If you’ve ever rounded a corner in Asheville and come face-to-face with a monumental ripple of forged steel, chances are you’ve stumbled across the handiwork of Rachel David of RED Metal. In a city teeming with murals and microbreweries, her abstract public sculpture “Fluvial”—a centerpiece of ArtsvilleUSA’s Open // Air exhibition—refuses to be neatly filed away in the usual taxonomy of public art. Installed along the urban trail outside the old S&W Cafeteria and forged in the wake of Hurricane Helene, the piece is Rachel’s meditation on how water carves, erases, and remakes everything it touches.

In this episode, we explore what it takes to create art that belongs to everyone, from smashing through the old boys’ club of metalsmithing to designing with a community’s anxieties in mind. Along the way, Rachel recalls professors who nudged her off one path and onto another, wrestles with the realities of survival as a craftsperson, and muses on the power of public art in a city still haunted by the memory of a life-changing storm.

Get Involved / Where to Find More

Explore “Fluvial” in person in downtown Asheville or virtually in Open // Air.

See Rachel’s work at upcoming open studio tours: American Craft Council nationwide tour (July 18), the Haywood County Studio Tour (September, check the Haywood County Arts Council for details), and The Big Crafty (July 11 - 12).

Watch for new work in the Haywood Community College Sculpture Garden later this year.

Follow SIBS and SPARC to plug into inclusive metalsmithing.

Contact & Social

Website: www.redmetal.net

Instagram: @__redmetal__

Facebook: @redmetal1245

Episode Credits

Host: Elise Wilson, ArtsvilleUSA Executive Director

Guest: Rachel David, Red Metal

Produced by: ArtsvilleUSA / Arterial Inc.

Newsletter: Subscribe to the ArtsvilleUSA Newsletter for more stories and updates on the arts and crafts scene in Western North Carolina.

There's something quietly radical about a piece of metal standing in the middle of a city street asking you to stop, look and feel something.

Today's guest has built a practice around exactly that kind of intentional disruption.

Hi, all you artists and art lovers.

I'm Elise Wilson and this is Artsville usa.

Your connection to the artists, makers and creative communities shaping western North Carolina.

Rachel David is the artist behind Red Metal, a Waynesville based metalsmith whose work lives in galleries, on urban art trails and maybe right around the corner from you.

Her piece Fluvial is on Patton Avenue in downtown Asheville, and it's currently part of our virtual exhibition Open Air, which you can [email protected] today we're talking to Rachel about what public art actually does for a community, why accessibility in the arts is a form of activism, and the role that luck, good and bad, and a few very memorable professors played in getting Rachel to where she is today.

Rachel, do you want to introduce yourself?

Hi, I'm Rachel David.

I am a maker in Waynesville, North Carolina, operator at Red Metal.

The first time I saw you sign your name and your email Red, it clicked for me that that is probably an acronym of your name.

Is that right?

Those are my initials.

Cool.

Yeah.

People are like, what's Red Metal?

And I'm like, well, it wasn't even thought about.

This is my initials.

My parents didn't put it together until I was like, oh, Red.

That's such a good initials.

Definitely stroke of marketing genius.

I. I wouldn't call it that, but it was.

It like made it confusing enough so that it works out.

So I had a really interesting conversation recently with Elizabeth Brim, who's the blacksmith instructor at.

You know her at Penland.

Oh, yes.

She's a really important person in this field.

Yeah, well.

And she's exhibiting in our Open Air exhibition right now.

I saw along your work.

She said something to the effect of a lot of metal artists will not self describe as blacksmiths because there's a connotation that blacksmiths are people who shoe horses, for example.

And what we're doing with metal is sort of an entirely different genre.

There's a creative process and it.

There's a difficulty in expressing the art connotations behind that.

Would you describe yourself as a blacksmith?

I don't.

For some overlapping and some different reasons.

I don't describe myself typically as a blacksmith, though that is like when I have longer to describe my work, I will use the word depending on the audience, but it's kind of loaded also.

First, because of its connotations with Ferrier, but also because of its connotations with masculinity.

Like big burly dude, kind of like physical specimen.

And that's like, not what I'm into.

I interpret blacksmithing as one of many ways to approach a problem and like, and it often is for me, one of the more interesting ways to approach it.

