s what their family had hoped. Ron’s father tried unsuccessfully to get them to study and practice, eventually throwing his hands in the air, about to give up. It was then Ron came across an old violin one day.

“It was destiny,” he said. “I literally went up to the attic and found this violin. I brought it to my father and said I wanted to play it. He was overjoyed.”

Things grew from there. Ron went to a typical high school, which had an average music program, which was more band oriented than orchestral. He sang in the choir and participated in musicals. The music theory teacher was proficient and helpful in moving him along.

After graduation, he auditioned for the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He got in and spent the next six years there.

“I knew I had to be somewhere, in a conservatory or something,” he said. “Since I was a little child, I was absolutely enthralled with any kind of music, always intrigued, and here I was living in Boston, this incredible place.”

Ron was a college student in America while a controversial war raged over in Vietnam.

Being a center for protest and conflict, Boston was a hot bed for anguish and action.

“MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) was very involved with the Dow Chemical Company, which made napalm for the war,” he said. “We did protests there. I had some tear gas thrown at me, that’s for sure.

There were a lot of riots. It was an incredible time to be alive and young.”

Once, while rehearsing with Boston Symphony in Lenox (Western Massachusetts), Ron came out of rehearsal and saw a group of hippies gathered nearby. They looked a little bewildered. He asked them where they had been.

“This guy says ‘Jimi Hendrix just played the national anthem’,� he said. “They were coming back from Woodstock, so I suppose I was there in spirit.�

In 1976, Rachel relocated to the United States to further explore not only her budding career in art but her world as well. She bounced around parts of Hawaii, California, and Florida. And yet, the only common denominator seemed to be this mysterious man she kept seeing. It was Ron. Though she knew of him, she didn’t know him personally, even thought they shared mutual friends. “We saw each other at a health food store in Malibu,� she said. “We both were with somebody else at the time. We weren’t really introduced or anything, but we had these yearning crushes on each other.�

Finally, at a Yacht Club in Malibu, Rachel saw Ron performing and knew she had to make a move. It was 1979, the two were now single and the stars had aligned. “I saw him playing cello and just thought he was so beautiful,� she said. “Something got us together because we’re supposed to be together.�

The two were on the same path of discovery. They headed for Miami, Fla., where Rachel owned and operated an art gallery with her works, and Ron served as the assistant conductor for the Miami Beach Community Orchestra. Though life was going well, it was also going very fast.

Children soon came into the picture— three to be exact. Music and art commitments were ďŹ lling the calendar. The machine was running on all cylinders, but both knew they couldn’t keep that pace. “You ďŹ nd yourself on autopilot,â€? Ron said. “And you think, ‘Do I want to do this for the rest of my life?’â€?

On a chance visit to see friends in Cashiers, N.C., the couple fell in love with the grandeur and beauty of southern Appalachia. “I was struck by it, by the plants and the herbs,� Rachel said. “I’d lived in California, Denver, Miami, but I hadn’t experienced American like it is here. It’s like Europe with the changing of the seasons, and I was longing for that.�

And thus it was decided. They packed up everything, said goodbye to south Florida and headed for Western North Carolina, where they soon began to plant roots on a three-acre piece of paradise. Sitting at the base of Pinnacle Knob, a 4,500-foot high mountain, the main house was built 12 years ago. The idea behind it was to pair the

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natural beauty of the landscape with the philosophy of “reduce, reuse and recycle.”

“It’s about sustainable living and respecting nature,” Ron said. “Instead of abusing nature and using it as a commodity, see it as a gift. As far as I’m concerned, this is a sacred area.”

Ron was releasing independent albums, producing musical scores for documentaries and conducting for the Blue Ridge Orchestra and University of North Carolina at Asheville Chamber Orchestra. Rachel was displaying her artwork in regional galleries, selling numerous pieces and pushing her name further across the country.

In a world of differences, variety and sometimes confusion, the universal language of love, music and nature flows effortlessly through their property. Some of that is by chance, by a place that was already magical before the couple arrived, but most is by the hard work and nurturing care each had instilled into the ground and out into the world.

“You realize that inside we’re all the same, no matter our origin or skin color, that the heart, the light within all of us, is a special gift because we’re alive,” Ron said. “Art, music and consciousness are a feeling, a vibration. There is a feeling here that was what the 1960s focused on, which is change and evolution of conscious-

ness. We’ve all got to work together.”

With the construction of a cottage finished this past spring, people from all walks of life can experience the wonder and mystique Ron and Rachel have felt since the first day they stepped foot on the land.

“I saw him playing cello and just thought he was so beautiful.

Something got us together because we’re supposed to be together.”

—Rachel Clearfield

“People have said this is heaven on earth, and there’s an energy here,” Ron said. “Nature, music and art are all part of the healing arts.

Even though we can be having problems, any type of problem, there’s still a hope that those things and meditation can show a way to take

The downstairs of the rental cottage.

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

our senses and turn them inward.”

For the last four years, the couple has held a fundraiser in June for “Food for People,” a nonprofit organization (part of The Prem Rawat Foundation) that provides disaster relief, medical clinics, and food for some of the poorest places in the world, including Nepal, India and Africa. This past year, they raised more than $10,000. Attendees were treated to live music, an elaborate dinner and auction, in which 100 percent of the profits went to the charity.

“If you want to be rich, be generous, and I feel so rich,” Rachel added. “We’re just an artist and a musician. We’re not famous, but this place shows you a person with the right intentions can go and do great things.”

Since the cottage has been unveiled, there have already been plenty of guests, ranging from artists to older couples to young families with children. They’re not only introduced to the property, but also Sparkie, the dog, Princess, the Shetland pony, and Hakima, the Arabian mare. Each guest has his or her own story, each exposed to the love and kindness this land and its protectors possess.

“I feel so grateful that we’ve got the cottage and people have the opportunity to come here,” Rachel said. “They bring their darling kids, and I just adore the little ones.”

Ron Clearfield playing his restored 1696 French cello.

GARRET K. WOODWARD PHOTO

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“You realize that inside we’re all the same, no matter our origin or skin color, that the heart, the light within all of us, is a special gift because we’re alive.

Art, music and consciousness are a feeling, a vibration.

—Ron Clearfield

Ron mentions one guest in particular. It was a couple. They were going to spend the weekend in the cottage and the boyfriend seems quite perturbed and worn down when he arrived. By the end of their stay, the fellow was completely transformed, heading back into society refreshed and with a smile on his face.

“There’s the good and the bad, the ying and yang of life,” Ron said. “But, we have the option to be ourselves and true to ourselves.

You have to be yourself, to manifest or speak up and deal with situations, hopefully with

love and diplomacy.”

As Rachel walks through the garden plot, the pony and mare nibble on some grass. Sparkie darts around, nudging Rachael and sticking his nose into whatever business he can find. The sun ducks behind Pinnacle Knob. The air is crisp. A dog barks in the distance. Night will soon fall on another day in paradise.

“You start to feel the love pulling your breath in and out,” she said. “While we’re here and alive, when we go within, we experience this wonderful feeling. It’s so peaceful and nurturing

Ron and Rachel Clearfield on their back deck overlooking their countryside property. GARRET K. WOODWARD PHOTO

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

and we’re carrying it inside of us. That’s heaven.”

The road gets bigger and bigger leaving Ron and Rachel Clearfield’s home. It’s a wide world out there—one that starts from the smallest of places, inside of you, and opens up into the vastness of possibility and chance once you begin the journey.

“You don’t have to be like anybody else, just be yourself,” Ron said. “We’re one of a kind. There will never be another one like you and their will never be another one like me, so let’s own it.”

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

Historically,

societies have marked rites of passage with tattoos that forevermore indicate the bearer has transcended or ascended into a new world. Like makeup, plastic surgery, and scarification, tattoos are a way people change their bodies’ appearances to show that they are members of a particular culture, said Ward Mintz, who co-curated a tattoo exhibit at the Asheville Art Museum.

The Egyptians were some of the earliest known tattooers with examples found on figurines, female figures in tomb illustrations bearing markings on their thighs, and mummies dating back to 2,000 B.C. In a Smithsonian interview about the history of tattooing and its cultural significance, Joann Fletcher, research fellow in the department of archaeology at the University of York in Britain, theorizes that Egyptian women viewed the art and act of tattooing as a form of protection during pregnancy. Tattoos were found as a web of dots encircling the abdomen, much like the nets of beads traditionally placed over mummies to “keep everything in.” Also, depictions of the deity Bes, protector of women in labor, were found tattooed on the tops of women’s thighs.

