On the Blue Ridge
On the Blue Ridge features conversations with people shaping the Blue Ridge Mountains. Hosted by Asheville-based journalist Jon Page, the show explores the ideas, creativity, and vision driving Western North Carolina forward.
Through long-form interviews and on-location storytelling, each episode captures the evolving story of these mountains. The conversations focus on people doing meaningful and inspiring work across the region, from conservation and outdoor recreation to the arts, agriculture, food and beverage, entrepreneurship, and beyond.
On the Blue Ridge
Heather Clements on Reclaiming Creativity in the Wake of Storms
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Heather Clements is a professional artist and art instructor whose life and work have been profoundly shaped by the forces of nature. Heather is part of Asheville’s River Arts District, which suffered catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Helene.
Helene was the second major storm to upend Heather’s life and career. In 2018, while living in Panama City, Florida, Hurricane Michael destroyed her home, forcing a year-long hiatus from creating art. Last year, Heather and her husband relocated to Asheville. This September, Helene spared their home but devastated most of the River Arts District, including 310 Art, the gallery where Heather taught classes and showcased her work, which explores the deep connection between humans and the natural world.
In this episode, Heather shares how these natural disasters have tested her resilience and transformed her creativity. She discusses her personal experiences with both Hurricane Michael and Helene; how natural disasters have hindered and inspired her work; and how a trip to the mountains after Hurricane Michael helped lift her out of depression. Heather also takes us behind the scenes of her creative process, from her interactive murals to her new book, “Pull Me Apart.”
Heather’s Work
“Pull Me Apart: An Interactive Sketchbook”
@heatherclementsart on Instagram
Lilith, an interactive mural in downtown Asheville
Hurricane Helene flood self portrait
Donations
Riverview Station
Also Mentioned
Laurel River Trail
Theme Music
The song "Goa" was written by Lyndsay Pruett and performed by the Jon Stickley Trio.
But we drove and and we couldn't get to it because everything was blocked off, but we could see from the highway that that it was a river. The whole like the district was a river still. And and yeah, that was um not an easy sight to see for sure. It was very, very traumatic.
SPEAKER_00Today, on the Blue Ridge, our guest is Heather Clemens, a professional artist and art instructor whose life and work have been profoundly shaped by the forces of nature. Heather is part of Asheville's River Arts District, which suffered catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Helene. I'm your host, John Page. Let's begin. Helene was the second major storm to upend Heather's life and career. In 2018, while living in Panama City, Florida, Hurricane Michael destroyed her home, forcing a year-long hiatus from creating art. Last year, Heather and her husband relocated to Asheville. This September, Helene spared their home but devastated most of the River Arch District, including 310 Art, the gallery where Heather taught classes and showcased her work, which explores the deep connection between humans and the natural world. In this episode, Heather shares how these natural disasters have tested her resilience and transformed her creativity. She discusses her personal experiences with both Hurricane Michael and Helene, how natural disasters have hindered and inspired her work, and how a trip to the mountains after Hurricane Michael helped lift her out of depression. Heather also takes us behind the scenes of her creative process, from her interactive murals to her new book, Pull Me Apart. To start the conversation, I asked Heather to recount her experience with Hurricane Michael.
SPEAKER_01Hurricane Michael, 2018, it was a category five. It it developed extremely quickly, and it was far worse than they thought it was going to be. And it, I guess I would say it half destroyed our house. We had a um a large oak tree that landed on our house. We actually didn't know if it was going to be totaled or not for about a year. Um we uh a month after the hurricane, my husband and I stayed with his parents about 45 minutes um east of us, and they were also affected, and so we were helping them with their cleanup, but their house was okay. And then the next three months after we got all the the trees cleared out of our yard, because our yard was just nothing but trees everywhere, and the one on our house. So we after we got those cleared, we um my uh at the time 15-year-old stepson and my husband and I lived in my art studio, which is like an 11 by 15 foot building, you know, no kitchen or anything. And um, we we lived out of that together for three months until I got some insurance money to get um the smallest little trailer ever, a little 17-footer. And um, and then the studio stayed my stepson's bedroom, and uh my husband and I lived out of the trailer for uh two and a half years, while my husband um rebuilt our house by himself.
