I
ITPenland Line
Mm PENLAND school of crafts • POST OFFICE BOX T7 • PFNIAND *
PENLAND SCHOOL OF CRAFS • POST OFFICE BOX 37 • PENLAND • NORTH CAROLINA • 28765-0037 • WINTER 2003
Daph ne Bernard started life in a cradle made in a Penland
class. It may not have shaped her life, but this piece of family
history brought her to Penland thirty years later. Her story is
one that is repeated over and over every summer. When stu
dents are asked how they found out about Penland, most of
them say it was word of mouth. Often it was a family member
who passed that word, sometimes even suggesting a joint
sojourn at Penland.
In 1972 Michael Bernard, soon to be a father, was on a
plane en route to Penland when he began to imagine a cradle
that he might make in his wood class. When he arrived in the
Asheville airport he had to wait three hours for his ride. So he
pulled out a pad of graph paper and began first with a sketch
and then with detailed drawings. By the time the driver
arrived, Michael was ready to begin his project.
But the biggest surprise was yet to come. On the first day,
the class, taught by Sam Maloof and Bob Stocksdale, visited a
farm near Penland to look for wood, and there, “1 found an
affordable piece of black walnut,” he said, “lying in a pile just
like it was a piece of pine. Penland was the perfect atmosphere
for me to complete my project. Everyone was creative. Sam
and Bob gave me confidence, my graph paper forced accuracy,
and the black walnut was a great gift.”
He told Daphne about Penland and about Haystack where
he had also taken classes, and she has gone to both craft
schools. She has been working as a freelance graphic designer
but after recent Penland Concentrations in photography and
metals. Daphne has been earning part of her living from .studio
work, mostly jewelry.
Core student Celia Gray also found out about Penland as
sbe was growing up.
Her mother Peg had
taken weaving classes
in the early seventies.
“She is a schoolteacher
and hasn’t had time for
weaving.” Celia said.
“Now she is close to
retirement and has
space for new inter
ests. She came back
last summer to take
watercolor with Mollie
Favour.”
During the time
Peg was at Penland,
Celia was taking a Joshua Tepper, Margaret Berntsen, and Andrea Bcrntscn in Jront of some of
printmaking class in Margaret’s extraordinary drawingsfrom her Penland class. They all took classes at
addition to her work same time as part of their celebration of .Margaret’s eightieth birthday.
responsibilities, so they
didn’t have much time to be together. “But my mom loved her
class, was busy with field trips and enjoyed the socializing. 1
don’t sec her often, so two weeks of sporadic contact was
great.” Celia felt that the time at Penland gave her mother a lot
of information about “what my life is like and what I want it to
be like, and it was nice to sec her freshness and excitement,
especially when I was taking everything for granted.”
As for Peg, she was very enthusiastic about her class but
said, “The best part was seeing what Celia’s life was like. 1 saw
Core student Ceha Gray and her mother. Peg, in the Penland kitchen.
Penland Families
her as part of a community: a place of kindred spirits. I’ve
never been anyplace that has such wonderful people as
Penland.”
Husband and wife Jim Smith and Pam Troutman have been
coming to Penland together for a number of years. Jim is an
architect who helped with the Penland campus master plan.
One year they took a concentration class in metals and this past
summer they came twice. In
seventh session Jim took
forging and Pam was in the
outdoor seating class in the
wood studio. They were able
to collaborate on a swing for
which he forged the metal
parts.
Jim said they have a stu
dio at home and have a pas
sion for developing the
hands-on artistic side of
themselves. He feels they
may migrate in that direction
later in their lives.
“Penknd is a great place
to be,” he said. “We enjoy
being able to have it as a shared experience. It’s easier to share
it while it is happening than to have to recap it when you get
home.”
Clyde Collins, a former Penland trustee, and his wife Dot
are now retired and this year were able to fulfill a dream of tak
ing concurrent classes at Penland. Dot was in a pastel class with
Elsie Popkin while Clyde
was busy in the clay studio
learning new techniques
with Yih-Wen Kuo. Months
later they were still bub
bling with enthusiasm as
they talked about the expe
rience, especially the cama
raderie and the amazing
diversity of the student
body with “teenagers to
seniors.” There were sever
al professional potters in
Clyde’s class and he felt
that he had learned a lot
from watching them work.
Even though they went
away drained at the end of
the two weeks. Dot said “we
went away fulfilled. The inde
scribable interaction of people and all the creativity just sucks
you in.” As for Clyde, the most important thing he learned was,
“Don’t fall in love with every pot; if it doesn’t work, it’s not
the end of the world.”
Andrea Berntsen, a medical resident in psychiatry, and
Joshua Tepper, a family practice doctor, arc planning to be mar
ried. Along with everything else each brings to the relationship,
Joshua brought Penland, and it quickly became a family affair.
Consider all these ingredients: Joshua grew up spending
1
1
time visiting his grandparents Albert and Dorothy Heyman in
Penland where Albert still owns a summer home. As soon as he
was old enough he took a class, and has returned whenever he
could, studying photography and glassblowing. Andrea was
very interested in The Art of Arts St^Medicine offered first session
and knew that a good way to see Joshua during vacation was to
go along to Penland.
Andrea’s artist grandmother,
Margaret Berntsen, was turning
eighty last year. During a visit to
her grandmother, Andrea was
struck by Margaret’s comment
that she wished she could just be
off in the woods painting.
“Hearing her say that,” said
Andrea, “gave birth to the idea
of a Penland class as a part of the
celebration of Margaret
Berntsen’s eightieth year.” So the
three of them spent two weeks
together at Penland.
It was the longest continu
ous time Andrea had spent with
her grandmother. “Being there
together without the middle generation was wonderful,” she
said. “It was revealing to see her reacting to new people and
how those people gravitated to her. She thrives on relation.ships
with all ages. She has a contemporary relevance. As for Joshua,
he is happy as long as he is at Penland.”
Margaret commented that “It was heaven to paint and draw
and have all my meals taken care of. It was somewhat hard to
navigate the hills, but I used the Penland golf cart and someone
in my class drove me around. I ate my meals with Andrea and
Joshua. It was a truly great experience and when I got home I
had the same kind of letdown as you get the day after
Christmas. But the warm glow of the experience lasted for
weeks.”
Every one of the people in this story expressed enthusiasm
and appreciation for the woAc in the studios, the instructors,
and the content of the classes. But sharing the memories or the
time at Penland as it unfolded brought an added value to an
already invaluable experience. —Donna Jean Dreyer
See page 10 for a related story about two Jriends who have come to
Penland together a dozen times.
Daphne Bernard at
Penland in 2002,
wearing the T-shirt
herjather, Michael,
brought home from
Penland in 197^-
Photos hr Rohm Dreyer