And so when I'm trying, you know, a lot of my practice is trying to just learn on how to, how to be really good at what I'm trying to do.

I just, I want to be both like technically and conceptually.

I want, I want those to be in, in lockstep.

So I, I have all these ideas, but if I am not technically proficient, I can't carry those.

So a lot of what I've worked on is just practicing how to do things and how to solve a problem in a way that is interesting, challenging and appropriate.

It's not necessarily the fastest, it's probably the most difficult, but in a convincing and elegant way.

That's more my kind of parameters for problem solving.

I like when they're kind of elegant solutions.

Like if I can make a tool to make a shape to fill a void so that that would solve it rather than covering the void and losing, losing that reveal.

I, I mean, I certainly prefer doing hot work.

It's fun, fun.

But I also have my machining credentials from Haywood Community College and I'm a proficient fabricator of many alloys of metal and mostly steel.

I'll be real.

But like, I'm doing a lot more non ferrous stuff and like that's part of it.

You know, it's like each project lets me get good at something else and that, that's always an important part of the design.

And like, I'm so, I'm so lucky.

I get to design most of my work.

So it's not like, like there's no script lucky.

And also like I, it's a risky, hard thing, but it's, it keeps me, it keeps me quite engaged.

I think the payoff's pretty huge too.

I mean, your work is incredible.

Thank you.

Payoff is an interesting way to say it.

Yeah.

Well, so I have a couple of questions about your background.

You mentioned that you studied at Haywood Community College.

And we have another exhibition with their recent grads up on artsvilleusa.com oh my gosh.

Heywood Community College is such a cool resource.

I just think, I just get so excited and I'm really excited because they have this sculpture garden that they're growing right now and I get to do a project for that.

I'm very, very happy.

I mean, like, that school is such an incredible resource.

I'm personally love it.

I also a fangirl over them.

I completely get the hype.

I'm curious, were you in Haywood county prior to going to school there?

Where did you grow up?

Oh, I've been all over.

It was a really rough time, but it's a.

It was a huge credit load for like a person who runs a business.

But it was wonderful.

I mean, just the access and just that it exists, honestly.

Just that it exists.

So you were metal already at the time?

Your business was red metal that you're currently working?

Oh, yes.

I've been in business since 20.

Okay.

Do you think that it changed your process?

Yeah, yeah.

I feel like I can approach things in a lot of different ways now.

Like even more different ways where I'm not like right now, actually for the.

I'm making some fireplace doors for an outdoor fireplace.

So also including a screen.

So I'm making what are called Cremon bolts, where you like the mechanism.

When you turn the handle, the mechanism goes both up and down at the same time.

And it's kind of.

It's not a complicated mechanism, but it's an elegant mechanism.

And to do that sealed within a door frame that will experience heat and cooling.

And it's all stainless.

And so there's like a lot of different scary bits and pieces to it.

It's so interesting.

I wouldn't have done that if I hadn't had that experience that gave me a lot more confidence using tools and gave me vocabulary to learn more.

Because so much of what I struggle with, asides from not having like connections to people in different fields necessarily.

Is this like the right word to use?

Like what you call this thing?

Having more background definitely helps when you're trying to find a blueprint or an idea.

So take me back a little bit further.

How did you get into metal to start with?

I had the.

I went to school initially.

I went to college initially for music and Russian history.

I went.

I was a double degree at Overland College for a very short amount of time.

Very short.

It was not.

I am not good at school, but I am good at faking it.

So anyway, one of the substitute Teachers was a metalsmith.

And she and I found affinity together.

And she taught.

She was looking for someone to help filing with her with her husband's stone carving.

Her husband at the time, stone carving business.

And I was informed by my music professor that I would only ever be mediocre.

And I said, okay, that's great feedback.

I think I'll stop.

And was working overnight and working for her and her husband's stone carving business, doing filing.

And she taught me how to weld and braise.

And.

That was just entirely transformative.

Fast forwards.

I did that for a while.

I moved to Olympia, Washington, and I was doing a lot of welding and training.

And then I went to Evergreen State College and my teacher.

I was working in the metal shop because I had, like, enough background in metal work to, like, be able to do the tech position.

I also used to do a lot of woodwork, and it was kind of like there was an overlap in that position.

