"Skidder and Wedge" is a mixed media piece inspired by photos I took at the 2007 horse pull at the Jacksonville Center for the Arts. I learned from my farrier, who knows many of the horses in the county, that the names of these two logging horses are "Skidder" and "Wedge"... which I thought would be a great name for the piece.
The horses in the piece are made of various colors of stained glass, attached to a 1/4" birch board. The background and frame are made of extinct American Chestnut salvaged from the Raven Road Barn (see Barn Recycling tab).
The dimensions of "Skidder and Wedge" are 28" wide and 18" tall.
This piece will be for sale in the "Mountain Color" art show at the Jacksonville Center for the Arts in Floyd beginning October 3, 2008.
"Chestnut Sky", April 2008, Stained Glass Streetscape and Wormy Chestnut Sky.
"Chestnut Sky" is a mixed media stained glass work of a streetscape of downtown Floyd, Virginia. The scene encompasses the Blue Ridge Restaurant on the far left and Farmer's Supply Hardware on the right. The sky and frame are made of Wormy American Chestnut that I gathered from a 130 year old log barn in Floyd County (see the barn recycling tab).
This work has been sold.
"Moonshine Memories" - SOLD
I found this old log barn near Stage Coach Road in Floyd County, Virginia. Still standing after enduring many years of wind, rain and snow along the Blue Ridge Parkway, I used this barn as the focal point of a scene that will be used in the Dawsonville Mountain Moonshine Festival in Dawsonville, Georgia. The original drawing has been shipped to Dawsonville to Bill Eggert of Mason Dixon Screen Printing & Embroidery. Bill has plans to make it the image used on shirts for the Festival.
The old barn is reminiscent of the days when moonshine whisky was transported through the North Georgia mountains during the days of prohibition. Tucked in the right side of the barn is a 1940 Ford Coupe, one of the cars of choice used for running moonshine. On the other side of the barn are the remnants of an old moonshine still. These relics represent two of the icons of the prohibition days.
This solid old barn was built by the Boones not long after the Civil War. Fred First and his wife live in the renovated two story house, a home that after more than a hundred years in place, "still holds good ghosts." Fred says of this remote and peaceful spot, "how could I not write about it?" His Floyd County memoir, Slow Road Home, is available widely in the town of Floyd and all along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Visit Fred's website at www.fragmentsfromfloyd.com.
