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□IPenland Line
I I 11 PENLAND SCHOOL OF CRAFTS • POST OFFICE BOX 37 • PENLAND 
PENLAND SCHOOL OF CRAFTS • POST OFFICE BOX 37 • PENLAND • NORTH CAROLINA • 28765-0037 • SPRING 2001
Conversation, Contemplation, Collaboration
I believe that mid-career artists need time to experiment, to
focus on new work or a specific project, time in retreat to
read, think new thoughts, to reconsider where they are going,
and they need time in a community like ours,” says Penland
Director Jean McLaughlin, explaining the school’s new visiting
artist program. “We provide communion, fellowship, and stu
dio time away from the
Harry Reese
day-to-day routine of
their lives. They give us
the freshness of their
thinking and observa
tions. Concentrations give
us all time to have conver
sations that can flow from
one week to the next. We
have chosen very talent
ed, articulate craft artists
who we knew vvould take
full advantage of such a
privilege and gift.”
Penland has long rec
ognized the value of hav
ing artists working at the
school who are not
involved in teaching classes—the three-year resident artist
program being the most obvious example^but there have
been other models for short-term residencies which involved
artists more directly in the session at hcind.
During the sixties and seventies, summer catalogs included
“visiting scholars” who were not responsible for any particular
class. In recent years, several artists have spent time at Penland
in a similar role. Sculptor Martin Puryear spent a week in
1997: he did some woodworking, met with craft artists
involved in sculpture, and gave a lecture that electrified the
entire session. David Schorr spent two weeks that same year
producing a set of engravings and he also taught evening draw
ing classes open to everyone.
The most recent evolution of the idea is a program
which brings artists to Penland for two months to work
in one of the studios not being used for a class in the
spring or fall. The school selected artists who have been
instructors, who are well respected within their fields,
and who would be adept at discussing work and interact
ing with students and instructors.
Penland received funding for the program from the
National Endowment for the Arts and the Andy Warhol
Foundation. In addition to studio space, visiting artists
receive housing, meals, travel expenses, a materials
allowance, and a small stipend. They are required to
make presentations at Penland and at the Asheville Art
Museum and to have an open-door policy in their stu
Harry Reese, whose work encompasses letterpress print
ing, printmaking, public art projects, and teaching (he was
here on sabbatical from the University of California/Santa
Barbara), made this comment; “Any productive person knows
how to be productive. But what productive people often don’t
have is meaningful time away from their work. A vacation is
very different from going to an environment where creative
people are working, where you are not required to instruct
them or manage them, but you can interact with them.”
“On my resume, I will jot down that I made a few public
presentations and produced a portfolio of prints. But what I
accomplished here was to meet people I hadn’t met
before, to develop friendships that will last some
time, and to give me a chance to think about some of
the things I haven’t been doing during the busy time
of the past few years. I don’t know how others will,
take this opportunity, but for me it was a time to
reassess what I’m doing and how I’m doing it.”
Photographer Ann Hawthorne, known for her
extensive documentation of Antarctica, her many
journalistic assignments, and her invaluable contribu
tions to Penland’s publications, echoed this idea:
“What happened here that mattered to me was the
quiet in my head to think and to reflect and to
review—to be in my life and at the same time stand
back a little bit from it and evaluate—to look and see
what paths there were that maybe I was walking too
fast to pay attention to.”
In addition to these internal processes, they were
each involved in more visible work. Harry developed a
suite of prints using a monotype process which he patiently
explained and demonstrated to any number of visitors.
Ann Hawthorne made a great gift to the community by
collaborating with Program Director Dana Moore on a project
which created dozens of portraits of community members
with their pets (see page 6). Although this involved a consider
able amount of time, the bulk of her stay was spent reviewing
and cataloging nega
Christina Shmigel
Ann Hawthorne
tives and slides which
span a number of
years—a personal
editorial process.
“Working as a
professional photogra
pher on assignment, I
come back with thou
sands of images, I edit
through them and get
the client what they
need...But what I’m
really working on is
dios.The only other requirement is that they be actively engaged
in their work.
The initial phase of the program will include twelve artists.
The first two were Harry Reese and Ann Hawthorne in the
fall. The third was Christina Shmigel this spring. While each of
these artists used the time differently, the unifying theme was
that Penland gave them an opportunity to reflect and to make
connections.
what I need, and that’s often not what goes to the clients, so
then I’m sitting there with thousands of slides that 1 need to go
through as my own, and that’s a lot of what I did here.”
Harry and Ann also engaged in dozens of conversations
with students and instructors about their work, their lives, and
issues of artistic and professional practice. “Sometimes it’s use
ful to have an observer or some person around who isn’t part
of things,” said Harry. “Sometimes that person can help even if
their observ'ations are not media specific, in fact that may be
more valuable in some ways.” Ann and Harry also connected
strongly with each other as colleagues and both of them spoke of
this as an unexpected and lasting benefit of their time at Penland.
At the end of the fall session, they made a number of sug
gestions about how the program could be enhanced. Among
other things, they saw a potential for interaction between visit
ing artists and the Penland core student program.
As it happened, Christina Shmigel wanted to use some of
her time in exactly this way. Christina was a resident artist in
1993-1994 and had observed the core program closely. “Core
students come under a sequence of
strong influences during their two
years here,” she said. “I thought it
would be useful to them to have a
conversation over a period of time
with someone outside the pro
gram—a conversation that would
help them develop an overview, an
idea about their own work.”
During her two months at
Penland, she met weekly with a group
of core students and engaged them in
a series of exercises which she devel
oped for her students at Webster
University in St. Louis. “These exer
cises are designed to bring attention
to bear on choices, which are some
times unconscious, that give one’s
work its identity.”
Christina’s own work is primarily steel sculpture drawing
on the forms of industrial and agricultural architecture.
Summing up her two months at Penland she laughed and said
that she hadn’t done any of the work she had planned to do.
“The work I had planned was work I could have done at home.
When 1 got here, everything else became more interesting.”
Everything else, in her case, was many hours spent writing;
the luxury of time to pay attention to the landscape, the weath
er, and the light; interactions with students, instructors, and
local artists; and the possibilities ?or collaborative work.
“Collaborations became an important part of my time
here,” she said. For example, she and Tom Spleth worked from a
mutual interest in industrial structures to create a series of
ceramic and steel vessels based on those forms—exciting new
work which she could not have done at home.
“This is an interesting residency,” she commented, “because
it doesn’t involve a proposal. You are allowed to let the time
suggest what you want to do.”
Like Ann and Harry, Christina found that one of the most
valuable parts of the program was personal connections. “I actu
ally feel more strongly that I’m part of a network here than I do
in St. Louis. It’s what pulls me back—all these amazing connec
tions. I find I think of Penland as one endless conversation.”
—Robin Dreyer
The other artists who are currently scheduled to participate in the pro
gram are photographer Deborah Luster, metal and ceramic artist Sue
Roberts, ceramic sculptor Arthur Gonzalez, blacksmith Peter Joseph,
and paper sculptor Therese Zemlin. Upcoming Penland Lines will
include information about these artists and their residencies.
Photos by Robtn Dreyer