slowly she turned

It’s been a little over a week since I returned from my latest visit to John C. Campbell Folk School. This was my second class with environmental artist Bryant Holsenbeck and my first class with her co-teacher, paper sculptor Nicole Uzzell. It was one of the most exciting and fulfilling classes I have ever taken.

I have a lot of photos from the last part of this week. Most of the time I was too caught up in what I was doing to think about a camera. The photo at the top shows many of the students’ wire armatures that have been dipped in paper pulp or wrapped with paper to dry outside on a rack. The class exploded into many directions as we learned techniques and possibilities for the materials and tailored them to our personal style.

Because I have so many photos, I’m going to divide this into three posts. This first one will feature my classmates’ work, in progress and finished. Hopefully I will get their names right! If I messed up, please let me know in the comments. I have to approve comments after they come to my email, so it will be private.

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This large sculpture by Elaine Bailey was a real stunner. Her shaman wore a possum skull that she dipped in indigo dye. It combines a lot of elements other than bone – wire, wood, paper pulp, stretched paper, strings of kozo, and indigo and walnut dyes. Here’s a close-up of the head.

Geri Forkner teaches fiber sculpture classes at the Folk School. She has made one weaving a day for twenty years! She experimented with many structures and found objects that she brought to the class. I love Geri and her vision of how objects and materials can be transformed. I hope that I can take one of her classes one day.

Audrey Pinto, a fellow North Carolina book and fiber artist, made delicate forms with the lacy kozo and found wood. And holy moly, take a look at the weavings on her website: audreypintoart.com. Obviously I need to take a trip to Durham.

Jackie Mellow’s playful work with wire and wood was reflective of her personality. I enjoyed her company often at meals. I felt that we were a lot alike in many ways.

Susi Hall, a local artist, created delicate mobiles. I visited her table at a outside market at The Crown on Friday night, and she is multi-talented – makes books, sculpture, and mixed media work of all varieties. I highly recommend visiting her website: workswithpaper.com.

Julie Pazun focused on one project for the week – an angler fish from the deepest sea. I think that she plans to repaint the eyes but I thought it was perfect.

I have a lot of photos of Kathy Peters’ work. She brought these dried plants compete with roots that she pulled out of her garden. I was surprised at how tough they were. I will be looking at plants with a more curious eye as potential for art as a result.

Some photos were not selected for this post simply because the photographer didn’t get good ones! I thank my classmates for allowing me to post them.

A lot of paper sheets were also made, and because it was mainly used in sculpture or dried on windows, I don’t know whose is whose. Photos of paper sheets will be in a subsequent post.

Please see Nicole Uzzell‘s and Bryant Holsenbeck‘s websites for photos of their work.