Newspapers / Penland Line (Penland, N.C.) / March 1, 1996, edition 1 / Page 5
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THE NATURE OF ART There was no specific moment when Penland Resident Meg Peterson decided to become an artist. “It was just the way I related to the world around me.” But there was a moment when Meg decided that she wanted to he a teacher. As a child she took clay classes with an extraordinary woman who helped her find and express what she calls “the guiding images” of her life. “1 realized that her ability to help me stay connected to my own source had been my salvation, so you might say I had a calling to pass this on to others.” At age six teen, she began teaching alongside her mentor. After she graduated from Yale, Meg found herself house sitting for a friend in Mitchell County. “I had known about Penland for a long time. In fact, I would have given my eye teeth to study here when I was sixteen.” She made some con tacts at the school and eventually rented a house on Conley Ridge and spent a summer as a studio coordinator. Not long after she settled in, the local arts council had her conducting workshops in the public schools. She’s been doing this ever since, and she worked with Penland on a program which brought children into the school’s studios. She’s also worked in schools all over South Carolina. Five years ago she began a summer art and nature camp at Penland. “I was one of these kids who was always turning over leaves and bringing bugs into the house. I began to see that all of the materials we use as artists come from the earth and that working with these materials can be a way to gain an understanding of the natural world. Inspiring wonder with an eye towards preservation has been my primary goal.” Out of her camps and workshops, Meg has developed what amounts to an art and nature curriculum. Last year she began shaping it into a book which encompasses projects, phi losophy, teaching notes, and an extensive bibliography. Her idea is that any teacher could use this book to bring art into their classroom. That will also be the focus of the unusual class which Meg will teach at Penland this summer-a class specifically designed lor school teachers. “We arc reaching out to art teachers and also to classroom teachers who so often say to me, ‘I wish 1 could include some art projects, but I just don’t know where to begin.’” The class, titled The Urgency of Teaching Art, will be co taught by Cindy Boughner who is the Program Director for the Bloomfield Hills Model School in Michigan. Meg and Cindy will also work with three outstanding guest teachers: former Penland Resident Debra Frasier, ceramic educator Bill Daley, and Richard Lewis, director of the Touchstone Center in New York. After twelve years of workshops, residencies, and sum mer camps, Meg sees the Penland Resident Program as an opportunity to slow down a bit, finish her book, and to con centrate on her own work, mostly painting, drawing, and papermaking. She’ll be joined in the Resident Program by her new husband, John Snyder, a painter and ceramic sculptor. The two met last summer while having dinner with Penland neighbors Jon Ellenbogen and Rebecca Plummer. “We felt like we were being set up, so we did our best not to show the slightest interest,” she remembers, “but our dogs got along great, so we had to get together and walk the dogs and after a few months of that we went ahead and fell in love.” Peterson and Cindy Boughner will teachfourth session. ISRAEL COMES TO NC FALL PREVIEW During the last two years. Governor Jim Hunt has devel oped a wide-ranging initiative ol cooperation and exchange between North Carolina and Israel. I have been fortunate enough to serve on the steering committee that has shaped the cultural component of this project. As part of this committee, I helped select four North Carolina photographers who will each spend six weeks in Israel. This summer, Penland will host three Israeli artists who are also part of the exchange. I traveled to Israel in January, 1995 to work on this project, visiting studios and interview ing craftspeople. 1 selected two of the artists, basing this deci sion on the match of their personalities with our school, the type of work they make, and their feeling for what they could accomplish during six weeks at Penland. Lidia Zavadsky is a ceramic sculptor who teaches at Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem and has shown extensively in Europe. Esther Knobel is a metalsmith and jewelry designer who will teach a class for us while she is here. Both Esther and Lidia are looking forward to a charged atmosphere devoted to crafts, something they do not experience in Israel. They are also excited about trying their hands at other media, glass and iron in particular. We will make those studios available to them to engage in new work and see what comes. Israeli painter Moshe Gershuni and American ceramist Tom Spleth will visit the school in late August and then return to the City Gallery in Raleigh where they will collaborate on a series of painted ceramic pots. Moshe is a provocative artist whose work confronts many of the difiicult aspects of con temporary Israeli life. He has painted on ceramics before, but he’s never had a chance to collaborate on the forms. Both artists are excited about working together. It is impossible to write about this project without think ing of the political climate in Israel. In January of 1995 there was a great deal of hope and activity as peace seemed assured. When 1 returned this winter, in the wake of the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin, there was a somber mood, but still some hope for peace. At this date, there is clearly a great deal of chaos and loss of hope. 1 know these artists are deeply afi’ected by these circumstances and will share their feelings about events in Israel and their impact on daily life. Support for craftspeople in Israel is slim, and certainly nothing like Penland exists there. This exchange is an oppor tunity to cross cultural boundaries and share in a unique moment, both for Penland and for these fine makers, —Ken Botnick Robert Gardner with David Yinhar during a late winter open house at the glass studio. Over 250 peo ple were treated to demonstrations and basic instruc tion. A clay studio open house is plannedJor May. Students in six Penland studios will get to watch summer turn into fall this year. Beginning on September 29, fall Concentration will include eight-week classes in books and paper, clay, glass, and metals. There will also be a four-week textiles class and a two-week photography workshop. Eileen Wallace’s class in the book studio will cover a multitude of structures for books and boxes as well as tech niques for paper decoration and handmade paper. Clay students will have a choice of Concentration classes this fall. Mark Shapiro will teach functional wheel-throw ing using both the wood and salt kilns. Mary Barringer will cover sculptural and functional handbuilding with oxidation firings. These classes will be small and there will be some opportunity for collaboration between the two. Mary Barringer, Platter with Handhold, stoneware with multiple slips Lilith Eberle, Road Kill Armor Scrics-Squirrcl, sterling silver, nickel armature Bill Worcester runs a successful glass shop and he’s built over forty glass fur naces. In addition to hot-glass instruction, his class will cover designing and building equipment along with the economics of run ning a studio. In the iron studio, H OSS Haley will guide students through the sculptural process one step at a time. Technically, he will cover hand-forging, power hammer, hydraulic press forming, and fabrication. Metalsmith Lilith Eberle will teach a broad-based class including fabrication, forging, casting, and forming. A four-week textiles workshop will be team-taught by Carmen Grier and Kathryn Gremley. Carmen will teach dyeing, color removal, overdyeing, screen printing, and fab ric manipulation. Kathryn will cover basic and advanced gar ment construction, clothing design, hand and machine sewing, pattern drafting, and couture sewing techniques. Robert Hennessey will lead an unusual two-week photo class. Each student will each create a hand-bound book of original palladium prints made on cotton paper. Registration will begin in early April. For more informa tion on any of these classes, call Gregg Johnson, registrar, at (704) 765-2359.
Penland Line (Penland, N.C.)
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March 1, 1996, edition 1
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