by NASH QUINN

Pocosin Arts

Artists from across the country will converge in Columbia for Pocosin Arts’ annual Cabin Fever Reliever.

The event, now in its 16th year, will take place Feb. 18 – 21 in downtown Columbia. Nearly 40 students and instructors from as far away as Pennsylvania and Montana will spend four days learning new skills in ceramics, book arts, and metalsmithing in the suite of winter workshops known as Cabin Fever Reliever. The workshops will take place at Pocosin Arts School of Fine Craft, but the participants will spend plenty of time exploring the town of Columbia. They will eat their meals at the Old Salt Oyster Bar, and each night at 7:30 p.m., the workshop instructors and their assistants will give slide presentations of their work at the Columbia Theater. These presentations are free and open to the public and are sure to feature plenty of beautiful and inspirational artwork.

Among the instructors is North Carolina-based book artist Daniel Essig. During his workshop, called “The Altered Mica Book,” Daniel will teach his students to create  hand-bound books and fill them with content, including images, words and treasures. In addition to paper, Daniel’s students will experiment with unconventional book-making materials, including wood and mica, a translucent mineral that can be separated into thin, glass-like sheets. Daniel Essig’s work can be seen in galleries across the country, including the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Susan Filley, a North Carolina native, will be teaching a ceramics workshop called “Porcelain Pots: on Form and Finish.” Her students will focus on porcelain, a beautiful and elegant white ceramic material that demands skillful manipulation. Susan’s work has been displayed worldwide, including exhibitions in Taiwan and New Zealand.

Students will take a different approach to ceramics in Nancy Jacobsohn’s workshop, “The Animal Image.” In this class, Nancy will teach her students to model the animal of their choice, focusing on proportion, texture and the technical challenges of firing large ceramic sculptures. Based in Sparta, Tennessee, Nancy has been a full-time studio artist for 20 years. She teaches workshops and exhibits her artwork across the country.

Bryan Petersen is travelling all the way from Bozeman, Montana to teach a class titled “Sustainable Jewelry from Recycled Materials.” Bryan’s students will be getting back to basics in this low-tech workshop, using unconventional materials like license plates, street signs, tin cans and bottle caps to create bracelets, earrings, pendants and more. Bryan studied metalsmithing at East Carolina University in Greenville and is now an associate professor at Montana State University.

In addition to the workshops, Pocosin Arts will host a retail gallery featuring the artwork of students, instructors and Pocosin’s resident artists. All of the work will be for sale, and the gallery will be open to the public on Friday and Saturday from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. and from 5 to 6:30 p.m., and on Sunday from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

Pocosin Arts’ Cabin Fever Reliever kicks off a full season of workshops on a variety of topics, from jewelry and ceramics to painting and baskets. The next session of four-day classes takes place April 28 – May 1, and features jewelry-making with Audrey Peck, portrait photography with Meg Daniels and pottery with Pocosin’s current resident artist Matt Repsher. Scholarships are available for all classes. See the full schedule and register for a workshop today at www.pocosinarts.org/classes.

Cabin Fever Reliever and other programs at Pocosin Arts are made possible in part by the North Carolina Arts Council.

Nash Quinn is the Programs and Marketing Assistant at Pocosin Arts.  He can be contacted by email at nash@pocosinarts.org, or by phone at 252-655-7002.