Share
Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

  • 1

Some of what’s going around:

-Gan Shan Station, the popular Charlotte Street restaurant featuring hip takes on Asian dishes, announced via social media that it is planning to open a second restaurant on Haywood Road in West Asheville. The location, in a bend in the road known as Beecham’s Curve, is under development with another new restaurant, Pizza Mind, and a new craft brewery, Archetype Brewing, planned. Gan Station opened at the end of 2014 in a remodeled gas station. It’s taken off since then, with Chef Patrick O’Cain offering up delicious takes on Asian fare.

-Photographer Lydia See will celebrate the opening of a new exhibition at Mars Hill University’s Weizenblatt Gallery from 6-8 p.m. on Feb. 16. The exhibition, Family Vacations I Have Never Taken, includes a series of embroidered photographs. Here’s more:

Referencing iconic destinations and women’s work, multidisciplinary artist Lydia See’s newest series of embroidered vernacular photographs invites the viewer to consider one’s own memories and how time and circumstance may have altered them.

With more ubiquitous access to digital cameras and mobile devices comes an extreme lack of physical prints being made, a premise which prompted the concept behind Family Vacations I Have Never Taken. The transience of photographs, social media timelines, and instant sharing has replaced the communal nature of vacation slide shows and family albums. These works invite a closer consideration of place, experience, and memory-making. Memories are not stored in brains in an orderly or systematic way, they are re-creations or reconstructions of past experiences from elements scattered throughout various areas of our brains.

Utilizing embroidery, a stereotypically “feminine” domestic craft, applied to images of sites
commonly associated with masculinity and new frontiers, “The Classic American Road Trip” never taken is recreated by stitching together memory elements which never occurred, fabricating a fictional journey, obscuring and highlighting detail, drawing attention to what is held and released in one’s memory and allowing the photograph to supercede the absent memory itself.
The panoramic images were taken by the artist’s Uncle Charlie and Aunt Joan (who stated in response to the works: “Interesting contrast in the careful, precise stitching and the natural free forms of the eroded rocks, also that the actual textures are paradoxical, soft for precise and hard for sculptured.”) between 1997-2002. The sewing thread used for embroidery was given by Aunt Jean, and the works (titled according to notations on the backs of images when available) were created by Lydia See between October 2016 and February 2017.

-The 10th Annual Asheville Mardi Gras Parade will roll through the streets of downtown Asheville at 3 p.mm. on Sunday, Feb. 26, rain or shine, according to a press release. More:

This year’s parade theme is “X” (for the roman numeral, of course) and will feature live bands, festooned floats, and costumed revelers. The parade will start at the corner of Haywood and Wall Streets in downtown Asheville. Immediately following the Parade will be “The Queen’s Ball” held at Pack’s Tavern located at 20 South Spruce Street, downtown. This event is also open to the public and will feature live music from Tuesday Night Funk Jam, Asheville Second Line, Wicked Geishas, and Vendetta Crème. Local poet/artist Barbie Angell will be the emcee, there will also be roving performers, and a photo booth. This year’s Mardi Gras Royals, Queen Melanie Brethauer and King Brent Edmondson, have each been involved with the Asheville Mardi Gras Parade for the past four years. Asheville Mardi Gras is a membership-based social aid and pleasure club. For more information on the benefits of joining, and becoming a member go to www.ashvillemardigras.org. For more information contact [email protected].

-The Asheville chapter of Our Revolution, a national organization working to reclaim democracy for the working people of our country, will hold its third meeting at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 2 p.m. at Rainbow Community Center in West Asheville, according to a press release. Here’s more:

Our Revolution Asheville is focusing on reorganizing the NC Democratic Party with new progressive energy, starting with the precinct level elections taking place February 25 in Buncombe County. The February 18 chapter meeting is to educate citizens about where their precinct is and how to participate in their precinct meetings. This is the first step toward choosing new leadership locally and across the state, leaders dedicated to representing the will of the people.

“Our Revolution is leading the charge to dramatically transform the Democratic party into one that represents the working people of our nation,” said Matt Coffay, Our Revolution Asheville co-founder, “and folks in Asheville and Buncombe County are joining us in growing numbers to make their voices heard and take action. We had approximately 160 people at our January meeting, and because of the increased level of interest during the past few weeks, we’ve moved this meeting to a larger space that can accommodate up to 400 participants.”

-The Better Dads Festival is set for June 17, the Saturday of Father’s Day weekend, on Pack Square Park’s Roger McGuire Green. The event will include live music, dance, games, crafts and much more to celebrate fatherhood. The event is produced by the ManKind Project, a “nonprofit training and education organization with three decades of proven success hosting life-changing experiential personal development programs for men. MKP supports a global network of free peer-facilitated men’s groups and supports men in leading lives of integrity, authenticity, and service.”

Tags::
Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

  • 1

You Might also Like

3 Comments

  1. Nancy February 14, 2017

    Thanks for the great write up about the Better Dads Festival. This will be an amazing event!

    Reply
  2. Lindig Harris February 13, 2017

    Re the Our Revolution meet at Rainbow Community Center in WAvl. I live in WAvl and have no idea where this is so an address would have been useful. I’ll try to find out beforehand so I don’t just wander around.

    Reply
  3. Ashley McDermott February 13, 2017

    Thank you for the shout-out! For more information about Our Revolution Asheville, please visit our website at http://www.ourrevolutionavl.com, or on Facebook at Facebook.com/ourrevolutionavl.

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Stories