“Tattoos represent our feelings, our psyche, our fears, our everything,” said Rob Hunt of Forever Tattoo in downtown Asheville, N.C. “They represent memories and loved ones and nightmares and dreams. A lot of people get tattoos because they help them release something. Instead of having to explain that they experienced something, they can show it and say, yeah, I got it right here.”

There are as many reasons for getting tattoos as there are people who have them. A Harris Interactive Poll done in January 2012 indicated that one in five U.S. adults have a tattoo—a steep climb from the same poll done ten years earlier. Women were more likely to have them than men. Tattoos made both genders feel sexier (30 percent of responders), rebellious (25 percent), attractive and strong (21 percent), spiritual (16 percent), healthy (9 percent), intelligent (8 percent) and athletic (5 percent). Democrats were more likely to have them than Republicans.

— Daron James, Diamond Thieves “Me, I look at all my tattoos as a living diary,” said Daron James, owner of Body Piercing and Tattoo Diamond Thieves Body Piercing and Tattoo in West Asheville. “I can remember where I was and what I was into—and why I got it—with each of my tattoos. Some people consider their journals to be priceless, things they keep with them throughout their lives. I don’t think I could put a price on my tattoos. A tattoo is a fantastic piece of artwork that you get to wear everywhere for the rest of your life. You don’t have to put it on; you don’t have to take it off. You’re never going to lose it or leave home without it. And eventually, you’ll take it to the grave with you and it will be the only thing left to tell your story when nobody has any idea of who you are.”

Tattooing as self-expression has been on the rise for more than a decade, but it has gotten a big boost from TV shows like “Ink Master,” “Tattoo Highway” and “America’s Worst Tattoos.” More people want to be inked, Hunt said, and those who do are older and seemingly more conservative than they were when he started out 20 years ago.

The old stereotypes of who gets tattoos—the biker, the bohemian, the outcast—don’t really apply any more. Now, one’s attorney is as likely to have a full sleeve of tattoos as is one’s mechanic, Hunt said.

Hunt’s wife, Lauren Brady, is the dietetic internship coordinator for Lenoir-Rhyne University’s center for graduate studies in Asheville. The picture of professionalism, she dresses conservatively at work. One would never know that she has several large tattoos, all “strategically placed,” as she puts it. Brady, whose Twitter moniker is EdgyRD, is pretty sure most of the people she works with knows she has them. “I’m not shy about telling them,” she said. “When they ask what my husband does and I tell them he’s a tattoo artist, they ask, ‘well, do you have tattoos?’ I say, ‘why, yes’.”

“A tattoo is a fantastic piece of artwork that you

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROB HUNT

get to wear everywhere for the rest of your life. You don’t have to put it on; you don’t have to take it off. You’re never going to lose it or leave home without it.”

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Facing page: Rob Hunt tattoos Cassidy McFadden with a heart image that she believes expresses her open-heartedness. Right: McFadden wears her heart on her shoulder after getting tattooed by Hunt at Forever Tattoo in Asheville. Below: Dale Johnson of Mythical Markings Tattoo Studio in Knoxville, Tenn., with customer Martin Pittman. Johnson says he likes to keep each tattoo personal while still infusing his own artistic style.

PAUL CLARK PHOTOS • DALE JOHNSON PHOTO COURTESY OF MYTHICAL MARKINGS TATTOO STUDIO

Though one might expect the wife of an tattoo artist to have tattoos, Lauren got her first before she met Hunt—a small tattoo that asserted an 18-year-old woman’s independence from her parents. She didn’t think about getting more until she saw all the ones Hunt had. He introduced her to people who were covered in them, and that got her thinking about starting her own mosaic.

But she was discreet. One knows she’s tattooed only when she’s wearing a sleeveless dress.

She’d like to get more, but if she got one on her leg, then she’d have to wear pants to work. And if she got one on her arms—above the elbow only, she said—she’d have to wear sleeves. “When people see you with a tattoo, they make assumptions,” Brady said. “I don’t want that to be part of the equation in a working situation. When I see people who are heavily tattooed, I wonder what they do for a living.”

Jerry Bradley is an emergency room doctor in Sevierville, Tenn. He chuckles when he considers the reactions that some people have when they find out he has tattoos. “A bit of a rebel” still at 61, he got his first 16 years ago to mark the end of his marriage. A motorcyclist, he was in Myrtle Beach for Bike Week with his girlfriend at the time. She had one, a botched job that she wanted to get covered up.

Bradley accompanied his girlfriend to a tattoo studio, which had hundreds of sample images hanging in the waiting room.

Bradley found one he liked. “I muttered to myself, I said ‘if that guy was here today that drew that, I’d probably get it’,” he said.

“[Tattoos] represent memories and loved ones and nightmares and dreams. A lot of people get tattoos because they help them release something.

Instead of having to explain that they experienced something, they can show it and say, yeah, I got it right here.”

— Rob Hunt, Forever Tattoo

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“And I heard a voice behind me say, ‘oh, really?’ I turned around and this woman said, ‘there’s the man, sitting right over there.’ I’d kind of stuck my foot in my mouth, and I wasn’t going to back down.”

The image—a wolf’s head inside a dreamcatcher-like surround—isn’t visible while he’s at work, he said, nor is the aboriginal image or the University of Tennessee football helmet. Bradley’s no wild man. He doesn’t have hair down his back, though he does have a bit of a beard. He was a hippie back in the day, but even though his email moniker is “rebfromtn,” he’s just a regular guy who, these days, sports a couple of new tattoos that he and his new wife, who’s of Norwegian descent, share. They both have Norwegian symbols for “strength” and “grace.”

“Each one of my tattoos has to do with phases of my life,” Bradley said. “I get tattoos when relationships change.”

Dale Johnson at Mythical Markings Tattoo Studio in Knoxville, Tenn., did the last four of Bradley’s tattoos. Many of his customers are people who are marking significant events in their lives. The biggest difference in tattooing now and when he got into the business 20 years ago, Johnson said, is that tattoos aren’t just for aesthetics now. For most people getting them, they have significant meaning. They honor the passing of loved ones. They offer hope and remind people to stay strong. They note a life before and a life after, especially in the case of divorce.

“It’s a lot more personal now,” Johnson said. “Us artists, we still want to get in as much artistic value as possible. But for the customer, it’s more about the personal part.”

Jennifer Lunsford and her best friend got tattooed in late November at Victory Boulevard Tattoo in Asheville. Lunsford, who received hers as a birthday present from her friend and her husband, got two—a skeleton key incorporating her name on her hipbone and two small ladybugs on her wrist. The ladybugs are in appreciation of her 4-year-old daughter, who has severe cerebral palsy.

“Before she was born we decorated her room with ladybugs, and now, when she goes through her bad stuff, they calm her down,” Lunsford said. “This is a reminder that no matter how bad things are for me, she goes through far worse.”

Lunsford is another person one might not think would get a tattoo. She’s an appointment scheduler for a neurosurgeon in Asheville. She grew up in a conservative family in Weaverville, N.C., and, at 18, got “your typical tattoo at 18,” a butterfly on her back. Outed when she talked about it to her 44

high school newspaper, she incurred the wrath of her deeply religious father.

“He didn’t speak to me for quite a while,” she said. “People certainly look at you differently. But to me, tattoos are beautiful.

There are lots that I’d like to get, but I don’t want to be perceived as trouble. Society looks at you in a different light when you have them.” Though she’ll cover up her new markings when she’s at work say says, “I’m at the point in my life that if someone has something to say about it, I really don’t care.”

Patrick Swann was at Forever Tattoo with his girlfriend who had come to talk to Rob Hunt about getting a new tattoo.

Extensively marked, Swann said each of his tats was deeply personal, reflecting a belief held by many if not most of people who have tattoos. PAUL CLARK PHOTO

Johnson often talks to first-timers about what to expect, as far as how it feels, which some people love and others describe as sandpaper rubbed over road rash, and tries to talk them out of certain decisions they may later come to regret, such as getting a boyfriend or a girlfriend’s name tattooed on them.

“It’s bad luck, I’ll tell them,” he said.

“Whether they take our advice is up to them, but we hate it when they come back and say ‘we broke up six months ago.’ I used to turn them away if they wanted a boyfriend’s name.

But nowadays I try to talk them into having the name done in a lighter color, in case we have to cover it up.”

In both Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee, the going rate for tattoos tends to be around $100-$150 an hour, with a $50 minimum for small jobs. The best tattoo artists are adept in other arts, such as airbrushing, painting and sculpting, Johnson said. They tend to be much better than the literalist who can recreate an image pulled from a showroom sample. Those guys are good too—it’s not easy to duplicate a design perfectly—but the best artists are the ones who take a client’s ideas and work up a design that captures not only the image one has in mind but also one’s reasons for wanting to get the tattoo, Johnson said.

