Category: Penland People

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Lola Brooks is a Stellar Educator

Today is Lola Brooks‘s birthday! An artist metalsmith, a darling of collectors, a clotheshorse, and a stellar educator, Lola is currently sharing her vast knowledge with twelve lucky students for 8 weeks during this year’s spring metals concentration. Her workshop is entitled “All You Can Eat: The Blue Plate Special.”

On her birthday, we want to say some nice things about our friend and 5-time Penland instructor Lola Brooks!

So here are some quotes from friends new and old:

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“Lola is the best mentor there is. Period.”

-Sofie Albertsen, current student

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“Many who are awed by Lola’s incredible work don’t know what a wonderful and devoted teacher she is. I admire her honesty, her passion, and her talent. She brings so much to the field of jewelry and to Penland and we are always so lucky to have her!”

-Leslie Noell, Penland Creative Director

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“Lola is my new style icon.”

-Kimberly Jo, Penland Core Fellow and current student

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“Lola is the greatest because she helps people get to where they don’t even know they are going yet. She can see where a particular person’s creative ideas are and where they might want to go and she pushes them to get there even when they can’t quite see where they are headed yet.”

-Mary Lucking,  current student

It is a testament to Lola’s skill as an educator that 7 of the twelve students in this spring’s class have studied with her before. We’ll be sharing more about this wonderful workshop so stay tuned!

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Jamaal Barber: Printmaker AND Illustrator

Congratulations to spring Concentration instructor Jamaal Barber on the recent publication of his illustrations in a new edition of Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad from The Folio Society.

This celebrated novel tells the story of an African American girl named Cora and her escape from slavery using a literal underground railroad. It is a mind-bending tale that is both imaginary and brutally realistic.

“I always wanted to be an illustrator,” Jamaal said, “particularly a kid’s book illustrator, which is what really inspired me to start doing art in the first place. And I never thought I’d get the opportunity to be able to do a project like this. This is really my dream coming back to me after so long.”

“I wanted to take this challenge because a lot of my work is about blackness,” he said, “and my work also speaks a lot about history and how important it is that we properly contextualize what happened to get us where we are and to know where to go afterwards. So I do feel that it’s a big responsibility to celebrate the story and to tell it properly.”

For these illustrations, Jamaal combined his first love, woodcut, with his more recent interests in painting and mixed-media. “The book came right at that point where I’m starting to merge the two things and kind of create this beautiful mashup of the bright, colorful stuff and the original texture of woodcuts.”

When, after months of working and then waiting, he finally had a copy of this beautiful book in his hands, Jamaal smiled broadly and said, “Wow!” Then he said, “It takes a lot of work to be an artist, you know, and you don’t get many moments like, ‘I did it.’”

More on this great project here.

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A Scholarship to Explore Iron

Last summer, Cameron Cooper attended a workshop with Mike Rossi in the Penland iron studio. Like 50% of Penland’s students, Cameron’s experience was made possible by a scholarship. As we approach our fall scholarship application due date, Cameron has generously shared his experience so that other’s may be inspired to apply:

Cameron Cooper’s Penland Experience

When I arrived in Penland, I knew my name, my favorite color, and my favorite food, but I didn’t know my hands. I had been longing for a space to create, build, and connect with nature and art, and Penland provided just that. It was a place where I could let go of my thoughts and live from the heart.

Two words that come to mind when I think of my time at Penland are freedom and grace. I had the freedom to explore and wonder, and the beautiful landscape and studios provided endless inspiration. I loved being able to visit other studios and see what others were working on. The community was warm and welcoming, and I felt a sense of love and warmth from the moment I arrived.

The process of forging iron was challenging at times, but I was surrounded by a supportive instructor in Mike Rossi and peers who were happy to help. Penland has a magical quality that makes you feel safe and at peace. It reminded me that creating is a state of being, not just doing, and that the more I can be myself, the more my work will reflect how I see the world. Everyone at Penland made me feel capable and valued, and I grew in my ability to express myself through a new material.

Since graduating in 2020, I had felt lost and creatively blocked, but Penland gave me permission to fail, forgive, and have fun. It’s a place that fosters democracy and provides space for everyone to explore and express themselves. I am immensely grateful for my experience and look forward to returning for a concentration or residency.

Scholarships at Penland

Penland’s robust scholarship program exists to make workshops accessible to those who are not able to participate without financial assistance and to create educational opportunities for people who have been underrepresented at Penland and in craft. In recent years, Penland has taken steps to streamline our scholarship application process, removing image requirements for most scholarships, reducing the application fee to $5, and removing the requirement for letters of recommendation, resulting in an increase in applications.

Immersive craft workshops are at their best when students are surrounded by a diversity of skill, experience, and means. Apply now for fall scholarships (Due March 15) and additional summer scholarships for select workshops (available on a rolling basis).