SPEAKER_00So wow, and did you did you like officially move back into that house?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we did. We we officially moved back into it. Um I think yeah, close to three years um after the after the hurricane, you know. Had we known it was gonna be that long? Absolutely not, but um, you know, the process of recovering from a hurricane is is often a lot longer of a road than anyone anticipates. Um, sorry to say for Ashevilians, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00And what what kind of toll did that take on your art?
SPEAKER_01I made no art for a year. Um, and I've that's all I've ever wanted to do. It's all I you know did was art. And so that was definitely a first for me to not make any art. Um, but I was in a dark place. I also had other personal um tragedies in that time. One of my best friends passed away a couple of weeks after that hurricane. My dog, who was my, you know, my non-human soulmate, he passed away a couple months after that. And there was other mental health issues in our family. So uh, so it was a really, really tough time. Um, but I uh to go on a tangent, I um I wanted to do an artist residency to try to like get some art back into my life, and nature is such a huge part of my inspiration for art, my inspiration for like living. And um Hurricane Michael took out between 75 and 90 percent of the trees in over a million acres, and so and we lost 95% of the tree canopy, so it was devastated. Every single place, every direction you looked was just really devastated. Um, and so that loss of nature took a huge mental toll as well. That was, you know, losing our house was awful, but like the part that hurt our hearts the most um was the loss of trees and nature. And so I wanted to do an artist residency in nature. I applied to a couple and I got rejected. And I was like, okay, well, screw it, I'll just make my own. And so I uh booked a tiny little like treehouse cabin in the woods of uh North Georgia, so in the Appalach uh Appalachians, and um I was like, I'll just spend a week there and I'll try to make some art. And um I didn't really know it was gonna happen. It was about a year after the hurricane. I didn't know if I was gonna just like ditch my family for a week to cry in the woods by myself. But I hiked a little bit every day and I actually made art every day, and it was like very personal art, but it was like, you know, it was art that that needed to happen, basically. And amazingly, and I had zero expectations of this, but amazingly I got out of my depression in that week. I expected to, well, either cry for a week or maybe hopefully like start to make some art again. I I didn't think that that it was gonna like cure me of my depression, but it did, spending that time in in nature and and kind of confronting a lot of things that I had been avoiding. You know, I had no uh had no internet or TV when I was there either. So it was a lot of just forcing myself to um to deal with things and the art that was so healing and the nature is so healing. So um so I highly recommend art and nature to all.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, and did did that in some way spark the thought of of moving to a place like Asheville?
SPEAKER_01Um, yeah, the hurricane is absolutely kind of changed where we wanted to be, basically. My uh my husband had a deep connection for a long time with a lot of the nature of the area since he was a little kid. Um and I mean I had a connection as well, but then after the hurricane, it was just like, you know, and all of our favorite nature spots were destroyed and were huge on hiking, and there wasn't really that much hiking down there to begin with. And the summer before the hurricane, we'd actually visited Asheville and the area for the first time, and like both really fell in love with the mountains and the endless hiking and Asheville itself. And um, so then after the hurricane, you know, we started to be like, I think we need some nature to like be happier people. And Asheville had such a great art community, and um, you know, I've struggled for a long time making a living as an artist. I've done it for 14 years, and I thought uh a bigger art town might help with that as well. Um, I mean, I've been able to do it and make my living from it, but you know, I was interested in in joining a larger uh art scene. Um, so so yeah, we worked that whole time towards moving to Asheville, and that had been our plan for years, and then we uh were waiting for my stepson to graduate high school and move off to college, and he did that, and so then we we moved um to Asheville um spring of last year.
SPEAKER_00And you're probably thinking on that move as you drive farther and hundreds of miles more away from the coast, that nothing like that storm that happened with Michael ever happens to you. And then here comes Helene. But uh so fortunately your your home was okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, this time, this time our home made it. Um, but yeah, like you said, I mean, we we thought we were moving away from hurricanes. It was not only moving towards nature, but it was like we didn't think that we could handle another hurricane. And so we wanted to move away from hurricanes, and and Asheville was supposed to be a very safe haven from that. And you know, we had talked to people that are like, oh, Asheville gets hurricanes too. And we were like, okay, you guys get some rain. And it's not the same. And it hasn't been the same until you know, until Helene hit. So um, lesson learned, you cannot move away from natural disasters anymore.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I know we moved back to North Carolina to hear uh four years ago, a little over four years ago. And yeah, there were there was like an occasional like really bad flood because of I think tropical storm Fred hit a couple of years ago. Yeah. Um, but even like in the days right before Helene, when like we're starting to hear the the warnings about it, I'm like, oh, it's gonna like affect someplace like that. It's not gonna have like some massive impact on us.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Um when when did you realize how bad it was?
