Margery Bain Franklin rug making with Ronnie Mosseller

Ronnie Mosseller introduced me to a dear friend Margery Bain Franklin so I could hear the story of the rugs they have made together over the years. At 93 years old Marge may have finally put down that habit, but she still keeps herself busy. We sat down one hot afternoon in her cool apartment at White Oak to visit about rugs and life in general.

Ronnie draws the picture free hand on the canvas, and what is this tool that you use?

Ronnie: It’s a wood shuttle hooker or needle.

With wool.

Marge: This is done on monk’s cloth.

Ronnie: What was the first rug you made for me?

Marge: That one.

She points to the one on the floor in her hallway.

Ronnie: The coat of arms.

Marge: A family crest.

Ronnie: That’s a 3 x 5 rug.

Marge: When you put in the lettering, you do it from the mirror image. Here’s a good example.

Marge pulls out her rug making photo album.

Marge: You see I’m working on the rug and here’s the frame, and this is the way it turns out.

Everything you’re doing is backwards. Who’s coat of arms is that?

Marge: That was my first husband’s. This is my last one.

You’re not doing any more?

Marge: I’m finished.

Why are you done?

Marge: It’s hard on the back. You stand and twist and turn. My back decided it’s too much work.

I notice in the texture that parts are loops and parts are fuzzy, how do you do that?

Marge: Ask him.

Ronnie: We go random shear. We cut it randomly and not all cut. You can get down to velvet cut, but we never do that anymore unless it’s a great big formal rug. This is just 70 cut.

Marge: I think he did a really tremendous job on this Cape Hatteras light house.

Wow that’s beautiful.

Marge: My daughter has that one.

How many rugs have you done?

Marge: About 30.

Many of lighthouses. Why lighthouses?

Ronnie: She has a big beautiful book of lighthouses.

Marge: Yeah, Dick has a book of lighthouses.

How do you decide?

Ronnie: She usually comes to me with her ideas and I sketch them out.

Marge: My kids have most of them.

Ronnie: What year was that first one you made? When was that?

Marge: That was in about 1985. My first husband was still alive when I did that. It was a lot of fun. Ron has one in the governor’s mansion, don’t you Ron?

Ronnie: Yes.

How did you meet up with Ronnie and start doing rugs?

Marge: My neighbor had his coat of arms done and it gave me the idea, “Well, I’ll get my coat of arms done.” I went to Ron then and that’s what got me started.

Ronnie: I met Marge Bain when I was working with her husband in the little theatre.

Marge: My name is Margery Bain Franklin, don’t forget Phillip now. We were working with Tryon Little Theatre doing plays. Gayle and I were doing props and you were acting and directing.

You knew he did rugs as well as theatre and so when you wanted to do the coat of arms you asked him how to get started?

Marge: That’s what got me started.

How long does it take to do one of these?

Ronnie: She’s faster than anybody else.

Marge: About a month because I take it home you see and do it here. That’s why it only takes me a month. I have so much time on my hands now.

What will you do with your time now that you’re done with rugs?

Marge: I’m knitting and reading. Ron has such an eye for color, the way he merges things up, the sky.

That sunset is beautiful the way it blends.

Marge: I’m not after publicity, write about Ronnie.

But I did write about Ronnie already working with the theatre.

Ronnie: I had been out of the theatre almost twenty years and they talked me into doing another one last year. Of course I couldn’t hear the cues so they had to have two women there, one to open the door and one to say, “Now” and push me out.

Marge: He was the comedian.

Ronnie: Weren’t you a prompter too?

Marge: No, I was in props. It was when we first moved to Tryon. It was a good way to get acquainted is to join. Join the Tryon Little Theatre, join the church, so on and so forth.

Ronnie: They put you to work don’t they? I’m telling you, something’s going on all the time.

Where did you move to Tryon from?

Marge: Summit, New Jersey. My first husband and I came down and he died in 1987. I married Phillip in 1993.

You met Phillip in Tryon?

Marge: I met Phillip in an elder hostel in Canada. He was my brother’s roommate. He was living up in Union City, New Jersey and I lived down here. Finally, four years later we got married.

Can I ask how old you were when you got married the second time?

Ronnie: What are you 94?

Marge: I’m 93 right now.

Ronnie: You were about 70.

Most of my family members didn’t live long enough to consider remarrying at 70.

Ronnie: That’s a custom in Tryon. Half of the widows in Tryon remarry again. They may be 80 years old.

Have you remarried?

Ronnie: No.

What’s the secret to living so long and happily? You must have figured out something.

Ronnie: Did you grow up on a farm?

Marge: It wasn’t a farm exactly. My family had four acres and they had a beautiful garden during the depression. They had a marvelous garden and we raised chickens so the chicken manure was good for the garden. It wasn’t exactly a farm.

Ronnie: But you had a healthy life that way. I had a great-grandmother that lived to 104. Marge, where did you live besides New Jersey and here?

Marge: I lived in Louisiana for a while when my husband was working for Louisiana State University.

Ronnie: What was he doing?

Marge: He was in the registrar’s office working the IBM machines. That’s when the war came and he volunteered and got into the Naval Reserves. I came home to mama in New Jersey with my three kids.

Then when the war was over did you stay in New Jersey?

Marge: I stayed in New Jersey and became a legal secretary. My husband told me, “Every woman should know how to support herself.” That’s when I went to school to learn typing, shorthand, and bookkeeping and got a job with a law firm. I was a legal secretary about 25 years.

Ronnie: Your husband was modern thinking and smart.

Marge: I thought that was very good advice. Especially now a days.

Ronnie: I have a question. When you made your first coat of arms rug didn’t you come into the classes?

Marge: I made it at your studio when you had the old church. Dick made me a frame and I did a few on my own.

Ronnie: Then you started making them at home pretty soon after that. She was the easiest student I ever had.

