Weaving Magic

A reverence for form is woven into each of Shirley Gibson’s elegant baskets.

Painters look for the perfect vista. Sculptors look for the classic face.

Basket-maker Shirley Gibson searches her surround-scape for the supremely-shaped vessel.

Her search-of-the-day might be a long, elegant vase or a round, bulbous jar. Her eyes will linger on all manner of bottles, urns, jugs, containers until the right one captures her imagination.

She then fits it to a proper oak base, stains it with a homemade black walnut brew, sprays it with polyurethane, anchors ribs or staves to it, and then the weaving begins. Once finished, her well-crafted, functional basket will hold water and flowers, for Shirley weaves around the entire surface, cocooning the bottle or vase for a lifetime of service and beauty.

Shirley retired from the Post Office after 36 years. A facility for numbers and sorting is key to P.O. work. That kind of organized brain lends itself nicely to the repetition of the over-under-over-under-ing that’s essential to sculpting basketry forms.

“I worked at the Post Office with three co-workers who invited me to a basket-making session,” Shirley recollects. “That was October 11, 1999. It hooked me.”

If you can recall the exact date you started an avocation, that speaks volumes.

Shirley makes a variety of basket styles: shopping baskets, laundry baskets, market baskets, wine baskets, and more. She finds basketweaving wonderful stress-relief and a very satisfying activity.

Visit her and see her wares at the Highlands Marketplace Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings.

In order to be an official “farmer,” she had to sell a food product alongside her baskets. No problem. Her chow-chow relish and pepper jelly sales rival her basket sales on occasion. Either way, baskets or jars-of-yum, Shirley is a woman of excellent taste.

In addition to Saturday’s Highlands Market, you can find Shirley’s work at End of the Road Studio in Walhalla. She sells her work just about as fast as she can crank it out, so arrive early and pick your favorites. You might see her granddaughter sitting beside her in Highlands, perhaps the next gen of creativity and delight.

If you want to order a special basket (choose shape, color, etc.) or food product, plan on 2-3 weeks’ lead time for commissions. Contact Shirley at sktgibson@gmail.com or call her at (864) 903-1685.

by Donna Rhodes

Shirley Gibson

The Arts Always Survive

Animated by a Show Must Go On Spirit, the H-C Art League gets through the Covid-shadowed year with verve and its characteristic panache intact.

“Gentle Boy” oil on canvas done by Peggy Marra

October is the final month of the Art League’s season.

After 2020, when every activity except for Zoom board meetings was cancelled, we were cautiously optimistic about 2021. Effective vaccines for Covid-19 were being administered. Was there light at the end of the pandemic tunnel? As things turned out, the answer was mixed..

We learned early in the year that our annual Children’s Art Camp, held in July and August, would be cancelled for the second straight year.

With so much uncertainty in the air, and the advance planning needed to stage the camp, we and the Rec Park decided to err on the side of caution.

We did get to hold all six of our regular meetings at The Bascom. This year, again with an eye to safety, refreshments were cut back to pre-packaged fare, and the meetings were held outside.

Among the presentations were those given by Stan Allaben, Carol Misner, Barbara Jamison, Norma Hendrix, Phillip Curcuru and the Bascom’s Executive Director, Karin Peterson.

October’s program, this year on October 25, will be a members’ Show and Tell of selected pieces of their own art.

The 5:00 P.M. program follows a 4:30 pizza party. As always, the public is invited. The programs have been well-attended and have attracted new members to the Art League. Membership has grown from 40 members in 2020 to 64 members in 2021.

The League’s Summer Colors Fine Art Show was held in Sapphire Valley in July with strong visitor attendance and record sales. Two remaining 2021 shows are planned: the Fall Colors Fine Art Show at the Highlands Rec Park on October t6-17, and a Small Works show November 26-27 at the Sapphire Valley Community Center. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that Covid will not force cancellation of either or both events.

The Bascom is currently hosting an Art League members’ exhibit in the upstairs Joel Gallery, which will run through the end of the year. The Art League thanks the Bascom for this opportunity to showcase member work. Be sure to see the exhibit when you visit.

For more information about the Art League, visit our revised web site, artleaguehighlands-cashiers.com.

by Zach Claxton, Highlands-Cashiers Art League

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The MET is back

The Metropolitan Opera is back on the playbill at Highlands Performing Arts Center. The PAC is located at 507 Chestnut Street.

