434 | Summer 2021

All about town.

SUMMER 2021

A VISIT TO TRUTH FARM | GET TO KNOW MATT EICH | DO ME A FLAVOR, WILL YA?

GO YOUR OWN WAY FOR THEIR SECOND ACT, THESE FIVE PEOPLE ANSWERED AN IMPOSSIBLE QUESTION: "WHAT IF?" 1 ABODE

UNPACK UNPACKYOUR YOURBAGS BAGSIN INAN ANINSPIRED INSPIREDSPACE SPACE Quirk Hotel encourages curiosity for the unique, inspiring and Quirk Hotel encourages curiosity for the unique, inspiring and beautiful. A momentous tribute to the art, culture and history that beautiful. A momentous tribute to the art, culture and history that makes each stay everything but usual. Quirk Hotel is the first boutique makes each stay everything but usual. Quirk Hotel is the first boutique art hotel to be established in Charlottesville’s historic downtown. art hotel to be established in Charlottesville’s historic downtown.

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Table of Contents

Metro 8 8 Cover me

Cozy beach wraps with an artistic twist.

8 Listen up

Redwing Roots packs in the local sounds.

11 Bigger bites

Alicia Walsh-Noel is hungry for opportunity.

11 Little monsters

IX’s creative camps for kids.

Front & Center 13 13 DIY domain

Matt Eich on self-publishing and brunch.

15 No lie

Truth Farm tells it like it is.

17 OOTD

@cvillefashion’s seasonal snaps.

19 Pins and needles

Lisa Woolfork’s “Stitch Please.”

21 Stamping ground

Journey Group’s traveling art.

EZE AMOS

Feature 22 What happens when you give it all up for a dream? That was the unknown for these five folks—a firefighter, counselor, retailer, songwriter, and yoga instructor—who took a leap of faith from one career to another. It wasn’t easy to pivot but, as they’re each learning, sometimes the grass really is greener on the other side.

FOR A GOOD DAY, CALL... Eboni Bugg. Page 30 On the cover: Lora Kelley’s winding path to stardom. Photo: Amy Nicole Photography

434, a supplement to C-VILLE Weekly, is distributed in Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and the Shenandoah Valley. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. 434 Editor Caite Hamilton. Copy Editor Susan Sorensen.

308 E. Main St. Charlottesville, VA 22902 (434) 817-2749 n c-ville.com c-ville.com/434

Designer Tracy Federico.

Art Director Max March. Graphic

Account Executives Chloe Heimer, Lisa C. Hurdle, Gabby Kirk, Stephanie Vogtman,

Beth Wood. Production Coordinator Faith Gibson.

Publisher Anna Harrison. Chief Financial Officer

Debbie Miller. A/R Specialist Nanci Winter. Circulation Manager Billy Dempsey. ©2021 C-VILLE Weekly.

434 5

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Metro

R E TAI L T HERAPY

Summer COVERS AS THE SAYING goes, necessity is the mother of invention. And when mom (and artist) Sarah Klein got tired of her kids dragging their wet towels through the house, she came up with an attractive solution.

“She put some of her art on an organic pea gauze that dries quickly and doesn’t track sand,” says her cousin (and company co-owner), Jill Grant. Sarah Klein Santa Cruz (Klein lives in California, while Grant is based in Charlottesville) was founded shortly after, once friends started to catch on.

The cousins work together to produce everything from beach cover-ups to tea towels to baby blankets, all with Klein’s original artwork and their signature laid-back California style.

“Sarah’s art is distinctive because she doesn’t turn her subjects into a caricature,” Grant says. “People tend to buy the art first and the product second.”

See something you like from a few seasons ago? That’s okay, Grant says.

They keep the design side of the business “very organic.” The production team—made up of UVA and St. Anne’s-Belfield interns—can make any pattern in the company lookbooks to order at no extra charge.

“Our goal is to always find the right products to showcase the art and create a quality product,” Grant says.” Shop the merch at sarahkleincreative.com.

SUPPLIED PHOTO

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Erin Lunsford is among the musicians who are on the bill at the Red Wings Roots Festival.

The Clock TheBulova Bulova Clock LI ST EN I N

Giving us WINGS WITH A LINEUP that includes Erin Lunsford, Ragged Mountain String Band, The Steel Wheels, and then some, Red Wing Roots Festival hasn’t skipped a beat, despite limitations from COVID. Held July 9, 10, and 11, the Mt. Solon event encourages camping at nearby Chimney Ridge or Natural Chimneys. BYO tent or, better yet, get glamping with Red Wing’s upgrade option. Find more info and ticket prices at redwingroots.com.

