For more information:
• Brian Maslyar, Crimson Moon Creations, P.O. Box 21831, Lexington, KY 40522-1831

Producer: Dave Shuffett
Videographers: Dave Shuffett, Joy Flynn
Editor: Joy Flynn

Light on the Land

Nature photographer Brian Maslyar

When we met Lexington’s Brian Maslyar, he hadn’t quit his day job—but he was hoping to. Brian is a nature photographer by avocation who hopes to make it his vocation.

Brian’s passion for capturing the ever-changing face of the natural world has taken him out West a few times, trusty pup tent in tow, and our profile includes a slide show of his photographs of those wide-open spaces. But Brian also finds subjects much closer to home. He meets up with Kentucky Life host Dave Shuffett in the Red River Gorge, amid spectacular fall foliage, to give a few pointers on his craft.

A gallery of Brian’s work, including many images that can be ordered as high-resolution prints, is available online at his Light on the Land web site.

And just in case you wondered, the music accompanying the slide show is by Christopher Paul, who can be contacted by e-mail at cpaulm@earthlink.net.

For more information:
• Kentucky School of Craft, 63 Education Dr., P.O. Box 1497, Hindman, KY 41822, (800) 246-7521

Producer, videographer: Dave Shuffett
Editor: Joy Flynn

Arts Education

Kentucky School of Craft

Our next segment also features people who hope to make a living from their art: students at the Kentucky School of Craft in Hindman.

Operated by Hazard Community and Technical College, the KSOC is an accredited two-year program where students learn both the art and the business of craft. They can work toward a variety of certificates and degrees with courses in five media areas—jewelry/metals, wood, clay, blacksmithing, and fiber—while also learning the practicalities of pricing, marketing, selling, and distributing their finished products.

The creation of the Hindman School of Craft was part of an ambitious $20 million community development initiative funded by state and federal grants. Community leaders aim to draw on the area’s long, rich traditions of both crafting and education (as embodied by the nearby Hindman Settlement School) to make Knott County a center for craft production and boost cultural tourism. An expansion of the Kentucky Appalachian Artisan Center, which we visited in Program 1107, was also part of the master plan, as are a series of construction projects aimed at improving visitors’ access to the area.

The Kentucky School of Craft is located in an impressive stone building from the 1930s that originally housed a high school, then the local Board of Education offices.

For more information:
• Joe Cissell, 127 Meadow Lane, Bardstown, KY 40004

Producer, editor: Joy Flynn
Videographers: Matt Grimm, David Dampier
Audio: Brent Abshear

Set a Spell

A country store jam session

To wind down this episode, guitar player Joe Cissell takes Dave along to an old-fashioned jam session for tunes and tall tales. In a tradition as old as the hills themselves, he and some friends gather around a potbellied stove at Newton’s Grocery in Manton to play old-time country music and spin a few yarns.

Newton’s itself may not be quite as old as the hills, but it’s close. Located in Washington County, near the Marion and Nelson county lines, the cramped little store is one of the few remaining true country stores. The building may be looking a little weatherbeaten, but the wide front porch invites you in, and the packed shelves seem to promise that just about anything you might require is here ... somewhere.

Also participating in our jam session are Joe Lampkin and Jeffrey Cassell.

For more information:
• Levi Jackson Wilderness Road State Park, 998 Levi Jackson Mill Rd., London, KY 40744-8944, (606) 878-8000

On Location

Levi Jackson Wildnerness Road State Park

Dave hosts this edition from Levi Jackson State Park near London. Named for Laurel County’s first judge, it commemorates Kentucky pioneer history with an 18th-century mill, an on-site museum, and a memorial to a party of settlers massacred by Indians. Some of its hiking trails were once part of the Wilderness Road.