Angela Eastman is a very cool person. I truly don’t know how to say it any other way. She lives a life that many of us dream of, or at least I do: one connected to nature, to craft, to teaching, and creative practice.
As soon as I encountered Angela’s work, I knew I was going to be a fan. And I was right. This is a conversation about many of my favorite topics: the distinction of art versus craft, learning to find our role as creative practitioners in natural systems, the importance of care in our artistic practice, why we need good teachers across all fields.
It is also a conversation that challenges the things we assume are true, asking us to look at alternate pathways to challenges such as invasive species, increasing material consumption, and the industrialization of fields we have traditionally labeled as craft. It is a conversation that asks you to pay attention to the world around you and let the path take you where it may, and I could not have left more inspired and energized.
Angela Eastman is an artist and teacher from Hillsborough, North Carolina. She holds an MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art and completed the Core Fellowship program at Penland School of Crafts.
She has participated in numerous residencies, including at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (ME), the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts (GA), MASS MoCA (MA), Vermont Studio Center (VT), Sitka Center for Art and Ecology (OR), and SIM and Nes residencies in Iceland. Angela is currently the Artist-in-Residence at the John C Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC, and is focusing on basketweaving with invasive vines.
In addition to sculptural work, Angela creates jewelry, baskets, metalwork, and ceramics through her design business Flag Mountain Studio. Angela also teaches art workshops to adults and youth. She is an advocate for craft education as a vital component of understanding the material world we live in.
Art is one of the many—though I posit our best—ways to understand that world. I find myself now looking closer and looking deeper. I hope this conversation challenges you to do the same.
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