310 Art Founder & Director
Rapid River Magazine: 310 Art is celebrating its 10 year anniversary. Can you tell me about how this gallery first came to fruition? And how has it evolved over the past decade?
Fleta Monaghan: In January 2006 I rented a one room studio which is now our dedicated classroom at 310 ART. At that time the room was used for classes, my own personal studio and a place to show my work. I remember it was a big risk to leave my job teaching to set out on my own. But I needed the freedom to do what I wanted, outside of the confines of an institution of learning. I wanted a place to show my work, to practice my art and to collaborate with other artists. In late 2005 I wrote my list of goals. All were fulfilled in 6 months, including getting a studio and starting a new place of education.
Through my experiences teaching adults, I knew there were budding adult artists who could only go so far in the existing community programs available. Many aspiring artists had no interest in going back to formal college training, and other adult programs were limited in offerings. I thought that a new model of education could be developed to meet the needs of busy adults.
Some of the aims were to have flexible scheduling for the active individuals, top quality classes where professional artists could teach their carefully developed methods, and a democratic philosophy of education where the needs and interests of the learners would drive the development of new curriculum. This curriculum would be always evolving as the art scene changed and our participants expressed new interests. Education would always be new and fresh. This is how real artists work, through experimentation and trial and exploration of new ideas and new materials, and the school could model this way of life.
As my studio neighbors left, I slowly secured the adjoining studio spaces and with some paint and new lighting and a lot of hard work, we now have a beautiful gallery space, room for four full time resident artists to work and we exhibit the work of 25 local artists and crafts persons. We currently have seven local professional artists who teach a variety of classes, and this year four visiting guest artists from other states are teaching specialty workshops. It has been an amazing evolution.
The growth of the school and the gallery could only have happened with the dedication, hard work and community efforts of all the artists teaching and exhibiting, and of course the participation of our valued class participants and art collectors who come to us for original artwork.
RRM: Tell us a little about your artwork. Growing up were you interested in art? Did you paint, sculpt or draw as a kid?
FM: I began my art career learning to draw with the first TV artist, Jon Gnagy! When I was a kid I was always drawing, began with pastels when I was about 11 years old. I tried out oils and acrylics in my teen years. As a kid I was always trying out things, even marbling paper in the old fashioned way with oil paint and turpentine. I do have one pastel painting I did at aged 12, a copy of a Botticelli painting. I did not have formal instruction until college, and since then I have studied with many excellent artists including Tucker Cooke at UNCA. I took every opportunity to learn and grow my skills and make art central to my life. I am still learning every day.
I have always worked primarily as a painter, usually in oil paint. About 26 years ago I began exploring mixed media sculpture. Seven years ago the school at 310 ART hosted the first encaustic classes and I have delved into that material also. But I began working with beeswax back when I started sculpture work, I just did not associate that with the term encaustic.
I took a traditional route to learning, spent many years in drawing instruction, learned landscape painting, portraiture, still life painting. This was to master skills important to any artist. But my first love has always been contemporary art. My first paintings to sell were abstracts. This was back in the early 70’s. I tell students if they want to master abstraction, they first should learn to draw!
Growing up in the Florida wetlands with so much flora and fauna and amazing colors and textures got me to really love materials and the things I work with. I love to know everything I can about my paints and materials and how they behave. Each pigment has its own personality. Some are transparent, some opaque. Some of loud and overpowering, some are soft and shy. It is kind of like going to a party where you encounter lots of different personalities, and each can be appreciated for its own unique self.
Right now I am working on an evolving series about love. It is oil paint and collage, in soft pastels and blues, violets, teals and pinks. I think of it as how love grows and changes over the years. I think art should be beautiful and provide respite and a way to reflect and ponder.
RRM: So when did you start doing art full time?
FM: Artists must wear lots of hats to make art a central focus of one’s lifestyle. There are the realities of making it happen. Many great artists supplement income with teaching and I have done that for years. One must self-promote, spend time selling their artwork, even doing the dreaded bookkeeping.
So to have the luxury of working every day painting is usually not how it works. But if you consider all these different aspects to being an artist as one, then I would say 29 years ago was the point where I made a personal commitment to always make art the central focus of my career life. My daughter was born, and I thought if I modeled a lifestyle where I chose what I did instead of letting circumstances choose for me, I would show her by example that she could do anything she wanted with her life. So since that time, even occasional jobs I took were chosen to advance this aim of being a full time artist. I worked part time for a year doing computer publishing for example. This is where I got the computer skills needed to do my own web work and photography. I take every opportunity to have the wonderful time to create.
RRM: 10 years is a huge milestone for any business. How has the art scene in Asheville changed during the past decade? Where do you see the art scene 10 years from now?
FM: 10 years ago I could not have predicted what would have happened in our art scene as it is today. This has always been a center for art, Black Mountain College is an example of a place that literally shaped the art movements in America in the 20th century. Still today the influence of Black Mountain College resonates globally.
In the River Arts District, the area has been transformed in the last 10 years from an urban industrial slum to an incredible community of artists. Building owners and artists have worked so hard transforming the spaces into elegant, eclectic and spiritually safe places. It is a center for beauty and creativity. I think what we are doing now will again shape the art movements in America for the 21st century. Visitors tell us that they do not see art like we have here in other regions, and our community is like nothing else in the country. It will be up to the art critics and historians to put names to emerging styles and to record the impact on the scene for the future.
Our studios at 310 ART have developed and evolved just like the rest of the district, step by step and with community effort, dedication and enthusiasm of all the participants. We always welcome new aspiring artists, and just this year have welcomed many new learners to our program. We are always changing the art out and bringing in new work. This April we introduce a new exhibition, “Approach with Perception”. We invite our visitors to enter the doors with eyes wide open to see new things and experience what we see.
RRM: Tell us a little about some of the various types of art that can be found at 310 Art.
FM: Almost all commercial galleries are intent on sales, and often that overriding focus can cramp the styles of dedicated artists who exhibit. So, while we definitely want to sell our art, the primary intention is to have “A Place for Artists”. This means the artists are encouraged to follow their own hearts and inspiration, to experiment and let their inner voices take them on a journey of expression without the concern of whether something will sell to a particular market.
We are primarily a contemporary gallery, with very new and fresh abstract work, new methods with detailed realism, landscapes created in cutting edge experimental new ways and explorations in new materials such as encaustic. All the work is excellent, and there is something for every style and taste. I can attest to the fact that when artists are given free rein, they create their best and most authentic work, so relieving them of the pressure to produce for a market allows this to happen. We know from comments of visitors that this is true! We have placed work all over the globe from our gallery.
We also are involved in community art projects all the time. Two of us, 310 resident artists Nadine Charlsen and I are co-curators for a show this April at the Asheville Area Arts Council. “An Artful Life” is part of the council’s Point of View – Artists Curate Artists Program. Sponsored by an arts program of the Council on Aging, this show features lifelong master level artists. The reception is April 15th 5-8 pm.
We are celebrating our own 10th anniversary with events during April. On April 9th we are having a “Demo Day”. Many of our artists will be in the studios demonstrating their methods. On April 29th we will have a 310th Anniversary party from 4-7, and we hope to see lots of friends, new and old.
Fleta Monaghan is founder and director of 310 ART. The gallery is open Monday Saturday 11-5 and classes are held at times scheduled.