Though it’s easy to spot bad tattoos—and Johnson and Hunt have covered up plenty of them—subtlety often sets the well-executed ones apart, both said. Things like shading and gradient and fine line work make the good ones stand out.

“People are seeing the art aspect of tattooing, whereas before they just saw gritty symbols,” said Hunt, who’s been tattooing

Come together Asheville Tattoo Fest, March 14-17, 2013, at the Renaissance Hotel, Asheville, with tattoo competitions, seminars, burlesque and after-parties.

since 1994. Many of the tattoos that people want these days are complex, with depth, dimension and shading that wasn’t prevalent 20 years ago, he said. “When I first started, there were only a few artists that were amazing good,” Hunt, a talented painter, said. “Now there are a lot of artists who are discovering what’s possible.”

Like other aspects of popular culture, tattoos trend, and they shift “on a monthly basis,” said James, of Diamond Thieves Body Piercing and Tattoo in West Asheville, who has been in the business about fifteen years.

Right now at his shops in Asheville and Marion, N.C., the Browning deer symbol is big. A year ago, it was the clawed marks from the Monster Energy drink. “People like the brand stuff,” James said. “I’ve got a Wonder

Bread logo tattooed on me somewhere.”

“What people are asking for is a lot different now,” Hunt said. “I haven’t had a request for a tribal armband or barbed wire in eight or nine years. Now people want things of a more painterly style. Or they want the traditional stuff. A lot of the stuff I like to do is the classic stuff—flowers, skulls, snakes and butterflies, and everything in between.”

Hunt points to television and tattoo reality shows as motivation for many of today’s trends. “Before ‘Miami Ink,’ people asked for cartoon characters,” he said.” Now they want koi fishes. That’s what I dream about now—people coming in and getting koi fish.

I dread it. Everybody wants that kind of stuff. Trends can really hurt some things and help some things.”

The proliferation of studios is one of those not-so-great things, Johnson said. A lot of shops are apprenticing people who do beginner’s work, and they have so many apprentices that they’re flooding the market with people whose sole goal is to strike it rich. “It’s not that way,” Johnson said.

“They should be in this for the art work, not the money.”

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45

Art on the Fly Fly-tying Brings Fly-fishing Full Circle

BY DON HENDERSHOT

46

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

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47

A sold-out Musky fly-tying class with Brad Bohen of Musky Country Outfitters in Wisconsin was held at Hunter Banks on Dec. 18. MARGARET HESTER PHOTO

“I spend a lot of time looking at bugs underwater, and sometimes I’ll turn a rock and see a bug and think ‘I’ve got to take this to the vise.”

—Reba Brinkman, Hunter Banks Company

Tying a fly is a process executed by hand and in small form.

MARGARET HESTER PHOTO

Jeff Kennedy works in the field during an artist-in-residence program at Bristol Bay Lodge in Alaska.

DONATED PHOTO

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

F

ish tales have been recorded for perpetuity since at least 200 A.D. when the Roman author Claudius Aelianus penned On the Nature of Animals.

In the book, Aelianus describes what he calls the Macedonian way of catching fish. It is, by most accounts, the first written record of fly tying and fly-fishing.

Aelianus describes how local fishermen catch fish from the river Astraeus, “These fish feed upon a fly peculiar to the country, which hovers on the river.” He notes that the fishermen don’t catch this fly and use it for bait.

“They fasten red (crimson red) wool around a hook, and fix onto the wool two feathers which grow under a cock’s wattles, and which in color are like wax,” Aelianus writes. “Their rod is six feet long, and their line is the same length. Then they throw their snare, and the fish, attracted and maddened by the color, comes straight at it, thinking from the pretty sight to gain a dainty mouthful; when, however, it opens its jaws, it is caught by the hook, and enjoys a bitter repast, a captive.”

This classic, or is that classical, example is what Gary Mann, owner of Waynesville Fly Shop in Waynesville, N.C., and the rest of today’s fly-tying fishermen call “matching the hatch.” Matching the hatch means tying and/or fishing the fly or flies that represent the aquatic insects or other prey species that would be available at a particular time. Mann said the timing of hatches have been well documented by fishermen over the years, so fly-tiers in the Smokies know that early spring is the time for quill gordons and March browns, and summer means sulphurs, yellow Sally and terrestrials like the green inchworm. Orange Palmers and stoneflies are good fall flies, and winter is the time for blue-winged olives.

Flies are generally lumped into two groups: imitators and attractors. The imitators mimic a particular food source like a caddis fly or a green inchworm. Attractors, on the other hand, don’t mimic a particular species but rather a type of prey.

Mann noted that the Palmer is a renowned attractor created and fished primarily in the Smokies.

“The Palmer doesn’t imitate any one bug, rather, it is similar to a variety of bugs and by changing the color from yellow in the spring, to green in the summer and to orange in the fall, it’s a productive fly that can be fished year round,” Mann said.

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Types of flies:

“The Palmer doesn’t imitate any one bug, rather,

Flies are loosely categorized under two headings: y Imitators – Imitators mimic a particular prey, like a caddis fly or a crayfish or an inchworm. y Attractors – Attractors don’t imitate a particular species but rather a type of prey like insects, or baitfish or nymphs.

it is similar to a variety of bugs and by changing the color from yellow in the spring, to green in the summer and to orange in the fall, it’s a productive fly that can be fished year round.”

— Gary Mann, owner of Waynesville Fly Shop

Kinds of flies: y Dry flies – designed to sit on top of the water, usually designed with stiff hackles y Wet flies – designed to land and sink below the water, perhaps mimicking an insect that lays its eggs underwater y Nymph - a wet fly that mimics the underwater life stage of certain insects y Streamers – designed to mimic underwater prey, usually baitfish but also crayfish, leeches, etc. y Terrestrials - mimic land-based prey that might accidentally wind up in the water like green inchworms

Recreating nature accurately enough to attract nature is a combination of art and science. Reba Brinkman is program director and fly-fishing instructor at Hunter Banks Company, a full service fly-fishing retailer in Asheville, N.C., When she’s not teaching or lining up outstanding programs for the fly fishing community, she spends her time bio-monitoring area streams for water quality. Brinkman said the biomonitoring has really turned her on to nymph tying.

“I spend a lot of time looking at bugs underwater, and sometimes I’ll turn a rock and see a bug and think ‘I’ve got to take this to the vise,” she said.

A vice is used to grip the hook onto which a fly is tied.

MARGARET HESTER PHOTO

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

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Tying an olive wooly bugger Tools: y Tying vise – tool that holds the hook steady so tying materials can be placed on it. y Thread bobbin – holds thread for wrapping material on hook. y Fly tying scissors – small, sharp, sturdy scissors for trimming fly tying materials.

Materials: y Hook – size 6 to 8, size 6 used for demonstration y Bead – for the head y Thread y Hackle – generally neck feathers of domestic fowl, saddle color used for demonstration y Marabou – soft feathers (generally from the posterior of a turkey) often dyed, olive color used for demonstration y Chenille – used for the body y Wire – copper wire to hold the hackle in place

Directions: Put the bead on the hook and place hook in vise.

Wrap the shank of the hook with thread, just enough for a base to tie the materials on.

Clip a length of marabou equal to the length of hook shaft. Place it along the hook – the tip of the feather pointing away from the eye of the hook. Tie it down with a few wraps of thread.

Tie-in a length of gold wire along the shaft of the hook, leave a couple of inches for wrapping the hackle. You can trim it later.

Measure a piece of hackle the length of the shaft. Attach it like the marabou with feather tip pointing away from eye of the hook.

Strip the chenille and tie-in a length equal to the shaft of the hook.

Material is on the hook ready to be tied. Materials are tied in a reverse order from how they were put on the hook.

Tie the chenille along the shank of the hook for body. Use the thread bobbin and tie the chenille from back to the front (eye of hook). After the chenille is tied, wrap a few wraps of thread back along the shank of the hook to allow for subsequent tying from the rear towards the eye of the hook.

After the chenille is tied, “Palmer” the hackle around the chenille and shank of the hook. “Palmering” is wrapping the feather around the shaft. Always wrap and/or Palmer away from yourself.

Next wrap the copper wire around the hackle, working it through the feather being sure not to mat the hackle down.

Next tie everything securely in place with the thread, once again being careful not to mat the hackle. At the end, make a couple of loops or half hitches behind the bead to knot everything. The final product is an olive wooly bugger.

