Discover the Bliss of Asheville's River Arts District

River District Artists Lists a wide variety artists and artisans who maintain studios in Asheville's River District by location and medium. Here are some of the galleries located at Asheville's River Arts District:

Phil Mechanic Studios is the home of a number of working artists and artisans. "...c Studios, promoting art and science in Western North Carolina. Originally a food warehouse built in 1928, the Mechanic building was purchased by Phil Mechanic in the '70's. Today, his son Mitch has opened its doors to a number of Asheville's crafters. Artists in their studios are currently busy creating new art in the old building - award winning woodworkers, metal workers, glass blowers and potters. BlueRidge Biofuels recently opened the first 100% biodiesel station in Western North Carolina and are currently at work producing biodiesel in the building..."

• Andy Rae Woodworking and Writing
• Nava Lubelski
• North Crescent Iron
• The Pottery Studio
• Phil Mechanic's Pump Gallery
• Placeways Woodworking
• Richmond's Studio
• River Gallery
• Rose Candela
• Flood Fine Art Center "... is a non-profit contemporary art organization dedicated to bringing excellent, provocative art to Asheville from artists working around the world. We seek out art that is provacative, challenging, daring, relevent, and important. ... also hosts special events... Musical performances, workshops, community art projects, film screenings, and poetry readings are the kinds of events that Flood Gallery has organized and hosted." Located on the second floor of the Phil Mechanic Building, on the corner of Clingman and Roberts Street(see map), situated in the heart of Asheville's River Arts District.

• Potter's Mark "...We specialize in the elusive "Copper Red" glaze, a high fired premium glaze with incredible depth...."
• Desert Moon Designs Glass Studios and Galleries. Open to public Thurs-Sat 11 am -4 pm
• Christine Dougherty ".. I generally work in oils, but sometimes get lured into playing with my pastels. I paint the beautiful area in and around Asheville, going out on location to paint en plein air when I can..."
• John Mac Kah "....

Clayspace Co-op "... a cooperative ceramics studio and gallery located in the historic river arts district of Asheville, North Carolina. The Clayspace is a 1200 square foot main facility with an adjacent outdoor area for clay processing and materials storage that provides working space and showroom opportunities for its four members. Situated on the street level of the Wedge building, a converted warehouse that is the home to a variety of other art studios, a dance company and a brewery, the Clayspace is a creative environment that reflects the energy of the arts community in the river district and the greater city of Asheville...."

Riverview Artists "... We are located in Riverview Station, formerly known as The Candlestation.... built in 1905, originally a tannery, is now home to several local artists and craftsmen...."

Below are some of the artists connected with Riverview:

• Fleta Monaghan offers workshops
• Sammy Fong Jewelery
• Laura Norris
• Courtney Murphey's show at Mudfire ... is resident at Oddysey... virtual store at Etsy... MySpace site...
• and others

From Rolf Potts' Vagabonding blog:

I've never been one of those uptight literary types who thinks that you have to have actually read a book in order to recommend it to others. So I feel no trepidation in suggesting Eric Weiner's new travelogue-slash-memoir The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World The premise of the book is simple but intriguing-- here is Amazon's description:

Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss takes the reader from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness." The book uses a beguiling mixture of travel, psychology, science and humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is. Are people in Switzerland happier because it is the most democratic country in the world? Do citizens of Singapore benefit psychologically by having their options limited by the government? Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, North Carolina so damn happy? With engaging wit and surprising insights, Eric Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destinations and dispositions.

In the imaginary Netflix queue of books-that-I'm-planning-to-read, this one has just jumped to the top. By the way, why has no one started a Netflix for books? This question, and many more, I'll leave for another day.

Click on each of the dozens of categories to the left to uncover what makes the Asheville area so vital, so intriguing and so, well, UTTERLY BLISSFUL!