What happens when you toss perfectionism out the window and invite adults to play with glue sticks and torn paper? You get ArtFolk, the Weaverville-based collective where “making art is the only qualification to become an artist.” In this episode, ArtsvilleUSA Executive Director Elise Wilson joins ArtFolk founders Kelly Reese and Jennifer Jacey in Jen’s delightfully chaotic studio to talk about reclaiming creativity, dissolving the myth of “not being creative,” and why ripping up junk mail might be the catharsis you never knew you needed. From tackling the intimidation factor of Instagram-perfect art to building a genuine community that welcomes total beginners and seasoned painters alike, these founders are on a mission to prove that making bad art is not just acceptable, but essential.

Episode Credits

Host: Elise Wilson, ArtsvilleUSA Executive Director

Guests: Kelly Reese, Jennifer Jacey

Recording location: Jennifer’s magical, slightly messy Weaverville studio

Produced by: ArtsvilleUSA

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Love is in the air.

It's Valentine's folks.

And today's episode is Things yous Love.

With the People youe Love.

Earlier this month, our clever editor, Morgan Lawrence put together a few date night ideas for you and your special someone.

But what about the other important relationships in our lives?

Today we're talking with ArtFolk, a community based art initiative out of Weaverville, North Carolina just north of Asheville that wants.

To give you a chance to explore.

Your creativity with friends old and new in a low pressure environment through pop up workshops and community events.

This is Elise Wilson of Artsville USA and I have with me today Kelly and Jen recording from Jen's art studio.

Hi.

Do you want to introduce yourselves?

Sure.

I'm Kelly Reese.

I am the co founder and director of artfolk and a local artist.

I'm Jennifer Jacey.

I am also co founder of artfolk and I am the community programs director.

So Art Folk is a group of folks that come together to create.

But you said an interesting word which is artist.

Can you tell me who is an artist?

Yeah, I mean, I think the reason we chose artfolk as our name is because it implies that everybody who's involved is an artist.

In our opinion, you're an artist as soon as you pick up a paintbrush, a glue stick, hot glue gun, anything.

I think there's.

Speaking from my own experience as a self taught artist, there's so much fear in calling yourself an artist and I think that's unnecessary.

I don't think it's anything official, it's not anything fancy.

If you make art, you're an artist.

And I think especially in this area where there's a lot of professional artists, we really want people to understand that making art is the only qualification to become an artist.

And that's what we want to encourage people to do is to make art, to find their own creativity.

And what do you think, Jin?

Who's an artist?

I agree with what Kelly was just saying.

I know my own journey.

I, I felt like I was an artist when I was in high school and I was taking art classes at school and I thought that was wonderful.

But then as I got older and I went to college, I actually went to a school that was really known for art and I didn't think that I should take art classes anymore.

I didn't think I was good enough to be an artist.

So I went on a different path.

And I think that happens to a lot of adults.

We like lose that childhood magic.

And I agree that if you're making a Creation of some form, you're an artist.

And I feel like the word artist can even extend past just traditional artistic mediums.

Like, there's artistry in so many different categories.

And I think we're really passionate about helping people reclaim that word for themselves.

Because people stop feeling allowed to claim that title somehow for themselves.

Because if they weren't making money off of it, or if they weren't considered professional or using professional grade supplies, all of these things kind of really impacted people's ability to say, I'm an artist.

And we just believe that that's not actually true.

Even if you're not good at it, you're an artist.

Even if you're good at it, but you don't excel at it, you're an artist.

Like, it's just the act of creation makes you an artist.

We've done a couple community events here in Weaverville.

And it's interesting how many adults walk up to the table with their children and they say, you know, go ahead, kids.

And we're like, well, please join us.

We know we're actually an adult organization.

And they say, well, I'm not creative.

And it's like, well, what does that really mean?

You know?

And then they pick up a paint marker or whatever and they color it and they have a great time.

I think there's this thing in our minds that we've lost since childhood that there's some qualification to make you creative or make you an artist other than just picking up something and making something.

That's really all that there is to it.

I totally agree.

In my own life, there's a very similar story where I took art classes and that felt like art.

But as soon as you're not making money off of art, there's this feeling around the word that you, you know, maybe have creativity, but that's not the same thing as being an artist.