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Metro F O O D I E F I ND

Now SERVING ALICIA WALSH-NOEL IS no stranger to a career pivot. Seven years ago, she left her cubicle job to start as a busser at Zocalo. And in 2018, while working at Brasserie Saison, she approached Will Richey with an offer to run the marketing for his restaurant group.

“My background is a potpourri of photography, communications, and food and beverage,” she says. “But more importantly, I have a background in being scrappy AF.” Richey said yes, and in June 2019, after the birth of her son and increasing requests to take more clients, Walsh-Noel launched Do Me A Flavor, a local food-focused marketing agency. We asked her to tell us more about her restaurant cred and what local menus she’s pouring over—in and out of the office.

434: You’ve been in the local restaurant scene for a while, yeah?

Alicia Walsh-Noel: Seven years ago, I decided to quit my cubicle job and started as a busser at Zocalo. I mean, technically my first restaurant job was at my dad’s café where I worked the toast station as a 7-year-old. I have had the privilege of being a part of several notable projects including helping to open Kardinal Hall and serving as their marketing director, cooking with my husband, Jon Bray, for his Filipino pop-ups, and opening Brasserie Saison (from a construction site to a 14-services-per-week restaurant) as operations manager.

What types of services does Do Me A Flavor provide?

Web design, photography, videography, copywriting, PR, graphic design, print production, social media marketing, email marketing, high-fives.

Who are some clients you’ve worked with so far?

Wilson Richey was my first client. When I pitched the idea of running marketing for his group, Ten Course Hospitality, he said yes before I could finish my first sentence. I also work with F&B Restaurant Management, whose family members are Ivy Provisions, Shadwell’s, and Fry’s Spring Station. This year, we collaborated with both Crozet Pizzas and The Dairy Market on several projects. We’ve been experimenting with retail lately as well, throwing around ideas for independently owned grocery stores or specialty food shops.

JOHN ROBINSON

What do you like to eat in Charlottesville?

Kimchi pancakes from Mamabird Farm, all of the food at Basan (especially whatever wild specials they are slinging for the weekend), plate lunch from Mochiko, C&O. I just told my husband that I wished there could be a gypsy jazz and late-night menu there, but earlier for parents who used to party. And Jon Bray’s mom’s house.

F OR K IDS

Creatures FEATURED Well this is cool: IX Art Park is hosting a series of one-week intensive camps in July for kids ages 6 to 12—and they’re each creature-based, meaning campers will explore mythical zoology, celebrate tadpoles, and fashion their own beasts from beyond. ixartpark.org

434 11

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Thibaut-Janisson was born from a long friendship that began in a Grand Cru village in the Champagne region of France and continues today in Blue Ridge Mountains of Charlottesville, Virginia.

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WHAT TO SEE, WHERE TO GO, WHO' S IN THE SPOTLIGHT

FRONT & CENTER Local photojournalist uses self-publishing to give art longer life

By Shea Gibbs

TRISTAN WILLIAMS

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

Point, click, BIND 434 13

Front & Center

aged me to slam something together and put it out to get out of my funk and depression. It was called Does Anyone Dare Despise This Day of Small Beginnings, and was a collection of my favorite photos from the year before. I sold enough of them to break even on the printing costs and sent the remaining copies to editors and magazines and curators that could support my career to come. The response was good.

SUPPLIED PHOTO

Where did you go from there?

For the last two years I’ve been trying to put out these semi-regular zines called Seasonal Blues. They are collections of pictures from day one of a season to the last day. Those are the only rules. It’s a nod to our frequent hills and valleys and also blues music. Each one opens with a poem and unfolds into poetic visual correlations.

M

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

att Eich wanted a way to make photography less disposable.

A Charlottesvillebased photojournalist and photography professor at George Washington University, Eich has published extensively in the New York Times, The Atlantic, and Time. But he long ago became disillusioned with the short shelf life of photographs as an art form. He established Little Oak Press in response and has since published almost a dozen photography books and zines.

Eich recently spoke to 434 about his work, self-publishing, and brunch.

434: What’s that terrible noise?

Matt Eich: I apologize for the noise. I’m scrambling some eggs. I was born in Richmond and raised in southeast Virginia. I studied photojournalism at Ohio University and started self-publishing portfolios and projects. Those were the analog days. Then we transitioned to digital, and that wasn’t ideal. So photo books have always been a big inspiration.

14 434

How did you get into self-publishing?

In photojournalism, a photographer might spend weeks, months, even years to have an image go to print one day and be lining the litter basket the next day. A lot of us talk about putting sustainable work in the world that has some longevity and shelf life. A lot of us make photos because we want them to outlast and outlive us. But the internet is this black hole for images.

So publishing your own books was the answer.

