AFTER HOURS: Weekend shopping in a sleepy hollow
While frenetic shoppers jockeyed for parking places at The Shoppes at River Crossing on Black Friday weekend, some friends who share their love of arts and crafts opened a cabin off of Forest Hill Road for the annual holiday sale of their wares.
Cars lined the streets surrounding the tucked away property all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon to see Sheila Conn's latest jewelry creations, Sue Quaack's and Meg Campbell's pottery, Harriett Wallace's fiber art and paintings, Hannah and Blake Sanders' screen printed fabrics and Cheryl Bedgood's drawings.
Conn, whose clients can recall the exact venue where they purchased her timeless fashion statements, displayed her jewelry on tables outside, under the last fiery colors of Japanese maples. Each of her accessories has a story: polished stones and crystals given to her by a relative; long lanyards of silver inspired by the latest fashion or chokers featuring intricately designed silver or bone.
So familiar is she with her customers' tastes, husbands stopped by to ask for advice on the ideal wearable art to surprise their wives this Christmas; teenagers hoped their mothers noticed the beaded bangles.
TALENT FROM AFAR
Quaack and Campbell greeted guests on the front porch with their numerous mugs, pitchers and bowls -- all functional art, and always popular gift items. Campbell's large hand built, decoratively etched squares are actually pedestals for displaying other art work, but resemble small ottomans.
On Sunday, Macon native Carrie Preston, whose successful acting career was launched on the stages of local theater, and her sister Leslie Preston, assistant professor at the Fashion Institute in New York, felt at home visiting the cabin do a little shopping.
Unfortunately they missed their old friends, the Sanderses, who had left to return to Missouri where Hannah, Campbell's daughter, is an assistant professor at Southeast Missouri State University and Blake continues to exhibit and sell his eclectic paper creations.
In Wallace's cozy room, a basket woven of tiny cord in a rainbow of colors caught the eye of one shopper who admired its asymmetric shape and snapped it up. As a self-taught and curious artist, Wallace builds sculpture from scrap objects, weaves baskets in whatever material strikes her fancy and paints watercolors with abandon.
A favorite dog was memorialized in the "wet on wet" technique -- applying pigment to heavy duty, wet paper -- which made the spaniel rather glamorous, its eyes and fur softened and more realistic with the intermingling of color. Wallace's sculpture of another dog captured the dense, wiriness of the fur in pulp packing paper, pierced in a honey comb pattern, its color faithful to the subject.
All of the artists share a common thread -- they are adventurous with their work and not afraid to try unusual techniques. Bedgood's geometric shapes in pen and ink were in sharp contrast to the floral painting she had embellished with crewel embroidery, giving the roses a three dimensional perspective.
Some of her still life acrylics were imbued with the same graphic precision as her geometric black and whites on paper, almost photographic in quality. The group art show was the brainchild of Campbell and Wallace, who said they are thinking of adding a spring show to the calendar.
FAMILIAR FACES ON THE COX CAPITOL STAGE
Todd Nance, original drummer with Widespread Panic, has a lot of friends after 30 or so years on the road with the Athens-based, record-breaking jam band. On Nov. 28, he brought Todd Nance and Friends to the Cox Capitol Theater to treat local "spread heads" to the music that has packed houses from coast to coast.
Nance has been on hiatus from Widespread Panic this year but will return to the band early next year. Sitting in the green room prior to his performance, he spoke of the camaraderie among the members of Panic and the support they have offered while he addressed personal challenges.
Percussionist with Panic, Sunny Ortiz, joined Nance on stage after Col. Bruce Hampton and the Madrid Express opened with the familiar, surreal strains of Hampton's voice and guitar. Hampton has supported Panic since their first album recording, "Space Wrangler," at John Keane's studio in Athens in 1987.
Brenda Stepp traveled from Atlanta to join friend Mama Louise Hudson, founder of the H&H restaurant on Cotton Avenue, and "mama" to numerous aspiring artists during their lean years. Nance thanked her again that Saturday night for the many times he could count on her for at least one square meal a day.
Perched on a stool overlooking the crowd, Hudson waved to her band of admirers, including Ashley Stinson, who consider her as much an icon of the music industry as any of the chart toppers whose careers were launched in Macon.
Katherine Walden is a freelance writer and interior designer in Macon. Contact her at 478-742-2224 or kwaldenint@aol.com.
This story was originally published December 5, 2015 at 4:25 PM with the headline "AFTER HOURS: Weekend shopping in a sleepy hollow ."