Or you get really tied to the end result.

And so if it's good, you can be an artist.

But if it's not up to your standards, which is most art for most people, Right?

Even professional artists, they said continuous process of learning and developing your skills where there's a gap between the thing, the product you see in your mind, and what you're able to create, where you.

You feel insecure about it.

And I love that you're digging into that feeling to give everybody sort of a reclamation of the word.

That's amazing.

You're going to be your most critical person and not really see your own gift in what you're creating.

But Somebody else might look at what you're doing and be kind of wowed at what you're doing.

I think it's interesting because as a self taught artist who does some sell my work and I'm also a teacher of beginner art students, I see so many people not liking what they're making and I say all the time, you know, you have no idea how many bad things I have made for this workshop that I'm teaching you today.

I tried to do the example project five times and wasn't happy with it.

So the fact that you did this on the first try is amazing.

I think people don't realize that if you are trying to sell it, if you are trying to make it a career or even a hobby, there's so much practice and so much work and discipline and, you know, the practice of it is part of that.

I don't know if that's why some people disqualify themselves, but I think that's what qualifies you is the fact that you make bad art over and over again.

Basically.

Well, not the same for any skill, but there's something about art.

I feel like if you didn't walk around with your sketch pad when you were eight years old, then you never develop that sense of self as an artist and you just carry that with you.

Yeah.

So for me personally divorcing myself from the outcome and like you said, if, if I am creating then I claim the title.

Yeah, I know the last few months what I've been doing is experimenting with a whole bunch of things that I've never tried before.

So yeah, there's been a lot of really bad art.

And so sometimes I'll put them in a little pile and then know maybe a month later go, hm, I wonder what I could do with this bad art.

Like could I transform that into something else and try a couple more things and keep attempting to see if?

Yeah, like I've been doing these like scribbling color things.

It's just like sometimes the colors look great together and sometimes they don't.

And I saw somebody use a technique where you cut them into circles.

So maybe the whole page doesn't look good, but the circle looks really cool.

And it's like it helped me to reframe that shape.

Sure.

Maybe not everything I do is perfect or great, but maybe there's a piece in there that is actually the piece that I'm looking for out of what I'm creating too.

That's really interesting.

And I think it is interesting too how if you are an artist, maybe you get married to your medium, and then you don't have the same skills or background on a different medium.

And so you never explore it out of fear, out of that gap between what it is that you want to create and what you're actually able to do.

Because you, you are not practice at learning.

And I really love that what you guys do is give people, you know, supplies on the table and say, go for it.

Yeah.

And as long as you have the courage to go for it, it's amazing what happens.

That's one of our biggest joys.

And one of the things that we want to do with our folk is just give people things to try.

Because, you know, starting out by yourself, especially in this, this day and age of, you know, Instagram and all these things online that you're seeing, it's so confusing.

I started teaching myself watercolor, and it took me so long and a lot of money to figure out what type of watercolor I wanted.

You know, I've discovered gouache in the past few years, but there's two types of gouache and which kind do you want?

And after I bought almost every color in both types and decided I liked one type of, I went back to the other.

So we want to create a space where people can try things and not have to worry about the cost and not have to worry about the result.

I think we're more focused on the process and the fact that it's relaxing and that you're doing it together and that there's just this space that feels accessible, that feels safe.

Nobody's expecting you to have a gallery quality piece at the end of the night.

It's really the process and the joy.

Of it that is our goal, I think.

I know one of the things that we were going to talk about today was, you know, why do so many adults feel so disconnected from making art?

And like, why is something like art folk so important?

And one of the things that comes to mind for me is like, the openness of free play with creativity is so missing now as a kid.

Like, you know, you're kind of given your fundamental art classes, usually depending on the school budget and all that, but primary colors, things like that, like, you learn some basic fundamentals, but really for a kid, it's about being inspired in the moment.

Like, I watch my step kid come in here and they just take a look around at the art supplies and they just grab a bunch of things and start playing with it.

And as an adult, we don't really have that opportunity.

Very often there aren't spaces where you can just go in and have that same child like, sense of wonder, of like, wow, look at all these things that I could play with.

And just seeing what happens in those moments.

