Aaaah... Asheville! (North Carolina)

Aaaah... Asheville!
Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Asheville North Carolina is where my family calls home. The city is a haven for artists, writers, musicians and craftspeople — those who are inspired by the spirit of the mountains and by the synergy of Asheville’s artistic community. I have done my most creative writing work here. Some say it is the quartz crystals embedded in the mountains. Some New Agers say that Asheville is a vortex, drawing people towards it like gravity. Asheville is a melting pot of diverse energies. I don’t know about things New Age, but Asheville certainly is a melting pot. More dogs per square foot than a kennel. More white girl dreads than Haight Ashbury, our sister city in San Francisco. More creatively charged than the Metropolitan Museum of Art. My city is a wonderful mix of people: artists, entrepreneurs, professional business folks, hippies, and granola mamas. Not sure where I fit into the mix. I suppose that inside me I am a certain percentage of each.

In praise of the dot

I am staring at a big white computer screen, fingers poised over the keyboard. Ten years ago I stared, pen in hand, at a blank page. Ten years before that I held a paintbrush and stared at a blank canvas. When I was 10 years old I grabbed fistful of crayons and stared at a blank page. Ten years before that I was the blank slate. Anothe ten years prior, I was in utero, just tiny cell, a dot, really. I guess that means every great artistic journey begins with a single dot. Profound, huh?

People on my "I Want to Invite to Dinner" list

Artists / writers / bloggers I admire.

Hugh McLeod has a wonderful website. He does these minimalist cartoon illustrations he calls "cube bombs" - dry humor. Ya gotta see them. They are so simply drawn, but have so much mass-market appeal. His writing is quirky and unexpected. He posted the first part of his book online "Ignore Everybody - and 39 Other Keys to Creativity."
http://gapingvoid.com/
His online gallery: http://gapingvoidgallery.com/

I adore Vanessa Valencia's site. It's in the form of a blog, has photos, illustrations, loosely-woven-together stories. I emailed her & told her she should do children's books. This gal does it all - a real jack of all trades creative. When I grow up I want to BE her! No, seriously. Her blog:
http://afancifultwist.typepad.com/
Her art is whimsical, full of joy. I especially love the pieces that are textural, use bunches of newspaper to fan out and form a ballerina's dress. Her art site:
http://www.vanessavalencia.com/

These two people are on my People I Want to Invite to Dinner List.
Let me know if they make your list.