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For many, the highest pinnacle of art is when beauty, form, and function come together in a single object. The well-tied fly embodies these attributes. When one takes an Adams fly out of the vise grip and its stiff hackles are the perfect color and positioned just so as to make the fly dance on the water, when one casts that creation a few feet upstream so it rides upright on the current and is inhaled with gusto by a feeding trout, one knows it’s a work of art.

Jeff Kennedy is an industrial designer and a fly fisher in Illinois with a studio near the shores of the Fox River. When Kennedy began tying flies, he saw connections between the designs he worked on for profit and the flies he worked on for pleasure. The key for Kennedy was proportion. He approached his newfound passion much in the same way a field guide illustrator would. He would study a fly and then produce a color drawing, focusing on capturing the fly’s details. Kennedy liked the creative stimulation and challenged himself to produce a print a day for 365 days, working in watercolor and gouache. That was in 2008, and in early 2009, he published Drawing Flies 365. American Angler magazine dubbed Jeff “Lord of the Flies.” Stonefly Vineyards—“founded on a passion for fly fishing and winemaking”—contracted Kennedy to provide labels for some of its wines. As of 2012, both the book and the labels are being reprinted. Kennedy creates the illustrations because he loves doing it, and he fishes for the same reason.

“It’s the coolest thing to tie a fly, toss it out there, and be hooked up,” he said.

Pat Cohen lives in upstate New York and has a degree in “fine art.” He said that when he was first introduced to fly-fishing he left a lot of flies hanging in trees and bushes. He thought, “I can make my own.”

Once he began to tie his own flies he found that his art training gave him a different perspective. Besides creating flies for fish—Cohen is a commercial tier—he could create works of art; flies that people would find interesting.

“When you’re creating art, you have a little more freedom, you don’t have to worry about how the fly is going to lie in the water or if it mimics some kind of prey, you’re trying to create something people will be drawn to,” Cohen said.

Cohen said that once he found the artistic outlet, he was determined to prove that deer-hair flies (the type he ties in upstate New York) could hold their own against traditional feather flies.

As artists, it’s easy to get lost working with a beautiful object, adapting it to the particular medium at hand and becoming less concerned about whether or not it will catch a fish but more about whether or not it showcases the intricacies and beauty of the piece.

Cohen already knows his flies catch fish, but Katheryn Napier’s creations aren’t designed for the rod and reel. Napier, who is a hypnotherapist in Florida, never got formal lessons but she watched her grandpa in Harlan, Ky., tie flies and carve lures from wood, and her father also carved lures from wood. Napier spends each April through October in a cabin in the woods near Murphy, N.C., tying flies that are nearly a foot in length and bedecked with exotic, molted feathers she gets from a zoo in Sanford, Fla. It takes her about three hours just to sculpt the hook for one of the giant flies.

Napier models a lot of salmon streamers because they are

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

big and colorful, but she also has a number of trout fly sculptures.

Though she works in other mediums, her flies were always attention getters during art shows, often leading to commissions for particular patterns.

While the art of the fly entices creators and collectors, not all fly fishers are fly-tiers.

“One of my top guides doesn’t tie at all,” Mann said. “He’s all about being in the water, catching fish.”

There is little doubt that reading the water, choosing the right fly, learning to cast and learning how to present the fly is an art in itself. But for many fly fishers the art of tying is what brings the sport full circle.

“I’ve always been good with my hands and I find that catching fish on something I made just brings me one step closer to a total fishing experience,” Mann said.

“It’s the coolest thing to tie a fly, toss it out there, and be hooked up.”

— Jeff Kennedy

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53

Paul Marchand’s

ARTof Science

BY ANNA OAKES

Botanical model of Oenothera biennis by George and Paul Marchand in the Buffalo Museum of Science, Buffalo, New York. DONATED PHOTO

surroundings—a form of trompe l’oeil, which is art presented in such photographically realistic detail that it can be mistaken for the real thing.

At

THE FAMILY BUSINESS

Grandfather Mountain in Linville, N.C., the blackberries are always in season, the fragrant mountain laurel is ever-blooming and the delicate lady slippers are never hard to find.

Artist Paul Marchand spent his entire lifetime in the employ of dozens of nature museums across North America, crafting three-dimensional, extraordinarily accurate models.

No matter the season, visitors to Grandfather Mountain can view in lifelike detail the diverse wildflowers, berries and mushrooms native to the area, handmade by “the world’s leading creator of artificial plant life.” At the time of his death in 1996, Paul Marchand’s work was displayed in more than 40 other institutions in the United States and Canada, including the Smithsonian Institution, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, and Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History.

At Grandfather Mountain, the displays are “a really amazingly realistic recreation of some of the things on the mountain that not everyone gets to see,” said Penn Dameron, executive director of the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation. “It just speaks to the creativity of human beings—how we relate to nature. I think that’s one of the key parts of our mission—to find the wonder in it.”

Marchand’s wax creations often were crafted for display in museum dioramas, which are three-dimensional exhibits that feature anatomically precise models of animals, plants, fungi, rocks, and soil in front of painted backgrounds. Once the hallowed haven of the taxidermist—whose specimens perched solitarily in simple glass cases—natural history museums instead began to install habitat dioramas in the late nineteenth century.

“They were powerful tools that [preceded] the advent of sophisticated wildlife photography, motion pictures, television, and computer technologies and can be considered an early form of virtual reality intended to nurture environmental awareness and concern,” wrote naturalist and artist Stephen C. Quinn, the longtime diorama artist for the American Museum of Natural History.

Diorama artists traveled to natural locales across the globe to collect samples from which they developed their molds and to intently study the environments to be replicated. “They themselves became great naturalists and experts in their subject matter,” noted Quinn. Dioramas represent a snapshot in time of plants and animals in their natural

Paul Marchand was born to a family of artists. His father, Henri, was born near Paris in 1877 and attended France’s best schools of art. Henri also studied with sculptor Auguste Rodin, the artist celebrated for “The Thinker” and “The Kiss” and considered the “father of modern sculpture.” He became a sought-after specialist in dioramas and precision wax modeling, and he and his wife Clothilde, also an artist, moved to the United States at the turn of the century. He soon after was employed by the New York State Museum in Albany.

In 1925, Henri was invited to build exhibits from the ground up for the new Buffalo Museum of Science, and he brought sons Paul and George to help. However, Henri’s career took a turn from noted to notorious in 1930.

Paul Marchand paints fine details onto his lady slipper model for a wildflower display at Grandfather Mountain’s Nature Museum.

Catherine Morton, daughter of Grandfather Mountain founder Hugh Morton, believes this photograph was taken sometime in the late 1950s or early ‘60s. PHOTO BY HUGH MORTON

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“His test for quality is simple. He places one of his artificial flowers in a vase with several natural specimens. If anyone can tell which is Marchand’s and which is Nature’s without touching them, he considers his work not satisfactory and rejects it.”

— Popular Mechanics article titled “Sculptor of a Prehistoric World,” 1951

Marchand process: “In “In Buffalo, N.Y., last month reproducing a flower, Marchand occurred a sordid sex murder always starts with the original involving two red women,” began blossom. A plaster mold is made of the account in Time magazine. each tiny filament, pistil and Reportedly, Henri’s wife Clothilde stamen. Then each part is cast in answered a knock at the door of wax, celluloid or plastic. Delicate her Riley Street home to find wax petals are reinforced with Seneca Indian woman, Nancy cotton fiber and hair-thin wires.

Bowen. Bowen accused Clothilde The many parts are then assembled of being a witch and then beat her and colored to match the beauty of with a hammer, leaving her to die the original. Some ‘simple’ flowers, with chloroform-soaked paper in such as daisies, require only 15 her throat. It later was revealed molds, but a milkweed, much more that Lila Jimerson, a young Seneca complex to reproduce, requires 45 woman who modeled for Henri different molds. and with whom he had an affair, “A strict perfectionist, he had convinced Bowen that challenges anybody to show him Clothilde was a “white witch” who where his models are not true to had used her powers to kill life,” the article said about George.

Bowen’s recently deceased Asclepias syriaca by George and Paul Marchand in “His test for quality is simple. He husband, accounts say. the Buffalo Museum of Science, Buffalo, New York. places one of his artificial flowers Jimerson fainted during the first DONATED PHOTO in a vase with several natural trial—subsequently declared a specimens. If anyone can tell which is Marchand’s and mistrial—and reportedly pled guilty to second-degree which is Nature’s without touching them, he considers his murder from her hospital bed, but she later retracted the plea. work not satisfactory and rejects it.”