Bass René Pape

Will Liverman The Metropolitan Opera is reopening their doors. On Saturday, October 9, the MET will present Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky Live via Satellite.

Bass René Pape, the world’s reigning Boris, reprises his overwhelming portrayal of the tortured tsar caught between grasping ambition and crippling paranoia, kicking off the Live in HD season on October 9.

Conductor Sebastian Weigle leads Mussorgsky’s masterwork, a pillar of the Russian repertoire, in its original 1869 version. Stephen Wadsworth’s affecting production poignantly captures the hope and suffering of the Russian people as well as the tsar himself. Join us on Saturday, October 9, beginning at 12:55 P.M. Run time is two hours, 40 minutes.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Grammy Award–winning jazz musician and composer Terence Blanchard’s adaptation of Charles M. Blow’s moving memoir, Fire Shut Up in My Bones; which The New York Times praised after its 2019 world premiere at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as “bold and affecting” and “subtly powerful.”

The first opera by a Black composer presented on the Met stage and featuring a libretto by filmmaker Kasi Lemmons, the opera tells a poignant and profound story about a young man’s journey to overcome a life of trauma and hardship.

James Robinson and Camille A. Brown – two of the creators of the Met’s sensational recent production of Porgy and Bess – co-direct this new staging. Baritone Will Liverman, one of opera’s most exciting young artists, stars as Charles, alongside sopranos Angel Blue as Destiny/Loneliness/ Greta and Latonia Moore as Billie. Live via Satellite, Saturday, October 23 beginning at 12:55 P.M.

The National Theatre of London will be back with encore performances in November. Check it out on the website.

Tickets are available online HighlandsPerformingArts.com click on the red PAC button.

by Mary Adair Trumbly, Highlands Performing Arts Center

Emanuel Carrero Erin Knowles,

Entertainment, Elevated

Julia Rifino

The irresistible tunes that have shaped American Cinema since the advent of the talkies get their due when Highlands Playhouse spotlights Music in Motion, October 8 through 24. For tickets and more information, visit highlandsplayhouse.org.

Get ready for a sense-sational extravaganza at the Highlands Playhouse Music in Motion World Premiere, running October 8 through 24, Wednesday through Saturday, 8:00 P.M.; and Saturday and Sunday, 2:00 P.M.

Hear over 60 Movie Musical hits sung live by the country’s finest professional talent.

See over 70 costumes adorned with thousands of Swarovski crystals; you’ll swear you’ve walked into a cloud of shooting stars, the aurora borealis and a 3-D rainbow. Sunglasses advisable.

Smell and Taste the compelling scent of yum, as the corn pops and wine corks release their tempting bouquet.

And finally, Feel the joy, the beat, and the nostalgia that these songs of cinema from your favorite films bring to your welcoming ears and tapping toes.

Emanuel Carrero, Erin Knowles, and Julia Rifino are three of the cast members that will make up this incomparable company of performers.

They have this to say about the show.

Emanuel: “It’s perfect for the whole family. From the Golden Era classics like The Wizard of Oz to the groovy pop sounds of 1960’s Beach Movies and the country/rock radio hits in Footloose, the music speaks to multiple generations. Big ensemble numbers with acrobatic choreography in beautiful sparkly costumes. Everything you expect from a Broadway show wrapped up into 90 minutes of Wow.”

Erin: “Personally I’m most excited to sing, ‘Good Morning’ from Singin’ in the Rain. I hope people can take the time to come out to support and enjoy a live performance. I know Covid has been hard on everyone for multiple reasons, but if we can all stay safe, why not come together to sing, clap, and dance? It’s a time to enjoy, escape, and be entertained.”

Julia: “We have one of the most diverse and talented casts I have ever had the chance to work with. We have all been on National Tours, major cruise lines, in Off-Broadway shows, or starred in some of the largest regional theaters in the country. We have a cast vibe that is close-knit and tight, and I think the audience will see that. They will assume we have been performing together for years, but we’ve all just met. I also want to mention the safety of the theater. The staff has done an excellent job with cleanliness of the building. Feel safe about coming to the theater. We will all practice easy, but necessary precautions and have a blast with Music in Motion.”

The show is directed and choreographed by Executive Director Scott Daniel, featuring some of the country’s best professional talent on and off stage.

Scott says, “We had a national search for designers and cast to elevate the productions presented at the Playhouse, to a level never seen before on our stage.”

