Asheville Gallery Hopping

My husband Vic and I spent a couple of nights at an Asheville B&B last week and two days of visiting galleries...Blue Spiral, Haen, Bender (the most luscious glass pieces ever), and the Grovewood Gallery near the Grove Park Inn.  It was an inspirational trip in every way.  I saw great jewelry designs, glass, sculpture, painting; it was my kind of playpen.  Though I'm generally not a huge fan of landscapes, I was taken with those of Lynn Boggess, whose work made landscape painting fresh and new for me.  

When I got home, I learned that my first encaustic collage sold at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts, my co-op gallery.  Given that I, like a lot of artists, am  mortally insecure about my work, it was affirming and is goading me to launch into new work.  I just bought and watched video by Daniella Wolf on all aspects of encaustic art, so now I'm thoroughly primed.  But that doesn't mean I'm not also on fire about doing jewelry.  They will both have to coexist and one may inform and inspire the other, which is the best of all possible worlds. 

Tomorrow night is the opening of FRANK'S "BEE" show, so I'll be there to mingle and see how folks approach my work.  I entered a pendant with a fine silver bee sitting on honeycomb inside a hatbox shaped shadow box and it sold even before the show opening.  I also have an abstract encaustic collage in the show, which qualifies, because it's made of beeswax.