SPEAKER_01Well, it was the Wednesday right before the um right before Helene, and I was working a gallery shift, and you know, the gallery that I was a part of is um in River Arts District and it's on the first floor of Riverview Station. And for those who know, that's like it's you know, in in the bad area of what got hit by the hurricane, uh by the floods. And so it's near the French Broad River. And um, the building owner had, you know, kind of walked by and and she was like, Oh, you know, in 2004, it actually flooded like two feet high in here. And I was like, oh crap, oh, okay. And she was like, and it's supposed to rain a little like more than that, and she was like, so it could get up to four feet high in here, and I was like, oh wow. So I spent my entire shift getting everybody's art up high on the wall and getting anything that was um lower, like on shelves and things, like up on tabletops, and you know, all of this effort that turned out to be total feudal, totally futile. But um, and a couple of artists came in to get some of their art or move it around. And one of the other artists, shout out to Bridget Benton, um, who's also a friend of mine, she was like, you know, if you have works on paper, that could be ruined too, just if there's water in the building lower than it, but it'll soak into the paper, like that nasty flood water. And I was like, oh crap, you're right. So I last minute was like, okay, fine, I'll take some of my art home. And so I packed kind of what I could fit um into my small car at the time. And um, so thanks to her, I saved all of that art, otherwise it would have been ruined. But all the other efforts of moving everybody's art up higher was for naught because it flooded, you know, well into the second floor. So um yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then and then, you know, after the storm hits, like at what point did you realize how bad it like? I mean, that's you're you're realizing, oh, this could be there's like the foresight of this could be bad, but then when did you actually first learn about or or or see anything because of the way that communications were so weird at the time?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, actually the night the when I drove drove home that night after that gallery shift, it was really pouring down with rain. And I actually don't even know if that was like a a pre-ban from the hurricane system or not. But it like, I don't know if you remember that Wednesday night, it like poured intensely and I had to drive, you know, 25 minutes home. Well, it it took a lot longer than that because it was just like visibility was extremely low. And I was like uh admittedly, like low-level panic attack all the way home because it was just like all this hurricane prep that was really similar to hurricane prep I had done before in the gallery that I was a part of before. So it was like a lot of this like past trauma rear in its ugly head, and and and just the the level of that rain, I just I guess I, you know, it just wasn't wasn't feeling good. It was a bad feeling, I guess. And then um, yeah, during the hurricane, the small creek that's near our house was just like it was like a decent sized raging river. And I was just like, oh, that's that's disturbing. That I can't believe that it took out our neighbor's driveway completely. And I was like, if if that tiny creek turned into like a raging river, like I can't imagine what French broad is like. And then maybe the next day or two, I don't know, it's all a blur, but my I was like, I really want to get to the gallery. Like, I don't know what state it's in, I don't know if we can get there. You know, it might be water in there now. I don't know. But we drove and and we couldn't get to it because everything was blocked off, but we could see from the highway that that it was a river, the whole like the district was a river still, and and yeah, that was um not an easy sight to see for sure. It was very, very traumatic.
SPEAKER_00When when did you uh first get to go back there um and actually you know get your feet on the ground? Um take take me back to when you actually got there and and you're walking through it all and what's what's going through your mind?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think um, I don't know, maybe it was four or five days after, and and just through word of mouth, because of course we had no signal or internet or anything, but through through word of mouth, I think I had heard that the waters had receded from the river arts district. And so my husband and I went to see what it was like, and we, you know, tried to prepare, you know, PPE, like whatever boots we had, you know, we couldn't buy anything, stores weren't open and um like wrapped plastic around our boots and everything because we knew it was gonna be, you know, nasty, muddy muck grossness in there. Um so we kind of haphazardly did what we could and then and um and yeah, uh it was um, you know, you try to prepare yourself for how horrific it's gonna be, and then it's then it's then it is, it's worse, and then you you can't really ever truly prepare for that or imagine what that's like. Um, you know, I just been there less than a week ago, and it was a nice, beautiful art gallery with amazing art and and absolutely everything in there. Everything was just completely destroyed, covered in this just layers of what we now know was toxic muck, and um, you know, walls had been knocked over, windows crashed through. I mean, it was it was part of the raging French Broad River for a while. So it was um, yeah, not not an easy thing to go through.
