Conversation Through Craft
Warren Wilson College celebrates a long history of craft. As one of the founding members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, craft has been an integral part of our creative community since the 1930s. We rekindle this partnership in this exhibition by pairing WWC students with a regional maker and member of the guild. In this collaboration, our students capture the relationship each maker has to their process and document the ways in which that has shaped their lifelong career. By blending material research, community building, and the use of curatorial practices, our students explore the question: how do objects and materials tell stories?
Artist Bios
My work is both organic and architectural, and is created from the visual fragments of a life of collecting images. I inspect facets of the world in great detail and have always collected shells, seedpods, stones and interesting organic elements. My studio often resembles a laboratory with trays of specimens lined in rows. The walls and pages of my sketchbook are covered with myriad images of our world from nano-photography of plant life to geometric illustrations of platonic solids. In designing, making and living I see a strong relevance for the smallest things within the larger context; the seed that becomes a plant, the crystal that forms a valued mineral, our planet within the universe. Understanding the foundations or building blocks of “things” is the driving force behind my inspirations. Of late I am focusing my research and design on the material at hand, metal and mineral, and have begun to explore the molecular and crystal structure of the beautiful materials I create with. Using a variety of metalsmithing techniques intended to explore the malleability of silver I am building my visual interpretations of our foundations.
I was first introduced to glassworking in 1985 when I took an elective course at Virginia Commonwealth University. I was immediately drawn to the process of transforming molten glass into solid objects. Glassworking became my permanent elective as I completed my degree in Sociology and Anthropology. Students in the course were given little instruction, a demo once a week by the professor, and twenty four hour access to the studio. Though I have taken a few workshops with skilled artists over the years, I am mostly self taught through the continued practice of experimentation and refinement. Through this circular process I have developed a variety of skills and techniques which allow me to push my own boundaries with the material, and make just about whatever I can dream up. I am in love with the process. I work in variety of different series, moving back and forth between blown and solid working to make functional and sculptural objects.
Neal Howard is a fine art weaver with over thirty years of professional experience in the transformation of raw silk fibers into skeins and swaths of dynamic color. Neal's art pieces, wearable art, and specialty yarns for knitters and weavers have the beauty and distinction that are the marks of great amounts of time, exacting attention to detail and master craftsmanship.
Neal Howard lives and works in the picturesque mountains of Western North Carolina where she is inspired by the endless colors and textures of nature. Her award winning work is exhibited at venues across the southeastern United States. Neal’s work - as part of a collaboration with Sari Srulovich and Ruth Cox - is in the permanent Judaic collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC. She is a member of numerous arts organizations, including the prestigious Southern Highland Craft Guild and Piedmont Craftsmen, Inc.
Kristin Schoonover, previously Kristin Benyo, grew up on Long Island, then attended Alfred University where she graduated in 2001 with a BFA in ceramics. Soon after graduating, she relocated to Asheville, NC where she began her pottery business in 2004. Currently, she maintains a studio in Asheville's River Arts District. Her work can be found at Clayspace Co-op in the Wedge Building.
“I am making pots for people that appreciate handmade items, people that appreciate fine craft and handiwork.”
- Kristin Schoonover
“I want to do this, I want to do it all the time. I want to do it for a living, I want to do this.” - Neal Howard
“You know, I find, especially as a jeweler, that if I say I’m a jeweler, that really takes people to all these places that aren’t at all where I am.” - Erica Stankwytch Bailey
“ When glass is hot it’s alive. You’re in a conversation and it’s arguing with you or agreeing with you.” - Mike Hatch
