PENLAND VISIT
Robyn and I had some more furniture for the new guest house and other houses at Penland so we decided to take it over the week of Thanksgiving since our family wasn’t having any sort of get-together, and maybe make a vacation out of the trip. We loaded up my big flat bed truck and then hooked up a 26-foot-long trailer filled with furniture and a replacement for that crappy proof press that was in the letterpress studio there. It’s a 750 mile drive from our place to Penland so takes this old man about a day and a half to drive it. It was made more difficult by pouring rain on the second day. It took about and hour just to get through Knoxville and it was tense because of that trailer we were pulling.
However, we did make it to Penland without a mishap and got everything unloaded quickly thanks to some of the staff at the school. We spent the rest of the week visiting with friends and staff at the school. Most of ya’ll didn’t have time to meet the wonderful people who run Penland but I’ve got to tell you, they’re all really great people and they all care a great deal about the school.
Penland in the winter is strange without students. No one walking around, no cars, plenty of parking! No great smells coming from the kitchen at the Pines. The school is building another much-needed, as some of you know, housing unit up above Bonnie’s Place and we got to see that in its early stages of construction. Thanksgiving morning Robyn and I walked from the guest house all the was down to the resident barns and didn’t see a single person or car. The letterpress studio was kind of forlorn without students and I thought a lot about the time we spent together there.
Thanksgiving dinner we spent at Mike Davis’ home. Mike is the development director at Penland. He has a great house with a wonderful view and loves to entertain. The weather was perfect. There were eighteen people there, mostly staff or resident artists and, as someone noted, none of them were related by blood. So we got along famously. It was a potluck dinner and someone deep-fried a turkey. We’ve never had a deep-fried turkey and it tasted great and was moister that the oven-roasted turkey also in attendance. Lots of other good and unusual food was consumed. The rest of our time at Penland we visited with other friends and of course it always included a meal.
We left Penland on a Sunday, stopped in Marshall, NC to visit with Rob Pulleyn, Penland board member, founder and former owner of Lark Books and passionate supporter of Penland. Rob bought an old high school in Marshall, that’s on an island in the middle of the French Broad river, refurbished it and turned it into artist’s studios. It’s a cool old building and each classroom makes a nice studio. There’s a nice deck where the artists can relax and/or party. I didn’t ask what the studios rent for but knowing Rob, I suspect they’re rented at cost or lower.
Next we went down to Saluda, NC and visited with our good friends Stoney Lamar and Susan Casey. Susan owns a restaurant in Saluda and really knows how to cook so we ate like pigs again. After a couple of days in Saluda, we reluctantly headed west toward home. We made another stop at Arrowmont School for Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN and visited with our friend Bill Griffin who is assistant director at the school and ceramic artist of some note.
It was a wonderful trip without a schedule and included plenty of “down time” and time to visit unhurriedly with friends. Usually, when we’re at Penland, I’m working and don’t have time to visit. Of course, it’s always good to be back home but after being gone almost two weeks, things piled up and now I’m running around trying to catch up.
I hope everybody is doing great. Let us know what you’re up to.