Oftentimes like to do art as an adult, sometimes it is a big financial investment, a lot of times it's here, come take this art workshop.

Come learn how to do this for me.

I.

My partner is a teacher at this retreat center and he kept telling me about their art space.

And so I finally had the chance to go down and see it and I walked in and my jaw just hit the ground because it's for adults.

And you walk in and it is just a room full of random art supplies.

It's not like high end stuff.

It's a lot of things that were donated, but there's all sorts of just things to play with.

And my creativity kind of came alive in that moment and realized, wow, this is what I've been looking for, is just something where I can just feel inspired in a moment to play.

And I think a lot of adults are looking for that just to reconnect back to themselves to the joy that they had as a kid.

Especially in the world today, where everything can kind of feel a little heavy to reconnect to that magic that you have when things felt a little carefree, when you felt really in touch with your imagination, all of that feels like a really important thing to remind people of that you don't have to, you don't even really have to have any fundamentals.

You can have a glue stick or some hot glue and you can have, you can really create something that will bring you joy.

Yeah, Honestly, I think it's almost nice not to have the fundamentals and just play.

I mean, that's where the breakthroughs happen.

One of my biggest sayings in art is break the rules.

I mean, learn the fundamentals, definitely that's going to be helpful, but you don't have to follow them.

You know, that's not the point.

The point is to experiment and try something on your own.

I wonder for my own self about that disconnection from creativity that you're talking about.

How much of it happens because we're consuming so much media.

And like you said on Instagram, scrolling, scrolling through all these people who are amazing at what they do.

And when you don't immediately match up, it feels like you're not doing something right.

That you can't get to the highest level immediately makes you back off altogether.

I agree with that.

And I think there's also then this pressure that if you create, you have to put it online and show people.

And maybe that's actually not true.

Like, some people, that might be your path.

You might want to do that, but not everybody, not everybody needs to do that.

I found what helped me is I don't even know how it happened, but somebody who's teaching, she teaches, like, art for meditation, which I'm really, really drawn to.

But she says over and over again, this is not about, like, making, like, something pretty or beautiful.

It's really about just connecting to your emotions.

Take the colors that you're drawn to, scribble with it.

And she, like, teaches, like, scribble art.

Like, anybody can scribble.

It may or may not come out beautiful, but really it's just getting you in touch with, like, yourself.

And that really helped shift my mindset.

And from there, I really do feel like I've made a significant shift in the fact of mine doesn't need to be what I'm seeing online.

It just needs to come from whatever I'm experiencing on the inside and putting that out.

And I feel like what I've made since then has actually been really powerful.

Maybe it's not good, but it's been really powerful, a powerful practice for me.

It's actually made me start having an art practice because I realized, wow, you know, maybe I can just pick up these random little things that are basically like crayons.

Like, they've got these things called temper paint sticks now that are like, basically crayons for adults, but they're a kid's.

A kid's art supply, but they're like a creamy crayon, and you can just scribble like you did when you were a kid.

And it's so much fun.

And, yeah, sometimes I create something kind of cool, and I'm like, wow, I did that.

That's really amazing.

But mostly it's about just getting in touch with myself as opposed to what everything in the world is telling me to do and to stop comparing to these people that have probably practiced quite a bit.

And it's actually gotten me in the habit of practicing to see, like, hey, does this work?

Does this not work?

And diving into the idea of experimentation for pleasure.

Anytime that you can choose creativity over consumption, that's.

Every time I get in those moments of doom scrolling, I'm like, I need to stop taking things in and put something out instead.

It feels better.

And that feeling that you get can be enough.

Enough to validate the choice that you're making not to take so much in when it's too much and too heavy.

I think there's also an element that I personally love of doing something with my hands.

I gravitate toward, like, block printing, where you're carving something out.

I took ceramics classes all last year where you're literally sticking your hands in some dirt.

So I think even.

Even with paint, you know, watercolor, there's an element of you've got it on your hands at the end, and you did something with your.

With your hands.

And that's just so meditative and is such a different experience to most of the work I've done in my career.

And a lot of us do where we're, you know, typing on a computer all day.

So, yeah, just separating yourself from this, like, imaginary world on the Internet and actually using your hands is.