SPEAKER_00Uh I I think that like I saw on your Instagram that like one thing of yours was left behind because it was literally screwed to the wall, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's right. I had made a small interactive piece, and because people needed there's a pull tab to it, and because people needed to, you know, pull the tab, it needed to be affixed to the wall so it wouldn't just like knock off from people pulling on it. And so I had it screwed to the wall, and uh yeah, that was the only thing left on the wall because it was screwed to the wall. And we um we we got it off the wall. I don't even remember how, because it had a special drill bit that I don't think we had with us. Um and my husband's kind of been working on cleaning it up, and at some point he might rebuild part of it, and it's not gonna be a sellable piece, it'll be a, you know, we'll hang it outside kind of a thing. Because pretty much every piece of art that was in there was just destroyed because it just it soaked up too much of that that toxic muck. Um, you know, you you can't wash it off a surface, it soaks into anything, you know, canvas, wood, any of that, it really soaks in.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, so it's not like, hey, here buy this piece that then is gonna get you sick.
SPEAKER_01Right, exactly. I I I wouldn't feel right about trying to sell that. And that was the only thing that we really took out of there.
SPEAKER_00Um how how what kind of routine have you been able to to re-establish since then? Uh I I think I saw that you're you're teaching still. Um, but we're had you been teaching at at that gallery before. So how how how has it all been upended and how are you getting by through that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so that place was not only a gallery, but a teaching space as well. And um, I was in the middle of I had just taught the first of a four-week drawing series, which of course was interrupted, and um the but 310 art, that gallery um kind of teamed up with Reimagined Studios, which is in Fairview, and they uh are allowing us to teach our classes there. And so um after I don't know, a month or so, maybe six weeks, um, we were able to start my class up again. And I have a lot of classes scheduled there for early 2025. Um, and I know other teachers from 310 art also have have art classes scheduled for there. I have a lot scheduled. I don't normally teach so much, but it was definitely a like I need income kind of a thing. So I'll just say yes to everything. But I am excited, I do love teaching. It's it's something I'm always reminded as I'm doing it, how much how much I love that experience. So I'm teaching like a variety, like drawing and watercolor and even some interactive art and paper cutting and sketchbooking, which is just all about like the fun of art and building creativity. So I do look forward to all of those things.
SPEAKER_00Nice. And are you I I know there's been some like pop-up uh shows for for River Arts District artists. Um are you are there other places you're you're able to show or going to show?
SPEAKER_01Uh there's just a lot up in the air right now. So, you know, there's talk of this or that, but I I don't really know where I'm gonna actually show. I have done a couple of little pop-up market things, just where I set up a table and try to sell books and prints, um which I had long time ago stopped doing because it didn't go very well for me. But um again, just like uh you're just kind of all grasping at straws right now. Um, but I've done a couple of those, um, and I'll probably do one or two more um through the end of the year. But yeah, beyond that, I don't know. It's a lot up in the air. Um, but there's some spaces with maybe some future hopes and potentials, and I'm just trying to keep track of what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00What what are you hearing about the prospects of of rebuilding the River Arts District?