So anyway, the teacher there, Bob woods, he said, you know, if you get that hot and hammer on it, you'll get it to do what you want.

You know, I was just like, well, and my brain just kind of melted.

And he ruined me for welding and having any kind of, like, lucrative financial career.

It sounds like one professor after the another has sort of ended your pathway.

And started you anew, you know, in their.

In their, like, bits and pieces.

Yeah.

I'm like, I.

But also, these were very memorable moments.

Like, those were like those mile markers where it's like, okay, I'm gonna take this left turn and now this one and this one.

And now I'm on this, like, little trail.

Well, if you could go back in time and give your younger self advice to help them get to where you are now, what would you say?

I think that I would mostly say, you know, go forth, take risks, bud.

Like, I was in the.

I have to say, I was in the right place at the right time a lot.

I was in the wrong place at the right.

At the wrong time or whatever.

That inverse is also a lot.

But I got a lot of really interesting experiences that I don't think are possible in the contemporary world.

Or if they are like, some very normal or not very normal, but like, some, like, kind of, you know, whatever person like me wouldn't have stumbled into those experiences right now because of technology, because of things that, like, because of costs, because of, like, like, I had an apartment in Baltimore for a hundred dollars a month, like that, or 125, like, that doesn't exist for an 18 year old.

And that's really different.

Yeah, like, those are the differences that like, I could exist.

Like, I managed a building in New Orleans for I think, guess eight or nine years, and it was 29,000 square feet and there was like 20 artists in there and the rent was cheap.

I could work for the museums.

I was a preparator for the museums for a long time.

And like that's a part time job.

I mean it's full time, part time.

It's like show based.

Like, that doesn't exist now.

So it's just like being really in the right place, like, gave me that ability.

And I don't know if I met myself and that was, it was in now's timeline, I would be like, yeah, that would work out.

Like, I would probably be like, that doesn't exist, bud.

I'm sorry.

Let me try to help you.

But also, good luck.

It does seem like a series of serendipitous events.

How do you feel like living in all these different places and all the steps you took along the way influenced your work now?

Oh, a lot.

All of the places have led me to meet so many people.

And I think that, like, it's more the people than the place in terms of cities that I've lived in.

I have been so lucky.

I moved to New Orleans the January before Hurricane Katrina and, and I had met the.

I work.

Moved there to work for this glassblowing equipment building company that actually I met at Penland.

And he hired me, I think partially because I could do the worm across the gym floor, like, and he could too, like, hurl my face at the floor.

I'm not afraid of it.

But like, that move led me to meet some of the most important people in my life and like, people who I keep close even though I don't live close anymore.

And like, but the New Orleans diaspora that like, I love people are all over.

I mean, like, a lot of friends live in Kingston, New York right now and a lot of friends are still in New Orleans and a lot of friends have moved out.

Well, you know, like, there's people who I love all over and everyone is just brilliant.

Like, I was at the Smithsonian craft show and my friend Meg Turner was in, in D.C. also selling her artist print book to the Women's Museum library collection.

I just died about it.

I am so proud for her.

I just love her so much.

She's so talented.

Like, that kind of, that kind kind of community is just so special and like, not replaceable.

And I didn't move because I didn't love my people.

I just moved because I.

It was my time, but being here, my inspiration.

Sorry, getting back to inspiration because that was like a long gushing about friends.

We love to hear it.

I mean friends are what's up.

So then I went on a trip and I had laid out kind of this like Venn diagram of things that I need, like a list of things and, and, and this region met.

Met that list.

And so I was.

Then I was fortunate enough to house it for a friend in Mountain City, Tennessee.

And then like entirely coincidentally, Daniel Miller and his husband Steve Lloyd live right across and they.

Daniel Miller coincidentally went to elementary, middle and high school with my father.

And Daniel is also a blacksmith.

And there's Small World and Waynesville's so cool partially because of them.

Like Steve was the executive director of the theater for 35 years.

And like they're just incredible people.

So having them as community to be in this place makes place much more part of my inspiration.

Now you mentioned that you moved to New Orleans right before Hurricane Katrina and you've just gone through Hurricane Helene with the rest of us.

Art School USA hosted the Tale of Two Cities exhibition which you can find online, exploring the themes of the way that artists keep memory and stories and hold those after and through disaster and the way that communities show up and respond.

