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Arts and Crafts
Wood and stone carving, quilting, weaving, basketry, chair making and woodworking, pottery, photography, painting, glass artistry, and more
Alvarez, Raymond. 2014. “Living Small: Marjorie Wolverton’s Journey to West Virginia.” Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 40, no. 2 (Summer): 54-59. WWII English war bride and miniature dollhouse furniture artist.
Baker, Luther D. 2013. “Finley Taylor: Early Richwood Photographer” [b. 1887]. Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 39, no. 4 (Winter): 22-29. Accompanying early 20th-century photos of life in Nicholas County lumber camps are taken from Baker’s 2012 book, The Cranberry Wilderness, which tells the story of the area’s dominant lumber and timber industries.
Becker, Jane. 2015. “Lucy Morgan: The Penland School of Handicrafts and the Southern Appalachian Craft Revival.” In North Carolina Women: Their Lives and Times, Vol. 2, ed. M. Gillespie and S. McMillen, 77-100. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
Bundrick, Eli. 2013. “A Modern-Day Blacksmith.” Foxfire Magazine 47, no. 3-4 (Fall-Winter): 6-13. Instructions on how to craft several traditional implements, and a credit to the John C. Campbell Folk School.
Carnegie Museum of Art. 2015– . “Photo Essay” [monthly CMOA blog]. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Museum of Art. Series of photo portraits/portfolios of mostly rust belt places, including: Rediscovering the American Rust Belt in the Age of Reagan [1980s], by Jack D. Teemer, Jr. (3/17/16) -- Bearing Witness to the Boom and Rust in Pennsylvania’s Mill Towns [Monongahela and Allegheny River Valleys], by Stephanie Strasburg (12/18/15) -- Coming of Age in the Small Town That Jimmy Stewart Left Behind [Indiana, Pa.], by Justin Visnesky (10/26/15) -- Searching for Pittsburgh’s Identity in an Era of Change, by Jake Reinhart (7/16/15) -- Scenes from the Valley: When the Money Dries Up in a Company Town [Wilmerding] (4/10/15). http://blog.cmoa.org/category/series/photo-essay/. (See also: Roger May’s “Looking at Appalachia” project, http://lookingatappalachia.org/.)
Ceravalo, Frank. 2014. West Virginia: A Wider View. Terra Alta, W. Va.: Headline Books. 112 pp. Collection of 53 double-page, panoramic color photos, mostly landscapes.
Crown, Carol, and Cheryl Rivers, ed. 2013. Folk Art, Vol. 23 of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 480 pp. Fifty-two essays, and nearly 200 shorter entries on individual artists, including Howard Finster and Edgar Tolson, but with conspicuous absences of Appalachian figures. Essays include: Craft Revival; Face Jugs; Pottery; and Rugs, Handsewn and Hooked, but do not mention Foxfire, the Southern Highland Craft Guild, or historic mountain craft schools and cooperatives.
Cuthbert, John A. 2013. Virginia B. Evans: An All-Around Artist [1894-1983; Moundsville, W. Va.]. Morgantown: West Virginia University Libraries; Wheeling, W. Va.: Oglebay Institute. 194 pp., with illustrations and 44 plates. Biography of this Upper Ohio Valley impressionist painter, largely unheralded but deserving of wider critical acclaim.
Donahue, Arwen. 2014. Featured Artist, Still: The Journal, no. 14 (Winter). Profile of oral historian and artist Donahue with a portfolio of her “story of tomatoes over the course of a year,” thirteen daily entries and sketched pictures from her journal Landings, a year-long record of life at Three Springs Farm in Nicholas Co., Ky. http://www.stilljournal.net/featured-artist-arwendonahue.php.
Flanary, Lisa. 2016. Featured Artist, Still: The Journal, no. 21 (Summer). Portfolio of twenty of Flanary’s photographs, taken in east Tennessee. “Reality and irony are everywhere we look.” http://www.stilljournal.net/featured-artist.php.
Gardner, Kevin Neal. 2013. “Featured Artist.” Still: The Journal, no. 13 (Fall). Portfolio of 15 paintings by Gardner who teaches at Berea College. http://www.stilljournal.net/kevin-gardner-featured-artist.php.
Gayheart, Willard, and Donia S. Eley. 2014. New Art of Willard Gayheart. Foreword by Grace Toney Edwards. Contributions to Southern Appalachian Studies series, no. 34. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. 195 pp. Portfolio of 87 pencil drawings, 1970s to present, based around bluegrass/old-time music, much of it centered around the area of Galax, Va.