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, the River Arts District Association has been really amazing. They've done a lot of fundraising, they've gotten stipends to every artist that applied, both if they were members and if they weren't. Um, and they are working on a space in downtown. Um, I don't know a whole lot about it, but it seems promising. Um, I know that Riverview Station has been working ever since the hurricane with volunteers to um clear out the building. They're working on remediation, um, and they intend to rebuild Riverview Station. The outside of the building is fine because it was an old brick, well-built building, but the um everything inside is, you know, totally gutted. They're gonna have to do new plumbing and electrical and everything. And they're trying to fundraise to try to make that happen. And and I know that they intend to continue to be a part of. River Arts District and rent to artists. Um, the owners of Riverview Station have been always um really supportive of the artists, and so they hope to be able to continue to do that, but you know, they were hit hard like everyone else, and that's the only building that they own, I believe. So, and uh as far as some of the other buildings, I'm not sure. I mean, some buildings had like wedge studios, the second floor was fine, and the first floor was not, so I'm sure they're working on the first floor there, and then you know, there's there's about 20% of the district that wasn't destroyed or was very minimally affected, and they're all you know, reopened now. Um, and they have Radfest a few weeks ago, which they put together in like two weeks, which is insane to put a festival together in two weeks. I know because I've helped organize some. Um, but uh it seemed like it was a huge success. Um, you know, everybody was like, it seems like all of Asheville has showed up. Um and uh at the art market I was part of as well, you know, that there do seem to be a lot of locals that are aware of how hard hit the artists were, and so they're, you know, committed to buying art from local artists. Um, you know, I've heard some people saying that it's their goal to only buy local art or local things, you know, for gifts for Christmas this year. Um, and that's amazing because yeah, we can we can all use all the help that we can get. I mean, my my art business survived Hurricane Michael, which I did not know if it would, uh, but it did, and then it served survived the pandemic. So I know I'll survive this one as well, but I do know that, you know, Rad had hundreds of artists, I think at least 600 artists. And I just know that for some people, they're not, they might not be able to bounce back for this or know that they can, and so they'll have to go to something else. And so for an art career to end is that's really just heartbreaking for me to think of that. So um, luckily there's a lot of community support to try to help with that.
SPEAKER_00So for for somebody who's on the outside looking in, thinking, because I I think you're you'll probably find this on Reddit. Uh people saying, Don't you why would you rebuild it? Uh talk a little bit more though about how much like what that community, and and obviously you haven't been here that long, but like what all it really means to you.
SPEAKER_01I mean, yeah, so River Arts District is absolutely still worth it, even even if it was just the 20% of spaces that are left, like that is still worth it to to keep on going. Um, and as far as like the question of whether or not to rebuild these spaces that might flood again, like honestly, that's a really good question. And I don't really know the answers to that. I I know that there's some talk about, you know, there's gonna have to be different um measures taken to try to mitigate any potential future floods, um, you know, minimize the damage, but you know, when you have a flood that bad, there's still only so much you can do. So it's a fair question, and and honestly, I don't I don't really know the answer to it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's hard. We're we're uh similarly, my son's uh elementary school was uh destroyed.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow.
SPEAKER_00Uh unfortunately, the school has like this second campus, like, and that's where he's going now, and it's like crazy traffic sometimes, and every time I'm sitting in it, I'm like, he gets to go to school. Uh uh, but they announced that they're going to rebuild there uh and that they're gonna be very careful, and it's like I love it, awesome. Like, but yeah, who who knows, right?
SPEAKER_01Um, yeah, and these, you know, these storms, the way things are going, they're just gonna be more often and you know, in general, less predictable and more severe. And so, you know, they called this a thousand-year flood, but like next one's not gonna take a thousand years, like it could be ten. I don't know, who knows?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, let's talk let's talk about something you do know. Uh, you just had a book come out immediately all of this. Um what yeah, what how how has that been going?
SPEAKER_01Um, yeah, good. So yeah, it's an it's uh called Pull Me Apart, an interactive sketchbook, and it's called a sketchbook because that's what it started as was just a personal sketchbook. And I made all these uh just an entire book with a personal challenge to myself of combining paper cutting and watercolor, but then all these weird interactive things started happening, you know. So think like pull tabs and spin wheels and like flaps that you pull up and stuff, and um and it went really viral online when I happened to share some and everybody wanted to buy it, and I was like, you can't, it's my book. And and so then they wanted to get published, and I was like, How do you publish an interactive? Like this is way too complicated. But then I found um a publisher, and they actually found me like at the same day, like I'm emailed them like the same day they Facebook messaged me, like total coincidence, but um they do uh fine art pop-up books exclusively, which is really amazing. Um, and they're called Poposition Press. And so he was into publishing my book, and I was looking, which was just amazing. So we've been working on that for like oh, I don't know, like a year and a half, almost two years, something like that. And um, yeah, it finally came out and it it um he was gonna start shipping it, and it was like a week, I don't know, somehow I saw that it was gonna start shipping out like right after the hurricane. And once I got some internet, I I messaged him and I was like, don't send my book yet, like it might not get here. Um, but I got it eventually, and um it was uh yeah, like I don't know how many hundreds of people now have this book of mine, and the response has been really amazing. People are posting videos like unboxing it and then going through it, and and it's uh so cool to see people like discovering and unfolding it and you know interacting with it. Um so it's been it's been a uh definitely a light and a dark time right now to to see people finally getting this thing that I'd worked for so long on.
