Martha Johnson

Mixed Media

Sylvia McCollum

Jewelry

For the month of May, local artists Martha Johnson and Sylvia McCollum will be featured in the FW Gallery at Woolworth Walk. 

Martha Johnson is a former nurse and a self-taught mixed-media collage artist. She’s played with art all her life, and finally, one day in 2000, was brave enough to stop nursing and concentrate on art.

She grew up in Ohio but has spent her adult life moving around North Carolina, starting in the Triangle, then the Outer Banks. Now, for the last seven years, she’s been in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains. She started making a living with her art while living on the coast. Both mountains and sea themes pervade her work. Mermaids still follow her around. She draws inspiration from the natural world around her and from the words of many authors, and she is always intrigued with color and texture. The pandemic connected her more deeply to the non-human community in which she lives. The neighborhood heron, crows, and other wildlife are now inhabiting her work.

Her newest collage technique is to paint an abstract acrylic painting and collage on top of it. She also creates collages with layers of painted/patterned papers, fabric, dried plant materials, photographs, stamps and found objects. She incorporates as many recycled, repurposed materials as possible. She finishes smaller works with an inspirational or humorous quote.

She feels lucky and grateful to have work that she enjoys, and she loves working at her home studio in Black Mountain with her garden and dog Chica nearby.

She sells her work through local and regional art festivals and galleries. Woolworth Walk has the largest collection of her work in the Asheville area. She also has an Etsy shop: MarthaJohnsonArt.etsy.com, and can be reached by email: foursistersstudio@yahoo.com. She accepts commissions for a personalized collage with a favorite quote or poem.

Sylvia McCollum describes her work as 'Silver and Gold Jewelry designed in the Mind, Formed by the Hands, Touched by the Soul'.

Sylvia’s jewelry designs express universal themes of strength, hope, joy, boldness and humor by incorporating timeless symbols within the shapes, textures, accents and stones to evoke and compliment the passions of the wearer.

Many of her designs incorporate circles. As a two-time breast cancer survivor, she uses circles in her designs to symbolize life, endless hope, and courage. After her first diagnosis, she developed Circles of Hope and then in 2015 when she was diagnosed again, she developed Circles of Hope and Hearts of Love. Her latest collection is called Circles of Hope and Faces of Courage. This collection uses carved buffalo bone as faces paired with various stones, which are chosen because of the metaphysical properties the stones possess. She uses a variety of processes, stones, texture and patinas to get the perfect design for that special treasure for the wearer.

She loves the process of creating a vision of a special piece of wearable art with a unique meaning, then using her skills as a silversmith to create the piece from the raw elements. In doing so it is her hope that the owner will draw from the piece all the joy, meaning and passion she put into creating it.

She works in Asheville, NC where she creates unique jewelry from a variety of metals and other elements. She has studied at many schools around North Carolina and Tennessee. She has also studied in Chicago, IL, as well as in West Palm Beach, FL and San Francisco, CA. Featuring a unique sense of style and proportion and drawing on her southern roots, her creations blend timeless quality with boldness and strength, reflecting the character of the southern landscape and the women who live here. Her favorite pieces are big, bold, and filled with life.

Twenty years ago, Woolworth Walk opened its doors and started on the path to Legendary!
It's been our pleasure to represent the diverse creative talents of Asheville's Art Scene. With 170 Local Artists displaying the handiwork of their hearts and souls alongside the Old-Fashioned  Soda Fountain housed within the building - Woolworth Walk is a must-see, uniquely Asheville experience! We've received Griffin Awards for historical restoration and recently opened the Lofts at Woolworth, eight beautiful lofts available through Air BnB.
And so, on Tuesday, June 14 - come lift a free single scoop to Woolworth Walk and all our local artists - past, present and future! We’ll scoop your choice of available flavors between 11am and 4pm.