Ultimately, Jimerson was found to be innocent, and Bowen While at the Buffalo Museum of Science from 1925 to pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter, serving a 1943, the brothers created a three-part diorama of the short sentence before returning to the reservation. By the Bermuda coral reef, North Atlantic Ocean and “Life of a time of the second trial, Henri, in his fifties, had remarried Wharfpile at Martha’s Vineyard.” To construct the coral one of Clothilde’s eighteen-year-old relatives. A book, From reef, Paul and George made eighteen visits to Bermuda to Wicked Niagra: The Sinister Side of the Niagra dive and conduct underwater research.

Frontier, claims that “the crime was not spoken of in the “The Marchands even did a bit of underwater oil painting Marchand family, and when there were grandchildren, they to make life studies,” according to a 1983 Buffalo Museum of did not learn of it until they were adults.”

Science newsletter. “The result is dioramas that are so realistic that it is hard to tell them from real life.”

In Rochester, N.Y., the siblings created a three-section FACT AND FICTION diorama for the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences, IN FIBER AND WAX illustrating hundreds of native flowers as they appear in Throughout the sordid drama, brothers George and Paul spring, summer, and autumn. had continued to work at the Buffalo Museum until the early Describing his process, Paul said he would anesthetize an 1940s and overall were together for more than twenty years, animal such as a frog, pour casting material over it and at several museums, until George relocated to Michigan. remove the cast before the creature would emerge from its In 1951, Popular Mechanics featured George in an article doze. “Then I take him out in the field and let him go,” he titled “Sculptor of a Prehistoric World.” It described the said, as quoted by the Buffalo News.

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

Clockwise, from top left: To identify mushrooms that are poisonous, Paul Marchand included a signature skull figure in his models. Marchand also collected many specimens on site for his models at Grandfather Mountain, including the rare Allegheny Sand Myrtle. Despite a sign stating the model is four times the actual size of the creature, this salamander model has worried many young children about what may be lurking in the outdoors, Catherine Morton said. This blooming rhododendron model on display at Grandfather Mountain’s Nature Museum is indistinguishable from the real thing.

MARCHAND WITH SALAMANDER PHOTO BY HUGH MORTON OTHER PHOTOS BY ANNA OAKES

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Naturalist Weekend at Grandfather Immerse yourself in the same surroundings that inspired artist Paul Marchand at Grandfather Mountain’s annual Naturalist Weekend, taking place May 17 to 19, 2013. Included with the price of regular admission, the weekend features guided hikes and special presentations on the birds, wildflowers and nature of Grandfather Mountain.

Participation in some activities is limited, requiring advance registration.

For more information, call 800.468.7325 or visit grandfather.com.

Paul Marchand returned to Grandfather Mountain in the 1990s to construct models of mushrooms and edible berries native to the area. PHOTO BY HUGH MORTON Grandfather Mountain’s Catherine Morton (left) points out some of the poisonous mushrooms among Paul Marchand’s models to a visitor. ANNA OAKES PHOTO

Earlier in his career, Paul Marchand collected specimens and created plaster molds around them. He filled the molds with melted, bleached beeswax and applied oil paints using paintbrushes and air brushes, according to a 1946 article in The Living Museum, a publication of the Illinois State Museum. But over the years, Paul was a perpetual innovator, incorporating flexible molds and casts, metal molds, latex, celluloid, vinyls, silicones, fiberglass, epoxy, stabilizing natural materials, and varieties of paints and solvents among his methods and materials.

“He wasn’t very chatty,” she said. “He was hard to draw out.

He didn’t talk about himself much.”

But his work spoke for itself, and local patrons soon came calling.

“I know there were several people from the resort communities around here that contacted him to collect his work,” Catherine said.

HOME IN BUFFALO

Buffalo, N.Y., was always home base for Paul Marchand.

“He came back to the museum in the 1960s to basically MARCHAND MEETS MORTON refresh the work that he did in the 1920s,” said Kathy Leacock, curator of collections at the Buffalo Museum of To peer through the display cases at Grandfather Science. Marchand retired several times, but never seemed Mountain’s Nature Museum, one might fancy Paul content to let go. “The most recent collection of Paul Marchand’s wild strawberries scrumptious enough to eat.

Marchand is when he came out of retirement in 1980 to do an The fragrance of a flowering dogwood seemingly wafts exhibit called ‘Insect World.’ He did models of insects that are through the air, and if one taps a pink gill mushrooms, there five times original size,” Leacock said. “Marchand went to lies the risk of sending hundreds of spores afloat.

Venezuela with the research team and Decades after Marchand installed observed the insects in their natural the groupings of wildflowers, edible habitat before making models.” berries and mushrooms at Grandfather Although wax is susceptible to Mountain, they appear in such rich, temperature fluctuations, Marchand’s vibrant detail as to truly deceive the early models have held up remarkably senses. Hugh Morton, founder of the well over the years, Leacock noted: “One Grandfather Mountain attraction and a hundred years later, they look like the day widely published photographer, they were made.” Some of the invited Marchand to the mountain Marchands’ best works remain on display sometime around the late 1950s or ‘60s at the Buffalo Museum, while others are to create exhibits for the new tourist rotated in and out of storage. “Insect destination, said Morton’s daughter, World” is scheduled to return in fall 2013.

Catherine. Marchand was friends with Paul worked in his Buffalo area studio Roland Hower, then exhibits designer until the age of 90, moving to California at Grandfather and a former exhibit in 1994 after the death of his wife of 61 designer at the Smithsonian Institute, years, Mina. He died in 1996 at age 92. said Jesse Pope, chief naturalist and “He did have a few folks apprentice Director of Education and Natural The Yellow Lady Slipper is rare and native to under him over the years, but in the Resources for the Stewardship Grandfather Mountain, growing on rich end no one carried on his work,” Pope Foundation at Grandfather. wooded slopes from April until June. said. “The cost of his creations became Marchand’s first work for ANNA OAKES PHOTO so expensive that it was cheaper, for Grandfather was the collection of most museums, to go with a lesser plastic mold design—of wildflowers. While some wildflowers were common course it didn’t have the detail that Paul’s work had.” throughout the East Coast states, Marchand took to the An additional complication to continuing the Marchand fields and woods of Grandfather to collect rare and process was that the way in which he developed the casts endangered species found in the mountain’s unique required the actual plant and consumed it during the ecological community, including Alleghany Sand Myrtle process, Pope said. and Heller’s Blazing Star. In the ‘90s, Marchand returned to “Some of the specimens in the Nature Museum probably Grandfather to install displays of berries and mushrooms. couldn’t be replicated today by the same process due to “No one has more of his creations showcased than in his protections that some of those plants have now days,” Pope home town in Buffalo, N.Y. and here at Grandfather said. “He wouldn’t be allowed to collect the plant for such a Mountain,” Pope said. “We have more of his work than any use, in other words. Then it was perfectly acceptable to do other museum outside Buffalo.” his work.”

Catherine Morton remembers the artist as a quiet man.

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Studio 212 in Maryville, Tenn., offers a range of activities for all ages.

REBECCA TATUM PHOTO

Mountain Arts & Crafts Offer

ULTIMATE

CREATIVE GETAWAYS BY ÉLAN YOUNG

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The Smokies are home to a myriad of artists and craftsmen, many of whom opened their studios after having been trained at local institutions, which just so happen to be among the prestigious, exciting, and accessible arts and craft schools in the world. The culture of craft is thereby self-sustaining, as students become teachers, passing on skills to new generations that contribute to the growing body of work.

ortunately, those who want to add an artisan’s skill set to their own have numerous opportunities for hands on training. There is something for everyone, whether he or she is a passer-by, longtime resident, serious artist, dabbler, parent wanting to share activity with the kids, or kid looking for artistic time away from the parents.

Dillsboro, N.C., draws artists and tourists alike to the tiny riverside town where the Jackson County Green Energy Park (GEP) has turned the methane gas generated by a closed landfill into the fuel for glass-blowing studios, blacksmithing forges and a metal foundry.

“We’ve built these studios so artists can rent them for a nominal fee and not have to build their own $150,000 studio,” said Timm Muth, who helped design the facility and now directs its activities. “The artists don’t have to pay for fuel because it’s free for us. It helps them create businesses.”

Back in 2005, county officials were concerned about the explosive, flammable methane gasses building up in the former county landfill. At the time, it would have cost $400,000 to simply remediate the problem. Instead the county put that Bronze casting money toward converting the landfill (left) is one of the site into a green energy project, activities following in the footsteps of a similar undertaken at the project at a landfill near Burnsville, Green Energy Park in Dillsboro, N.C. N.C. The GEP also has a set of GARRET K. WOODWARD greenhouses that are heated with PHOTO landfill gas, and last year, the GEP added a wood-fired pottery kiln, operated using waste wood and waste vegetable oil.