SPEAKER_00Um is that something you would do? Do you think you'll do more of that type of book or or not?
SPEAKER_01I don't know. I mean, I'm definitely still into making interactive art, both in my sketchbook, and I've started to make large interactive things, and I've been calling them interactive murals. So I'm definitely still into making interactive art. Um another book, maybe, maybe not. It was a lot of work, and anybody who's ever sold books can tell you it's not like it's it's not a big moneymaker at all. Um, which, you know, money's never been my my number one motivation. Obviously, I'm an artist. But uh um, but it does take up a whole lot of time, the the getting it ready to publish thing. Um so I don't know, maybe one day. Um, but for now I'm just happy to have the one and happy to be working on other future um interactive pieces.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I I checked out the the mural outside of Forever Tattoo in downtown Asheville last weekend, which is super cool. Like, and you know, written out there, it says spin me. Um so I and I'm guessing that like part of that, like what's fun about that is like getting people to realize that like you know, uh kind of taking a step towards the art and making it approachable to people. But is that how you feel about it? You know, and how how did this idea of interactive art, how did how did that come to you and and speak to you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean the first interactive art, like I said, came from from playing around in my sketchbook. I had done paper cutting for like years, um, and then had moved into different mediums for a long time. And then after the fact, I was like, I could have paper cuts in my sketchbooks, and then I could have, if I do a paper cut page, I can have two different backgrounds to one paper cut by, you know, you know, being able to flip that page back and forth. And that idea alone was like endlessly uh entertaining to me and made me very giddy. And so that was the original concept of that, and then somehow like a pull tab came in, and then I was just like, I felt like just a giddy, dumb kid playing around with this stuff, and it was what I did in my off time actually, um, because it was you know just a personal fun project that I was doing, all these different interactive pages, and yeah, like I became deeply entertained by, you know, it's not just one piece of art that is still, which I love also, but it's it's a bunch of different pieces of art in one, as well as it has this element of movement, and then seeing people interact and play with that was like a whole other level that I hadn't even really anticipated of of satisfaction, of like watching people discover this thing, and um, and I'm definitely all about you know art being approachable and does not need to be, you know, only in museums. Um, you know, and that's what got me into murals as in the first place was making art accessible to everyone because I hate the idea that you know there's this snooty art world that only a select few get to be a part of, and like I don't like that at all. I think I think that art is for everybody and everybody can benefit from it, both from making it as well as enjoying other people's art. And so then eventually, you know, like the duh moment of well, I do murals and I do interactive art. What if I combine the two? And so that's when the first interactive mural came out, and so far they've all been spin wheels. Uh we've my husband does um the construction for it, and um we've done three spin wheel pieces, and two of them were we painted um on the wall to like extend the design onto the wall, and yeah, it's it's so cool because you know, kids love it, adults love it. It kind of I love anything that makes adults kind of feel like a kid again because they get to spin a wheel, it's fun, and then you get to see the image behind the eyes like change or behind the head change, and uh so yeah, I absolutely love you know people's just like childlike joy in enjoying that, as well as like what is happening right now, and uh so yeah, it's uh it's still very entertaining, and I and I've got a commission to do another one, so I'm really excited about that. I want to make more.
SPEAKER_00Well, I was I was gonna say, is that is it something now at this point that people people are coming to you for the the interactive, or are you kind of like, hey, if you want to do that, have you thought about doing this this interactive piece? Look at these other ones that I've done.
SPEAKER_01I mean, yeah, I because I was approached about doing a mural in Florida and um and I was like, yeah, cool, can do, or it could be interactive, and they were like, Oh, yeah, sweet. So I made that one interactive, and um the first one that we made um sold in like two weeks, which was like amazing, as well as you know, a good sign that maybe this could be a thing that we keep doing. And then, you know, we were commissioned to do the one in Florida. The one that's in downtown Asheville right now is for sale. Um, and I was, you know, I've been approached about um, you know, possibly making some more, and and one is for sure happening. Um, and yeah, I'd love to promote more that people can um can commission interactive murals and uh I think it's great for for businesses, uh public art, all of that.