Marge: I enjoyed doing it at home rather than working at Ron’s place for a while and get my back tired and have to go home. It was easy to do it here because I could lie down on the couch and rest my back and get up and do it some more.

Ronnie: If I had thought and followed the thing that she did like that I wouldn’t have wound up with nine students filling up my rug shop every week.

Marge: I often wondered about those people working on rugs at your shop, “Why don’t they finish them.”

Ronnie: I know. They allegedly were coming and then, “I’m not coming in this week. I’ve got something to do.” The rugs stayed there for 7-10 months. I realized that I was not making any money off that.

Marge: I’m always anxious when I start one, I want to finish it. It was fun to do.

Ronnie: Marge doesn’t know what the word procrastination means.

What type of knitting are you doing these days?

Marge: I’m making a sweater for my daughter-in-law. I’ve done a lot of knitting. I enjoy that.

When did you get started with hand crafts?

Marge: I always did like to sew. I made clothes for myself. Years ago I had one of these treadle machines. Now I’ve got a beautiful feather weight Singer sewing machine, but I haven’t been doing much sewing lately. I don’t need anything.

When did you start sewing and knitting?

Marge: When I was twelve years old I went to a boarding school. My great aunt was a nun and I went to a church boarding school. I had to go down to the convent to visit my great aunt. She taught me how to knit and I’ve been knitting ever since. I like to work with my hands. In fact I was going to become an artist. I was going to have art classes at the high school in Summit. I told mother I had signed up for the art class and she said, “I want to go too.” I took mother too and the class was filled and I said, “Okay ma, you take my place and I will go home.” Mother went to painting and this is one of hers. This is up at Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. I have several of hers and the kids have several of hers.

When did you finish your last rug?

Ronnie: About two weeks ago.

Marge: Yeah.

Are you sure you’re not going to do any more?

Marge: Nobody believes me.

Ronnie: You never know. She’s said that seven times, or four times.

The rug hook piece that you use, where did you find that?

Marge: I think I got that from a flea market because I had been hooking using Ron’s needles. It has a big hole in it doesn’t it?

Ronnie: I’ll show you how it works. We run two threads at the same time so we can run two different colors at the same time or two different shades. That’s how we do that blending in the sky. It just goes back and forth like this in the canvas and it makes a stitch every time it goes in.

How long have you known Marge?

Marge: We moved to Tryon in 1974. Gayle and I joined Tryon Little Theatre and I met you.

Ronnie: In 1974. After that I directed Blythe Spirit and you all helped back stage on that in 1975.

Marge: I remember I had five words to say in one of them. Usually I was in props, but in one play I had five words to say. I was the maid.

Ronnie: You can’t remember the play?

Marge: I can’t remember the play, no. That was a long time ago. We didn’t work on props forever. I just wanted to get acquainted in Tryon when we first moved here. I guess we worked in props about five years. Then I became a legal secretary. I didn’t have time for props.

Ronnie: What other organizations did you get involved in besides the little theatre?

Marge: Well I did bookkeeping for the cancer society.

Ronnie: Volunteering.

Marge: I worked at Carol Anne Farms. I worked for Bud Slater.

Ronnie: I did a 100 rugs for him.

Marge: I used to work with him a couple of days a week just for a couple of hours.

Ronnie: They’re a sweet couple.

Marge: Oh, I know. So sweet. I worked at the Habitat Resale Store. I had about four volunteer jobs. I worked for the Red Cross.

Do you ever slow down?

Ronnie: I think she made that last rug not in a month, but in about three weeks.

Marge: Well I don’t have anything else to do. That’s why I finish them so fast.

Ronnie: Most of my students take six or seven months.

Marge: I think that’s one of my favorite ones.

It hangs right there where you can see it from your chair.

Marge: Look at the shading he’s got in that, the shading on the left.
There’s shading on the lighthouse itself and shading on the sky.

Marge: Isn’t that beautiful. I love the fence. That’s a lighthouse up in Maine. I took a picture of it when we were visiting Maine.

It is beautiful.

Betty Burdue carries on annual Morris the horse tradition

You’ve no doubt seen Morris hanging out in the center of town at the corner of Trade and Pacolet, but have you seen the annual prints to commemorate this quirky small town tradition? Betty Burdue has been handed the torch and just completed the 2009 watercolor prints of Morris. I met Betty at her home studio one afternoon to see her watercolor work which fills most of her basement.

Do you paint every day?

Not every day. Right now I’m pretty busy doing local scenes. I take all these pictures of churches and I thought the local church people would like to have theirs. I just finished this one. This is the United Congregational Church in Tryon. This is the Episcopalian. I just started on it.

This is last year’s version of Morris, and this is this year’s version of it.

Oh fun!

That’s his birthplace.

He’s gone for a trip to look at his birthplace at Tryon Toy Makers.

I’m happy with it. These are note cards I have throughout town.

I love the sunflowers.

As we sat down on Betty’s back patio to continue our conversation she handed me a copy of an article explaining the history of Morris the horse. Morris has become a symbol of Tryon and the equine size recreation of the most popular toy created in 1928 by the Tryon Toy Makers & Woodcarvers shop was given as a gift to the Tryon Riding and Hunt Club. Tryon House on Trade Street has a collection of original, not for sale Morris horses as well as new local Morris horses made by local artists including Betty’s husband. They also display the collection of Morris watercolor paintings from previous years.

I’ve been checking into the history of these Tryon Toy Makers. This article was in Our State magazine and it tells all about Eleanor Vance and Charlotte Yale. I didn’t know they were missionaries. I had never heard that. It told how they started. They went to England where they studied with a famous wood carver. They were up in Asheville for so long. The back part tells about the Tryon Toy Makers when they came down here.