The artists in residence teach public classes with one-onone instruction, which allows an opportunity to give educational tours about the unique facility. In glass blowing, the objects that people make vary from goblets, tumblers, ornaments and Easter-egg paperweights. Each class lasts about 45 minutes, and classes are taught one-onone for reasons of safety and skill. The blacksmithing classes can allow as many as six people at a time, and participants start off making a wrought iron cheese knife, moving on to make items such as hooks and barbeque forks. Children as young as thirteen can participate, as long as a parent is with them the whole time.

Muth recalls a parent/child blacksmithing class where a father commented that he would have paid a million dollars for the class because it was the first time he had successfully made a connection with his teenage son.

Fortunately, at the GEP, classes are never expensive, ranging from $35 to $50, because the GEP is committed to keeping the classes affordable.

Just a few hours away, at milepost 382 on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville, N.C., the Southern Highlands Craft Guild’s Folk Art Center welcomes a steady stream of travelers, school children, and area residents. Founded in 1930, the Southern Highlands Craft Guild is comprised of

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“We’ve always had an educational component to help the community understand what our artists are doing and the heritage they represent.”

— Deb Schillo, Folk Art Center librarian and archivist

Carver Eddie Howard gives a demonstration during Wood Day, an annual celebration of wood crafts at The Folk Art Center in Asheville, N.C. SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS CRAFT GUILD PHOTO

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artists who have been juried in by fellow members, all of whom are scattered across the southern mountain region including parts of nine states. The Folk Art Center is the Guild’s headquarters; however, the Guild operates five shops in total—Cumberland Craft in Middlesboro, Ky., Arrowcraft in Gatlinburg, Tenn., the Parkway Craft Center in Blowing Rock, N.C., Guild Crafts in Asheville, and the Allanstand shop at the Folk Art Center, which is the oldest continuously operating craft shop in the United States.

Visitors routinely can find craft demonstrations and free educational community events at the various Guild shops, and an extensive public library located at the headquarters.

The Folk Art Center offers classes in traditional crafts such as making brooms or fashioning cornshuck dolls, whittling and jewelry-making. Half-day workshops cost $55 and full-day workshops are $110, plus material fees.

“We’ve always had an educational component to help the community understand what our artists are doing and the heritage they represent,” says Deb Schillo, librarian and archivist at the Folk Art Center. “We feel like these shorter workshops are a good introduction to a craft for people to put their toe in the water before committing more time and expense to an art or craft.”

Those looking for a more intensive artistic experience may wish to head to Penland School of Crafts. The school offers one-, two-, and eight-week long intensive workshops in books and paper, clay, drawing, glass, iron, metals, photography, printmaking and letterpress, textiles, and wood. Simply put, Penland’s goal is to help people live creative lives. Its world-class instruction and studios, combined with its totalimmersion workshop program creates a vibrant learning experience for all who attend, whether novice or advanced professional. The beauty of the pastoral setting gives Penland a retreat-like atmosphere, which complements the creative work that people are there to do.

Guest instructors and Penland’s program director determine the content of each course, but there is no set curriculum or set instructors each year.

The first thing that Penland taught was weaving, and it has been taught in one form or another since the school’s inception in 1929. Today, the most popular classes are in glass and iron, which include blacksmithing and welding.

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Attendees must be at least eighteen years of age, but otherwise most classes are open to any skill level, although some are specifically for beginners, intermediate and advanced. In the summers, kids can attend half-day camps and a few full-day camps built around art activities such as pottery, painting, or photography.

“Each year, each session, each class is filled with encounters among the most creative people in the world,” said Jean McLaughlin, Penland’s executive director. “They are young people just graduating from college with fresh ideas, optimism, and eagerness to absorb everything in sight.”

Certainly that is true of former Penland student Kelly O’Briant, whose Penland experience was integral to her life as an artist. She had already spent ten summers at Penland learning a variety of arts and crafts when, fresh from a BFA, she entered Penland again to primarily study clay. After three clay concentrations, each lasting two months, she practiced as a fulltime potter for eight years, and is now a Ceramics student at Arizona State University where she’s getting her MFA. “Each separate time I was there served a very particular purpose for me,” says O’Briant. “I returned whenever there was something I needed to learn, think about or figure out, when I needed feedback, when I needed to take a break from

the pressures of being a fulltime solo studio potter.”

O’Briant met her husband Matthew Thomason at Penland, and although he is not working as an artist/craftsperson, he learned from his time there.

“I am grateful for the experience because it was a time when I truly felt like an artist and that anything was possible,” he says. “In a way, Penland is an anomaly where the ‘social norm’ does not exert the same force/influence that it does in the greater world.”

John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C. is similarly renowned. Established in 1925, John C. Campbell is a school with no credits and no grades where the lessons learned are focused on blacksmithing, woodturning, fiber arts, pottery, cooking, music, painting, enameling, glass, clay, carving, chair-making, and more.

“There are many areas for which the Folk School is known as the best place to start and continue to the highest levels of work,” says executive director, Jan Davidson. Everyone over 18 is invited for the adult classes, and the school reaches out to retirees, working folks on vacation, young folks before, during after or instead of college.

The school’s rural setting on a 300-acre campus, and its historic buildings, green fields, oak forests and paths along Little Brasstown Creek (which is part of the North Carolina Birding Trail), as well as its flower, herb and organic vegetable gardens, all give it a sense of place and a serene quality that enhances the creative experience.

The school recognizes the importance of fostering a sense of community for all who attend its workshops, and that’s what makes it stand out from some of the other schools in the region, Davidson says. “It’s a community of music, dance, food, gardening and crafts, where traditions and creativity live easily together,” he says. “Friendships may be our most important product.”

The school also offers summer programs for kids, including Little Folk School for a week in June for rising second-graders through rising sixth-graders, and Middle Folk School for rising seventh through rising twelfthgraders, and many parents volunteer to help. Then, in July, the school hosts Intergenerational Week, in which a parent or guardian takes a course with a person twelve to seventeen years old.

For Maryville, Tenn., farmer Sheri Liles, who has attended the Folk School three times for hand spinning, the experience was just what she needed to get away from the distractions that kept her from learning the craft while at home. Liles, who owns five llamas, wanted to use the fiber the animal generate to create a value-added product to sell at a local yarn store and at the farmer’s market, as well as on her own. For her, the cost of tuition plus room and board was an investment in the future earnings of her farm. Liles also knew that the addition of yarn to her farm would be an

Culinary students work on creating a dessert at John C. Campbell Folk School where no grades—just great experiences—are the reward.

JOHN C. CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL PHOTO

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

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“We try to cover all the styles of Cherokee arts and crafts that have been handed down through generations.”

— Vicki Cruz, Qualla Arts and Crafts manager

PHOTOS COURTESY OF QUALLA ARTS AND CRAFTS

Qualla Arts and Crafts keeps Cherokee traditions alive Founded in 1946, Qualla Arts and Crafts in Cherokee, N.C., is the oldest Native American Cooperative, and it is renowned for teaching and strengthening Cherokee arts and craft. In addition to showcasing the works of more than 250 members, the cooperative also offers classes to the community. In an effort to preserve and promote the traditional arts and crafts, classes are currently only open to enrolled tribal members, and include how to make river cane baskets, river cane mats, white oak baskets, pottery, beadwork, wood, stone and shell carving.

“We try to cover all the styles of Cherokee arts and crafts that have been handed down through generations,” says

manager Vicki Cruz.

Classes are not just focused on the creation of the craft but also on the art of gathering and preparing raw material such as identifying river cane, white oak,

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maple and honeysuckle vines and making native dyes used for color in the basketry.

To bring the crafts into the community, the Cooperative members go into the schools to teach workshops with clay, honeysuckle vine weaving, beadwork and lectures. Many area teachers acquire skills through taking classes on their own and then in turn teach their students.

“Some kids love it, and some struggle, but each one takes home with them a knowledge of the Cherokee people and this Native American Instructor that took the time to teach them patience and importance of this craft,” Cruz said.

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“We are an outlet for

— Leanne Moe, Studio 212

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

REBECCA TATUM PHOTO

further instruction outside of the school system to hone in on the creativity within the child.”

Blacksmithing can be a hot and heavy task to learn, but the forges burn bright and the anvils ring clear at John C. Campbell Folk School. JOHN C. CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL PHOTO

info:

More information about the schools mentioned here can be found online at the following sites: y y y y y

Green Energy Park: JCGEP.org The Folk Art Center: southernhighlandguild.org Penland School of Crafts: penland.org John C. Campbell Folk School: folkschool.org Studio 212: studio212arts.com

enhancement for the farm tours she was already conducting for local schools.

