Beautiful Mystery in the Focus Gallery

Featured Artists:

Judi Harwood (clay), Colin Richmond (clay), Cori Saraceni (mixed media), Lyn Lyndall (leather), Lauren Faulkenberry (paper)

Asheville, NC – The Southern Highland Craft Guild will open its first member-focused show of 2022 with Beautiful Mystery on Saturday, February 19. Located on the second level of the Folk Art Center, the Focus Gallery will be filled with the work of five Guild Members from February 19 to May 24, 2022. Disciplines represented include wheel-thrown and hand-built ceramics, block printing, leather-tooling, and weaving. Members featured are Judi Harwood (clay), Colin Richmond (clay), Cori Saraceni (mixed media), Lyn Lyndall (leather), and Lauren Faulkenberry (paper).

The work by Judi Harwood is alternative fired work; art pottery that is not intended for functional use. “The process and results of alternative firings make my soul sing! I have limited control over the final results, so the almost magical element of surprise keeps me asking, ‘what if?’ Horsehair raku and saggar firings create these one of a kind fumed surfaces” states Harwood.

The “woolly” animals on display are by Colin Richmond. “I will be exhibiting some of my larger pieces that are too big for the Guild stores, including: llamas, alpacas, highland cattle, mountain goats and bison. I will also have my stoneware pet cremation urns which now make up more than half my sales. I make the urns in the shape of a sleeping animal and paint them to resemble the pet. I make cat urns in over a dozen different sleeping positions, eight breeds of rabbit, ten breeds of dog, a variety of ferrets and guinea pigs. The urns have developed a very nice following because they’re very personal.”

When asked about her process, mixed Media artist Cori Saraceni states “As the structure increases – options decrease fluctuating on it’s own- allowing the piece to dictate the next move. Becomes a rhythm of color, texture, light etc. revealing underlying strength – the pulse of the piece wherein emerges a Soul.”

Beautiful Mystery is open until May 24, 2022. Admission to the Folk Art Center is free. The Folk Art Center is located at Milepost 382 on the Blue Ridge Parkway in east Asheville. Headquarters to the Southern Highland Craft Guild, the Center also houses three galleries, a library, a craft shop and a Blue Ridge Parkway information desk and bookstore. The center is open daily from 10am-5pm. 

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The Southern Highland Craft Guild is a non-profit, educational organization established in 1930 to cultivate the crafts and makers of the Southern Highlands for the purpose of shared resources, education, marketing and conservation. The Southern Highland Craft Guild is an authorized concessioner of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. The Folk Art Center is located at Milepost 382 of the Blue Ridge Parkway, just north of the Highway 70 entrance in east Asheville, NC.