Books are the ideal form. But they are expensive to make, and there’s really no way to make a profit. In 2010 I did a limited series book called Carry Me Ohio—100 copies through a publisher.

There’s a certain process to making a monograph with a publisher. It’s costly and tedious, and I came up in the punk music scene where zines were a part of the culture. Jump to early 2019: I had been freelancing since 2005 and started teaching in 2017 to stabilize things.

I’m an avid book collector and was experiencing this drought in work. I was talking to a buddy in D.C., and he encour-

↑

Pages from Seasonal Blues Vol. VII.

Have you continued to publish in the media?

Yes, but commissions are a double-edged thing. They can open up opportunities, but there are the limitations of time and editors’ expectations. Commission work has grown more and more complicated, and the industry has been deeply affected by the pandemic. It’s not an easy industry, and it is kind of ironic I am teaching photography and photojournalism at an institution. I’m transparent and honest with my students in a way that my professors probably weren’t. Most of them had been out of the industry as long as I’ve now been in the industry.

Matt’s faves What I’m reading: I’ve been reading mostly poetry of late, including Terrance Hayes, Tim Seibles, Molly McCully Brown, and Charles Wright.

What I’m listening to: A variety of things. Recently I’ve been enjoying songs by Danika Jones, Gregory Alan Isakov, Sylvan Esso, Mulatu Astatke, and Julia Stone.

What I’m watching: We’ve been plowing through too much TV over the past year. My kids are watching lots of baking shows. My wife and I rarely have the energy to watch anything by the time we get the kids in bed.

What I’m eating: We’ve been learning how to make omelets on the weekends. Our family favorite for takeout is Tacos Gomez.

What I’m buying: Too many photo books (always), pourover coffee supplies (from Vessel Craft Coffee and George Howell Coffee), and photographic materials.

Truth, be TOLD Local art installation organizers want patrons to engage the difficult questions. By Shea Gibbs

EZE AMOS

T

he folks behind the art installation known as the Truth Farm want everyone to know the truth about immigration.

But what is the truth? And could there be more than one?

Unveiled on Refugee Investment Network founder and managing director John Kluge’s family property within the Trump Winery, the Truth Farm installation first centered around a 120-foot sign spelling out “TRUTH” in mylar. Aid workers often give mylar blankets to refugees seeking asylum, and artist Ana Teresa Fernandez used the material to draw attention to wider immigration issues— namely, that worldwide systemic problems beyond people’s control drive them to flee their countries for safety.

The artist’s Truth Table is surrounded by chairs, places where those with different opinions might come to sit, literally break bread, engage, and talk through complex immigration issues.

“When people become entrenched in their ideas, they pull a sound bite or barrage of sound bites that they have been spoonfed, and that becomes their understanding of an issue,” Kluge says. “When people harden their views, they lose their curiosity. You have to be curious to understand issues. Truth requires some inquiry and listening to others.”

Kluge is not an artist, he says, or even a professional curator. But he thought art might kindle at least some people’s curiosity. A U.S.-Mexico Foundation board member, Kluge conceived the Truth Farm project along with the group’s deputy director, Enrique Perret, and Fernandez. Fernandez had previously worked with mylar and thought it fit the Farm perfectly.

The installation grew from there. In addition to the Truth Table, the Truth Farm artwork includes a working adobe

oven built by artist Ron Rael and portraits by undocumented dreamer Arleene Correa Valencia. Valencia’s pieces depict migrant parents and their children against black backgrounds. A friend of Fernandez’s and a professional artist herself, Valencia composes the parents using reflective material and fabric repurposed from her own family’s clothing.

She etches the children in glow-in-thedark thread, implying them only by an empty background.

“When you mix the two, you are seeing a full, embodied parent holding the idea of a child,” Valencia says. “The portraits start to create a conversation about separation and the layers that occur through immigration.”

The Truth Farm artwork itself has now begun a migration. Some of Valencia’s work is currently featured at the Instituto Cultural de México in Miami and will next travel to Wisconsin. Federico Cuatlacuatl’s Truth Farm contribution, sculptures in the shape of traditional Mexican kites, has moved to a museum in Toledo. The Truth Farm organizers hope to take Rael’s ovens on the road to host dinners over the next

↑ The Truth Farm installation, created to draw attention to immigration issues, was initially centered around a 120-foot sign made from mylar blankets, which are often given to refugees.

several months, while the Truth Table itself has traveled to Champion Brewing Company and the IX Art Park.

Kluge, Valencia, and Fernandez hope the art’s impact extends even further.

They are planning another physical installation in Napa Valley, California.

While they positioned the first piece next to a Trump property to draw the former president’s attention, the work of pushing folks to talk through immigration issues continues, even as a new commander-in-chief has taken office.

