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| Mountain folks make fine art By Stacy Trevenon--[ stacy@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 2:23 PM PDT Up a gentle hill in one corner of the Kings Mountain Art Fair, you'll find Mountain Folk Art, where 24 artistic local residents display their creativity. Like the juried art, the Mountain Folk Art is a palette of fine arts to high-quality crafts. The artists range from newcomers to veterans like mixed-media artist Werner Glinka, or Kim Ward who has sold handmade clothing for 29 years, or Rebecca Holland, whose finely detailed oil paintings of redwood forests and seascapes have graced the fair almost since the beginning. "A walk through the Mountain Folk Art is also a walk through Kings Mountain," said Deb Rockmore, Mountain Folk Art organizer. She has sold jewelry at the fair for seven years; her husband, Rocky, helps control traffic and their son, Logan, has been the fair's webmaster since he was 10. "It's like putting your hand on the pulse of Kings Mountain." Newcomers quickly get into the spirit of mountain art. IRONWORK HEATS UP FAIR "On a hot summer day, I go and light fires," said Erik Newquist. "I think I'm crazy sometimes." Not if you're an ironworker like Newquist, 24, whose handmade iron hooks, candlesticks or coffee table from $10 to $175, will be found at Mountain Folk Art. It's his third year here. "I love it," he said. He's shown his craft at fairs or farmers' markets in his native Washington state, but says "this one's wonderful. I know a lot of people, and they're supportive." He lives in the woods south of the community center, with other creative- and ecology-minded folks in a huge, circa-1970s building being refurbished by the owner into arts studios and accommodations. From there he heads to his roughly 14-by-30-foot shop in his pickup, which runs on vegetable oil. Inside the shop are neat rows of tools and tongs, as well as a forge, all of which he made. Once there, he fires up his forge, which also runs on vegetable oil. When the heat reaches about 2,200 degrees, he dons protective goggles and thick, fire-retardant cotton gloves, and goes to work. He picks up three-quarter-inch iron rods and holds them in the fire until they're red-hot. Then he slips them beneath the power hammer, which he works with a foot pedal, or compresses them under molds for a variety of decorative textures. Then he puts them, hissing, into a wooden tub of water to cool. Ironwork is in Newquist's blood. As a boy in Washington state, he got intrigued by his blacksmith uncle. "He introduced me to it, and I was hooked," said Newquist. "It was like, this is what I'm doing." He apprenticed in Washington and at the Penland crafts school in North Carolina. Now he does repair jobs and custom curtain rods, coffee tables, garden gates and more for Peninsula customers. The craft isn't always safe. "I caught on fire once," he said. "I just smacked it out." It helps that girlfriend Radha Newsom is a masseuse into the healing arts. "That's really handy for me," he laughed. His dream is to have a place where students can pursue crafts like he did, that "can give people the opportunity to come alive and realize they can make anything." ART AND EARTH TOGETHER Unlike Newquist, his roommate, Maria Pugnetti, works indoors, fashioning the clothing of organic fabrics and paintings rich in archetypal motifs that she'll have in the Mountain Folk Art area. Hanging on a rack along one wall, the clothing ranges from girls' frocks to tote bags, all made with organic cotton and decorated with designs and accents of selvage fabric that she appliqués on. Her oil paintings dip into archetypes from different cultures, and fantastical and allegorical imagery. Propped up along another wall is a painting which juxtaposes Native American-like figures with white figures of stags and wolves, and another of a woman with a deer's head, out of Russian lore. Pugnetti, 27, will sell paintings and prints at the fair, at prices of $15 for prints to $300 for paintings, as well as clothing. The art's subject matter is dear to her. "I can teach about ecology through storytelling, enhance empathy to the natural world and celebrate the interconnectedness of all things," she said. After growing up in Cupertino, Pugnetti earned a bachelor of arts degree in painting at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Three years ago, eager to learn about farming and ecological design, she came to the Coastside area to work as an intern on a private farm. Intrinsic to that, she explained, is her dream of creating art involving raw materials like plant and animal fibers or natural pigments. Working with organizations in Bolinas and San Gregorio, she is expanding on that idea for the public. "I realized that artists had an important role to play in the environment," she said. "So I decided to explore a new ecological arts practice." |