Mica Gallery’s mug shelf
Artists’ homes are delightful examples of living with art. Teresa Pietsch served a lunch of soup and homemade bread one day to a group of friends. Selecting from her collection of bowls proved to be the most difficult of choices for her guests. Her table was laid with layers of patterns: from the tablecloth to napkins to plates and cups and vases of flowers. The camaraderie came as much from the dishes as from the assembled group. Each dish had a story to tell, with a person standing inside each story. “The works I take from the shelves to use each day are my friends,” Pietsch says. Pietsch makes her own functional works that include cups, plates, bowls, planters and lamps.
Tranquil. Lisa Joerling, artist
Lisa Joerling and her husband Nick also describe the peaceful engagement they feel by living with the work of other artists. “It is a continual joy to be surrounded by friends, the people I have gotten to know through the work they make,” Lisa says. “When we have guests for dinner, we ask them to pick out their plate, and we tell them about the artist who made it.” She added that she experiences a pleasant delay each morning as she pauses to choose the mug, the person and the time she will share with her coffee. Lisa makes animal and figurative works to the delight of collectors. “People tell me my sculptures make them smile and they like to display them in places they pass every day,” she says. Also, at Mica are mugs by Nick, who makes functional wares from place settings of plates, platters and bowls to vases and trays.
Along with that morning coffee or tea, breakfast plates are needed. David Ross makes a variety of breakfast and dinner plates and bowls with floral and animal designs. Similarly, Robbie Bell with Speckled Dog Pottery creates works expressly to be used with food. Ceramic tiles become the surface of tables by Tom Spleth. Wood and steel combine to form benches by Jim Cooper. Colorfully painted tables by Valerie Berlage brighten their place in a room. Throughout Mica Gallery, there are works by artists and craftspeople whose function may be to tell a story on the walls of your home, hold spring flowers in a vase or warm your hand on a chilly morning.
Teresa Piestch, artist
Artist Vicki Essig sums up what it means to live with art. “I didn’t grow up with art,” she says. “I discovered it many years after becoming an adult. I now can’t imagine my life without it. Handmade objects hang on my walls, fill my cupboards and shelves, adorn my ears and define what I call home, a cabinet of curiosity. I have collected art from around the world and around the block. This allows me to remember the people that I have met in my travels, and to be surrounded by the work of friends. As an artist myself, I often look at my ‘collection’ as a source of inspiration and energy. I believe that the creativity, genius and imagination that went into making an object is passed along to me as I hold it and contemplate its reason for being. Living with art makes my home more comfortable and more interesting, and makes me a better artist.”
Mica Gallery reopens with its daily schedule on Tuesday, April 1. Visit the gallery to be inspired by the creative expression of artists who live in Western North Carolina and to find the work of art that will make your home that extra bit more personal and imaginative.
Through Wednesday, April 30, Mica Gallery hosts The Luck of the Pups, a fundraiser for Mitchell County Animal Rescue (MCAR). Gently used works have been contributed for sale to benefit the heroic work of the animal shelter. Seventy-five percent of the sales of the donated work goes directly to MCAR.
Mica is an artist-run gallery of fine art and contemporary craft located at 37 North Mitchell Avenue, in Bakersville. The gallery will be open daily, regular hours through December (closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas and New Year’s Eve). Learn more at MicaGalleryNC.com, on Facebook at Mica Gallery NC or on Instagram at micagallerync.