Is a really powerful thing.

And I think that's something so many people are drawn towards.

And there's, you know, granny hobbies are coming back, and I think there's a reason for that, because it's something that we need in our bodies and our.

For our mental health.

Well, so many folks took up new creative hobbies during the pandemic for the same reason that it is people felt and learned that it's so good for your brain.

Yeah.

That mind, body, connection matters, and it makes a difference to your stress levels and to processing your.

Your emotions and your grief.

You don't have to go out and buy a lot of art supplies if you really don't have the means.

You can just take some paper that you have at home or a book that you know is damaged and rip it up if you need to, or some newspaper or something and really see what you can create with that.

Which I think is another big part of our mission is.

Is accessibility, because it is, like Kelly said, art supplies.

You know, when you're first starting out, that can cost a lot.

It can really.

It can be a barrier for a lot of people to reconnect to that.

So helping people realize, like, no, you can actually work with what you have and work towards that next step, I think, is a really big part of what we're also trying to do.

Yeah, providing a space where they can try things without having to buy them.

And in addition to not having to buy something, trying two different types of the same type of medium, like a, you know, a liquid watercolor versus a pan watercolor.

What does that feel like?

What's the difference?

Which one do I prefer without having to buy it all ahead of Time is, is part of my personal goal for artful cause.

I wish, you know, I wish that had this had been around when I was starting to teach myself.

Because how are you supposed to know, you know, unless you try it?

Right?

You can't know.

Yeah.

So I think we've talked a lot about your philosophy and background and origin.

Can you really explicitly talk about what Art Folk is?

Sure.

I mean, right now Art Folk is something different than I think it hopefully will be because we don't have a permanent space yet, so we're really operating in other people's spaces.

The Weaverfield Community center has graciously partnered with us.

We have a monthly craft club, which is what we've talked about a lot, where we just have two full six foot tables of craft supplies where you can do whatever you want.

You know, we have an idea binder if you need help.

We are both there to facilitate, to answer questions.

But we've been amazed at how excited people are to just jump in and do something, try a different medium, try a different supply.

So that's a big part of what Art Folk is.

Right now we're starting to do some workshops in addition.

So I think that's kind of the core of what Artfolk always will be, is that it will be an open space to do whatever you want with the supplies that are there.

And then also we'll have guided workshops.

I teach, Jen teaches, we're going to bring in other people to teach.

So hopefully we'll have workshops for whatever you want to learn, that kind of thing.

I mean, there's a million ideas of what it will become.

But the core of it, our big two goals are creativity and maybe even above that is community.

And we want to create a space that's safe, that's accessible, that people can make those connections.

That can be a third space for people to come and just explore that creativity in a community.

I've taught art classes for about three years now, and something I hear almost every time is I love doing this, but I don't ever do it alone, even if I have the supplies.

So, you know, there's that element of doing it in community that is so needed.

And we've heard from almost everybody that has participated in our craft club that they, they're just so excited.

This has been so needed for a long time and we're just really excited that people are resonating with it.

Yeah, it's been.

The craft club itself has been an absolute joy and quite a surprise.

Like the turnout has been a little overwhelming to to us, like, of like, wow, we didn' so many people to come.

And people are excited to come back every month.

They're starting to form connections with one another.

Not in a way that feels, you know, like new people can't join, but people are starting to be like, oh, hey, what are you doing this time?

You know, like they're, they're recognizing each other's faces.

They're starting to build community.

And that's a really wonderful thing to be a part of and to witness happening because it is so.

It's inspiring, it's encouraging it.

I keep saying I can feel it in the air.

Like for years now, I can feel the need for this in the air.

And I've come into contact with so many people that are either artists or related to art in some way or even not that say the same thing.

And I think it's just such a joy to be able to facilitate it.

And I think we have goals for it, but we're also very interested in letting it become what it needs to become.

Yeah.

So for right now, it is pop ups and it's our craft club.

We are, we have goals and we're planning towards the future of what it will become.

So when, when Kelly's talking about pop ups, we are doing a lot of events with the town.

We've done community murals and our community events for like the big Weaverville town events where we try to get everybody involved, include like a lot of kids are the ones that do step up to do it.

And we're trying to encourage the adults to come too.

