By Emma Castleberry
Watercolor artist Erica Schaffel quit her job to become a full-time artist less than six months before Hurricane Helene. Her sole source of income was sales of her art at The Marquee Asheville and participation in art markets, many of which take place in October at the height of tourism season. “I had a wall in Marquee where I lost about a dozen framed original paintings and maybe 30 or so prints,” she says. She was able to salvage two works from the debris.
Towards the end of the storm, Schaffel and her partner drove to a bridge overlooking the River Arts District. “I saw a painting float by and I felt such a unique, unfamiliar type of grief,” says Schaffel. “As artists, we pour little pieces of ourselves into every single piece of art we make. All I wanted to do was jump into the river and save the art.”
New American Gothic. Hannah Rothstein, artist
She knew she couldn’t do that, but the grief stayed with her, as grief does. She had a “nagging sensation” that she needed to save the art. “A friend suggested I make prints of all my lost work and call it ‘The Flood Collection,’” she says. “And that was it. I knew I had to somehow create not my flood collection, but our flood collection.”
Schaffel started a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for The Asheville Artists Flood Collection, which will ultimately be a coffee table book and card deck featuring the work of 54 artists affected by Hurricane Helene. Her $15,000 goal was reached within four days, and when the Kickstarter ended on November 3, it had raised $157,989. All proceeds from The Flood Collection go directly to the participating artists.
“We get to give artists a lot more money upfront than I ever imagined,” Schaffel says. “We raised so much that we are also giving a cash gift to artists who applied but weren’t accepted into the project.”
Schaffel selected works for the project with the help of Mira Gerard, owner of Tyger Tyger Gallery. “Our goal was to curate a collection that would adequately reflect our creative community here in WNC,” says Schaffel. The curators considered geographic diversity, endeavoring to represent as much of WNC as possible, as well as diversity of artist experience level and medium. Artists were asked to submit a “before” photo of an original artwork that had been lost or destroyed in the storm.
Artist Aaron Fields with his work The Way Back Home. Photo by Rachel Pressley
“The submission window was very short—three weeks—so the collection isn’t quite as diverse as we would have liked,” Schaffel says. “It’s a balancing act. I wanted to give artists enough time to see this opportunity and submit, but I also know artists need money soon.”
Hannah Rothstein, a self-taught artist whose work focuses on climate change, had a studio at Foundation Studios in the RAD prior to Helene. Her watercolor piece New American Gothic, one of a six-part series, will be featured in The Asheville Artists Flood Collection. “The irony of seeing my studio and work crushed by the very issue I fight against is not lost on me,” she says. “The Flood Collection is one small piece of rebuilding and revitalizing this art scene—and in turn, Asheville’s ineffable charm.”
Aaron Fields is a landscape painter that uses acrylic, paint markers and spray paint to create his works on wooden doors and cabinet panels. He was also an assistant manager at The Marquee before the flood. A photograph of The Road Back Home, the largest work Fields has ever painted, will be featured in the collection. “The Flood Collection is bringing us together to never forget this experience and to preserve what we lost,” he says. “While things are at a stand-still with the economy of Asheville, this is also a great way to keep the flame lit for artists.”
While the images in The Flood Collection cannot replace the original works themselves, the project honors the loss, and, perhaps more importantly, creates financial support and hope for the artists that shape our community.
“Artists contribute significantly to our region’s economy,” says Schaffel. “It is imperative we find a way to keep them here, and this project is one way we can help do that.”
The Flood Collection is available for pre-order at TheFloodCollection.com. Businesses can also make wholesale orders to sell the book and card deck in their stores. The card decks will be available in February and the coffee table books in April.