“I think that one of the really interesting things that has been occurring is the shift in all the information coming out after what happened on January 6 at the Capitol,” Fernandez says, referring to this year’s armed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. “There has been a lot of reconciliation with the facts, but all of this rhetoric is still permeating. It is still a tug of war with this word [truth], and with John being Trump’s neighbor, we enacted everything we want to see good neighbors doing—cooking together and bringing people to the table, being inclusive not exclusive.”

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A very Southern summer Collards, fried chicken, mac ‘n’ cheese, and, yes, biscuits—our summer menu is heating up

Say “mmm.”

When it comes to area eats, we let our cravings guide us. And in this quarterly magazine, you’ll find everything from a stack of pancakes to a plate of filet mignon. Each issue of Knife & Fork introduces readers to chefs, food trends, recipes, and, most importantly, the best meals around.

ON STANDS SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER

16 434

Front & Center @cvillefashion

CHARLOTTESVILLE street style Ebe LAKRAD AGE: 40

OCCUPATION: Artist, leather craftsman (ebeleather.com), and full-time recycler

@CVILLEFASHION

“What I wear represents my own culture, people I meet, and places I go. I meet artists and recyclers like me from around the world—I go look for them. Some I speak their languages and most I don’t, so I try to transform their energies into something visible. Whether it’s a large city like Marrakesh, Paris, Amsterdam, or Istanbul, or a tiny village in nowhere, our mission is to make (through clothes, and craft, and beauty) mainly international energy.”

Aimee SEU AGE: 27

@CVILLEFASHION

THE LOOK: Flea market finds (“Flea markets are my paradise and the source of my pure happiness.”)

OCCUPATION: Author and poet

THE LOOK: Gifted overalls, thrifted T-shirt, Ada Chen earrings, Muccha painting pendant from a roadside flea market

AGE: 29

OCCUPATION: Photographer and owner of Folkling, a vintage shop in Gordonsville

THE LOOK: Handmade (by Leney) dress from a 1920s quilt topper, 1950s hunting jacket, her mom’s bandana, vintage feedsackturned-tote bag, Hunter boots

“I dress entirely from a secondhand/handmade wardrobe and believe strongly in the ethics surrounding those decisions in regards to our fast, fashion-normalized society. I also dress largely out of nostalgia. Most of my clothing has a lot of sentimentality tied up in it. Apart from that, I often push against the societal expectation that I have to dress a particular way, or in a particular style. I enjoy wearing a mixture of men’s and women’s clothing just because I enjoy the various dichotomies of different articles of clothing. Most often you can find me in a pair of old jeans, ragged T-shirt, well-worn boots, and one of my many felt hats.”

@CVILLEFASHION

“I’m half Korean, one-fourth Native American, and one-fourth French-Canadian, so I’ve never felt able to easily fit in or blend into the crowd; maybe I leaned into that feeling of alienation and hodgepodge-ness in my clothing choices because I rarely ever ‘match’ in a traditional way. In addition to my racial background, as a pansexual person, my clothes and I exist at another crux: the extremes of masculine and feminine. I love combining things that feel dirty or grungy or tough with something very soft and femme.”

Leney BREEDEN

La’Tasha STROTHER AGE: 36

OCCUPATION: Author of Tripod Manifesto and

professional nanny

@CVILLEFASHION

THE LOOK: Heels from Marshall’s, secondhand handmade dress, gifted earrings

“These clothes disclose my testimony. These heels tell of where I have been, and they stand in hopes of where I am going. These heels are not ashamed of their melanin nor am I. This dress addresses my desire to flow like water. It testifies that I am not afraid to be seen or to be covered.”

Charlottesville Street Style is a collaboration between 434 and Playground of Empathy, a local team that transforms organizational cultures to be more inclusive through immersive POV technology that celebrates expression through clothing and identity. Follow @cvillefashion on Instagram.

434 17

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Stitching TOGETHER Local podcast sews up more than 100k downloads.

By Erika Howsare

L

isa Woolfork had been sewing for years when she came to a realization—or, rather, a resolution. “I would never again trade my humanity in exchange for doing something I love,” she says. As a Black sewist, she had too often found herself in a compromising position: trying to participate in white-dominated sewing communities, but unable to “show up as my full, complete, and whole self,” as she puts it.

It was fall 2017, and Woolfork had recently had the harrowing experience of being on the ground for the deadly events of August 11 and 12 in Charlottesville.

She’d been nearby when Heather Heyer died. But when she arrived at a sewing event in a different Virginia town, she wasn’t intending to discuss those things with the other, mostly white and conservative, participants.