I found this very interesting. “‘Tryon has always been an unusual place,’ says art historian Michael McClure author of The Tryon Toy Makers and Wood Carvers. ‘When Vance and Yale moved here, women could not sit on the jury in the Columbus Courthouse, but just down hill in Tryon they were running the town.’” They joined a thriving artist colony, which I’m sure you’re familiar with, which included many creative independent women from New England and elsewhere. They’d come on the train each summer and stay around in through here. Then it mentions all the famous people that were artists, and teaching young boys and girls to be weavers.

They were here until the Second World War and they decided they had enough. They must have been pretty elderly by that time because they were talking about the turn of the century being up in Asheville. 1869-1954 was Eleanor Vance’s life and Charlotte 1870-1958.

Eleanor Park Vance learned her wood carving at the Cincinnati Art School and she met Charlotte Yale at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. They both prepared for missionary work. I don’t think either one of them married. When they came down to Tryon all these wealthy women wanted toys for their children and grandchildren. The First World War was on and they couldn’t get these things from Germany or Europe. That’s why they had the ladies make all these things. It became something national. It says here, “World War I had disrupted the flow of hand crafted toys from Germany and Austria. Visiting New England blue bloods like Anna Cabin Putnam and Madelyn Yale Lynn president of Deerfield Industries in Massachusetts actively marketed the toys among their wide circle of friends and to Marshall Field in Chicago and other big stores. Company catalogs emphasized that the purchase of toys would help struggling mountain crafts people.” Eventually they came down here to take care of these “struggling crafts people.” “With the approach of World War II the dynamic duo ran out of steam. They were getting along in years and decided to retire closing up the Toy House as a retail outlet in 1940.” It says two different young couples took over shortly thereafter, but they didn’t have the marketing connections so it just fell by the wayside.

It looks like with these letters there’s a joy and affection with the people they correspond with and the later letters written by others are more business oriented and to the point. It’s amazing how much your tone in terms of written communication impacts your business.

That’s right. I mentioned they have new wooden Morris horses made by local artisans now. My husband is one of them. He was the only one until just recently. They’re Christmas ornaments.

When we came to Tryon, we belonged to the Tryon Country Club and they found out that I was an artist. Marc Brady the pro there said, “Could you paint a picture with Morris the horse on our golf course? We’d like to have it maybe on hole number nine with the club house in the background.” I said, “Yeah, I can do that.” So, here it is with that look on his face. He sold quite a few of these and he mentioned it to Mary at Tryon House.

She said, “Oh, would you have her stop in and see me. We don’t have anyone that can do the Morris the horse annual picture any more.” I thought, “Well okay.”
2008 was the first year you painted the official Morris the horse painting?
I’ve taken over doing it. Last year she did fabulous with the prints. I think she sold 58 of them 16 x 20. It has worked out so well.

Has painting been your profession, or is that something you’ve just done in your free time?

It was just a pastime. I went to night school. Enjoying myself, let’s put it that way. In the summer’s there, over the last fifteen years or so, we had the weekends with the white tents and the fine artists and I did those. My husband was my gofer.

It’s nice to have a gofer.

You have to have a gofer. We had a boat that we went to every weekend, a Carver Mariner 33 footer.

I noticed there was a lot of nautical influence in your paintings upstairs.

Oh yes, I did every lighthouse in Michigan and all these nautical things with the boats. They sold very well at those shows, especially at Algonac which was right on the water. If you looked across the river Ontario was there. We were between Ontario and Michigan on this little island called Harsens. I got to do a lot of painting there too.

So you’ve found a niche painting the Morris pictures and you didn’t even seek it out, it found you.

You’re right. I worked for 32 years in a school system in business.

Did you teach?

I was the administrative clerk of finance. I did all the investments for the school paychecks every two weeks. I had to deal with the banks and CDs and all that. My husband was in the newspaper business. He worked up in Romeo in Michigan at the Romeo Observer which was a little weekly magazine. This is all entirely different for us. We’re only here six months of the year. We spend the other half in Florida. When we get old, then we’ll be here full time. I’ve found this new thing to do here with the cards and all.

How did you find Tryon in the first place?

We had these dear friends that lived up in Rochester Hills, Michigan with us and they played golf with Jay and all of a sudden they disappeared. Nobody knew where they had gone. One night about nine o’clock the phone rang and it was Bruce. Bruce and Sandy who owed the property where there’s the new restaurant out on 108.

Giardini?

Giardini. They bought the property from Bruce and Sandy, but that’s getting ahead of my story. He said, “Hi, I miss my buddies.” Their son had told them, “I found this wonderful town, Columbus, with mountains in the background, a stream running through, and a for sale sign on this piece of property. Dad, you’ve got to come down and look at it.” This was just what they needed. They packed up the car, came down, looked at it, bought the property, and were here for fourteen years. Bruce said, “You’re never going to come visit us.” We said, “Yes, we will.” On our way from Florida to Michigan we would stop by and fell in love with the whole area. We did it for three years. Finally the third year we found this place, and here we are in Tryon. Then our friends Sandy and Bruce had a buyer for their property which was the Giardinis, and they went back to Michigan.

Oh, no. You finally get settle here and they leave? Do they come down and visit you now?

We’re trying to talk them into it.

Did you study watercolor in your free time?

In my free time until I retired. We have two daughters. One is a teacher in Michigan. She teaches autistic children. The other daughter had to move to Washington D.C. Her husband is a White House correspondent for National Public Radio. We had two daughters in college for three years, so it was very necessary that we both work throughout our marriage. Since we retired, life has been wonderful. Our health has been good, and we’re pursuing our interests, which for me has been painting. Down in Florida we live in a lovely town on the gulf side of Venice called Nokomis after Hiawatha’s grandmother. Venice has a fabulous art center there and I take a lot of classes just to keep myself busy.

I noticed your father’s painting was oil and you have some oils you’ve painted upstairs in the house, but most of what you’re doing is watercolors. Is there a reason for choosing watercolor over oil?