And like, then we let them know that there's actually an event for adults that are, that is in town too.

And yes, we're doing the workshops right now.

We're partnered with the library and we're trying to find other areas where we can do a lot of teaching events as well as people can like hire us to come and do a creative event for a party or for a workshop, for like corporate events or office things.

If you're trying to do an office bonding, we do a lot of things like that as well to help the staff bond together or friends come together for birthdays or celebrations too.

Yeah, I think I've said if it involves art and it involves community, we're there.

I would like to dive a little bit more into the idea of Weaverville being your home because you've talked about getting involved with the library, with the community center, and obviously, Jen, you live here in Weaverville, but what makes North Asheville a good home for Art pulp.

Yeah.

Kelly and I both live in Weaverville, so it's close to our hearts of this Weaverville itself.

The north Asheville area, north of Asheville area, Weaverville, Marshall, Mars, Hill, all of it is such an artistic driven community.

There are so many artists here.

It is kind of a sprawling area.

And when you're an artist, it can be a little bit of an isolating experience.

A lot of artists do create on their own.

So we're trying to find a way to have a community that comes together regularly to help bring the artists out of their little creativity hermit hole and come together to help inspire, you know, new artists, learn new techniques.

Maybe, maybe they are like you mentioned earlier about.

Sometimes you kind of get stuck in your own medium and you don't want to branch out to something else, but you might be a little bit curious about it.

So to give local artists this like spark of ooh, I could go try that over there.

That sounds great as well.

This area is really developing in a really big way.

The growth here is pretty tremendous.

They're planning to build a hospital in the area which will bring a lot of jobs, a lot of things here.

So it is a very small town feel and we really think it's important to keep that feeling here as the expansion grows.

And by doing that, by having like a core community gathering place that helps to like really solidify that small town feeling and that artistic feeling so it doesn't get lost in the transition.

Right.

Yeah.

And I think we love Asheville.

Obviously.

You know, I've done a lot of artistic things in Asheville, but Weaverville is a more underserved area in terms of places like this.

You know, there are art studios in Asheville and some of them might be more tourist driven.

You know, we are not opposed to that.

But also we are very much wanting to keep our small town feel and our community that's already here and already thriving, but can sometimes feel isolated.

For example, I'm also part of Art Safari, which is a self guided studio tour.

There's over 70 artists involved, but they're each at their own studio.

So we don't even really meet each other.

So I think it can just be very isolating.

So you said something really interesting, which is that artists are often isolated in their practice.

In your hermit hole, I think you said.

Yes.

My question to you is, how did you two meet and get together?

I love this story so much.

It's like my favorite thing to tell.

Yeah.

I was teaching myself.

I was confused.

I wished that there was a place that I could go where I could just try on all these art supplies.

And so I thought, maybe I should create that.

I had gone to the creative arts space that my partner teaches at, and I was blown away by the space.

I was like, gosh, I wish this was in every town.

This is the coolest thing I've ever seen.

And then after Hurricane Helene happened here, I just felt this strong pull inside of wishing that that space existed for people to come and process their emotions through art.

I desperately wanted it.

And I kind of heard, you know, in my mind of, well, you're gonna have to create that.

And I was like, that's hysterical.

Like, I do not have that.

That's not who I am.

I wasn't that at the time.

I wasn't really doing art for myself yet either, like, on a consistent basis.

OCC but then that nudged me of, like, well, I wish there was a space I could go and learn how to do art regularly.

And so that pull was right there.

And that I really felt like, again, I felt it in the air, too.

I could feel it was important.

And I kind of laughed and said out loud, like, well, if you want me to do that, you have to send me something, somebody.

And two weeks later, there was a notice around town saying that there's an abandoned warehouse on Reams Creek, and they were wondering about the interest in turning it into a property for artists that had been displaced during Hurricane Helene.

And I was like, well, I can't ignore that.

So we both showed up at this event, and I spoke up and said, hey, is there any anybody thinking about making a community art space in here?

And I happened to be standing right next to Kelly when it happened, and she turned to me and said, I have the same idea.

We should talk.

It was kind of one of those things that was too.

Too weird to, like, process in the moment.

We exchanged contact information.