“I do enjoy making things out of yarn that I have spun myself, but it’s especially impressive to show people a finished product and also show them the raw material it came from,” she says.

Each time she went to John C. Campbell, she built on the lessons already learned, and now she knows how to hand spin exotic fibers such as Alpaca, silk, mohair, and even dog hair from her own shelties.

“Every fiber has its own qualities that you have to learn, and each time I go, I’m expanding my knowledge base,” Liles said.

In addition to the somewhat more formal school experiences, there are community arts education experiences for kids and adults throughout the region via local arts councils and in artists’ own studios. Such classes typically do not require the commitment or cost that a retreat-style class often entails.

One such example is the newly opened Studio 212 in downtown Maryville, Tenn., nestled between Knoxville and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Owner Leanne Moe received her BFA from the University of Tennessee in 2009 and has been a fulltime potter ever since. In July of 2012, the studio space next to hers opened up and she decided to make the leap and open a larger space for arts instruction. The studio offers a variety of courses in everything from clay to painting. The clay classes focus on throwing on the wheel and learning the basics to become successful in making aesthetically pleasing pots, while the painting courses range from one- night classes to six-week oil classes.

Moe is excited to be able to offer a variety of kids’ classes that complement the instruction in local schools, especially where arts education has been cut. One such class is the family painting class, in which parents and their children create a project together. All of the kids’ classes are getting a great response from parents so far.

“We are an outlet for further instruction outside of the school system to hone in on the creativity within the child,” Moe says. “Most of the kids that come to the studio end up taking a variety of classes from clay to painting, so they are getting a well-rounded introduction to the arts.” Classes are affordable for families, ranging in price from $35 for a twohour class to $220 for a six-week class in clay. Instructor Stacey Austin-Heil says that participants enjoy the classes because they are set up to succeed.

“Often, people will come in for fun, but they end up loving the environment and being around other creatives,” AustinHeil said.

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HERREN HOUSE BED & BREAKFAST Six spacious guest rooms with sitting areas and private baths blend modern comforts and ample space with distinctive Victorian charm. Enjoy sprawling porches, an open-air gazebo, and relaxing gardens with nature’s seasonal colors. Situated only one block from Main Street Herren House offers convenience to an array of shops and dinning as well as easy access to the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

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HEMLOCK INN This historic inn, set just off Main Street in downtown Blowing Rock, is only steps from shopping, restaurants and event activities. Eighteen unique rooms, including suites with fully-equipped kitchens.

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ca le n d a r :

UPCOMING EVENTS

FEBRUARY RiddleFest RiddleFest got its start as a tribute to mountain music legend Lesley Riddle and his longtime collaborators, the renowned Carter Family. Today, it’s a day-long celebration of Appalachian music and storytelling, with seminars, ballads and storytelling in the afternoon and a foot-stomping concert at 7 p.m. to cap the evening. Concert tickets are $10, but the daytime session is free. For more information, contact the Traditional Voices Group at 828.682.9654 or on the web at www.tvgnc.org. Feb. 16, Burnsville Town Center, Burnsville, N.C.

Fireside Arts and Crafts Show Artists and crafts people will gather from across the Southeast for the 38th annual celebration of this Unicoi tradition. It’s a juried show that features a mix of traditional Appalachian crafts and fine art pieces.

And don’t worry, the exhibitors are housed indoors, away from the February elements. For more information, call 800.573.9659. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Feb. 1617, Unicoi State Park, Helen, Ga.

MARCH Comedy Classic Weekend Banish the blues of the outgoing winter with belly laughs from the funnymen (and women) who gather for the 25th Annual Comedy Classic Weekend. From up-and-coming talent to veteran comedienne Caroline Rhea, this weekend promises two days of good humor against the backdrop of the historic Grove Park Inn, a classic example of the arts and crafts style and host to historic guests for 100 years. For more information, call 800.438.5800 or visit groveparkinn.com.

March 8-10, Grove Park Inn, Asheville, N.C.

Scandinavian Heritage Week The John C. Campbell Folk School is now a bastion of traditional Appalachian folk art, but it got its start when founder Olive Dame Campbell paid visits to similar folkehøjskole across Scandinavia in the early 1920s. The seed of an idea was planted, and the folk school was born. So in a paean to its heritage, the school is dedicating a week to all things Scandinavian. On offer are courses such as Scandinavian bark weaving, cooking, fiddling, stitchery, figure carving, towel weaving and—if you’re keen to connect with your inner warrior, Viking ironwork. For more information, contact the John C. Campbell Folk School at 828.837.2775 or online at folkschool.org. March 2430, John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, N.C.

Whitetop Mountain Maple Festival Feed your sweet tooth at the Whitetop Mountain Maple Festival with tours of the sugar house, delicious food, and great bands from the local area. For more information, call 276.388.3422 or email mrfdrs@naxs.com. March 24, Whitetop, Va.

Spring Fling At the NOC Spring Fling, a festival-cum-competition, one can cheer on top US paddlers as they compete for their spot on the 2013 Freestyle World Championships Team while browsing wares from local artists and enjoying live music and local brews in the mountain sun. Paddlers of all ability levels are welcome to participate in the Freestyle Shootout, and bike enthusiasts can try their hand on the center’s new pump track. For more information, call 888.905.7238, e-mail events@noc.com or visit noc.com. April 26-28, Nantahala Outdoor Center, near Bryson City, N.C.

storied, and it celebrates 100 years of hiking this year.

The trail crosses the Nantahala River along NOC’s Founder’s Bridge before starting the steep ascent into the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, so they’ve decided to throw the trail a two-day birthday fete. Expect outdoor adventure-themed film screenings, a vendor village, gear repair, a trail maintenance trip and phenology training session with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. There will also be product giveaways, door prizes, live music, and of course, the trail itself.

For more information, call 888.905.7238, e-mail events@noc.com or visit noc.com. April 4-6, Nantahala Outdoor Center, near Bryson City, N.C.

A Taste of Toccoa

APRIL Appalachian Trail Founder’s Bridge Festival The 2,181+ mile-long Appalachian Trail is perhaps America’s most beloved footpath, or at least its most

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Toccoa’s best restaurants and caterers take to the streets, proffering sample-sized portions of their most popular dishes in this annual culinary event.

The tasting stalls are also paired with live music, entertainment, shopping, and family activities to complete the festival atmosphere. And choosy tasters need not worry, the show offers a variety of flavors from pizza to shrimp. For more information, call

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

706.282.3269, email mainstreettoccoa@yahoo.com or visit mainstreettoccoa.com/events. 8 p.m. April 25, Downtown Toccoa, Ga.

Rossini Festival and International Street Fair Celebrate Gioachino Rossini, prolific Italian opera composer and so-called Italian Mozart, with a day of dance, music and, naturally, opera. Fear not if Figaro leaves you blank-faced, this festival features a range of live entertainment and education with areas for children, culinary offerings, artisan exhibits and more. This is the Annual Rossini Festival and International Street Fair’s 12th year, and is a great chance to see some of the southeast’s greatest opera talent, free of charge.

For more information, call 865.524.7384, e-mail hello@knoxvilleopera.com or visit knoxvilleopera.com.

11 a.m. to 9 p.m., April 27, Downtown Knoxville, Tenn.

Ramp Hunt Join Alan Muskat to learn how to safely find, identify, appreciate, and maybe even eat morels, chanterelles, ramps, paw paws, persimmons, and other exotic native

Whitetop Mountain Ramp Festival Folks gather at the Mount Rogers Fire Hall on the third Sunday in May for the annual Whitetop Mountain Ramp Festival. The event includes music performed by local players‚ crafts‚ games‚ mountain dancing‚ a ramp eating contest‚ and barbecued chicken flavored with ramps. For more information, call 276.388.3422 or e-mail mrfdrs@naxs.com. May 20, Mount Rogers Fire Hall, Whitetop, Va.

Crooked Road Youth Music Festival The Crooked Road Youth Music Festival will feature performances and workshops on three stages by Southwest Virginia musicians. The festival will also include luthier exhibits and foods from throughout The Crooked Road region. For more information, call 276.492.2400. 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., May 11, Heartwood Artisan Center, Abingdon, Va.