So go to highlandsplayhouse.org and get ready to reserve a safe and first-class seat this October for Music in Motion.

Half-Mile Farm

GlenCove

Half-Mile Farm

Half-Mile Farm

Southern Botanics

There’s a bit of mountain magic embedded within each creation of Southern Botanics.

When you witness the creations of Douglas and Austin Davis-Selph, which positively thrum with charm and a vibrant lifeforce, you’re bound to detect an underlying echo of the Plateau’s natural bounty.

You can see these works of art at Acorn’s, and Half-Mile Farm and the GlenCove Clubhouse and at the reimagined High Hampton Inn.

They’re infused with that distinctive Plateau aesthetic because native-grown plants are the foundation of each work of art.

“All of our creations are foraged locally,” says Douglas. “The 35 pieces of original pressed botanical art we made for High Hampton all feature plants and flowers from either their property or from elsewhere on the Plateau.”

In fact, that reverence for the plants of the Plateau lies at the heart of Douglas and Austin’s Southern Botanics.

The duo learned early in life that Ralph Waldo Emerson may have said it best when he said, “the earth laughs in flowers.”

Both grew up in Georgia, Douglas in south central Georgia, and Austin in Atlanta, and both are influenced by early memories of their parents and grandparents instilling a curiosity about, and love of nature, plants, and flowers in them.

Initially indulging in their love of nature only as a hobby and a source of calm, they realized that their passion was to turn this hobby into a business and Southern Botanics was born. Working with flowers and finding inspiration in nature, they create timeless works of art from those elements.

Austin quickly hung up his suit and tie and left the corporate world

Douglas and Austin Davis-Selph

High Hampton

behind, devoting his full attention to Southern Botanics.

Doug still practices commercial real estate law in Atlanta with Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP and creates his artwork in his off-times.

He says, “it is a welcome diversion from the stress of law practice.”

Southern Botanics specializes in creating hand-crafted works of art by pressing, mounting and framing flowers, leaves and other plant materials. The timeless beauty of flowers ensures that their art fits into any décor, whether it be a mountain cabin, lake home or something a bit more grand.

The unique nature of each work means that they’re the perfect gift for capturing a particular moment or mood.

For those wishing to create lasting artwork commemorating their wedding, engagement, birthday celebrations, anniversaries or proms, they will press your flowers into framed keepsakes, and can The 35 pieces of original pressed botanical art we made for High incorporate invitations, photos and other memorabilia into their final design. You can reach them for information Hampton all feature plants and flowers on custom commissions by phone from either their property or from at (404) 314-5650, or by email at elsewhere on the Plateau. southernbotanics@gmail.com. They also have Facebook and Instagram pages – just look for southernbotanics. by Mary Jane McCall

Gratitude for All Your Sacrifice

The success for HighlandsCashiers Chamber Music Festival’s 2021 season rests upon the efforts of a small army of dedicated individuals and organizations.

Vega Quartet and Will Ransom

As we lay out the successes and the remarkably smooth performances that played out over the course of our 40th Anniversary season, we here at the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival naturally begin to cast our gaze toward 2022.

But before our attention is consumed by the tricky act of assembling programs and securing artists, I’d like to acknowledge the tremendous contributions made by hundreds of generous people. Their efforts ensured that the 2021 season could truly flourish, when so many factors could have delivered a Covidcramped season of performances.

Though the season unfolded with astonishingly few snags, I have to admit that we were all aware of the uncertainty that accompanied public performances in the midst of a global pandemic.

We required that our audiences produce proof of vaccinations or wear a mask while enjoying the performances.

I take the fact that we were able to carry out these policies as certain proof that our audiences are among the finest in the country. Their adherence to these protocols meant that everyone was able to enjoy the performances without anxiety, the way they should be experienced.

An enterprise with as many moving parts as the HC Chamber Music Festival relies upon a dedicated army of volunteers and community organizations.

That includes the men and women who provided housing for our musicians. Some opened their homes, others finagled and juggled places where the performers could decompress in the midst of a hectic summer.

Their dedication was mirrored by the people who served as hosts for our series of Feasts and Salons. These events are comprised of a thousand details, and each is vital to the financial stability of the festival. Thank you to everyone who embraced these challenges and ensured that each was memorable.

I can’t forget the special event venues, which allowed us to expand our performance spaces beyond the Village Green Commons and the Highlands Performing Arts Center – The Bascom: A Center for the Visual Arts, and the exquisite Orchard House of Old Edwards Inn.