The funny thing on that, I did oils when I got into the art shows in Michigan. My husband would sit and watch the people carrying packages by and he said, “You know, they’re all admiring your work, but they’re all buying watercolors. They’re cheaper.” I said, “Well, I guess I could learn how to do watercolors, but it’s supposedly an unforgiving art.” I took up watercolor painting and have been doing it ever since.

Why are the watercolors less expensive?

You can have prints made of them is the main reason. With oil, that’s the original and that’s that. With watercolors you can get prints made and they’re on paper rather than on canvas.

We took a break to travel down to Tryon House and visit with Mary and see the display of Morris watercolors. Who started the Morris watercolor series?
Mary: Paul Keenan.

How long did he do them annually?

Mary: The paper used to do huge write-ups about him so there’s a lot of history there. He was a Tryon artist, but he actually lives in Saluda now. The earliest one I see is 1993.

He stopped two or three years ago then?

Mary: Yes, as he got older. I have all of the number one prints except for three. If you can find the Tryon First Settlers, that one goes for about $250.

Betty: You used to be the only store that could sell Morris the horse items right?

Mary: This store has the trademark on receptacles, trash cans, mailboxes, jewelry, and apparel. We do not have the trademark on the wood carvings, because the whole thing is the result of the Tryon Toy Makers. When I bought the store part of the purchase price was for the trademark. People got over being upset about the lady in 1983 just deciding to trademark things that were being made for years, but nobody contested it, they let her do it. When Larry and Vicki purchased it, people liked them and they just understood that this was the only place that the wood carvings were sold. People were real loyal with that.
Betty: That’s why The Bookshelf can carry the paintings and some of the wood carvings. Vines and Stuff has some of my note cards, but they don’t have Morris on them.

You can stop in to visit Mary at the Tryon House and see the series of Morris prints for yourself. Betty Burdue’s Morris 2009 prints are now available for purchase to continue this fun tradition commemorating the history of artists and crafts people in our community.

Linda Hudgins prepares to open her studio for Art Trek Tryon

I had a chance recently to preview the studio space of Linda Hudgins who will be participating in the first open studio tour of the area sponsored by the Upstairs Artspace. The upcoming Art Trek Tryon will give art lovers a sneak peek into the work habits of some of the talented local artists.

How did you find this studio space?

I actually had been looking for a studio space for a couple of years and one rainy day I had a meeting cancelled. We were supposed to do dying for felting over at Cindy Walker’s and we couldn’t do it because it was raining. I drove back by here, saw a “For Sale” sign, said “Oh, I’ll check it out,” and came by. I saw it had a basement like a house I had before where I worked in the basement. I called the real estate agent and she said, “I can show it to you now.” I came to see it and walked into this space here and just loved it. I got somebody to come and look at it for me to make sure because I don’t know anything about houses. They said, “It’s a good house, go for it.” I made an offer and the woman took it. In two days I had signed the papers.

Wow, that’s fast!

I’ve been here three years I realized. It’s just been a really good space for me.
You use the downstairs space for work, and upstairs you have art that is displayed and it’s also a guest house for relatives.

As a matter of fact, I’ve had an artist who was doing installation for the Upstairs. She was looking for a place to stay because she needed to be here to work on that. I said, “I have a place!” It worked out wonderfully.

How did you get into this first Art Trek in Tryon?

I’m an artist here in Tryon who has a studio first of all. Secondly, I’ve shown at the Upstairs so we’re not unfamiliar with each other. They came and looked at my studio and asked me to do it and I said yes.

What do you hope it will be like?

I had hoped they would do it for a long time and it just seems so right because there are so many artists around. Greenville has a really big one and other people do it. I’m really glad they’re doing it and I think it will be popular. I think people will come here because it’s a good place to visit. There will be the excitement of going to see where these artists live and work.

Do you feel a pressure to have your studio look a certain way?

Not too much, but I do notice the bugs more. Seeing it through their eyes I’m going to try to get the bugs cleaned out. I actually think my workspace should look like my space. It’s not too bad.

My workspace doesn’t look this neat.

I’ll try to make room to walk through and get rid of those cords on the floor where I have lighting. I’ll have to pick up and put away a few things.

But for the most part it will be as it is when you’re working here.

Right.

You mentioned working with acrylics, and oils in the summer because of the ventilation.

I’m going to tell you what’s going on here. I’ll leave it unrolled partially. You can see it online. I had a show in January at the Spartanburg Art Museum and after that show I wanted to get away from thinking about how people were responding to my work. That’s another step in between me and the work and I wanted to get rid of that. I decided that if I just painted on something that wasn’t already stretched. I had no idea what was going to happen to it. It was just paint, paint, paint. Then I could do that. Well it worked. I started this and put it on a piece of wood. I had a whole long length of canvas. I just gesso as far down as it would go and I started painting. I would paint about this much.

About a foot or two.

Then I would roll it up and gesso the bottom and paint again. It was very freeing in that I didn’t have to worry about what was on the other side. I didn’t have to worry about anything except what I was doing right at that moment. Then I told a friend what I was doing. I used to live in China and she said, “They paint scrolls in China, don’t they?” I was doing a scroll. Luckily I had not thought about it. I was really very free before…

Before you thought about it?

Right. What’s happened since then is I have a friend who has called and said, “Linda I’ve shown your art to so and so here in Zhongshan.” It’s the city that China has named after Sun Yat-sen in Guangdong province. She said, “He’s seen your work and he would like you to bring some work and show in Zhongshan.” I said, “Well, guess what? I have some things I can roll to bring.” If it works out, it seems like such a nice coincidence. You just do what seems right and see what happens. I also had all these other things that I had already started just taping to the wall. I like this idea of it not being something I was thinking about presenting. It was just things I’m playing around with and learning from. I’m learning every time I paint.

