Arrowmont Hosts Metals Retreat

With summer workshops closing, Arrowmont had the joy of hosting a metals retreat organized by Ana Lopez, 1999-2000 Artist-in-Residence, for one week in August. Fifteen metalsmithing and jewelry artists gathered for private studio time taking a break from their regular daily demands.

After attending a retreat in 2012 for former Artists-in-Residence, Ana was inspired to organize a metals retreat for her close friends and colleagues. She asked her friends to extend the invitation to their art peers resulting in a diverse group of people connected by their passion of metalsmithing and jewelry.

The retreat invited discussion, critiques and a variety of techniques including soldering, digital printing, wax working, enameling and found object manipulation. Participants brought finished and unfinished work to discuss technique, form and experiment with new ideas. Like regular workshops, there was a studio stroll on Thursday evening to share everyone’s work with the group.

Many retreat members were new to Arrowmont and fully immersed themselves in the heart of Gatlinburg by hiking, biking, enjoying the local swimming hole, and sharing evenings together on the front porch of Stuart house.

The artists of the 2015 Advance/Retreat were Haley Bates, Jeff Bowie, Motoko Furuhashi, Jill Gower, Yevgeniya Kaganovich, Anya Kivarkis, Ana Lopez, Natalie Macellaio, Becky McDonah, Jennie Milner, Mary Pearse, Phil Renato, Lauren Selden, Stephanie Voegle and Cappy Wolf.

Works created during the retreat will be featured in an exhibition during the University of Milwaukee “Zoom” symposium May 25-29, 2016.