“When I got there, people started asking me how I was, asking what it was like,” she remembers. “I would just answer, and say ‘yeah, it was hard, it was scary.’ I did not walk in to give lectures or speeches or anything. I just wanted to sew my project.”

Nonetheless, these conversations got her uninvited to the group’s next event.

Woolfork realized that her presence was only accepted in this setting if she remained within very narrow boundaries.

A friend told her, “‘This is what happens to Black folks when we go from being a pet to being a threat.’”

Woolfork, a professor of English at UVA, decided that she was done playing the role of minority in her creative life.

Instead, she would create a new community in which Black makers stood at the center. In 2018, she began using Instagram to organize Black Women Stitch— “the sewing group where Black lives matter,” as she defines it. “Our intention is not to diversify the sewing community,” she says. “The advocacy is to create instead a

space where Black women, girls, and femmes are centered in sewing.”

BWS gathered steam over the space of about a year, as Woolfork connected online with other Black women who wanted to talk sewing without leaving their identities or politics at the door. “I was looking for other Black women who had values similar to mine, including things like radical self-love, interest in Black liberation, and interest in racial justice,” Woolfork says.

The next big step was to organize an in-person event in early 2019: Beach Week, a week of sewing and togetherness in the Outer Banks. About a dozen people came, from as far as Texas and California.

“We all came looking for the same thing: a sewing sisterhood,” Woolfork says.

They found a profound fellowship—“A friend described it as lightning in a bottle,” says Woolfork—and they emerged with another idea, too: a podcast. Woolfork uploaded the first episode of “Stitch Please” in September 2019. She conceived of it as a space to talk about sewing craft, Black women makers, and social justice, all at once. “There are podcasts about racial justice, womanism, feminism, all of these important practices for freedom and liberation and building a better society,” Woolfork says. “Then there’s podcasts that talk about sewing techniques, sewing celebrities, patterns, fabrics, all of these things. My podcast is the only one that is able to do both.”

Anyone who doubts that these topics belong in the same conversation might start to understand after listening to an episode or two. In one show, Woolfork discusses a controversy that arose within the general sewing community in January 2020 when the National Quilt Museum’s Block of the Month program included a free quilt block pattern that showed a pencil erasing the letters “in-” from the word “injustice.” A number of club members complained about this design, refused to participate, or altered the design with words like “Peace” or a picture of Mickey Mouse. As Woolfork puts it on the show, “It’s a revelation of the white fragility and racism that is prevalent in the sewing community.”

The mix of topics on “Stitch Please” has turned out to be a very potent brew.

In one year, the podcast has seen an 1,100 percent growth in its audience, with 110,000 downloads representing 95

SUPPLIED PHOTO

Front & Center

countries. Tobiah Mundt, also a Black maker and the co-owner of The Hive Cville, says she attributes that success to Woolfork’s authenticity. “She’s so real and she’s just herself,” Mundt says. “She’s not trying to be anything but Lisa, and she inspires us to have the courage to be ourselves and to live unapologetically.”

Shana Jefferson, a listener and occasional podcast guest who also attended the BWS Beach Week, agrees. “She’s uncompromising,” she says. “She’s been approached to have different sponsors or partnerships, and she takes very deliberate intentional time to think through those. If you’re not there to support Black women, girls, and femmes, she has no problem saying no.”

Woolfork says that sewing—an art she’s practiced for 25 years, and traces back through generations of women in her family—is a metaphor for community building. “This was an ancestral craft for African Americans,” she says. “[Community organizing] is a similar energy of transforming and creating and pulling together and binding.”

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Lisa Woolfork is the producer of “Stitch Please,” a weekly podcast that explores sewing and social justice.

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Front & Center

Post MODERN The Journey Group’s Greg Breeding makes art worth writing home about

By Nathan Alderman

BRIANNA LAROCCA

BRIANNA LAROCCA

G

reg Breeding’s art has sold hundreds of thousands of copies, easily. It’s traveled across the entire country.

You might even have some in your house. But you might not know it—because Breeding’s art is approximately one square inch.

Breeding, president, co-founder, and product studio director for Charlottesville’s The Journey Group, designs postage stamps. Since 2013, he’s served as one of four art directors contracted to the U.S. Postal Service, honoring everything from stage magic and dragons to Jimi Hendrix and Batman.

“The opportunity to design a stamp is on most every graphic designer’s bucket list,” Breeding says. “We like to say that they are ‘miniature works of art.’”

Art directors supervise every aspect of a stamp’s design. Sometimes, Breeding secures image rights, selects artwork, and arranges type to create the stamp himself. For other assignments, he figures out what look the stamp needs, finds the right artist to collaborate with, and helps them create the final images.