You've talked about your connection to New Orleans and what you were doing down there.

How did it feel going through a situation of that magnitude?

Again?

Terrible.

Hurricane Katrina was so transformative for everyone who experienced it even tangentially or in the aftermath.

It really, really changed so much for everyone.

And it's wake and I believe like we're still in the initial phases of that history unfolding for holine.

But man, seeing a, seeing a place that like probably wouldn't have a hurricane was not outside of my thought process when I am not a.

Not a fan.

And I had a. I had a landslide up here, so I had no idea that the hill would come too.

So I had done a lot of my, A lot of my thoughts when I was like fixing this place pre, like when I first moved in was in some reaction to my experience during Katrina.

I don't know what my long term feelings will be about Helene, but what I witnessed in terms of like people coming together and recovery was just so incredible.

I feel like I've said this so many times because I find it so remarkable, but like the way that Asheville and the surrounding counties came to the rescue of not only it's like people in need.

But also it's small businesses, like, also its artists.

Also it's like creative professionals, musicians, et cetera.

Like, it was truly remarkable in a way that, like, Louisiana's really, really poor.

That's it.

And Louisiana hates New Orleans.

And so that's just.

There was an.

There's like a large system of racism that made that reaction and recovery, like, so inexcusable.

And that's really different than what happened here.

And I can't say that's the only difference, but that's a huge difference.

Certainly no one thought.

No one.

Many people moved here or lived here thinking that we were insulated, that we were protected from big weather.

And that was a real surprise and wake up call for so many of us.

Yes, wake up.

So Art School USA currently has an exhibition up called Open Air, which is celebrating outdoor art and outdoor spaces.

And it's.

I don't want to call it a response to Helene, but it's certainly reintroducing folks to the beauty and joy that the outdoors brings, even though it can also be really scary.

But maybe the right word for it is respecting its power and appreciating it for what it is, which is unpredictable but also at times really joyous.

And having a connection to those outdoor spaces is really important to make sure that we're stewarding them well and respecting them for what they are.

I know that you have many pieces outdoors and several in our show.

Can you talk a little bit about what that means for you to have work outdoors versus indoors and to have work publicly available versus privately available?

I want to start with the second question first, because having work in the public is such an honor.

I just want to really shout out City of Asheville and like their public arts team.

And that I worked with with Fluvial because that was a really great experience.

Man, they were just so considerate and inclusive of all of the people who had.

All of like all of the stakeholders, just like they made it available for everyone who might have something to say, to say something.

Mo just felt really smart.

For those who don't know, you can see Rachel David's piece Fluvial in the Open Air exhibition or in downtown Asheville.

On the urban trail on Patton Avenue in front of the S and W building.

And that is also a remarkable building.

Oh, my goodness.

Whoa.

Having work that's in the public is just such an honor and such a fun.

It like, poses interesting problems to solve.

I've done a lot of work, like private commissions for public spaces, which is really different than public commissions for public Spaces.

Yes, there's often a bidding process.

Yes, there's often, yes, there's often similar considerations in terms of maintenance and safety and how the.

Because they also also often work in tandem, a developer and a municipality, but their considerations are often different.

Like there's a lot of private buy in.

Like we just had, I was in, I was just down there for Jazz Fest, but we just reconnected and it was so nice.

And like, so he was talking about this project that he's doing with the city of New Orleans in the.

There's like a suburb called Algiers and they're making an affordable senior center.

And it's awesome.

It's in an old convention, it's really cool.

But the city let go to shit and like they've taken over and are renovating it and so they're trying to make like this atrium space.

A lot of private work for public spaces has municipal aspects, but working with, working directly with the city and working directly with people like doing traffic stuff and sight lines, like that was so interesting.

And like getting their feedback was so interesting because I was like, oh yeah, of course, like you need to be able to like have a good sight line on this.

I totally, of course, I just wouldn't have necessarily like when I'm designing a sculpture, answering this one question that was posed by the call, I'm making up something for other people that brings me a lot of joy to make sure that it's good for them.

I know that a lot of people have made a lot of public art that is there and it's theirs and that's good for them.

But I, I don't, that's not really the way I want to leave something for a hundred years on the street.

