John Scott and I were in Asheville North Carolina last month while attending the annual masonry heater convention. It's a lively town with plenty of artistic influences. 

It has very West Coast feel to it. We were there on Earth Day which seemed to be the best day to see Asheville at its ecologically 'trippyest'. We got to hear some great music , see some amazing stone and brick structures and ponder many different life styles.

This sculpture (above) which is right in down town Asheville depicts the two contrasting hard-and-soft aspects of stonework which artisans working with this material need to be aware of and be competent enough to harmoniously merge the two.

On our walk through town John and I took in the impressively tall Vance Memorial which was named for native son Zebulon B. Vance who was a forward thinking politician and a staunch supporter of justice, individual rights and local government. 

Franklin Smith lives in Banner Elk North Carolina and is the owner of Living Stone Masonry. 
He has a blog with the same name.
He wrote recently about the stone symposium/workshops that are going to be held in Asheville North Carolina this August September


I am reposting his entry for April 15th

Asheville Symposium 04/15/2012 Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting with a group of Asheville  stonemasons and Tomas Lipps, director of the Stone Foundation  (http://stonefoundation.org/) in anticipation of the upcoming  Symposium this fall.  Topics we discussed were lodging,  transportation, workshop projects, catering, etc...   We are all very excited to be a part of this event, which  brings stone masons and stone enthusiasts from  all over the world together for education and camaraderie.

Here we after meeting for tacos and beverages at the White Duck Taco Stand in Asheville's River Arts District.