This scroll is not the same material as that.

Good, you’re right. It’s thin and see-through. The paint goes through a little bit. I’m actually going to buy some silk organza and paint on that as well. I just happened to find this in Spartanburg at a good price.

A muslin or cotton?

It’s either batiste or thin muslin. It is cotton.

There’s an art group, a few of us who meet together and somebody said they had windows they’d taken out of their house. Maybe we could do a project with those windows. I was painting on that and thought, “Windows? Maybe this could go through the window.” Then I thought that’s too stiff, what if I had something that was see-through and light and could just float through that window. It would be like ideas just running in and out of space. I’m enjoying it so far.

How long have you been painting?

All my life. Even as a child that was my thing to do. I was a child before parents knew how to direct their children towards what they loved. They did buy me finger paints. I loved those. They did buy me paint by numbers and I did one and I said, “I know how that was done and I don’t want to do another one.” I didn’t do another one, but I had paints.

Did you go to school for art then?

Yeah, I went to Converse and majored in art.

You grew up in this area?

Yeah, I grew up south of Spartanburg and I got a scholarship to Converse. I’m glad I did because Professor Cook had gone to the Pennsylvania Academy. He was a good student at Pennsylvania Academy. He taught us all that good academic stuff about color, form, and all that. You can see this is not academic like that, but still it has a lot of knowledge about color.

It’s underneath.

Even if it’s not there I have the confidence of knowing that I know that stuff.
They are inviting paintings. There’s an order to the chaos.

The rest of the schooling is that I have a Masters from the Rhode Island School of Design which was another kind of schooling. I went because I taught at the Day School and they sent me there for my Masters degree. That was good. I asked them and they did. It was a good experience.

What are your goals with your artwork at this point?

Just to continue to find out what there is in me and out there to come together over that. I’m picking up something from where ever I am. I lived in China for three years. I came home and just started painting things unlike what I had done before. After about three or four years I took a group of friends back to China and it was like everywhere I looked, “That’s my painting.” It wasn’t like images it was like this little bit of something. It was a combination of my love of color and despite parts of China being very gray, overall China is very colorful. I was seeing that I had taken some of China in and put it on that canvas not knowing that’s what I was doing.


I have some paintings I did in Africa and with my brush strokes they looked African. You know how African art has these broad angular strokes? Well I have some landscapes I did in Africa and they look like that. It’s interesting to find out how these things get filtered through me somehow.

These trips to Africa and China, are they something that’s grown out of your work?

No. I used to travel with friends. I’ve been in lots of European countries. We used to go with paintings on our backs to paint and spend a month travelling around painting.

My husband died in 1986 and I was still at the Day School. I stayed there a few years and I decided this was not the way I wanted to spend the rest of my life just living here, going to school and coming home. I took a year off and decided that I would apply to the Peace Corps because I wanted to do that when I was young. They sent me to Botswana to teach art.

The Peace Corps is normally two years, but I extended for a third year. When I came home I knew I wasn’t ready to come home. I started looking at the information Peace Corps sent me about other opportunities. There was an advertisement about teaching in China. I sent off my application and they called me. It was a position teaching English and they wanted me to teach art. I said, “Yes.” I taught art to children who were equivalent to our 4-6th grade. I was speaking English, they were speaking English and we could understand each other. I spent three years in China.

How long have you been back in Tryon?

I came home in 1999 and I lived in Spartanburg for a little while and knew I didn’t want to settle in Spartanburg. I started looking around and found a little house at Lake Lanier that was similar to this but a lot bigger. I bought that house and lived there for three or four years. I met a man and we decided to buy a house together and it had a room in the basement that was unfinished. It didn’t take me long to outgrown that for a studio. Then I started looking and found this place. I’ve been here three years. I was sort of without a good studio for two years doing smaller things.

Are these smaller pieces on the wall from the smaller studio?

This is just so much fun. It’s just an acrylic sketch book. I’m a little bit frugal and when I’m working on a painting and I’ve finished with a color I will come and put it on a piece of paper. Then when I’m finished painting in the afternoon I will take my palette knife and come and scrape it on the paper and I’m just watching what happens and building up compositions. This is what I’m calling my sketchbook. I love doing it.

It’s beautiful!

I’m thinking this is also something I can take to China.

When do you go?

The time is October. I’m hoping it all works out.

Is there anything else on your schedule?

I’m glad you asked. I sent four pastel drawings that I did studying this work and they’re going to be at Meredith College in September at the Women’s Caucus for Art. The show is called Echos. It’s supposed to be work in a series.

For the Art Trek will there be tour guides or maps?

Everybody gets a map and they’re on their own to go where they want to, when they want to in that certain period of time.

If somebody wants to contact you before or after the show what’s the best way to reach you?

By email lindahudgins@att.net I guess or by phone 828-894-8394. I have a website www.lindahudginsart.com and my contact information is also there. People generally don’t come except by appointment here. Those two days you’ll be able to drop by as a special exception.

Art Trek Tryon takes place July 25-26, 2009 and features an open studio tour of 40 artists in Polk County and Landrum. A preview party exhibiting works from participating artists will be held at the Upstairs Artspace Friday July 24 from 5-8 p.m.

Dr. Elizabeth Child transitions from fundraising back to classical piano

In a time when many people are wondering about job security, Beth Child has made a bold choice to leave behind her “day job” at Hospice and return to her passion with classical piano. I took a moment one afternoon to sit down and visit with her about this courageous transition.

You just left Hospice. How long did you work with them?

I’ve been with them two years. I’ve been with St. Luke’s Hospital Foundation for five. I look at it as a seven year chunk where I worked in the non-profit area. I started part-time at St. Luke’s. I needed to leave music for a while for a lot of reasons. I thought, “I think maybe this is a job I can do!” I took courses, learned a lot, and did a lot. They were both wonderful jobs, great organizations. It took me seven years to realize it just didn’t fit me and the music did and always had. I needed to go back to it.