Gonzalez, David. 2014. “Choosing Sides and a Camera.” Lens: Photography, Video and Visual Journalism (blog). New York Times, 15 January. 1,079 words; 23 photos. Profile of photographer Builder Levy whose subjects are from the coalfields of W. Va., Va., Ky., and N.C. http://nyti.ms/1xLyx4A.
Gonzalez, David. 2015. “Looking at Appalachia Anew.” New York Times, 20 May. 926 words, plus slideshow (22 photos). Profiles photographer Roger May and his crowdsourced Instagram project, “Looking at Appalachia” (https://www.instagram.com/lookingatappalachia/). http://nyti.ms/1Bbs7wu.
Green, Judy Lee. 2013. “Bedspread Alley.” Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine 29, no. 1 (Summer): 22-23. “Chenille bedspreads became popular with tourists going to Florida through the South on the Dixie Highway in the 1940s and ‘50s. That stretch of highway became known far and wide as Bedspread Alley or Peacock Alley.”
Gregg, Leslie Roberts, and Michael Abraham. 2015. Keepers of the Tradition. Portraits by Leslie Gregg, stories by Michael Abraham; introduction by Fred First. Blacksburg, Va.: Pocahontas Press. 84 pp. Twelve portraits of people in southwest Virginia including an herbalist, moonshiner, guitar maker, woodworker, gospel singer, and farmer.
Ground: A Reprise of Photographs from the Farm Security Administration. 2016. Text by Bill McDowell, Wendell Berry, Jack Reynolds, and Rosanne Cash. Hillsborough, N.C.: Daylight Books. 176 pp. “...a series of ‘killed’ negatives from the FSA archives, many of which have never before been published. These include several photographs from 1936 that Walker Evans had made for Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, the book he published with James Agee. Also included are never before published photographs by Walker Evans, Russell Lee, Ben Shahn, Marion Post Wolcott, John Vachon, Paul Carter, Theodor Jung, Carl Mydans, and Arthur Rothstein.”
Haywood, John. 2016. Featured Artist, Still: The Journal, no. 20 (Winter). Portfolio of twenty paintings and tattoos. Haywood (b. 1977) is currently located in Whitesburg, Ky. “My subject matters range anywhere from ruthless rednecks, mamaws and papaws, musicians, to historic narratives.” http://www.stilljournal.net/featured-artist-johnhaywood.php.
Hibberd, Jeanne Marie. 2014. Featured Artist, Still: The Journal, no. 15 (Summer). Portfolio of fifteen of Hibberd’s photographs. The Berea, Ky., resident is Development & Communications Director for Hindman Settlement School. http://www.stilljournal.net/featured-artist-jeannemariehibberd.php.
Holland, Dale. 2014. “The Art of Making Turkey Calls.” Interview by Jessica Phillips, Ross Lunsford, Corey Lovell, and Jonathan Blackstock. Foxfire Magazine 48, no. 3-4 (Fall-Winter): 61-77. Detailed instructions interspersed with anecdotes.
Horton, Laurel. 2013. “The Making of a Kentucky Counterpane.” Journal of Backcountry Studies 8, no. 1: 27-33. Early 19th-century Woodford County.
House, Silas. 2013. Featured Artist, Still: The Journal, no. 13 (Fall). Portfolio of twenty-five photographs of Ireland by Silas House from recent tours, also posted as “a nice complement to our interview with Ron Houchin [this issue], an Appalachian poet who has a deep connection to Ireland.” http://www.stilljournal.net/featured-artist-silashouse.php.
Justice, Steven. 2013. “Skinning, Fleshing, Tanning, and the Wall.” Student interview by Corey Lovell. Foxfire Magazine 47, no. 1-2 (Spring-Summer): 17-22. Taxidermist steps in preparing a mounted deer.
Keck, Rebecca A. 2013. “The Melungeons of Newman’s Ridge: A Portfolio of Portraits” [Hancock Co., Tenn.]. Appalachian Heritage 41, no. 4 (Fall): 67-71, 80, 88, 96, 99. Photos of faces and homesteads spread throughout this issue, along with images by Featured Photographer, Rebecca A. Keck (profiled by Brianna Summey, p. 98).
Legge, Eric, and Jeff Carver. 2015. “Eric Legge: Mountain Folk Art.” Interview by Ross Lunsford, Jonathan Blackstock, and Heather Giovino. Foxfire Magazine 49, no. 3-4 (Fall-Winter): 2-21. Student interview with well-known folk artist Eric Legge (b. 1971) of Dillard, Rabun Co., Georgia.
Levy, Builder. 2014. Appalachia USA. Foreword by Denise Giardina. Boston: David R. Godine. 123 pp. Reprints 69 photographic images, 1973-2004, from the coalfields of W. Va. and Ky. Contents: Social landscape | Home, family, children | At the mines | Mountaintop removal and slurry impoundments | Strike and protest | Artist’s statement | Biographical summary | Acknowledgments.
