The three Floyd artists showing at Benji Obsborne’s 16 Hands Studio Tour site are visiting-artist Shanti Yard, a woodturner and 16 Hands members Benjie Osborne, a woodworker, and my son Josh Copus, a ceramics artist. Shanti was impressed that our grandson Liam knew the gemstones inlaid in his wood pieces. He learned them from playing […]
This was the first fall 16 Hands Studio Tour that the tour didn’t include my house. For the past 7 years, my son Josh Copus, a 16 Hands member, has been showing his pottery at our cabin, his childhood home off The Blue Ridge Parkway. This year, he’s showing at Benji Obsborne’s woodworking studio on […]
My son Josh and his beloved Emily got married! I was calling it a “wedding festival.” Others described it as epic. There was a flag procession, readings that made people cry, love professed, poetry, music, storytelling and more. A garland of marigolds from Emily’s flower farm was draped along the wedding platform that Josh built. The […]
You get some cute children You don’t get arrested You get family reunions You probably get some costumes And homeruns Some team spirit And class pictures You get communities mixed with communities And a communal spread of food and drink You get some freestyle moves And funky grooves You don’t get a hurricane You might […]
The plan was for Joe and I to spend the weekend visiting my Asheville Potter Son Josh and his fiancé Emily and to help them get “The Land” ready for their wedding in September. The Land is in Marshall, 20 minutes outside of Asheville, where Josh and Emily live. It’s a complex of kilns, gardens, […]
I tried to tell the AEP powerline guys who were clearing the lines and cutting trees in our yard that they needed to haul the logs out by Thursday because I had hundreds of people coming to my house over the weekend. I don’t think they believed me, but it was true. On Friday people […]
These photos were taken at the tail end of the flower season and the day before Emily was expecting a first frost. Emily is my soon-to-be daughter-in-law who lives outside of Asheville with my son Josh. She is a past journalist for Asheville’s Citizens Times and is currently a farmer and the owner of Carolina […]
The Brick Factory is a mobile public art project that was created by my Asheville Potter Son Josh Copus and is currently taking place at the Old Marshall Jail in downtown Marshall NC. Check times HERE. The idea is about building community. Visitors stamp their words and stories on a brick, created from clay dug […]
Once again our house was transformed over the weekend into a pottery gallery for the latest 16 Hands Studio Tour, spring 2017. This year our son Josh, a 16 Hands member, hosted guest artist Joey Sheehan, who has done the show with Josh more than any other guest artist, but not quite as many times as […]
Since our house has been emptied of furniture and turned into a gallery for the Sixteen Hands Studio Tour that my son is a part of, we set up a backstage after-hours cafe for the visiting grandchildren’s Sunday dinner. A 16 Hands Throwdown. Enter at your own risk. Carl, the Five Nights at Freddie’s cupcake, […]
I realized just how small our house is when during the Saturday 16 Hands Studio Tour our two downstairs rooms-turned-galleries were as full as a crowded dance floor that I couldn’t turn or spin on. I also noticed that people and pots look good together. The day was filled with visits from friends and collectors […]
For the past 18 years, art lovers have been touring the countryside of Floyd County two weekends a year, visiting the studios of the 16 Hands potters and artists. My son Josh Copus has been a member of the collective for the past six years, showing his new work from his childhood home off the […]
The historic Marshall jail – more Andy Griffith than Alcatraz – will soon be renovated for mixed use by a small group of artistic developers that includes my son, Josh. During Saturday’s housewarming party, Josh gave a couple of tours. The one I went on took place at night, which made for an eerie yet […]
It was Australia vs. Myrtle Beach and marked the beginning of the “We Bought a House! Housewarming Party,” hosted by my son Josh and his girlfriend Emily in Marshall, NC (just outside Asheville). The game was played on “the island,” which is just off downtown Marshall and surrounded by the French Broad River. The island […]
We’re in North Carolina. Asheville to be exact. Home of Tom Wolfe and his Memorial Angel. Where there’s always good street art and entertainment. And comedy tour buses drive by. I tried on a dress in a boutique shop on Wall Street (not that Wall Street) but it was a too tight fit. A stop […]
We’re Stronger Together came from a sign that I read at the Mobile Community Brick Factory that my Asheville Potter Son Josh Copus and Marian Glebes are running in Baltimore. When Joe and I visited they were on the lawn at the Baltimore Museum of Art, where Marian has an exhibit in the Imagining Home […]
We’re at the Mobile Community Brick Factory that my Asheville Potter Son Josh Copus and his fellow artist Marian Glebes have been running in communities throughout Baltimore, including at the Baltimore Museum of Art in conjunction with the Imagining Home exhibit, where Marian, BMA artist in residence, has an exhibit. The Brick Factory has moved […]
The pot that my son Josh’s girlfriend Emily has her hand on, was already sold by the time Joe and I arrived for the tail end of the spring 16 Hands Studio Tour, part of which was at our house. Because Joe and I were at a wedding in D.C., we missed most of the […]