And then I think a few weeks later, we had our first just informal meeting and started just kind of sharing what both of us had a vision for.

It seemed really aligned.

I don't think there was ever a moment where.

Where we actually said, let's work together.

I think we just kept doing it.

You know, it was just really natural.

From the beginning, we kept meeting, and we had met at this real estate function.

But then we hadn't heard anything else about that space.

And so our idea was, let's get ready for it.

If it ever happens.

Let's just start doing the things to get to a place where we would be ready for something like that.

And that's what we've been doing.

What's the saying?

Luck is where preparation and opportunity combined.

Yeah.

Nice.

That's a good one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm wondering what a typical meeting looks like.

If I show up to a meeting, what supplies or medium should I expect to find?

What does the flow look like?

Okay.

Yeah.

Craft club.

Yeah.

So it started out with everything Jen and I already had in our.

In our home art spaces, which is.

A shocking amount of art supplies.

And then we've slowly, over time, as you know, we take donations for craft club.

As we've gotten some more money, we've bought things that we felt like we're missing.

We do have a lot of paper craft for collage.

We have a lot of magazines.

We have old books, all sorts of different kind of papers that you can play with.

We have every kind of gluing apparatus.

There's all sorts of embellishment things you can play with to add to it.

Fabric, fabrics, bones.

Yep, all of that.

We have coloring pages and.

And coloring tools, whether it's pencils or markers or things.

So that way, if you just really kind of need, like, a low entry way to create, but you're.

You're not.

You're not really ready to be inspired by something.

You can grab a coloring page and just color and kind of get the vibe and feel how everything's going in there.

We have threads and needles and embroidery supplies.

We have watercolors.

We have acrylics, brushes for both of those things.

We have acrylic paint, markers, you know, liner markers.

Oh, we have some block printing supplies.

Not necessarily to carve because we haven't.

We haven't gotten into giving people blades yet.

We'll wait till we.

We have insurance for that.

But we do have some, you know, blocks that I've carved in the past that you can make.

Make whatever you want, but another element of it is that you can bring something you're working on.

So we've had people bring, you know, felting projects.

Somebody last week or last month brought was, like, a Japanese technique of making fabric and into, like, a faux quilt.

It was.

It was so cool.

Yeah.

And somebody else brought, like, rocks that they were painting to create, like, mandalas on.

So you can bring whatever you actually have that you want to.

Which is a nice.

A nice thing.

And we also have an inspiration binder, which has got, like, just different craft things that we've seen.

So you can flip through if you.

And it's craft projects based on all the stuff that we already have on hand.

So you can look at it and say, oh, wow, I could do that.

We have all the stuff right here, and we are there to assist.

Like, anyone that wants to get started or needs an inspiration point or needs to know how to do something, we can help guide with that, too.

Yeah.

So it's.

I mean, it's like, kind of ever growing at this point.

I think we do have a really good variety.

Like, you know, from my watercolor example, we have.

We have liquids, we have pans, we have tube watercolor, if you want to try all three and compare.

So, yeah, there is just a lot of.

A lot of stuff that you might have tried and a lot of stuff you might not have tried.

A lot of the supplies will continue to grow as we grow, too.

That's.

We do take donations.

If there's something that.

If you're thinking about coming and you want to know if we have something, you can always shoot us an email and ask us or.

Yeah, we can let you know if we have it or not.

The things we're always taking donations for, FYI, are, you know, we love buttons.

Love buttons.

Decorative papers, magazines, fabric, music.

Yeah.

Any kind of, like, really interesting things like that that would create cool collage.

Your.

Your grandma's costume jewelry.

Yes.

Any broken jewelry.

Broken costume jewelry is really.

We love that because that's great for embellishing just about everything.

So, though, who would be the right person to come to a craft club?

Everyone.

Everyone.

Absolutely everyone.

It's focused on adults 12 and up.

Welcome.

With adult supervision.

But other than that, Absolutely everyone.

You know, you don't have to have any experience.

You don't have to have ever touched a paintbrush, a glue stick.

Please come.

Another big thing that we want to emphasize is come alone, because this is a place to meet people.

The point of this is community.

We are very kind.

We are nice people.

Yes.

We will welcome you.

I got someone come last month who had just moved here from New York, and I was so happy that she found us.