“Even when we commission artists, we are still melding the original art into the stamp format with special consideration to typography, color, cropping, and how it all comes together,” Breeding says. He and his artistic collaborators often toil on a stamp for a year or two to meet the USPS’s demanding standards.

Getting artists comfortable with such a tiny canvas can be a challenge, Breeding says. But the small size, he says, “encourages us to explore new ways of creating innovative design while also being visually accessible to the public.”

Breeding grew up in Bristol, Virginia, cultivating a love of art alongside his dad, who painted for fun. While studying at what’s now VCUArts in Richmond, Breeding kindled a passion for Swiss

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Getting to design "Batman" stamps in 2014 ranked especially high on Greg Breeding's list of achievements.

modernist design that continues today in his annual vacations to Switzerland.

(He also loved the “Batman” TV show as a kid; getting to design those stamps in 2014 to honor the character’s 75th birthday, he says, registered an 11 on an excitement scale of 1 to 10.)

The past few years haven’t been kind to the postal service, and Breeding says stamp design can only do so much to help: “While it’s true that postage stamps have high visibility to the public, the related revenue isn’t significant to the bigger issues.”

But Breeding’s doing his part, both artistically and commercially. Since he started designing stamps, “I make it a part of my business life to write more postcards and notecards, especially to thank our colleagues and clients,” he says. “I have come to deeply appreciate a handwritten note.”

“The opportunity to design a stamp is on most every graphic designer’s bucket list. We like to say that they are ‘miniature works of art.’” GREG BREEDING 434 21

forced so many to change their worklife. For some, it was working from home and Zoom

CHANCE

What happens when you

give up your life’s work and go in a new direction?

By Shea Gibbs

meetings. For others, it was losing a beloved job and seeking employment elsewhere, or even in a new field altogether.

Then there are those among

us who have taken on daring career pivots willingly. Those who have thrown caution to the workforce wind and charted a new course in life.

The following is a look at five

folks who’ve forsaken longtime careers for new professional paths. Whether motivated by industry pressures, new perspectives, or milestone events, the pivoters all made opportunity out of change.

“The biggest thing I would

say is people shouldn’t be afraid to pivot, especially this day and age,” says Justin Ide, who jumped helmet-long into firefighting five years ago after more than two decades working as a full-time photographer. “If you’re unhappy, just do it.”

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AMY NICOLE PHOTOGRAPHY

PIVOT A

The COVID-19 pandemic

“I want a song that makes me feel really good about the present moment I am living in instead of pining for something else.”

Sing it on

Lora Kelley now knows what she wants.

During the 18 years she spent working as a full-time hair and makeup artist, it was in the back of her mind. And when she and her husband, local photographer Eric Kelley, founded Grit Coffee (formerly Para Coffee) in 2008, it was in the back of her mind then, too.

“I want to write songs for other people and with other people that tell a truer story,” Kelley says.

In 2017, Kelley took a sabbatical from hair and makeup—doing other people’s, that is. Along with focusing on her music career, she needed a source of income to keep her on key. Enter trauma-informed story coaching. According to Kelley, the process involves understanding what your story is and working to become the person you want to be. To write herself into story life coaching, Kelley earned certification from The Allender Center at the Seattle School of Psychology and Theology.

Music, however, remained her passion.

In 2015, Kelley released her first EP (a record including more than a single but less than a full album), titled Dusty Wheels, and a second self-titled EP in 2018. Now, she’s eyeing June 10 to release her first full-length record, a pop-county and Americana hybrid titled Domystique.

Kelley, who has three kids, cites Patty Griffin, Lori McKenna, Natalie Merchant, Joni Mitchell, John Prine, and Brandi Carlile as influences. Her style sometimes calls to mind Taylor Swift’s country catalog, but Kelley hopes her songs provide a perspective popular music often misses.

“I am not falling in love and breaking up, and I’m not going out drinking on the weekends—there’s not a lot of heartbreak,” she says. “When I’m cooking food for my kids in the kitchen, I want a song that makes me feel really good about the present moment I am living in instead of pining for something else.”

So, how does one become a sought-after songwriter working for and alongside the best in Nashville? Kelley knows she has dues to pay. She figures she’ll have to keep writing songs—many of them bound to be not-so-great—and getting better.

“I’m still learning how to write them. I think my best songs are still to come,” she says.

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“I stepped out on faith and said, ‘Lord, if PIVO

this is where you want me to go, I’ll go.’”

HAN JOHN ROBINSON

C

CE

T A

In the Navy no more

Sherrod Fisher saw a lot as a 21-year Navyman. He did six deployments, three in the West Pacific and three in the Mediterranean. He was in the Middle East when Saddam Hussein was deposed as Iraqi dictator in 2003. He sailed the Suez Canal. He supplied munitions for the United States’ “shock and awe” campaign during the Gulf War. He met Tom Cruise.

