The Mountain Calls: Echoes of Appalachia

The Mountain Calls: Echoes of Appalachia

Exhibit on view April 21 – June 4, 2021

Artists: Stacey Pilkington Smith, Jenna Webb, Robert Webb, Crystal Whitesides

View the Online Gallery of Artworks Here

Four local artists: Stacey Pilkington-Smith, Jenna Webb, Robert Webb, and Crystal Whitesides have strived to capture the life, magic, and forgotten ways of the Southern Appalachian people through various art mediums. A public reception will be held Saturday April 24th from 6-8 pm, with live music by Steve and Jean Smith on hammered dulcimer.

The four friends, Stacey Pilkington-Smith, Jenna and Robert Webb from Lincolnton and Crystal Whitesides from Vale, traveled around Appalachia to research and document scenes to use in their artwork.

Stacey Pilkington-Smith’s mastery of illustration beautifully explores the folklore, myth, and curiosities about life in the Appalachia, capturing a rapidly declining culture and their stories before they disappear or are rearranged to suit the needs of the future. Robert Webb uses his skill of his camera lens to capture a moment in time that remains forever still for the viewer. Robert’s photographs are contemporary scenes but can easily be placed in the distant past as the landscape remains seemingly unchanged for over a century. Both Jenna Webb and Crystal Whitesides highlight the flora and fauna of the region in their different processes. Jenna Webb creates her imagery with linocut print making and green crafting focusing on nature, and more specifically medicinal and edible plants of the Appalachia. Crystal Whiteside translates her visions into eco-prints and mixed media works of art. Crystal finds inspiration in the constant beauty found within plants, animals, and the natural world, utilizing these elements to create worlds that awaken an unknown nostalgia within the viewer.

The artists’ results immerse viewers in an echo of life in the mountain hollers, root them to our now, and give slight glimpses into our future.