And I think by the end of the night, she kind of felt like she had maybe found a little bit of her community, and it made me so happy.

I love that.

What a great way to get connected, right?

Yeah.

If someone's interested in coming to a craft club meeting, or just seeing what you guys are up to.

What's a good place for them to find you?

Our website is artful.

We always have our upcoming events there or we also have a mailing list that you can join from the website.

We send out an email at the beginning of the month letting you know what's coming up.

We also sent out a mid month email.

Our social media is artful on Instagram as well as Facebook.

And I would say like, you know, sign up for the Weaverville Community center also because they really have a lot of great programming and they really do support us in a really big way.

And they do announce our craft clubs too or any changes to the.

To the schedule from them too that they're really.

Yeah.

Valuable ally to have.

They're wonderful.

Yeah.

So I'd say if you are interested at all, please join our mailing list because we would be happy to, you know, we, we would love to have you if you're, you know, have a cousin who might be in town and you want to come together or you know, anything like that, really.

Any.

Anybody is welcome.

There's no requirements.

We've had professional artists.

We've had people who just know us and want to support us and that, you know, they come in saying I'm not creative, but then they keep coming back, you know, because it's really fun.

I would say our age range too is like we've had people that are 18, we've had people that are 80.

Yeah.

So it's.

It's pretty much everybody.

And it is for men also.

Men can.

Men can create.

Men can.

Men can be crafty.

Men can make art.

Once we have a permanent space, some of the ideas that we have for that is to have like regular gatherings.

Like we'll have craft clubs and different clubs for different activities, but also maybe like social gatherings to, to pull the community together.

And also maybe like gallery showings for people that are creating.

Maybe even through craft club.

Like people will have a craft club.

Gallery showing or just different people that we can support in the space and have little, you know, ways to show all the different artists in the area.

Right.

Another, when I said earlier that there are so many things that we want it to become.

One of those things for me personally, I'm really passionate about is helping other aspiring artists, people who are getting started, you know, having kind of peer mentorship and encouragement.

A space where you can come if you are hitting a roadblock or you just want to talk about, you know, business types of things.

We would love to be that space where people can come as almost kind of an incubator.

There's a moment in every life of a professional artist where you have to decide that you're going to have a business, you're going to sell something, and then there's this pause between that and actually getting to the point of selling something.

It sounds like art folk would be a really good bridge to get from point A to point B.

Definitely.

I mean, I'm not.

I'm not saying I'm 100% adept at all of those things, but I've been on that journey for the past, probably eight years now, and I am in a couple programs of meeting with other artists for peer mentorship.

And it's been so powerful just to talk with other people, just to be on the same way wavelength with someone who gets it, who understands what you're going through.

So, you know, I would love to be a space where people can feel safe to come for that kind of support.

So our focus for everybody from 12 to the end of your life, from I don't know how to create to I want to make a living out of this, or I am making a living out of this.

Exactly.

For any gender, any.

Any.

Anything.

We're really, you know, we just want everyone to feel like they belong there, that they can be there.

I think that's such an important thing in today's world that you will be accepted as you are.

Yeah, like I said, creativity and art is obviously a huge part of our mission, but almost more important than that is the community aspect.

For us, we want to be a place where people make connections, where people feel safe, where they can come and just be themselves.

How do you think living that out through Creating Art Book has changed you personally or changed you as a community member?

For me, I've said to a few different people, I feel more authentic than I ever have in my work, which is such an amazing feeling.

I feel like this is an extension of just who I am.

Even the not so fun parts of building a business feel fun because it's just something I'm so passionate about.

And I have met so many people through this and through other things that I'm doing.

I've just never felt more part of the community and part of the artistic community here, which is such a great feeling.

So just feeling so deeply ingrained in the artistic community and the community in General is just such a wonderful feeling.

It's changed me for sure.

It just changes how I look at everything and how passionate I am about maintaining that and helping other people feel that as well.

A little similar for me.

And I am.

I may cry because it just, it really.

It's humbling and amazing to see how creating this has brought me community, to be a part of the town and developing relationships and people being really excited about what we're doing.

And it's also pushed me to embrace being an artist, which I have not allowed myself to be.

So it's.