“I was an armament guy, aircraft armament, F-14s,” Fisher says, referencing the fighter jet featured in Cruise’s 1986 film Top Gun. “They were in [Naval Air Station] Miramar. It was something interesting.”

Fisher had seen enough after he’d served his time, though, and in 2010 he retired from the Navy. While simultaneously going through a tough divorce, he decided to go to college on the advice of a former lieutenant.

He enrolled at South University in Richmond and took a few psychology classes. It might be a calling, he thought. In the Navy, he’d always been the guy people came to to talk about stuff, and he was a good listener.

Fisher completed his bachelor’s degree in 2013, about the same time his oldest daughter graduated from the University of Virginia. He visited her in Charlottesville at the end of the semester and sat in on a psych class. It further inspired him, and he decided to pursue a master’s in mental health psychology, also at South University.

He completed the degree in 2016. “Those were grueling years,” Fisher says.

He landed an internship in Richmond when he graduated, but found himself jobless for several months in 2018.

“I am a praying man, and that was my time to get prepared for the next step,” Fisher says. “I stepped out on faith and said, ‘Lord, if this is where you want me to go, I’ll go.’”

Fisher put in an application with the Region Ten Community Services Board and has been an outpatient clinician working with children and families ever since.

Along his journey from longtime soldier to civilian, Fisher remarried his wife in 2014. It was another significant pivot for a man accustomed to taking them on.

“When I retired and divorced in the same year, that was pretty traumatic,” Fisher says. “But there was a silver lining to all of that. It was like the beginning.”

434 25

Out of the vault

going back on the road for pop-ups and traveling sales and consultation.

In 2018, while six-weeks pregnant, Napier and her husband were involved in a bad car accident. “I was not able to do pop-up shops at all in 2018,” Napier says.

“That was a tough year.”

She got back on her feet in 2019, and changed her business model again to focus on online sales and fashion consultations out of her home. She launched virtual styling sessions. The business model, along with several successful grant and loan applications, turned out to be one that would help her fight through the economic hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was very tight for our last year, and it’s been a lot of sacrifice,” Napier says. “It’s been a learning curve, but when you are an entrepreneur, there’s always going to be something.”

TRISTAN WILLIAMS

Crystal Napier had enjoyed a steady, nearly 10-year career in banking when she started work on her master’s in business administration. She completed the degree in 2013 and continued on in her career. The MBA could only improve her prospects as she climbed the banking ladder, and her future was bright.

But in 2014, she lost her steady job, and went straight to work trying to find a new banking gig. A grad school project had stuck with her: While working toward her MBA, she’d created a business plan for a fashion boutique and personal styling agency. Her husband suggested she stop the job search and pursue her passion.

“I just didn’t realize it was a sign for me to start,” Napier says. “Once I did, I just got out there.”

Napier leveraged a severance package from her previous job, personal funds, revenue from a rental property, her husband’s income, and belt-tightening to make ends meet while she struck out on her own way.

Her goal? Help women—regardless of body type—dress themselves professionally and confidently without spending a fortune.

Napier launched Renee’s Boutique with a Facebook page in 2014 and a website in 2015. She traveled around Charlottesville and eventually up and down the East Coast, working directly with clients and hosting pop-up retail events. By mid-2015, she had enjoyed enough success to open a brick-and-mortar location on Water Street.

The storefront stood for more than a year, but Napier pivoted again in late 2016,

HAN

EZE AMOS

C

26 434

T A

CE

PIVO

Flexibility is key

“Everyone knew what my arm looked like, and I didn’t have to hide it. That led to learning cool ways my body could adapt.”

Allie Redshaw didn’t wait long to get back in the kitchen after a workplace accident took her hand in March 2017. But things weren’t the same. After an accomplished career as a chef, she was frustrated by not being able to take 100 percent ownership of her plates from start to finish.

Then, a culinary schoolmate and friend nudged Redshaw into what would become her new career.

She gifted Redshaw a year of classes at Hot Yoga Charlottesville, where Redshaw says she was welcomed completely.

“I was in a fragile place,” Redshaw says. “But even if I wasn’t in a class, I loved being in the community and with the people. Everyone knew what my arm looked like, and I didn’t have to hide it. That led to learning cool ways my body could adapt.”

Redshaw was pregnant at the time of her accident but leaned hard into her yoga practice after the birth of her second child in 2017. She listened to her body and learned adaptations, she dove into the spiritual side of yoga, and she embarked on yoga instructor training. Redshaw reached out to other amputee instructors and attended a yoga retreat exclusively for amputees.