SPEAKER_00So you you know, you're mentioning your sketchbook. Uh what's what are you working on in your sketchbook for fun right now?
SPEAKER_01Uh my my for fun sketchbook is I've been doing these like stupidly detailed pen drawings that I mostly will like start on a hike or some one of them I did for a few hours on a hike, and then I kind of finished it up at home. I've been doing art on hikes for a bunch of years, um, but lately I've just been into like layering ball pen hatch marks and making these just like I said, stupidly detailed drawings that are just living in my sketchbook, and that's that's the end of their life. And um as well as I have another interactive book that I'm working on too for you know more developed ideas, but um but playing with with more interactive elements of paper.
SPEAKER_00Uh you know, the the natural world is such a big part of your your art. Um and it's like why you partially why you moved up here, right? Uh yeah. Are you are you able to go hike on as many of the trails that you used to? What's what's the what's the state of your like when you say you're going for a hike?
SPEAKER_01Like yeah, so yeah, that's been a bummer because like if we moved here for three reasons, it was like hiking, river arts district, and away from hurricanes, and like for a while, all three were like nope. Um I there have been multiple times where I'm like desperately trying to find some hiking in the area to go to and and almost everything's been closed. Um, but like through talking to people, I went on a went on a like art nature day with a bunch of other artists, um, you know, in the middle prong wilderness area. So like the Pisgah area south of Asheville, and is like an area like just full of waterfalls, and we all did a painting all day long or a bunch of different paintings and drawings um at the base of this really really beautiful waterfall. So there was that, and then um we went to Laurel River Trail, um, which is like north of Marshall um last week, I think. And that was really absolutely beautiful. So, you know, there's like some places that are opening back up. As far as I can tell, the majority of trails are closed. It's really hard to find that kind of information. And I know that, you know, a lot of the big areas of the parkway are closed, and there's so much hiking off of the parkway, so that's all inaccessible. Um, but I'm trying to trying to keep an eye on when places open up as well as just like, okay, well, whatever, we'll go back to where we know is open for now. Because this is there's still just gorgeous places that weren't really hit too hard by the hurricane.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, and you were kind of hinting at this earlier, but the the you know, those first few weeks where you could barely get anywhere, like that was that was really like that had me super depressed. Uh yeah, because similarly, like we're we're right by the parkway and uh constantly in normal times, like on the mountains to sea trail, like yeah, two, three times a week. Um and so that's that's been hard. So it's been it's been nice to be able to get back out um to some of the places.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's good. The parkway's open in that area again, right?
SPEAKER_00The commuter section is you still can't get from uh like the arboretum up towards Mount Pisgah because there's some really bad washouts up there that um haven't seen an update on those in a while, and I feel like they're gonna be a long time. But yeah, um I I want to ask you about just kind of like these natural disasters and and their impact on on your work. Like it would seem like Michael had a very dramatic impact on your work. Have you thought much about how you think Helene will impact or or guide your work, or is it too early to say right now?
SPEAKER_01I mean, yeah, probably a bit early, but I have been making a couple of pieces of interactive work in my sketchbooks that are directly about Helene. Like they're not very subtle, it's like a self-portrait, and and then you like lift the tab, and then like a semi-transparent blue layer of water overlaps my face. So um, you know, but uh when it's when I'm making art that is that I know is like this is just the art that I have to make, like this is healing art, this is like my therapy, then like I just let it be whatever it is, you know. I definitely don't overthink it. And so if it's like sort of obvious, like I'm being flooded, um emotionally and physically, you know. Um, but at the same time, you know, it seems to resonate with people who've been through it as well. Um but yeah, I think my art after Michael definitely had sort of um a resilience factor to it, as well as like a lot of my focus was beauty coming out of dark places. It's when uh mushrooms started to appear in my art. Um I began to be like obsessed with mushrooms on hikes. Um, and we had visited the Asheville area a lot after Hurricane Michael to get to some nature. And um, yeah, the the growth of mushrooms, you know, from dead things and then these dark hidden places, and yet they, you know, mushrooms they connect the entire forest and they help the different plants communicate with one another. And so it's just like this this beauty coming from dark places and and this unexpected growth became a huge theme in my art after Hurricane Michael. And so, you know, Hurricane Round Two, I don't, I don't know. We'll see. I'm just happy that I've made some art since this hurricane. I'm trying so hard to take some of the lessons from the past hurricane and learn from them so that so that I'm not in a deep depression for a year after this one, so that I can, you know, function better this time than last time.