It's really a wonderful feeling to show up to this and realize like, I am my target demographic, because this is what I need for myself.

I needed a place to come with other people that may be a little insecure about their art, but to be around other people that are encouraging and warm and confident in their art, to be like, no, no, no, you got this.

You can do this.

And what it's actually doing for me is also, then it's helping me to become a role model for my step kid to say, this is how you make art a priority.

This is how you, you know, no matter what path life takes you on, still be creative because it's so valuable.

And that's a really rewarding experience to get to do this.

I love that.

So are there any particular stories or moments that you want to share about that made a difference to you or really exemplified what it is you were trying to do?

Oh, I think sometimes during our community events, those are really, really powerful.

Oftentimes we do them and there'll be at least one, if not very many people that will say, oh, I used to be creative when I was younger.

Oh, I haven't picked up a paintbrush in a really long time.

Oh, no, I. I'm not creative at all.

And with just a little bit of encouragement and saying, oh, no, no, you don't have to be creative.

You know, you're literally just going to take a stamp and you're going to stamp it on this piece of paper and showing them how to do it and like, well, okay.

And then stamping and their whole face lighting up with joy and being like, look what I made.

This is so cool.

Or when we did our community mural, similarly, there was a lot of people who would say, like, oh, I used to be when I was younger.

And we would just encourage them to pick up a paintbrush and just go Color in.

And again, their whole body would relax, their face would light up in joy, and they would be so full of gratitude of just remembering that art doesn't have to be complicated.

Yeah.

For me, one of my favorite things in teaching has been the seeing the point when someone goes past the prompt or makes something their own.

You know, I'm teaching like a step by step workshop, but when someone doesn't follow my rules, it makes me so happy.

You know, I said one of my favorite sayings is, go break the rules.

So when we.

We did in.

During Art in autumn in Weaverville in September, we.

We had our community mural that people were making.

And I painted or I drew the kind of the.

The lines.

It was a paint by color, like Jenna said.

And so people could just grab a brush, paint in a section.

And I had absolutely no idea how many people were going to come.

I was like, I don't know how many spaces to make available in this.

And it turned out that it was really popular.

People loved it.

And so by the end of the day, most of the spaces were filled in.

And there were this group, I think they were teenagers maybe, who came for like the last half hour and just sat there and they started painting ladders between the clouds and faces on the little people and just adding these embellishments.

And that just makes me so happy because that's what it's about.

That's the point of creativity, is just making it your own, adding crazy elements that maybe didn't make sense with the original painting, but that's fine.

That's what we want.

And I think another more simple thing that has really resonated with me is just every month at our craft club when people are leaving and they say, see you next month.

Just the fact that, like, we set out to create community and it's happening, you know, it's such a joy to have a goal and to just see it materializing before your eyes.

It's amazing.

There was one more event which was, I think, like our first craft club, really.

I mean, we didn't know if anyone was gonna show up.

We had no idea.

And people just kept coming.

And we were in the really small room at our community center.

We, like, certainly surpassed what that room should have been capable of holding.

And it was just really startling and just really validating that what we're doing matters and is important.

And it was really a really special event to have.

Yeah.

Well, I'm feeling all the warm fuzzies, and now I want to go and take some paper and Rip it up and see what happens.

Please do Join us for Craft club.

It's the third Tuesday of every month from 6 to 8pm this month, February, we're going to be in a temporary location at the local collective in Weaverville which is a co working space because the community center is doing their civic duty and hosting early voting.

But usually we're at the Weaverville community center.

So third Tuesday of every month from 6 to 8pm and if folks are.

Interested in seeing the mural that you created at Art in Autumn, it is currently being hosted at the Ferguson Family YMCA on the Art School USA Gallery wall.

Yes.

So come and see what it looks like and what it means to color outside the lines.

Yes.

And if you if you have old art supplies that you don't need and want to donate, please reach out to us.

We would love that for our craft.

Club and for the future.

Beautiful.

Well, thank you guys so much for joining us today.

It's been awesome to learn about all of the stuff that you're doing and hope to do in the future.

I hope that you're inundated with supplies and folks who are interested in playing.

Thank you so much for having us.

Thank you.

It's so wonderful to meet you.

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