MARQUEE
In late September I visited and photographed an Uncommon Market of outdoor vendors in Asheville’s River Arts District. And after returning from Germany, I photographed the indoor Christmas Uncommon Market. The same people who organized those markets, Robert Nicholas and his wife Rebecca, have renovated an enormous building that had once housed a tannery and after that a car crusher metal recycler in the River Arts District. It was a dark, cold immense building which he transformed into a beautiful, warm, well-lighted football field sized gallery for 145 vendors.
Susie and I walked through the building yesterday. The mixture of antiques and new objects and art work are beautifully displayed and will now be an anchor for the River Arts District, the former industrial center of Asheville on the bank of the French Broad River with access to the railway freight yards ,and passengers in those days. The railway ran along the slowly rising incline of the French Broad River through Madison County and into eastern Tennessee on its way to the Mississippi River. Now almost all the old industrial buildings, most painted by graffiti artists in wild colors, have been converted into artist’s studios and restaurants and the river edge has become a park with walking and bicycle trails.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 