This unique artistic endeavor is powered by a very involved board of directors who work throughout the year, not simply in the seven weeks of the festival’s summer season.

And finally, let me single out our indefatigable Board President Martha Pearson and the always-astonishing Artistic Director, William Ransom. They shepherded us through a dizzying year of tumult and change, and they did it without losing their determination and their gentle good humor.

So let me ask all of these people to take a bow. You ensured that the show would go on, and what a show it turned out to be!

by Nancy Gould-Aaron Executive Director, Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival

The Great Pandemic

Highlands-Cashiers Players offers The Great Pandemic at Highlands Performing Arts Center October 14-17 and October 21-24, Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 PM and Sunday at 2:30 PM. For more information, visit highlandsperformingarts. com and click on the HCP link.

Rehearsing for The Great Pandemic in September

In The Great Pandemic, local playwright Craig Eister looks back at the emotional aftermath of the Pandemic and tries to make sense of the year’s events. Eister’s script is an impressive accomplishment - a parody, a tribute, and a reckoning, all in one.

Eister sets up the premise at the beginning of the first act. The Board of Directors of a local drama club is meeting following 2020, trying to decide on their next play. Discussion ensues – one member argues for a musical, another for a mystery, and a third for a love story. Trying to persuade the others of the superiority of their vision, they each act out a skit. What emerges is a play within a play. By the end of the first act, the group realizes they will produce more compelling entertainment if they combine their ideas into a single story.

The second act intertwines the play’s three themes – a noir crime story that embraces a love tale and breaks into song. There is an overlapping of plots in the miniseries of actions that follow. The actors are locked into a building when someone is murdered, and as they struggle to figure out who did it, the audience looks on as two of the characters fall in love.

The script is filled with the pointed details of life during the Pandemic – zoom calls, sanitizing, and masks – and many scenes are anchored to local places. Yet, it also emphasizes the more consequential fallout of the period – racial tensions and job loss. Running throughout is Eister’s message of diversity – that all lives matter and that, “At the end of the day I want everyone to leave the theater thinking that everyone is an individual and you create a better world when everyone works together.”

Eister juggles all these themes with humor and wraps them inside what is essentially a comedy. “I want people to leave feeling like they have laughed, to feel uplifted after a challenging year, that it is possible to go out once again and have a good time.”

The music was co-written by Eister and musician/music minister Les Scott. Eight performances of the original play, The Great Pandemic, are scheduled four each week: October 14-17 and October 21-24, Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 PM and Sunday at 2:30 PM. Guests will be seated bistro style, and beverages will be available for purchase. All tickets are $30 plus tax and fees. For more information, visit: highlandsperformingarts.com and click on the HCP link.

by Marlene Osteen

Where Nature & Art Link

A reverence for nature lies at the heart of Jo Ridge Kelley’s beguiling creations.

The art of Jo Ridge Kelley celebrates the exacting and spirited tradition of Plein-Air Painting.

It’s an art form that can be traced back to at least the mid 18th century when landscapists made preliminary oil sketches on the spot, working directly from nature.

And no one in our region expresses it better than Kelley, a studio and Plein air painter who lives and works in Waynesville and Asheville.

Her work is inspired by and reflects her Quaker background, growing up on a dairy farm in Sophia, North Carolina, where she developed an intimate connection with nature. Later in drawing and art studies at UNC Charlotte, she was influenced by the works of the great Impressionist artists – Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh.

Kelley’s view of Western North Carolina is a study of its mountains, lakes, and lily ponds, painted in ribbons of exuberant hues and texture – an homage to the bond that links art to nature. She is well-known for portraying nature on its terms, taking on heroic subjects such as Whitewater Falls.

Not interested in “describing every detail,” she renders them in a vibrant expressionistic style that utilizes both bold and unexpected color relationships, often on oversized canvases.

The impact of her work is stunning with abstract, yet recognizable images interwoven with an intense palette of deep shadows and lights. The effect of the interplay of these elements forces the viewer to appreciate and ponder the overwhelming splendor and power of the natural world.

She says, “It’s impossible for me to live here surrounded by these ancient mountains and the rising mist and not paint them. I deeply feel the peace and serenity from the mountain top. I will always strive to capture those emotions in my art.”

Kelley’s works are held in private and corporate collections throughout the country and around the globe. She enjoys creating large, commissioned paintings of mountain landscapes, waterfalls, and coastal scenes.