She eventually discovered the limitations her right arm brought could actually be a blessing in a sport that focuses on inclusion and mindfulness.

“I liked that I could be a representation of difference,” Redshaw says. “Mindful practices... aren’t just for able-bodied people or skinny people.”

Redshaw now leads several classes per week at Hot Yoga Charlottesville and expects to teach more as people return to their regular schedules post-pandemic. Still, she retains her passion for cooking. Soon after her accident, she earned a sommelier certification to bolster her hospitality resume on the wine side, and more recently, Redshaw and husband Ian, also a well-regarded local chef, launched a catering business, Sumac Supper Club.

Never one to sit still, Redshaw also works at yoga retailer Lululemon and is nearing certification as an Ayurveda health practitioner. Ayurveda, which originated in India hundreds of years ago, is a wellness therapy combining yoga practice with a mindful approach to what we put in our bodies.

“I am so grateful that two things that have always been loves and passions of mine—food and yoga, being present in our bodies—have met in the middle to create this perfect place for me,” Redshaw says. “I am grateful for my past and where it has gotten me.”

434 27

28 434

Photos to fires

CE

HAN

“When I left, they all said,

C

EZE AMOS

PIVO T A

The Boston Herald had 37 staff photographers in 1999. That’s the year Justin Ide made the number 36 by leaving the coveted job.

“When I left, they all said, ‘What? Are you crazy?’” Ide remembers. “I wanted to do something else.”

The craziest thing? It was a minor career change in the scheme of things. After leaving the Herald, Ide took a job taking pictures for Harvard University. He worked at Harvard for 12 years before his wife’s career as a hospital administrator brought the couple to Charlottesville.

Ide wasn’t able to snap up a new staff photo gig in C’ville, so he did some freelance work and ended up hanging around the Crozet Volunteer Fire Department. He liked the vibe at the firehouse, but he was nearing 50 years of age, and firefighting is known as a young man’s game. Still, maybe Ide had stumbled on his new path.

“One day I was talking to a career guy—Crozet didn’t have any career guys in the fire department, but he was there for something,” Ide says.

“And he said, ‘Hey, Virginia is a right to work state. If you get all the certifications, they can’t not hire you.’”

Ide earned his emergency medical technician certification and got a job with UVA’s Medic V rescue team. Then, it was on to firefighting training. Ide was 51 by the time he began; some of his fellow trainees were as young as 19. Still, he persisted. And he was eventually hired by the Waynesboro Fire Department.

“The biggest thing about it is not so much in the daily stuff. During a fire, all hell is breaking loose for the first five minutes, and then it’s fine,” Ide says. “But we would go to certain trainings and things, and the 19-year-olds could do physical exercises repeatedly without a pause in between. When you’re 50-something, you need that pause.”

With more than 20 years of professional photography under his firebelt, Ide still misses taking pictures for a living. But firefighting’s on-and-off work schedule gives him time to pursue his passion, and he’s brought some of his skills to the firehouse, as well. He’s only a few classes short of a master’s degree in public information and serves as an informal public information officer for the Waynesboro FD. “I’ve created a good working relationship with the local media,” Ide says. “It’s been a great addition, bringing my previous job experience to the forefront in this job.”

‘What? Are you crazy?’

I wanted to do something else.”

434 29

EZE AMOS

For a good day, call...

Eboni BUGG

Saturdays are my favorite days to be out and about in Charlottesville. Ideally I’d start the day with a long walk with my goldendoodle puppy, Phoebe. I have easy access to the Rivanna Trail near my house, and she Director of Programs, Charlottesville and I love hiking by the river. Afterwards I may try to Area Community Foundation catch a yoga class at Common Ground Healing Arts. I love how accessible the studio is and they have a diverse range of teachers and classes. If I have time, I love to peruse all the local goodies at the City Market, especially if Orange Dot Baking Company is there. My current favorite breakfast is their Rustic Rosemary Major Muffin with Caromont Farm chevre and apricot preserves from JAM According to Daniel. Yum! Afterwards I head down Route 20 to Bellair Farm CSA to pick up my weekly share. The drive out is lovely and the farm is so peaceful.

I’m always guaranteed to run into an old friend or make a new one when I’m there. I am an amateur cook and usually spend the afternoon dreaming up fun things to do with my market and CSA finds. Early evening is when I connect with my homies, likely hitting up Second Street Gallery to see what’s currently on view, followed up by an early dinner at Bizou or The Bebedero. Both have really good gluten-free options and outdoor patios for al fresco dining and prime people-watching on the Downtown Mall. Afterwards we’d head to the Pavilion for a show because no good day is complete without good music. We’d end the evening catching all the chill vibes and a nice cocktail on the roof at Common House.

30 434

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