You know, I want it to be something that people find affinity with or find something that like they can use and doesn't obstruct sight lines.

I don't know, you know, like, I just want it to be like the good thing.

A good thing.

So in general, why would you say that public art matters?

Public art is the.

Both the culture it represents, both the culture and the conscience of the place that it is made for.

And to have public art as a priority in legislation and budget makes for a municipality or an area that has visual appeal.

And also that's how you share with the world what is valuable.

So if it's not valuable, then there's nothing to share.

Like if there's not like, if it's not prioritized.

And there are so many ways that I've observed or been told about that.

Like, small places in large places prioritize public art.

There's teeny, tiny towns in, like, rural Mississippi that prioritize public art.

It's not because they're wealthy.

It's because they care about it.

And those are, like.

It's made by people who live in those towns who are spectacular, visionary artists.

And, like, there.

And there's, you know, New York City and the High Line, and, like, that's the priority of the city, because it's, like, gotta be so.

It's.

I just think that those are so interesting.

And I think that the way the city dealt with me during Helene was really special.

Like, they never.

We, like, had a check in soon after the storm, and I was just like.

I mean, you guys have a lot going on.

I want to cry about it.

I cry about it a lot.

Like, I have a lot going on.

All of a sudden, like, there's a hill here that wasn't any touching.

We're touching.

And, you know, so there was just, like, a lot going on, but it never.

It like, we paused, but it never left the priority list.

And that really says a lot about the priorities of the city and how it values its culture workers, its culture bearers.

And.

No, I don't live in Asheville, but I. I think I share a lot of the ethics that I see Asheville try to prioritize, like, including reparations, including all of these, like, really cool visionary legislations.

And I think that's just so interesting.

And they went above and beyond to make sure that that piece came through, especially in the wake of such a devastating storm.

And the piece is stunning.

The scale of it, too, I think, is difficult for people to understand without standing next to it.

I mean, it's pretty big.

I think that, like, I didn't wanna.

I wanted to make something that was human scale, but.

Cause it's a bench, you know, it's like part of this place.

And, like, what was very important for the call was for it to be with the building.

Like, to be of Douglas Ellington's, like, referencing that architect.

So Ellington did City hall, the S and W, and a church.

So there's just like all of these beautiful tiles on the building, but they're really high up.

And I really wanted to bring, like, this golden fountain tile down to street level.

And the roof tiles also.

The roof tiles inspired the base of the bench and the fountain tile inspired the whole Thing.

And then I am very interested in, like, ecology and movement.

And I've been doing a lot of research about erosion and like, the.

The.

Both the etymology, the meanings in, like, words, and how we use the word erosion socially, but also environmentally and what it does.

And that really, like, that piece was designed prior to Helene, but it became a, like, kind of eerie.

And I really worried about how people will take it post Helene because it wasn't, you know, we made a really.

We really didn't want to have it overlap with any of memorials or remembrances or like, for lack of a better word, right now, anniversaries of Helene.

So, yeah, I mean, like, that piece, because of the tile it was inspired by, led me to a lot of different fluvial.

I made a fluvial, which the definition is like, actions by stream from streams and water.

Another bit of serendipity of things you couldn't predict happening in a way that just makes a lot of sense in retrospect.

Yeah, kind of a lot of sense.

In, like, a sad way.

It's interesting that you bring up the way that the art that you've made, and especially the public art that you've made, relates to environmental and social justice and the way that that has to be integral to the city or the governing body itself in order to make it to the stage where they're investing in public art.

Do you feel like public art is a form of activism?

I think some people use it that way.

I hope that I'm one of those people.

I also definitely see some people using it as a way of, like, running another job through the shop to.

Also valid.

I want to use my efforts in my life, in my practice to try to speak my mind and speak about things that I think are important.

My work tends to have something to say despite being abstract.

And I think the abstraction is important in the.

In the concept like that.

That's not.

It's not a really a way of shirking duty.

It's a way of attempting to bring people who are curious closer together.

I mean, like, I'm such a.

Like, I want to think about how people are affected by what's going on around them.

Like, I'm a community.

I like community, even though I'm, like, also kind of a loner.

Like, I really love being in community with people and neighbors are super, super important.

And all of that stuff that, like, we really learned during Helene and.

And during Katrina and like, how all of that interplay.