International Biscuit Festival The yearly International Biscuit Festival is an homage to the fluffy white delicacies that are a hallmark of any good Southern cook. It’s a sprawling festival of artisans, both culinary and otherwise, replete with the crowning of the year’s Biscuit Queen. Writers will get a two-for-one with this bazaar, as it also puts on the Southern Food Writing Conference on Thursday and Friday before the biscuits take center stage on Saturday. As with any good festival, there will also be live music and the requisite biscuit bakeoff. For more information, call 865.384.7290, e-mail john@biscuitfest.com or visit biscuitfest.com. May 15-18, Knoxville, Tenn.

2013 Dogwood Arts Festival The Dogwood Arts Festival runs throughout the month of April in Knoxville, Tenn., kicking off on April 3 with A Very Special Arts Festival—a unique event that celebrates the artistic endeavors of Knox County school-aged students having diverse abilities. The celebration continues with Rhythm N’ Blooms, an American Roots music fest, and calls all yon revelers weary of winter’s ways to answer the call of the great outdoors with sidewalk chalk exhibitions, open gardens, and bike trails.

Visit dogwoodarts.com, call 865.637.4561, or email info@dogwoodart.com.

Southern Worthersee VW/Audi Show The Wörthersee Tour in Reifnitz, Austria is the largest gathering of Volkswagen and Audi enthusiasts in the world, and serves as the inspiration for Southern Wörthersee, bringing together cars and fans of these beloved marques in the authentic European atmosphere of faux-Bavarian Helen. The event is free of charge and draws VW and Audi lovers and owners from around the region. For more information, call 706.878.2271 or visit southernworthersee.com. May 17-19, Helendorf River Inn, Helen, Ga.

Fontana Village Resort is the host of country artist Matt Stillwell’s Shinefest, now in its sixth year. DONATED PHOTO

count on a performance from Stillwell and a range of other country stars. For more information, call 800.849.2258 or visit fontanavillage.com. May 2526, Fontana Village Resort, Fontana, N.C.

PHOTO COURTESY OF HEAD BALLOONS HEADBALLOONS.COM

MAY

PHOTO COURTESY OF VISIT KNOXVILLE

delights. Included is Muskat’s introductory e-book to jog your memory on your own outings. In the evening, participants can opt to enjoy their “catch of the day” at Asheville’s Zambra Tapas Restaurant for no extra charge. Wood nettle ravioli, sassafras root beer, tiger lily tamales, mushroom “mocha” ice cream... it all depends on what you find. For more information, call 828.273.8705 or e-mail info@notastelikehome.org.

9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., April 13, Asheville, N.C.

Nantahala Gorge Music Festival More details to come for the inaugural Nantahala Gorge Music Festival as the lineup of local and regional acts is finalized, but know that you can enjoy three days of live bands, camping, river fun and more. For more information, e-mail events@noc.com or visit noc.com. May 17-19, Nantahala Gorge, near Bryson City, N.C.

Shinefest Join country music recording artist Matt Stillwell & Friends on Memorial Day Weekend for the 6th annual Shinefest.

Stillwell, a local boy who made it big in country, gets back to his roots every year, bringing other well-known performers and emerging talent with him for the weekend.

The lineup for this year hasn’t been announced, but you can

WWW.SMLIV.COM

Helen to the Atlantic Hot Air Balloon Race The South’s oldest balloon event and the United States’ only long-distance hot air balloon race— 40th Annual Helen to the Atlantic Hot Air Balloon Race—will begin (weather permitting) with a mass ascension of 30 bright and colorful hot air balloons, in Helen. Race competitors and local flyers will take to the sky at 7 a.m., Thursday, May 30. If the weather conditions are unfriendly, the take off will be postponed until conditions are acceptable. While the competition to the Atlantic continues, other balloonists compete in local events throughout the weekend. The balloons will fly around 7:30 a.m. 6 p.m. each day. But far from just spectators, visitors can actually assist with inflations, be part of a chase crew, take a tethered ride in a balloon or a champagne flight over the mountains. For more information, call 706.878.2271. May 30-June 1, Helendorf Inn, Helen, Ga.

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d e p a r t m e n t :

MOUNTAIN VIEWS

A vine to remember

BY BILL STUDENC

A

fellow I know welcomes the holiday season by decking the halls, and the walls, and a few of the yard’s ornamental bushes with hundreds of lights that won’t come down until Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Chances are that a prime chunk of his living room real estate is still festooned with his Sears model, pre-lit fake tree bedecked with bright lights and shiny ornaments.

While such plastic trees, lighted Santas, and festive snowmen went on display in October, sharing coveted retail space with the grinning zombies and rotting corpses of Halloween, each year my family waits until nearly comatose from the post-Thanksgiving turkey-and-gravy hangover to waddle through an attic full of various Yuletide flotsam and jetsam that has mysteriously metastasized over the ensuing 11 months.

Before the onset of allergies forced us to forgo real Fraser firs, we would venture to the neighborhood tree farm. There, we would wrestle a severed section of pine on top of the Ol’ Family Truckster, secure it in place with a combination of twine, fishing line, frayed rope, duct tape, and bungee cords and hope that, like Mitt Romney’s dog, the tree survives the trip across town. Curse-laden attempts to force the sap-oozing stump into a way-too-small tree stand succeed only after sawing off a good four inches worth of wood at $6 or more per foot. Yet the perfect Christmas tree is just that—until once in the house it reveals a limbless spot the size of a Kia Soul, which even the most humongous kindergartner-created (with love!), construction-paper project cannot hide.

The urge to lug a red cedar, white pine or blue spruce into the home remains strong in American culture. That’s especially true in Western North Carolina, a region hailed by many as the “Christmas Tree Capital of the World” and that has frequently provided the official White House Christmas tree. This year’s D.C. tree hailed from Jefferson, while the specimen selected for the vice president’s home came from nearby Banner Elk. Even this writer has come to embrace the ritual.

But it wasn’t always so. My first Christmas away from home as a still-wet-behind-the-ears, Joe Rossi wannabe fresh from journalism school, my attitude toward the holidays was a resounding “bah, humbug!” The only decoration in my apartment was a single scraggly bough jammed unceremoniously into a Coors Lite bottle (sadly, that was my brand back then), adorned with a couple selections from the Dollar Tree’s scratch-

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and-dent bin, and placed beside the electric-baseboard heater in hopes St. Pauli Girl soon would be there. It made the wretched little tree from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” look like something worthy of the Biltmore House.

Over the years, I’ve warmed to the tree tradition, thanks to marriage to a woman who took it as a personal challenge to convert me to the Martha Stewart-esque joys of holiday decorating and to parenthood, which can make any Grinch’s heart grow three sizes, plus two. Like many families, one of our favorite holiday stories revolves around a tree…(cue heartwarming music now).

It’s a weekend morning, and I’m gulping mug after mug of coffee as we haul a freshly cut tree from a local farm into our house. Finding that a leafless vine has snaked its way through the branches, I remove the unwanted garland of brown and toss it aside. Throughout the tree installation and decoration process, I continue to slug massive amounts of java. This necessitates removing from my system massive amounts of what was once java. Later that morning, I notice a persistent itching in my…uh,

Over the years, I’ve warmed to the tree tradition, thanks to marriage to a woman who took it as a personal challenge to convert me to the Martha Stewart-esque joys of holiday decorating.

MANDY NEWHAM ILLUSTRATION

south pole region. That’s when I realize the vine I had removed from der tannenbaum wasn’t kudzu or grapevine, but poison ivy.

Talk about the gift that keeps on giving.

And now, so complete is my spouse’s conversion of me into a full-fledged decorating devotee that, I feel something is missing from our suddenly barren living room. The ornaments and adornments are stuffed in the attic breeding with one another in time for next holiday season, and we’ve long since gone back to work and school, yet I find myself pining away (pun intended) for the warm, fuzzy feelings of Christmases past.

But not so much the itchy, scratchy feelings of that December to remember.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1

Get Ready to Play, Laugh and Dance!

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North Carolina Mountain State Fair early September

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Dupont State Recreat ional For est N.C. Apple Festival

Flat Rock Playhouse mid-April thru late-December

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BY ARTIST PAUL MARCHAND FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • VOL. 13 • NO. 1

ORTHOPEDIC O RTHOPEDIC S SERVICES ERVICES

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TYING ON THE FLY • MARCHAND’S BOTANICAL BEAUTIES • LIVING CREATIVELY • GETTING INKED

JOINTS OINTS ARE REPLACEABLE. HIKING IS NOT NOT.

FEBRUARY/MARCH • 2013

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING

Rob Wood Hiking Enthusiast and Professor Hip Replacement Recipient

WA RT I M E G E N EA LO GY

Take to the Rocky Top Trail in Tennessee The Wildlife Federation’s “Nine in North Carolina Not to Miss”