Did you go to college for music?

I started piano lessons in first grade. I started Converse College and got my Bachelors in Performance, then went to University of Michigan for a Masters in Performance, and then the Julliard School for a Doctorate in Performance. I loved doing it.

Have you taught?

I did teach at Furman just before starting work at St. Luke’s Hospital. For six months I took the place of a faculty member that was on sabbatical. I had a taste of college teaching and it was great. I knew at that point that I had to step aside from what I had done my whole life because my heart just wasn’t in it. I had lived in New York a long time and had gone through a divorce and the music just wasn’t speaking to me like it had. Sometimes life is like that, you’ve got to put something down and then you end up growing and changing in this other place that you went. Then you can come back to it. It’s scary, but I feel it’s something I have to try.

What types of performances were you doing before you got into the fundraising world?

I was living in New York, so I was playing some chamber music with friends and library series performances in New Jersey and Connecticut. I was teaching a lot. I had a private studio at my home in Brooklyn and taught all ages except beginners. I got concerts down here because I have ties in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. You can do pretty well managing a career for yourself. It’s not quite like acting where you really have to have a manager. It’s hard now because my home is Tryon. What I have done in the last two months since I got out of the non-profit arena is network like crazy to set up some concerts. I have one in Spartanburg and one in Greenville in the fall, one at Tryon Estates next March, and for The Hobbit this summer. I played a couple years ago for Alice in Wonderland and it’s a lot of fun. There’s no music written for it, but the fun part is you get to read the script and then talk with everybody else on the team and see what composers might fit. You get to work with little kids, which is wonderful.

Will you actually pick specific pieces for The Hobbit?

Since I can’t improvise very well, I go through all the music I have in the house. First, I read the script. Some music does come to mind and then I’ll go find it. For this one I’ve settled on Grieg who’s Norwegian.

I love Grieg’s lyric piano pieces.

Yeah, he’s written a ton of stuff. Also, Bartok and Debussy. I’m going to stick to those three because then you really have to hunt. Probably the most time consuming thing is finding the music and finding where to put it. Gandalf the wizard raises his sword and there’s this blue light on him. I’ve found music for the blue light.

Wow! How do you pick blue light music?

It’s hard. We’ve had good production meetings where we sit with the set designer, the costume designer, and the lighting designer. They tell me what they’re concept is and we bat things about. I’m really just using my own instincts and creativity. I think it helped doing Alice and Wonderland before.

It also helps having in your brain an array of classical melodies.

This Hobbit has a little bit of Asian influence in the costumes. It’s not your typical English shire. I don’t want to say anymore because I can’t put it into words like the director and other people can do.

Will there be any Asian influences in the music?

A little bit. Debussy wrote a piece called Pagodes. There’s some of that in there. Really, I think Chinese and Japanese music influenced a lot of European composers.

Are you a strictly classical player?

Yeah, and that’s tough to get work. If only I could play like Fred Whiskin. If only I could play good party piano. I can read anything, but I just don’t play by ear and jazz doesn’t come that easily.

Who are your favorite composers?

That is so hard to answer. I’m asked that a lot and it changes from year to year. It used to be Mozart and then Bach. I think right now it’s the romantic era. That’s where I really want to spend all my time. I’m practicing Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Schuman, and Liszt.

How did you make the leap from Brooklyn to Tryon?

My grand parents had retired here in the 1970s and so I’ve been coming for a long time. They’re no longer living, but my parents then retired here in the 1980s and my mom is still here. I came back home so to speak. My father’s from Spartanburg. I still have a few relatives there.

I need a new headshot. I need a new demo CD. The ones I have from New York are too old. I need a new glossy flyer. It’s very different. It’s taken two months just to get back in the swing of this. The clothes are different. You’ve got to think about how your hair looks. I won’t use Beth Child; it will be Elizabeth Child because that sounds better for a stage name. It feels like the right place to be even though the economy has made things tough. I’m going to keep an open mind.

It seems like in this economy people are moving toward things they know they are passionate about.

I think so. It just makes me so mad that these companies did such stupid things and lost people’s money. I’m going to something that is very real and meaningful to me, because you just don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. I think as far as people wanting lessons and wanting to hear good music and concerts, that’s still in demand. People need the arts. It speaks to everybody whether it’s visual arts, the performing arts, or writing.

What would you say to somebody who’s thinking about a career in music and college for music?

I would go for it and realize that there are a lot of good careers in music. It may not be performing. It may be working with music and media. It may be teaching people over the age of 65 who want to learn new things. I think today’s musician is just going to have to think very broadly. Doing more than one thing is good. Branching out and even being able to play other instruments is good.

Did you ever play Carnegie Hall or have dreams of playing in Carnegie Hall?

I’ve played in Carnegie Recital Hall twice. I made my New York debut there. That’s the gorgeous small hall that’s attached to Carnegie Hall. It’s called Weill Recital Hall now. In 1984 when I made my debut it was called Carnegie Recital Hall which of course sounded really good. That’s where everybody made their debut at the time. I got a New York Times review. Playing in “the” Carnegie Hall, I would love that. That’s every performers dream because the acoustics are so incredible and of course the history of all the people who have played there.

That’s not in my sights right now. I have to kind of start small right now just to get my feet wet again. I’m President of Rotary Club until the end of June and one of the Rotarians asked what it was like getting back into it. “Aren’t your fingers stiff?” I was trying to describe it. The fingers part is like riding a bike, but my brain is seven years older and playing from memory and under pressure you have to do a lot of it.

Do you practice on a regular basis?

I do.

How much time do you put into practice?

I’m trying four hours a day, five days a week right now. That’s just to build repertoire and get it in good enough shape to play like I was used to playing.

That’s like a part time job and you don’t get paid to practice.

