Shattered by Not Broken. Natalie Ray, artist
For the month of March, Asheville Gallery of Art presents Mountain Songs, an exhibition featuring local artists Nick Colquitt and Natalie Ray. There will be an opening reception for the exhibition on Friday, March 7, from 5—7:30 p.m. Mountain Songs celebrates the resilience of the Appalachian community and the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Colquitt’s oil paintings capture the ethereal quality of the mountains. “We live in a very diverse bioregion, a lot of us here know on a deep level that we don’t own the land, we are just a part of it,” says Colquitt. “We are all one.”
Ray’s watercolors evoke the fragility and strength of the newly evolved landscape. “Seeing the landscape drastically change in such a short period of time gave me a new perspective,” she says. “The landscape now feels a little shaken, a little shattered, much like our community. My desire with these paintings is to give hope that WNC will be fully restored, and we are an even more resilient, yet more precarious, community. Even if we weren’t born Appalachian, we sure are now, and we’ve earned it.”
Asheville Gallery of Art is located at 82 Patton Avenue in Asheville, across from Pritchard Park. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. To learn more, call 828.251.5796, visit AshevilleGallery-of-Art.com or follow the gallery’s Facebook page.