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, and it sounds like a big part of that is go out into nature and hike and walk.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, yeah. So I'm yeah, again, very grateful that that we can do that because yeah, after Hurricane Michael, that was more like, like I said, I was everywhere you looked was absolutely devastated. It wasn't like um, you know, I hate I really hate comparing the hurricanes, but after Helene, there's some areas that are totally devastated, and then like you drive up a hill and everything looks fine, which is a weird disorientation of it all. And there's an effect of that as well. But after Hurricane Michael, it was like no, everywhere, every direction is bad. And so trying to find nature after that, we have to drive like an hour or so away. Um, and our options were were still very limited. Um, so it's been really good. I'm like so beyond thankful that we still have so many trees. I know that a lot of trees were lost, but like you look up at the mountains and they're still like covered in trees. And that didn't that wasn't there after Hurricane Michael. I mean, we also didn't have mountains, but we don't have trees. Um, and what was left of the trees there was like really pathetic because all the small and medium branches broke off and flew away. And so it was just like the big main branches. And even now, six years later, the trees they you can tell they were affected by a hurricane because they've like got their their main branches and then they're kind of like fuzzy around them rather than like a nice big even canopy. Um, you know, and and it was it was really shocking because in Florida, your trees stay green all year long. You don't they don't lose their leaves, they don't change color. Um but right after the hurricane, not only were most of the trees gone, but the ones that were left had most of their branches were gone and had no more leaves. And you know, that you don't ever see that. It was a complete stark contrast. So I've been constantly very grateful that we have our trees here still for the most part.
SPEAKER_00As someone who's been through, you know, two of these big storms now, I mean you've kind of hinted at this question, I think, with that response. But just in general, what gives you hope for Western North Carolina right now?
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's a tricky question. But the the positives, of course, out of this hurricane is the community, and it's the same thing that came out of Hurricane Michael. And I hear and participate in a lot of the same conversations, like, oh, but our community is so strong and we're so supportive of one another, and everybody's helping everybody else. And, you know, people kind of like to think, oh, this is our community. And that's why we can do it. And, you know, I don't think it's a bummer. I think it's a positive that it's not just this community, it's people. This is like our the community is always underlying, you know, like our society's become so individualistic and capitalism and all that crap. But like underneath all that, you strip all that away, you take away our internet, you take away our resources, and like we have each other's backs, and people are trying to feed one another and try to help each other, you know, dig out of their houses and and all sorts of stuff. And so that's really encouraging is that overall, you know, people just want to help one another. Um, and so that absolutely brings me hope. Um, and I've also just been like sort of just really hard trying to focus on like what can I, what is good I can do. Like let all the other stuff like the world's dumpster fire, partially, especially if you like of all also like I don't watch much news hardly at all anymore, especially after the last few weeks. I just I can't like it's it's just like it does me no good. So I cut that out and I just concentrate what is good I can do, what is the good that I see other people doing? And um, it's a little bit putting the blinders on, but it's working for me right now. So um hopefully I'll be able to take a bigger role in helping out at River Arts District soon. That's in the works of of me trying to to to be more involved in river arts district um rebuilding as well as just marketing for what's there now. Um and you know, it it's always sort of felt a bit selfish being an artist, like because this is just what I want to do. But I'm like shown time and time and time again the positive impact of it. And so I try to keep that in mind and remind myself that it's not just for me that you know there is benefit to art to everybody, and so um, so I try to keep keep doing that as well. Also, if I don't make art, I'm a sad blob of nothing who can't help anyone. So I have to, I have to do it.
SPEAKER_00That's all for today. Huge thanks again to Heather Clements for joining me. To learn more about her work and to purchase her book, which would make an excellent gift, visit HeatherclementsArt.com. You can also follow her on Instagram or TikTok, where she's at HeatherClementsArt. If you'd like to donate to the River Arts District, 310 Art, or Riverview Station, visit onTheBlue RidgePod.com to find links. You can also find OnTheBlue Ridge on Facebook and follow us on Instagram at OnTheBlue Ridge. Our theme music is the song Goa, written by Lindsay Pruitt and performed by the John Stickley Trio. Thanks for listening and stay safe out there!