I like to explore and tell descriptive stories about places. I also make jewelry, music and mixed-media art.
The storm bore down on my headwaters, as it had done to my sisters, and I couldn’t hold back. We were all overwhelmed and enraged; this was just another breakdown in my ancient age. So full my banks, so strong my force, I broke bridges and carried campers along my course. I threw their pieces […]
Read More Fury of an Appalachian RiverThe shallow water of the lakeshore laps quietly in the darkness, as the sky begins to light. I’ve been flying, there ain’t no denying. My little wings flap quietly amid ferns that grow so high. I rest under a leaf and admire this beautiful scene. A new sliding sound comes from the shore, but I’m […]
Read More BugFest / Triassic EchoesDanville, Virginia to Eden, NC, Sept. 2024 “You can take all you want. It’s all rock around here.” -ABC Store operator, Pelham, NC SHALE BE COMING ROUND THE MOUNTAIN I’m standing on a multi-colored rock field between an ABC store and a visitor center near the North Carolina-Virginia line, looking downhill at what I am […]
Read More Dan River Rift Basin: Piedmont Geology and CulturePART 1, Crabtree & Mine Creek Greenways, Raleigh, NC, August & September 2024 and such Raleigh, North Carolina is the city where I was born and where I lived through college. As a child, I would play by the creek near our house and then walk along the wooded, sometimes rocky trail that followed it. […]
Read More Gneiss Weather for Piedmont GeologyAugust 2-4, 2024, Virginia and North Carolina It’s a sunny early morning at Fancy Gap, and I’m going to the Saturday market in nearby Galax, Virginia, to set up with my jewelry. While it’s my first time at this market, and I didn’t get prior confirmation, I’m able to get a metal stall in the […]
Read More Galax, Fries, Pittsboro: fair markets and stormy weatherThis upcoming week, I’ll be in Franklin, NC for the summer gem and mineral shows. The show dates are July 24-28, and you can find me and my jewelry at El Paso Rock Shop’s tent in the G&LW Watauga festival ground on US Hwy 23/441 (6295 Sylva Rd, Franklin, NC 28734, north of town). Franklin’s […]
Read More Franklin, NC gem show is comingThis year, one of my travel goals has been to see the rhododendron in bloom. Through exploration and research, ecstasy was achieved; the blooms were awesome, and they inspired a beaded art necklace. June, 2024. The spring bloom period in the eastern woodlands finally reaches the Appalachian mountains. Gardens in the cloud forest create a […]
Read More Rhododendron flowers, a necklace, and prideOctober 1, 2023, Norfolk, VA: I find my fall Gourd Goddess at Food Lion as part of a plentiful harvest of gourds and pumpkins. She’s an Ornamental Gourd, not hardshell, so she’s going to decay over the course of the coming winter. Last year I documented my Rotting Gourd Goddess’s journey for the first time, […]
Read More Journey of the Rotting Gourd Goddess, 2024December 27, 2022 The winter storm blew through before Christmas, freezing pipes and ponds across the Atlantic coastal plain. After a few cold dim days, the temperatures rose and sky cleared up again. Necessary is a nature walk and a visit to a ruin, before returning to Hampton Roads and home tasks. The Neuse River, […]
Read More Milburnie falls and dam ruins on the NeuseAround Halloween, I bought a small Gourd from a market. She was orange and bright and alive, like the Pumpkins around her. Unlike the hard-shell Calabash Gourds used for containers, tools, and art objects for æons, she is an edible vine Gourd*, with the lifespan of a season or less. And so I sat her […]
Read More Journey of the rotting Gourd Goddess
arianna's creative travels 