Lilly, John. 2013. “Seeing in Black & White: Photographer Sam McColloch.” Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 39, no. 1 (Spring): 32-41. Portfolio of W. Va. images by this New Martinsville photographer from a Marshall University exhibition.
Lilly, John. 2015. “Lisa Elmaleh and the Modern Art of Tintype.” Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 41, no. 2 (Summer): 58-65. Tintype photographs (of musicians) using a vintage 1920s large format camera.
Maloney, Mike. 2015. “Tribute to Maxine Groves, Master Quilter” [d. May 21]. UACC Blog, 23 May. Urban Appalachian Community Coalition. 676 words. Includes reprint of “Nina Maxine Green Groves: A Southern Ohio Treasure” (from Appalachian Connections), by Michael Maloney. http://uacvoice.org/2015/05/tribute-to-maxine-groves-master-quilter/.
Marovich, Pete. 2015. “Searching for Dream Street” [online photo essays]. “Searching for Dream Street is an ongoing photographic expedition to document the status of the old steel towns along the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers within approximately 40 miles of Pittsburgh, Pa.” The towns, each with its own photo portfolio, include: Aliquppa, Ambridge, Rankin, Duquesne, Braddock, McKeesport, Clairton, and Midland. http://searchingfordreamstreet.org/about-us/.
May, John Edwin. 2015. Featured Artist, Still: The Journal, no. 19 (Fall). Portfolio of 31 images by May (b. 1960), a photographer in Knoxville, Tenn. May attempts to capture images of the bonds of “companionship, sportsmanship and just enjoying the out of doors” among his father and friends who have been camping, fishing, and hunting together for 54 years. http://www.stilljournal.net/featured-artist-johnedwinmay.php.
May, Roger. 2014. Testify: A Visual Love Letter to Appalachia [“photobook”]. 2 vols. Photographs by Roger May; foreword by Silas House. Durham, N.C.: Horse & Buggy Press. Limited edition of 300 copies. “Roger May began to photograph the area around his hometown of Chattaroy, West Virginia in 2005. His work in the Tug Valley region focuses on memory, the relationship to place, and the strength of the people who call this area home.”
May, Roger. 2015. “A Fresh Look at Appalachia--50 Years after the War on Poverty.” Interview by Becky Harlan. Proof [National Geographic’s online photo blog]. 1,776 words; 12 photographs. Harlan interviews May about his crowdsourced photography project, “Looking at Appalachia” (http://lookingatappalachia.org/). http://on.natgeo.com/1D3TbCN.
May, Roger. 2015. “Interview with Roger May.” Still: The Journal, no. 17 (Winter). 3,371 words. May speaks about his crowdsourced photography project Looking at Appalachia: 50 Years After the War on Poverty(http://lookingatappalachia.org/), “about Appalachian documentary photographers and their images, and about those pesky regional stereotypes.” http://www.stilljournal.net/interview-rogermay.php.
Merical, Nancy. 2013. “Mountain State Art & Craft Fair: Variety and Tradition at Cedar Lakes.” Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 39, no. 2 (Summer): 38-43. History of W. Va.’s premier arts & crafts gathering, held every July since 1963.
Michael, Edwin Daryl. 2013. “Friendship Quilts.” Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 39, no. 4 (Winter): 16-21. Discusses the tradition of patchwork quilts made in the Plum Run area of Marion County.
Miller, Barbara, and Deb Schillo. 2013. Frances L. Goodrich’s Brown Book of Weaving Drafts [patterns]. Atglen, Pa.: Schiffer. 192 pp. “A collection of traditional eighteenth and nineteenth century weaving drafts....illustrated in over 160 color photos .... In 1890, Frances L. Goodrich came to the southern mountains in North Carolina from a life of culture to live and work among people who had little opportunity for education or social enrichment. As she traveled the mountain roads and trails on horseback, Miss Goodrich collected these precious weaving drafts from the women who wove for Allanstand Cottage Industries.”
Nunes, Mark. 2015. “Looking at Appalachia.” Journal of Appalachian Studies 21, no. 2 (Fall): 283-285. Media review of photographer Roger May’s crowdsourced, online photography project, Looking at Appalachia, which comprises unfiltered images submitted by amateur and skilled photographers across the region (http://lookingatappalachia.org/). May attempts to explore the diversity of Appalachia and present a counterpoint to the 1964 War on Poverty images that “unjustly came to represent the entirety of the region while simultaneously perpetuating stereotypes.”
