Posted on

Goodbye, Polar Vortex. Hello, Summer at Penland.

penlandcatcover

 

From a deep freeze, Penland’s 2014 summer catalog has arrived. Workshop descriptions are now online: by studio and by session.

The cover (a photograph by Wes Stitt) features core fellow Angela Eastman. Last summer, Angela decided to braid the tall grasses along the edge of a mowed circle in the Penland meadow. The circle surrounds a pear tree. It’s hard to imagine, in this winter frame of mind, doing something as carefree and intentional.

But open the Penland summer catalog: here are 107 chances for making something new and experiencing carefree intentions. Ralph Waldo Emerson probably described it best–the feeling of what can happen when you’re creating, inside the studio and out. This is from his great essay “Circles”:

 

The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves, to be surprised out of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal memory and to do something without knowing how or why; in short to draw a new circle. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. The way of life is wonderful. It is by abandonment.

Download the catalog here.