A lot of really sad, sad things happen in the wake of disasters and A lot of really important building blocks are laid during in those times as well.

And that's what I feel like is very important as the community that I'm watching.

Like Artsville, like the center for Craft, like Mountain Biz Works, like all of these really great organizations have come together to support the communities they both serve and are part of.

I think that the overlap is really important.

I feel really honored to be mentioned in the same sentence as Stephanie Moore at Center for Craft and Jamie Karolik at Mountain Biz Works.

They are doing such incredible work and we've had podcasts of them.

Go back and listen.

Well, good job.

I mean those, they're so spectacular.

Like I got to be part of the Craft Futures cohort last year and it just felt like a group of people who are supposed to be my best friends.

It was so special.

It was so special.

I just like, I'm going to keep crying a little bit.

Like it was so special.

I just think everyone who's part of that, ah, it was a lot of it was some people who I've like admired their work for years and years and years.

And then it was a bunch of people who I'm like, oh my gosh, you're such a star.

I had no idea you existed.

Oh, because you're 20.

Like, this is so cool.

Like it was so special and it was so amazing that not only did it bring all these people together who are like makers and doing things with their hands and in this community, it also brought together people of like a vast range of like where you are in your practice and your life and what kind of practice you hold.

Like that was so, so cool, so impressive.

Everything that comes out of the center for Craft blows my mind.

It's wonderful.

Getting back to public art, I have one more question for you, which is what makes public art effective?

Ooh, that's a big one.

I think that there should be really diverse public art.

Like there's really diverse people.

And I think that like having some work made by local artists is really important.

I also think having work made by national or international artists in smaller places is really important because how else do people learn about like if, oh my God, I love this artist Ivana Bosik and, and like how else do you learn about that unless you get to see that work?

How do you viscerally experience that if it's not brought to you so that then you can go search that out, you being like a member of the non arts lay public.

But I also think that like having art by Local people makes.

I mean, when my neighbors, like, I made a bench for the Renwick, which was such an honor, and I had my knee, I had like a bench sit before it got shipped off because I, you know, I wanted my neighbors to know what.

What I was doing.

I think that there is a level of local pride that's really important.

You basically described the reason for Artsville's existence, which is that we believe that neighbors, neighbors being really broadly defined, but also really specifically defined too, should know about artists in their communities, that the people make the place like you've touched on.

And it's so important for everybody to have access to and exposure to regional crafts, certainly, but also art in general.

And I enjoy that immensely.

I think that it's really positive for people to have exposure to your voice, which I think is really interesting and shaped by a lot of different places as we've talked about.

Do you think that you bring anything specific to the table that you're trying to communicate or that people can experience in an impactful way?

I hope so.

Let me ask a follow up here.

How do your identity and lived experiences shape your approach to public art and activism?

I come from a family of people who hold that it is important to speak truth to power and to like, be good to the like, least powerful, to treat people who are least powerful as like, really important parts of the world.

Um, so I think a lot about the risks that previous generations took.

And.

Where my, like, where I get to stand on with those people and like in there, like with my ancestors, especially my grandparents, my mom's parents, they were very, very, very active both in desegregation in Baltimore and throughout Maryland, and also in anti nuclear actions.

And they like, lived blacklisted, and they were like, like.

One of the most handsome pictures of my grandfather is him testifying in front of the House and American Activities Committee.

I mean, he's a child and here he is, you can see him sweating, but it's like he's speaking truth to power, like the most powerful.

And like, how does one follow that and contribute?

And I think that, like, making my work, like, he also really, like, had a lot of aesthetic affinities and like, really loved art.

And so, you know, those.

I think about those things, like, how do I make sure that, like, anyone who want, who's interested can access this thing that's like really weird and exclusive just by nature.

And like, metalwork is exclusive by its nature because it's like super.

It needs like super industrial equipment to do things, like, in a way that doesn't suck.

And like so that's exclusive.

But like so I don't know.

And Lisa Giertson and Ann Bujold.

And like we made that and it's like really thriving.

I just try to like make sure that, you know, I hire mostly people who might not find a lot of safety or not safety.

That's like a weird word to use, but yeah, safety also that's who I try to hire.

Like people who wouldn't necessarily pursue the field if they only had access to working in big shops like with a bunch of giant men.

