Lifestyle

From the Editor

Gina Malone

We’re fortunate in these beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains to live in a region that affords so much diversion from February’s sometimes cold cheerlessness. Lovely landscapes. Vibrant art. Evocative literature. Lively dance and theater.

In this issue, read about Dillsboro’s Green Energy Park (p. 62) and how its staff invites the community at large to create in a sustainable way with space rental, workshops and tours. A visit to the facility shows what innovative and progressive planning can do to lessen the impact of waste on our fragile planet while providing a space for the creation of beautiful art. Recycling and the environment are also themes for Asheville Gallery of Art’s new exhibit, Fresh Paint. (p. 17)

We’ve found some interesting ways that art and music combine. At The Gallery of Flat Rock, painter Marsha Hammel will serve as artist-host for the musical event Bob Dylan at Connemara, dramatizing with song and poetry a fateful meeting between Dylan and Carl Sandburg (p. 65). We also feature Balsam Range’s Aeonic, the new album with a cover designed by regional artist Nancy Hilliard Joyce. (p. 31)

This issue includes our annual Health and Wellness section (p. 20) with articles on the benefits of diet, exercise, salt therapy—and, of course, art—on our well-being. Our Plough to Pantry section continues the conversation on health benefits with a feature on Carolina Hemp Company, which just opened a new retail store for its Kingdom Harvest products in West Asheville. (p. 92) And learn about one family’s homesteading path to better health. (p. 82)

A new glass installation at Contemporaneo Gallery (p. 42), works by Cherokee artist America Meredith at WCU Fine Art Museum (p. 15) and a Compleat Naturalist column on Northern Cardinals (p. 34)—all these and more bring a little color into this issue, harbingers of spring just around the corner.

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