Galleries Visual Arts

Gallery at Flat Rock Artist Talk Benefits Angel Fund

Light Inviting Life. Tim Jones, artist

The Gallery at Flat Rock presents Light and Life: Encounters with Grace and the Healing Power of Beauty, an artist talk with photographer Tim Jones, on Thursday, December 6, at 5:30 p.m. Jones will speak of his artistic process and how it relates to his work at the Hendersonville Rescue Mission and as part of the clergy team at St. James Episcopal Church in Hendersonville. Jones’ work will be on display and a raffle offers a chance to win a print of an image titled Light Inviting Life. A portion of the evening’s sales will go to the Angel Fund at Four Seasons Compassion for Life, a hospice and palliative care nonprofit in Hendersonville.

Jones does not consider himself a professional photographer. “My photographs seem to connect with people, but that does not come from any sort of strategy or knowledge on my part. At the risk of sounding slightly ridiculous, I believe my calling is to bring healing into the world wherever I am able and the beauty I bring to others in photography is no different to me than the meals I serve at my homeless shelter or the sermons I preach at church. It’s all soul work to me.”

A native of Henderson County, Jones grew up with a single father who raised him from a wheelchair. “We had very little financial security,” he says, “but he had courageous optimism, faith and a contagious sense of humor.” Days were spent exploring the acres of woods around his childhood home. After 9/11, Jones began working in a homeless ministry because of the traumatic events of that day. “They left me empty and feeling like I wanted to do something that made a difference in the world,” he says. “Interestingly enough, that is also when I first really picked up a camera to take with me on my hikes and scrambles in the woods.”

Through his work with the Rescue Mission, Jones sees things both heartbreaking and inspiring. “In the space of a single day, I encounter some of the worst and some of the best parts of human life,” he says. “My retreat from that whole world is the time I get to be out in these mountain forests. I go out every day if I can. I am a photographer who loves to get lost in the carpets of wildflowers that blanket our mountain coves in the spring. That is where I am renewed so I can, hopefully, be of some use to others in service.”

The Angel Fund has been a source of help for many people Jones meets at the shelter. This will be his third talk at The Gallery at Flat Rock. He will focus this year on the healing power of beauty and how art can become a means of grace and repair in times when the world becomes broken. “These are such difficult times,” he says. “We do not get to choose our times. We only get to choose how to be faithful in them. Beauty and blessing through art is how I choose to live in them and I hope to inspire and invite others to do the same through my artist talk.”

The Gallery at Flat Rock is located at Flat Rock Square at 2702-A Greenville Highway, Flat Rock. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; or by appointment. To learn more, visit GalleryFlatRock.com or call 828.698.7000.

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