{"id":91554,"date":"2026-04-26T06:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T10:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/?p=91554"},"modified":"2026-04-21T15:43:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T19:43:23","slug":"feature-artist-ken-wheeler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/arts\/feature-artist-ken-wheeler\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>Feature Artist:<\/strong> Ken Wheeler"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_91559\" style=\"width: 1210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-91559\" class=\"size-full wp-image-91559\" src=\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-Wheeler-IMG_20241127_140519644-copy-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1012\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-91559\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ken Wheeler, artist<\/p><\/div>\n<p>By Gina Malone<\/p>\n<p>While a freshman at Western Carolina University in the spring of 1973, Ken Wheeler had resigned himself to the fact that he was about to be drafted, and didn\u2019t sign up for fall classes. Two weeks later, the draft ended and he had to choose from among the handful of classes not already filled. His intended degree at the time, which he would eventually obtain, was Parks and Recreation. One of the classes available was a ceramics class.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_91562\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-91562\" class=\"wp-image-91562\" src=\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-WheelerIMG_20240224_121250243-copy-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-WheelerIMG_20240224_121250243-copy-2.jpg 1196w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-WheelerIMG_20240224_121250243-copy-2-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-WheelerIMG_20240224_121250243-copy-2-765x1024.jpg 765w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-WheelerIMG_20240224_121250243-copy-2-768x1027.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-WheelerIMG_20240224_121250243-copy-2-1148x1536.jpg 1148w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-WheelerIMG_20240224_121250243-copy-2-810x1084.jpg 810w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-WheelerIMG_20240224_121250243-copy-2-1140x1525.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-91562\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ken Wheeler, artist<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cOn the first day of class the professor told the class that she really didn\u2019t like P.E. or Recreation majors and that we might want to consider signing up for the other ceramics class,\u201d Wheeler says. \u201cBut I just kept my head down and stuck it out. By the end of the semester, I was one of her favorite students. In fact, I loved working with clay so much that I signed up for every pottery class that she taught for the rest of my college career.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Field trips to Penland School of Craft and to art studios showed Wheeler artists at work. \u201cI was absolutely blown away by the fact that you could actually make a living, as they were, by creating things of beauty with their hands,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Upon graduation, however, he decided that he needed to find a stable job. For the next five or six years, he worked as an athletic director at a recreational park, a recreational therapist for children with disabilities and a physical education teacher at a youth prison. Not happy in any of the positions, he enrolled at Appalachian State University to study art.<\/p>\n<p>Determined afterwards to work with his hands, he took jobs at a lumber yard and at cabinet and millwork shops to acquire skills. As a child, he says he had become interested in wood while following his father around. \u201cBy the mid-nineties, I had enough tools and equipment to start off on my own,\u201d Wheeler says.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_91563\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-91563\" class=\"wp-image-91563\" src=\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-WheelerIMG_20260324_093127045-copy-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"382\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-WheelerIMG_20260324_093127045-copy-2.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-WheelerIMG_20260324_093127045-copy-2-236x300.jpg 236w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-WheelerIMG_20260324_093127045-copy-2-804x1024.jpg 804w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-WheelerIMG_20260324_093127045-copy-2-768x978.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-WheelerIMG_20260324_093127045-copy-2-810x1031.jpg 810w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-WheelerIMG_20260324_093127045-copy-2-1140x1452.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-91563\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ken Wheeler, artist<\/p><\/div>\n<p>He rented a space in downtown Saluda and began making cabinets and furniture. When someone gave him a book on rustic furniture, that set him on a new path. \u201cSoon, I was making rockers, chairs and tables out of rhododendron that I cut off my property,\u201d he says. He continued the work for 15 years before moving his workshop to a building behind his house.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAround this time I began remodeling the old farmhouse that my wife and I and our three daughters lived in,\u201d he says. \u201cI ripped a lot of heart pine out of the house and couldn\u2019t bear to trash it or burn it, so I began to make furniture, cabinets and birdhouses out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After renting a small space at Asheville\u2019s ScreenDoor in 2009, he says, his work began to get noticed by galleries and he became so busy he could hardly keep up with orders. \u201cIt has pretty much stayed that way until 2024,\u201d he says. \u201cAfter Hurricane Helene and the election, it has slowed down a bit, which is just fine with my aging bones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wheeler prefers working with reclaimed wood. \u201cYou just can\u2019t reproduce the character of old wood,\u201d he says. \u201cThe dings, dents and old paint really add interest. Most of the wood I use comes from dismantled houses and barns.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_91560\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-91560\" class=\"wp-image-91560\" src=\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-Wheeler_Birdhouse-copy-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"408\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-Wheeler_Birdhouse-copy-2.jpg 1176w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-Wheeler_Birdhouse-copy-2-221x300.jpg 221w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-Wheeler_Birdhouse-copy-2-753x1024.jpg 753w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-Wheeler_Birdhouse-copy-2-768x1045.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-Wheeler_Birdhouse-copy-2-1129x1536.jpg 1129w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-Wheeler_Birdhouse-copy-2-810x1102.jpg 810w, https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feature-Artist-Ken-Wheeler_Birdhouse-copy-2-1140x1551.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-91560\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ken Wheeler, artist<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Along with furniture, he has been creating birdhouses for about 30 years. He describes the first ones he made as fairly plain. \u201cOne day, I picked up a yellow scrap of wood off the floor and incorporated it into the birdhouse and it really made it pop,\u201d he says. \u201cI started using more and more colors in my work\u2014until the point that it could be too much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Flow Gallery co-owner Connie Molland says that Wheeler\u2019s work resonated with visitors from the time his birdhouses first appeared in the gallery early in 2017. \u201cWe have been proud to be one of the few places that has continuously sold these unique, upcycled birdhouses,\u201d Molland says. \u201cWhile they are functional birdhouses, many customers have told me that they keep theirs inside their home, either on a fireplace mantel or simply as wall art. The rocking chairs are hard to keep in the shop as the demand continues to outpace our supply.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Years ago, Wheeler inherited some old boxes of junk parts from his father and uses the bits to make small wall sculptures that he calls fallen angels. \u201cThey usually have an old pressure gauge or TV tube for a head and various junk for arms, legs and wings,\u201d he says. \u201cThey are fun to make and each one has its own personality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Old wood has become harder to find. Still, \u201cI plan to keep on working as long as I can,\u201d he says, \u201cor until the art bug that I caught more than 50 years ago dies out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Ken Wheeler\u2019s work is available at regional galleries including Flow Gallery, in Marshall; Twigs &amp; Leaves Gallery, in Waynesville; and Seven Sisters Gallery, in Black Mountain. See more of his work at <a href=\"http:\/\/FlowMarshall.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FlowMarshall.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While a freshman at Western Carolina University in the spring of 1973, Ken Wheeler had resigned himself to the fact that he was about to be drafted, and didn\u2019t sign up for fall classes. Two weeks later, the draft ended and he had to choose from among the handful of classes not already filled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":91559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-craft-arts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Feature Artist: Ken Wheeler - The Laurel of Asheville<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While a freshman at Western Carolina University in the spring of 1973, Ken Wheeler had resigned himself to the fact that he was about to be drafted, and didn\u2019t sign up for fall classes. 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