Asheville and the Blue Ridge Mountains on a Misty Foggy Day

Blue Ridge Parkway 

This is not far from my mountain house and studio near Asheville.  The Blue Ridge Parkway runs along the ridge of the Blue Ridge and Smokey Mountains.  It was built by the WPA during the Depression with most of the tunnels and bridges built during that time remaining.

THE SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS FOLK ART CENTER

BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAIN PARKWAY

The Southern Highlands Center is on mile marker 382 on the Blue Ridge Parkway just minutes from downtown Asheville.  They carry a wonderful variety of arts and crafts from the Southern area of the United States.  The crafts are all handmade by skilled artisans from the area.  Many of the crafts were handed down from generation to generation.  They were originally a part of daily life, pottery for dishes and storage, weaving for clothes and rugs, carving for tools and instruments, painting and printing for decoration.  There is almost aways a artist demonstrating a craft daily at the center and on some occasions as the September festival, there are example of all the crafts of the area with hands on experiences for adults and children. The center also has a wonderful reference library where you can research art of the area, or any art you may be interested in learning.  It is a wonderful resource. If you are not from the United States and want to know more or plan a trip to the Blue Ridge, Smokey Mountain area I highly recommend it.  But if you cannot, I will post as much information as I can to let you take a virtual trip.  While I am in the mountains I will post a variety of information on the area itself, the artist, musicians and writers.  The absolute stunning natural environment influences artists in many ways in their work.  

The Original Music of the Blue Ridge Mountains

The movie "Songcatcher" is a wonderful independent film about the culture and music of the Blue Ridge and Smokey Mountains.  It takes place in the early 1900's in the North Carolina Mountains not far from my studio.  When we first moved up to Asheville I decided to collect movies, books, art, and music about the area.  Just most recently the filmed near here is the movie " The Hunger Games".  The "Last of the Mohegans" was filmed here as well.  

What is fascinating about this movie is not only the stunning beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains yet the hard life the early settlers had to endure to live here, but also the music that they brought generations ago with them from their home countries.  The music stayed in the mountain isolated from the influences of more modern music by the sheer geography of the area.  Generation passed to generation stories and songs from Victorian England ...untouched.  In the movie a music professor comes back to the mountains to capture the songs before they are lost, but the locals are an independent suspicious bunch that do not take to strangers well....it is a wonderful movie.  I highly recommend watching it.

I will include several clips from the movie highlighting mountain music.  Click on the arrow on each one of these clips to hear the music samples.  Some are mournful and sad...my Father called dirges, others are more lively.  It speaks of a hardy people who were determined to live in harsh conditions to live in the beauty of these wonderful mountains.

Textures of Asheville

Asheville sits in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was once part of the Cherokee nation, a native American Indian group of people who had a written language and a system of justice and law. Settlers arrived from Europe and moved Westward from the coast ever deeper into the continent.

The Cherokee's were displaced to the West if they were not killed to make way for the ever growing population of Colonials. There is a story called, "The Trail of Tears" that documents the mass forced evacuation of these native peoples.

The pictures here are of tobacco barns that are used for drying and storage. Cherokee people grew tobacco, as well, as the early settlers that were coming form England and Scotland. They found the Blue Ridge and Smokey Mountains similar to environment they were leaving.

The sepia tones and pattern of the drying tobacco is so beautiful to me. The lines and colors of the worn barn and evidence of an earlier time. People living in nature and close to the land.

For an artist, whether realist or not, there is so much visual variety in this area for the impetus to do art. I will post a link in the websites of interest about the Cherokee People for your interest. There crafts are remarkable as well.

I am part Cherokee. I enjoyed finding out that part of my heritage when my Mother and Aunt were doing genealogy.

Good Morning Blue Ridge Mountains!

I thought you might like a virtual trip up my mountain and to the Asheville studio. This is the deck of the house, it wraps around the front and side. The finches and hummingbirds are waiting for me to fill their feeders. The deck needs sweeping and the umbrella unfurled. The days are warm and nights cool. The crickets sing me to sleep every night. This morning I have the fireplace on to take the chill off.

This is our road. It is a gravel road and steep in parts. The summer rains work on washing it away, but it is repaired and ready for winter. Last winter my neighbors were snowed in for two weeks. Every season here is as different in contrast as the last. Now we are in transition, from summer to fall. The leaves are beginning to turn, little bits here and there. I see reds out in some kinds of trees.

The is the view from one part of my road. The mountains really do have a blue cast, hence, the name Blue Ridge. Actually we are in the areas of Blue Ridge and the Smokey Mountains. Several well know movies have been filmed in this area...one of which is the Last of the Mohigans with Daniel Day Lewis. The native Americans that were in this area, and are still a presence, are the Cherokee. I am very please to know I have some Cherokee heritage as well.

When we chose this area, we looked in two areas, one West one East of Asheville. One was a tourist area and one a family farm area. We chose the family farm area. I didn't need country clubs, and golf courses. I needed nature and the down to Earth people of the Earth. I love driving through the back roads looking at the farms and growing crops. Right now the farmers are growing lots of corn for their cows for winter. One of my favorite drives is on a road called Potato Creek, it winds and climbs up to beautiful vistas.

The Travels of Leonardo Da Vinci!

Vinci is about to take a trip, but not to Italy, he is headed for the Blue Ridge/Smokey Mountains. Vinci, Da Vinci, loves to travel. He loves the sites, sounds and smells of different places. He is a people person so he loves creating people and family along the way. The necklace he is sporting in this photo does have Renaissance feel about it, and he is a renaissance man, always looking for new ways to do things. He is planning to model the necklaces for artists and galleries in Asheville, he is quite the promoter. So get ready gang we are about to hit the road, and we are taking you all with us, virtually. No matter where you live you are about to take a trip up the South East Coast and across the state of South Carolina into the Blue Ridge Mountains! You will see the first sighting of Savanna's in Georgia, and the saw grasses that reflect the glint of the sun. You will see lake sunsets in the rural South and small towns, and you will see the first glimpse of the Blue Ridge that makes you gasp at the site and thought of the exquisite beauty of Asheville, Blue Ridge Park Way, Smokey Mountains, and the artisans and galleries along the way. I will post when I have internet capability, for we are taking this trip together. Pack you bags, its time!!