“This is what I love to do and feel very passionate about,” she says. “Bring the beauty and energy of nature inside where you can feel the essence of the place. I want to share the joy of my experience being out there.”

Her work has been featured in regional and national publications including American Art Collector Magazine.

More information can be found at joridgekelley.com.

by Marlene Osteen

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Jeanie Edwards Fine Art Gallery

Jeanie Edwards’ new gallery at 223 South 4th Street in Highlands is sunshine-suffused and serves as the perfect embodiment of her lavish notions and flights of fancy.

Jeanie Edwards knows Highlands. She’s a fourth-generation Highlander related to the founders of the Old Edwards Inn.

She also knows art. She became a painter through sheer tenacity of spirit, but the skill has established for her a rewarding path that has included life as a muralist, art teacher, acrylic painter of pets, wildlife, and abstract portrait and landscapes, and eventually gallery owner.

It’s the latter endeavor that has made recent news in her native town.

Her two-year-old Jeanie Edwards Fine Art Gallery moved in April 2021 from 221 North 4th Street to 223 South 4th Street.

Edwards was looking for a better gallery space to fit a pandemicadjusted business plan and was told there were no rentable spaces available in downtown Highlands. Yet, her son saw a “For Rent” sign being placed in a window and within the day Edwards had secured her new gallery space.

“The gallery is focused on local artists and a variety of fine arts. I represent myself and 15 others, such as Pauline Marr and Kim Woodman, who are both area painters; local potters, such as Heather Mae Erickson; photographers Gil and Jacquelyn Leebrick; jewelers Benson and Chrissy Picklesimer; silversmith Robert Doe; and more. I also carry a collection of fair trade items from jewelry to candles. These benefit other countries such as India and Bolivia. I also have handmade items from Haiti, where I have taught art.”

Edwards lives with her husband, Bryan, and two of their four children in her grandparent’s house in walking distance of downtown. “My family’s been in Highlands since the late 1800s,” she said. “In fact, the community came together in 1946 and built the house for my grandparents [Dan and Hazel Edwards] when their previous house burned down. So to live here and work here is wonderful.”

The gallery’s list of artists is featured on jedwardsfineart.com as well as Facebook and Instagram. Hours are Wednesday through Saturday 11:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.; closed during January and February.

Wine and a featured artist demonstration happens every Saturday at 11:00 A.M.

by Deena Bouknight

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What Stirs Within

There’s a touch of transcendence in Michele Page Webster’s evocative works.

As a child growing up in Florida, Michele Page Webster was ensorcelled by the natural beauty that surrounded her.

She intuited the subtle interaction of light and color and texture that gave the world its richness and its endless capacity to surprise.

Page began to imagine paintings in her mind and how they should be composed long before picking up a brush.

With all of that percolating in her imagination, she was ready to absorb the principles of design. These fundamental elements are Scale, Progression, Texture, Color and Lighting.

Today, she applies them to her paintings with an engineer’s precision, yet tempered by an artist’s instincts shaped by a lifetime of study and practice.

The nimble imagination that she began to cultivate as a child allows her to experiment in her choices of media.

This progression has given her works a subtle freedom and allows a full spectrum of colors and textures and emotional shadings.

Today, she finds expression on canvas. Page paints many different subjects, and enjoys using different genres.

You can feel all of that when you gaze upon her art. There’s something about the colors and the very specific placement of her figures. Her landscapes invite contemplation – they’re familiar, even comforting, but there’s an element of unearthliness about them as well.

Remember when we were talking about the influence of the natural world on young Page’s artistic sensibilities?

Well, she still maintains that essential connection between her art and the mysteries of creation, this time shading into the mystical.

It was when she took her art to Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico, that she discovered El Santuario de Chimayo, a Catholic shrine and National Historic Landmark known for its “Holy Soil” that’s said to have miraculous curative powers.

Inspired and feeling a powerful and irrefutable communion with the Sacred, Page gathered a small sampling of this earth, and brought it home. Today, she incorporates small amounts of the soil into some or her art, saying that, “the Holy Soil blesses the art and the home.”

If this seems like a fanciful notion, the best proof of its truth is to view her creations in person.

Page’s art can be viewed by private appointment. You can contact her directly at (850) 322-7660 or by visiting pagetheartist.com.

by Luke Osteen

photo by Susan Renfro