That’s right. I think the tougher thing for me will be teaching. I love teaching and I would like to have some intermediate and advanced students. In September I’ll know more about adjunct work at colleges. Furman may have need for accompanists and teachers of piano minors. I think that’s the hardest thing. How do I teach and what does that look like? I want to be teaching and performing in some manner and slowing build up gigs and make money at it. I have a few now, but I need more. I’m just going to take my time. I poured my heart and soul into learning about fundraising. I want to do things all the way when I do them. It’s putting on the brakes with that and going back takes time. You can’t just flip a switch.

You’ll be doing a demo. Do you have a studio for that?

I do not. That’s brand new too because everything I did before was in New York. That’s why the networking is so important. Somebody told me about someone very good in Spartanburg who does head shots. I’m going to need a lot more than that. I’m just starting this process.

I have poured myself into this Rotary year as president. June 25 is my last Thursday as president. I expect to really pour myself into music.

How was it being President of Rotary?

I started with Rotary when I started with St. Luke’s Hospital. It was important to my boss at the time. My mother reminded me that my grandfather had been a Rotarian. I really liked it. I think it does a tremendous amount of good for the community and also for the world. They’re known for helping eradicate polio. I have grown at the two jobs and in Rotary because I’ve had leadership positions and had to do public speaking. It really helped build confidence.

I think that’s made it easier to go back and have that confidence on the stage. I had that to some extent before, but I think it’s better now. I’ve loved the piano since I was a little girl. When I was ten I was already practicing three hours a day.

I’ve heard music lessons as a child is one of the key pieces to keeping kids away from risky behaviors.

I read a good article in Clavier that music lessons, because of the discipline required, can really help the kids that are so into their computers and the video games where their attention span is so short. You have to learn how to be a good listener. It’s a skill they may not get in school. Music lessons can do a lot for today’s child.

When you mention that you won’t take beginning students, is it because of age or level?

Just a certain level, I really don’t take beginners anymore. I don’t have the patience to teach the note names and the staff.

You want students who can already read music…

…and know their rhythms. Age doesn’t really matter. Early intermediate is fine.

When is The Hobbit?

It’s the very end of July.

Is there anything else local coming up?

Hospice is doing a fundraiser October 10. It’s a choral concert at Tryon Fine Arts Center and I am accompanying for that, but I’m playing one solo piece. It’s a Liszt piano piece that’s a transcription of a Schumann song. It’s gorgeous. The only problem is that it’s three and half minutes and then it’s gone. It’s so beautiful.

You can reach Dr. Elizabeth Child by calling 828-859-6508 or emailing mechild@windstream.net.

Pastor Jorel Lawson grandson of Nina Simone visits Tryon

I had the opportunity to meet with Pastor Jorel Lawson when he made a visit to Tryon in June and spoke at St. Luke’s C.M.E. church. The following is our conversation on the Friday afternoon before he spoke at the church.

What do you think of your first visit to Tryon?

Very historic in the sense that my family roots and background are here in Tryon. My great-grandmother Reverend Mrs. Mary Waymond was the pastor of St. Luke’s many years back and it’s where my grandma Nina was born and raised. I saw the house. It was my first time seeing all of that, the church, the house, and even the gravesite. You know that touched me in a very special way.

Where did you actually grow up?

My mother was serving in the Air Force back in 1984, she was stationed in Tucson, Arizona and that’s where I was born. I was there for six weeks and then I was sent to upstate New York where I spent twelve years growing up from infant to adolescence. Then from there at the age of thirteen for my first time I was sent to Ghana, West Africa to do schooling there for about two years. At age fifteen I came back from Ghana and I lived in Chicago. There I stayed and resided for about nine years. I went back to Ghana in 2007 to do missionary work. I also met my wife there. Before I left Ghana, we got engaged, then I left, and then six months later we got married. Since we got married, I decided to move there and I’ve been living there ever since.

You were raised as much in Ghana as any place in the U.S. it sounds like.

Yes.

How would you compare your experience living in Ghana to living in Chicago and upstate New York?

America is very fast paced. We Americans, our mind is always running a thousand miles an hour. We’re always busy. That’s why the time goes so fast, whereby in Ghana it’s kind of slow paced. You got to turn the pace and make it fast and move the way you want to move. If you don’t take time it will start getting boring.

Ghana is lively, but it’s not as lively as the states where some cities are full of noise. Chicago is just noisy, but here in Tryon it’s calm, peaceful, and very quiet. It’s the same thing with Ghana. At the same time you have some lively places. Where I’m at it’s mostly quiet. That’s the similarities between the two.

What was your impetus to do missionary work in Ghana?

I have a burden to help people. Like Jesus said in the scriptures, “The son of man came to seek and save that which was lost.” I believe that as we fulfill the steps of Jesus of walking as he walked that we should go out there and help people in the world. Now of course, I had my fair share of high school life. I was a knuckle head being disobedient and doing what a teenager would normally do. As I got older I saw that this is not the life for me. I used to do drugs. I used to hang out with the wrong crowd and be under a lot of peer pressure, dating different women, and also got in trouble with the law, little misdemeanor stuff. As I got older I saw that this was not a life, and this was not a future for me. I know that I have a higher calling. When I finally came to my senses, I used to watch about Africa on the T.V. and I used to see the people just suffering living in poverty. When you see them, they look like they have no future. As I devoted myself to the ministry and became an ordained minister I had a burden to go out there and help the people. If I can help a soul and help a person to know who they are and what they’re here for I don’t mind my leaving my country.

Was there any specific point that really turned your head around to get your life on track?

