There & Back: North Carolina

Two years ago in November when the leaves had already fallen in North Carolina I took my first trip to visit my friends who live off the grid, up a treacherous winding dirt road on the top of a mountain. They have spent the past 9 years building homes and carving a community out of a mountain side. I realized it's a lot easier to catch up on two years worth of news & gossip when during the day there is only the distractions of chores and once the sun sets it's hard to stay up much later than post- dinner drinks around a lamp lit out door kitchen.

Romantics aside, it's important to note that what they have built has taken years of hard labor and although certain aspects of what they have done make it easier (solar panels for limited power, running cold water gravity fed into certain houses from a spring) the work will never end. I feel so thankful to be able to spend time in places like this, to remember what quite it like, with friends who over the years have become my family.










Dan's house












Dave's house in progress




Annie's house


Shari's house


Dave & Aaron turning garden beds


Janet harvesting the Calendula


Ramona & Aaron on our swimming trip to the Laurel River








Breakfast


Lunch


Dinner


Dessert


Kitchen at night




Dave's post dinner absinthe wizardry

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After a few day's in the mountains, we ventured over the river & through the woods to visit more friends & their handmade homes....


Jessie's house




I was blown away by the beautiful custom woodwork she did in her kitchen


Main house






Jessie & Romeo

Full photo set here.
Photos from 2009 trip here.

Another Weekend To Check Off The List.

I've worked with San Francisco based artist Catherine Ryan in some capacity since 2006, or at least that's what we decided when we finally met this past week here in Milwaukee. We sold her work at my old shop Paper Boat and also did a gallery show with her there in 2008. It was long over due for a face to face meet up and having a show at Sky High Gallery proved to be the perfect opportunity.


Catherine Ryan: The Exhilarated

Friday's opening of her solo show The Things They Do was super fun. We teamed up with Cortney's on-line project Printshop Forever to present her next edition with Becky Johnson of Sweetie Pie Press who not surprisingly happens to be an old friend of mine (fun fact: Becky has a cameo in Handmade Nation, one of the only non-American makers to sneak in). Cortney along with Becky and her man Aitor (in town from Toronto heading to Renegade Chicago) set up tents in the back of the shop for Friday's event. Aitor drew some amazing Unflattering Portraits and Becky launched her new project, Awards For Nothing through Printshop Forever.











Catherine's show is stunning and I can't decide which of the 15 pieces I want to keep for life. If your interested in checking them out I suggest you get into the gallery while they are up through October 15th or you can see them all over on the gallery site.

Aaron & I followed up the gallery opening with joining our close friends Chris & Rachel at their beautiful wedding. In an attempt to not be only photographed at events while holding a camera or phone (this seems to be a trend) I only snapped very few photos from the day & let Tia do all the picture taking. It was also the perfect event to wear my new Shakuhachi dress from Bonadrag, it was a hit. I feel very thankful I was able to be there and celebrate their marriage with a group of amazing friends. Made me feel really really happy to be in Milwaukee surrounded by such great people.



This week I'm taking some time off before I dive into a really intense shoot schedule with Sign Painters and we head to North Carolina to visit our mountain tribe . I took about a million photos on my visit there two years ago- 60 acres of land and a community of hand-built homes. I can't wait to see the progress on the buildings that were just started then & to catch up with people I rarely get to see.


Fall 2009

Where Oh Where Do You GO?

I just spent the past 3+ hours updating the gallery site & can't bear to sit here any longer. But there is so much to share about events I've seen in Milwaukee, my trip to New York last week where we shot 5 days straight with amazing talented people for the Sign Painter Movie, got stuck in a hurricane that didn't really happen and of course upcoming events here at home in Milwaukee. Right now the most important thing is you should really come to the Catherine Ryan opening next Friday. It's going to be great, I'm such a huge fan of her work & can't wait to see it all in person.


Catherine Ryan, "Instruction" gouache and charcoal on paper

If your interested take a moment to read my post about the opening party for Catherine at Sky High Gallery. She will be in town for the party along with Becky Johnson of Sweetie Pie Press & Reverend Aitor from Toronto. It's gonna be the jam. If your really interested in what's going on at Sky High check out today's posts about the de-installation of Monica Canilao's crazy show and our new Temporary Mural at the shop by Vanessa Andrew.

More soon. Someone email me a time machine, an assistant or perhaps a helper monkey.

P.S. if your not following me on instagram these days that's a good way to keep up with me & my projects as: faythelevine