I like, I got welding credentials and I got a job building boats in New Orleans and it was a very short lived job.

It sucked.

It sucked to be me on a boat.

It was interesting in some ways.

And.

Then I got a commission and I was like, smell you later.

I just like, it was not fun and it was definitely not safe.

Asides from the inherent risk of the job, there were my co workers who were much scarier than the job.

And that sucks.

And that's like, I think that's what a lot of people have experienced and I don't and I hate that.

So like, if there's a way that I can subvert that, like that's what I want to do.

How do you feel like you were able to overcome some of the challenges that you faced being someone who's in a body that is not normally found in a metalworking or metalsmithing or blacksmithing space?

And how does the Society for Inclusive Blacksmithing encourage folks from backgrounds that are not historically prioritized, move them forward?

We have a lot of programs.

There's a mentorship program that they run that's just spectacular.

So people can.

It's primarily virtual, but like I've had one of my mentees come and work with me in the past.

Like really special relationships can develop that I wish that that had existed 20 years ago.

That's something that I just like really love that, you know, that was so cool.

They have a map that they've put together so that people know who's around who like understand what the mission of sibs is.

And now there's a newer in the same vein, it's called Spark and that's like specifically for people of color and it's like really cool.

And they have like, they had an event at the steelyard and another local superstar artist, David Clemens was their speaker there.

I mean, I just think David is Like, so brilliant and incredible.

Oh, my God, I love everything he's ever done.

And that organization is so cool.

And it's really brought a bunch of, like, super active and kind of unlike slightly younger people into the administration that, like.

Like, they're not the same organization, Sibs and Spark, but they are in tandem.

Do you think that there was any mental or physical fortitude that you had or that you grew?

I don't think that I'm not.

Like, I'm not different or special or like.

Like, that's not.

Like, I'm pretty creative, but like, I'm not like, special in any kind of way.

Like, along that I, like, I wanted to do a thing.

I wanted to be like, welding was kind of intuitive and I found something that I was kind of good at that I didn't find really hard, and I went that way.

Like, that was.

No.

Now it's like, oh, if this is hard, like, I guess I'll do that hard thing.

But welding.

I didn't find welding so challenging, and I went that easier path and now I do hard things.

Chasing the affinity and landing in the right spot and working really hard is a good combination for success.

Working really hard.

I've had a lot of people come to me and be like, wow, like, I tried what you do.

That's really hard.

Like, sure is.

They're like, how do you do it?

So it's easier.

Like, I don't.

So where can listeners see your work in person?

I'll be participating in two open studio tours coming up.

So I'll be participating in the nationwide studio tour sponsored by the American Craft Council the weekend of July 18th.

And I'll be participating in the Haywood County Studio Tour the weekend of September 20th or 24th.

Sometime in September, you should check out the Haywood County Arts Council.

They're really bopping right now.

They're doing amazing things.

I will also by the end of the year, have work in the Haywood County Haywood Community College Sculpture Garden.

And let's see where else.

I'll probably be at the Big Crafty in the winter.

What actions can our listeners take to advocate for more public art funding or get involved with public art interactivism?

I don't know.

I don't really know.

Like, go to the museum.

Go to any museum.

Go to every museum.

Like, small house museums are so cool.

Big art museums are so cool.

Follow your heart, Help your neighbors.

Investing in your community as a form of activism is one of my favorites.

I. I love that, and I think.

I think it's it's good to be small.

Like, it's good to just like be where we are.

Like, I don't know.

I love being here and just like being in the garden and bringing my neighbors some strawberries and like.

No, that's like living for the future in my mind.

And that's kind of what activism is.

Or that's one facet of activism that I think is like overlooked in that term but is really important in reality.

I totally agree.

I love the quote, do what you can where you are with what you have.

Girl, if we're yeah well Rachel, thanks.

For stopping in to talk with us today.

It's been a joy to have your stunning work in the Open Air exhibition and the Tale of Two Cities exhibition on artsvilleusa.com We've loved talking with you and appreciate getting to hear your voice.

Well, thank you so much for this opportunity.

I love podcasts and consume many, many, many of them and I'm really honored to be a part of the exhibitions with like so many other spectacular people.

So thank you for the opportunity to both be a part of the exhibition and use my words to share.

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