Joy O'Hare was born and raised on the windswept plains of Nebraska. She married young and spent many years traveling the world with her husband and growing family. In 1988 she returned to Lincoln Nebraska to help care for her aging parents.
Joy worked for the Community Blood Bank, helping to recruit and schedule donors for 13 years. Then she went to Cabella's, a well known outdoor store, as a customer service rep in their catalog call center. Her husband, Patrick, worked as a Maintenance Engineer for the University of Nebraska.
Joy and Pat visited her son who lived in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains several times. They were enchanted by the scenery and the people of this region. When her parents were no longer in need of earthy care Joy and Pat decided to retire to the mountains, building a home in the community of Edwina.
Joy comes from a long line of artistic people.
"Crafting is inborn. I've done it since I was a kid." Says Joy, "My whole family was creative… must be in the genes. Art and music. My grandmother made the most beautiful hand painted porcelain pieces."
As a youth, Joy learned to play a violin that her maternal Grandfather handed down to her. He got it by raising a runt pig and trading it for the violin because he was a fiddler.
"A violin and fiddle are the same thing," says Joy, "It just depends on how you play it. I also play the piano."
While she was in High School Joy took sculpture classes at the
|
Joy O'Hare
University of Nebraska, then while raising her children she dabbled with all sorts of crafting and painting. But she likes sculpture best; "I like the feel of working the material with my hands… tactile.
"While living in the Philippines I got to see a lot of art and carving that was different. We've lived in so many places and seen so much that most people don't get to see."
Joy did soft sculpture dolls for a while. A year or two before Cabbage Patch dolls became so popular, she was producing something quite similar. Joy also invented an E.T. doll made of panty hose when the movie was such a rage and had orders for 80 of them before she knew it.
"People were leaving bags of panty hose on my porch all the time!"
Of late she has been working with fimo clay. Her work is displayed exclusively at Treasures of Appalachia in Cosby where she also volunteers as a shop keeper two days per week.
"I got involved with Treasures by doing some of the craft shows. I met
|
|
some of the other area crafters and wanted to become part of Treasures to keep in touch with them better.
"These crafters are like a big family, all really nice people to know and work with. Working in the gallery is a really great way to get to talk to people from all over the country.
"This is a wonderful place to live: beautiful, quiet, and no snow to speak of. I don't miss the Nebraska snow storms. Here we get enough to be pretty, but not so much that it has to be shoveled.
|
"The people here are friendly, real, and great neighbors. We hope the gallery does well and we'll be able to be involved for a long time to come."
Treasures of Appalachia is a quality Art & Fine Craft Gallery that offers the works of 46 Cocke County artisans. Everything in the store is locally made and hand crafted. They also host monthly Art & Craft Gatherings that are open to all artists, crafters, performers and food vendors. You may reach the gallery at (423) 487-3111 9:00 AM to
|
5:00 PM every day except Sunday. Or you may contact Len and Varena Landrum at (423) 487-5448 or Doug & Marie Bittinger at (423) 623-9692 or log onto www.TreasuresOfAppalachia.com.
|
|
|
|