Oh, Joleen. 2013. “Mother Vine.” Interview by Stephanie Jones. Foxfire Magazine 47, no. 1-2 (Spring-Summer): 2-8. Joleen Oh, granddaughter of a Cherokee basketmaker, weaves baskets out of kudzu vines with her Korean-American husband and business partner, Cleve Phillips, in Mountain City, Ga. See also: “King Kudzu: An Interview with Cleve Phillips,” by Foxfire students, 9-16.
Pratt, M. C. 2016. “New Deal Sculpture and the Meyersdale Post Office, Somerset County, PA” [1937]. Journal of the Alleghenies 52: 64-73. The Treasury section of Roosevelt’s New Deal public art projects was responsible for post office commissions beginning in 1934. 15,000 artists competed; 1,371 commissions were awarded; 88 went to Pennsylvania. See also: “Maryland Post Offices as Unlikely Art Galleries,” vol. 46 (2010): 69-74.
Reynolds, Nicole. 2013. “The Pine Mountain Settlement School Centennial Photography Exhibit.” Appalachian Heritage 41, no. 3 (Summer): 113-113. This issue features 20 photos from the exhibit.
Roberts, Anna Duggins. 2013. “Myrllen’s Coat.” Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine 28, no. 2 (Winter): 34-36. Story of “outsider art,” an embroidered coat of exceptional beauty and complexity .... Covered with millions of tiny stitches, vignettes, letters, words, and addresses,” sewn by a schizophrenic patient committed in the late 1940s to the Eastern State Hospital, Knoxville, Tennessee.
Shoemaker, Stephen, and Janet Pittard. 2013. Stephen Shoemaker: The Paintings and Their Stories [48 images, prose, and poetry]. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. 127 pp. “...sheds light on...the unique culture and history of the mountain region served by the train called the Virginia Creeper, which ran from Abingdon, Virginia, to Elkland, North Carolina (now Todd), from the early 1900s through the mid-1970s.”
Stevens, Jenny, T. J. Stevens, Briar Stevens, and Moses Stevens. 2014. “Making Soap, Living Clean, and Giving Thanks.” Student interviews by John Blackstock, Kaye Collins, Breanna Finley, Heather Giovino, Stephanie Jones, Jesse Owens, and Jessica Phillips. Foxfire Magazine 48, no. 3-4 (Fall-Winter): 4-26. Lessons in the art of soap-making.
Tolley-Stokes, Rebecca. 2013. “Everyone Has a Piece of Appalachia, Thanks to Etsy.” Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine 29, no. 1 (Summer): 20-21. “...many artists and handcrafters...make a living, or supplement their income, by selling their work...through online marketplaces like Etsy (etsy.com).”
Underwood, David, and Susan O’Dell Underwood, ed. 2015. Rich Community: An Anthology of Appalachian Photographers. Jefferson City, Tenn.: Sapling Grove Press. 105 pp. “A collection of 90 previously unpublished photographs by 82 contemporary image makers working in various modes of the photographic medium. Chosen in an open juried competition.”
Underwood, David. 2015. Featured Artist, Still: The Journal, no. 18 (Summer). Portfolio of 12 of Underwood’s mixed-media, “image/text” works. “Underwood and his wife...founded Sapling Grove Press, a small, independent publishing company....Their third publication, Rich Community: An Anthology of Appalachian Photographers, is due for release.” http://www.stilljournal.net/featured-artist-davidunderwood.php.
Weedman, Russell. 2015. Featured Artist, Still: The Journal, no. 17 (Winter). 417 words. Profile of Whitely Co., Ky., artist Weedman with a portfolio of six of his paintings. http://www.stilljournal.net/featured-artist-russellweedman.php.
White, Betsy K. 2013. Backcountry Makers: An Artisan History of Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. 183 pp. Expands on White’s previous study, Great Road Style (2006). 230 photographs, with biographical sketches of 75 “potters, weavers, spinners, quilters, embroiderers, cabinetmakers, metalsmiths, clocksmiths, gunsmiths, and artists,” 18th-20th century.
Witek, John. 2013. “Huntington, the Way We Were: The Hometown Photographs of Levi Holley Stone.” Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 39, no. 2 (Summer): 44-51. Biography with nine accompanying, early 20th-century, b&w photos of the city.
Wudarski, Rebecca. 2014. Featured Artist, Still: The Journal, no. 16 (Fall). Profile of West Virginia artist Wudarski, with a portfolio of six of her paintings. http://www.stilljournal.net/featured-artist-rebecca-wudarski.php.
Zorbanos, Beth Kelley. 2015. “The Art of Making Cornshuck Dolls and Real Connections.” Interview by Breanna Finley, Ross Lunsford, Heather Giovino, and Corey Lovell. Foxfire Magazine 49, no. 1-2 (Spring-Summer): 37-61.