The last couple of years before I went full time into the ministry I was a geothermal technician. I was working in a construction company dealing with geothermal energy, from the earth. I was working on trucks, with bobcats, and lifting steel. It was a dirty job. I hate dirty jobs, but they paid good money. If it’s paying good money, you don’t care what happens as long as they’re paying you. I was doing that for a while, but as time went on I got bored with it. We used to go as far as 600-700 feet deep down in the earth. We used to deal with geysers. I just got tired of coming home smelling like gas and kerosene. I just said, “This is not the life for me.” My mother in 2007 came to Chicago, looked in my face and said, “Son, you know this is not you. You have a higher calling. Chicago is not your home. This job that you’re working, yes it pays the bills but you won’t be doing this for long.” When my mom spoke that into me then I saw things on a different note. I said, “Well I’m going to go ahead and quit this job.” For the last six-seven months of that year after I met my wife and we were engaged, I was just working my socks off. I said, “I know I’m not going to be working here soon, so let me just gather up all the money that I can and then I’ll just go ahead and dismiss myself.”

Going back to Ghana, how is that ministry working?

Basically the ministry that I deal with is Charismatic and Pentecostal. I deal with a lot of ministers because when people hear that you’re an American and hear your accent they immediately want to draw close to you. At the same time you have to be watchful because some people will draw close to you just to use you and to get what you have. I go to the villages. In March I was in a village that was about thirteen hours away from the capital of Ghana. Out there, the villagers’ houses are made out of mud. I was just taken aback by how I saw these people making houses out of mud and cow manure and it doesn’t stink. I was very fascinated to see how these people survive. When I go out there and minister, I go out with pastors who know the area and know the community. Basically they are my translators. The one thing about it, we don’t give up. If it fails, hey, I’m going to keep on trying until something succeeds. That’s what we normally do there.

What types of change have you seen from the work that you’ve done so far?

Lives being blessed and changed. When I first arrived, a lot of people weren’t happy with their lives especially regarding marriage and their personal lives. After you sit down and counsel them you help them to see that they are of more value to God than how somebody else would look at them. What every African that lives on the continent of Africa needs, is encouragement. They need somebody who will sit down and listen to them word for word. When they see that someone is listening, and when they see that someone is taking the time to invest in trying to help them then they will respond positively. God puts people in other people’s lives for a reason.

Would you say that the problems with family and needing encouragement are different in Ghana than in America?

As for America, we have counselors, community centers, and even therapists that people go and see to talk about their problems and whatever they’re going through. Ghana on the other hand, they don’t have that, or if they do it’s very rare. They’re suffering because poverty is what’s killing the mindset and the mentality of the African. They work so hard, but they only get paid so little. They go through other means such as prostitution, alcoholism, and drugs. Right now prostitution is one of the main things going on there because there is no money. Now Ghana is right behind South Africa for the HIV/AIDS. You have people getting pregnant from age eleven up to fourteen. Shockingly, the people that get these kids pregnant are young themselves. Since the young ladies are not prepared for parenthood, their hearts and their minds can’t handle that, they tend to leave the child with their mother or with their grandparents and they run away. There’s no such thing as child support. You don’t go to court for that. The males can get away with that severely over there. It leaves the women in such an awkward position because in Africa people look at them different. If you’re having babies at this age then you don’t respect yourself, you must be a prostitute. Instead of trying to encourage them, you have some people that just discourage them. Then they’re just doing it more and more. The latter part is worse then when they first started.

It’s not only in Africa or America, but it’s in the whole world there are people walking without hope. You have to believe that it is going to get better. We can all bring changes in our society, community, city, and our country. If we don’t realize that, then we’ll always be stuck in the same predicament and having people feeling sorry for us. You are somebody, you can do exploits, and you can always talk to somebody. Spiritually the church is the backbone of every country in the world because the church is a place where you come to for peace, solace, tranquility, counseling, anything.

Is Ghana predominantly Christian? Or what is the religious make-up of that country?

You have varieties. Christian is the main religion. Of course, you have Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, and Islam. It depends on the region. The Greater Accra Region, that’s where I live, you have about 95% Christian with other religions following behind that.

In Ghana you don’t have a state religion?

No, you have the freedom to choose what religion you want.

Is there communication between the religions?

There is communication between the religions. I believe that wars could be prevented if people can just communicate accurately.

Any other plans for your visit here?

I got here on the 15 of May and everything has been so fast paced for me. I made stops like New York, Stroudsburg and Allentown, Pennsylvania, Miami. I’ve been to Jacksonville. I just got here on Wednesday coming from Chicago. I’ll be leaving for Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania early Monday morning. Dr. Armbrust has already taken me for a tour of the whole place. Today I’m just relaxing and then tomorrow St. Luke’s and another Baptist church are going to be having a little barbecue. I was invited over there to come and grace the occasion. Apart from that I’ll be speaking at St. Luke’s on Sunday. When I’m done speaking at St. Luke’s then my itinerary is finished and I just prepare and get ready to go back. Every city that I’ve gone to I’ve made contacts and formed good relationships and friends. Also, we’re trying to collect funds, trying to help sponsor the work in Africa, trying to build churches, trying to send clothes and food to those that are less fortunate. By God’s grace I’ve been very successful doing that. When I go back to Ghana everyone will be able to hear a positive report of what the Lord has been doing here.

How has your mom responded to the work that you’ve been doing?

My mom has been very supportive of my ministry. She has actually invested in my career and she’s very proud of what I’ve become and what I’m doing. She looks at it as a big transformation. She’s going to be continually supporting me in what I’m going to be doing. I thank God for that. I’m very thankful that she has an understanding heart to know that this is what I want to do, this is my dream.

Will your wife come with you on your next visit?

My wife is back in Ghana, but I’m planning for her to come with me the next time that I come around. It will be her first time coming to the U.S.

If people are interested in contributing to your ministry, how do they contact you?

We have three contacts and we have an email address. We have the Amazing Grace International Church. We have our email address which is globaloutreach.2008@yahoo.com or my cell phone which is an international number 011-233-243-909-262.