Mark Your Calendars March/April

Design on Stage
March 8, 12 p.m.
Home décor enthusiasts will not want to miss this second annual event at the Academy Center of the Arts. This year, celebrated interior designer Meg Braff and Steele Marcoux, Style Editor of Country Living, are the featured speakers. Tickets include a seated box lunch and wine. For more information, visit academycenter.org.

Empty Bowls Fundraiser
March 24, 11:30 a.m.
Support Lynchburg Daily Bread at the 9th annual Empty Bowls Fundraiser at the Academy Center of the Arts. Your $20 ticket not only includes soup tastings, bread and dessert but also a handmade ceramic bowl donated by a local potter. Buy your tickets at etix.com.

Art Expo Lynchburg
April 14, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
For one day only, Lynchburg Parks and Rec will transform the Miller Center into a fine art trade show. Stop by to see art vendors, galleries and live art demonstrations from local artists. Bring the whole family to this event that is free for everyone. More information at lynchburgparksandrec.com/art-expo-lynchburg.

Lynchburg Garden Day
April 24, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
It isn’t officially spring in the Hill City until Lynchburg Garden Day! Walk through five private homes and gardens, dating from 1870 to 1950, and see the diverse architecture and history the heart of Lynchburg has to offer. Find ticket information at vagardenweek.org.

Downtown Loft Tour
April 28, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Lynchburg’s “loft life” has really taken off! This annual event, benefiting The Free Clinic, opens the downtown area’s newest apartment-style properties to the public. Whether you are
in the market for a new place to live or just curious, this tour will show you how much downtown Lynchburg is changing. Buy tickets at freeclinicva.org.

Local Openings & Closings

Hello! to Salon 1223 on Rivermont Avenue.

Hello! to Carly and Company Gifts on Forest Road across from Food Lion.

Goodbye to downtown Amherst eatery Lori’s Restaurant.

Hello! to East Coast Wings and Grill on Forest Road, expected to open this spring.

Goodbye to Ice Cream Dream on Jefferson Street.

Hello! to Maylynn’s Creamery, opening on Jefferson Street this spring.

Inspiration Through History and Culture
WORDS & PHOTOS BY SUSAN TIMMONS

As economics and culture go, so go gardens. Gardens inevitably reflect their time and place in history. From subsistence gardens that give sustenance for survival to glorious, grand-scale pleasure gardens that flaunt wealth and power, garden and landscape designs run the gamut.

Our ornamental gardens in Lynchburg typically fall comfortably between these two extremes. They have been greatly influenced by those that came before us yet are uniquely American both in design and plant material.

Setting the Standard

Let’s take a sweep through time to see how gardens evolved throughout Western civilization and consider what that means to us when we design our own garden. A good starting point is late 15th century Renaissance Italy, which boasted gardens prized for their design, elegance, and political and social message to complement villas of the ecclesiastic and secular wealthy around Rome and Florence. As the Renaissance progressed, villas and their companion gardens became increasingly larger and more elaborate, reflecting classical ideals of proportion, formal order and symmetry, architecture and literature, and the desire to impress.

Prime examples are the Medici’s Boboli gardens at the Pitti Palace in Florence, the Vatican gardens in Rome, and the magnificent 16th century High Renaissance Villa d’Este at Tivoli. The latter boasts a magnificent terraced garden featuring elaborate water courses, pools, fountains (including a water organ), a grotto, and delightful visual surprises at every turn. This garden exemplifies the typical Italian design of a central axis with cross axes leading the eye to focal points, terraces on the side of a steep hill affording spectacular vistas, and adornment with classical and mythical statuary. These and similar, albeit often less elaborate, gardens throughout Italy set the bar for ideal garden design for the Western world.

This basic standard for gardens was adapted in many ways as it spread eastward across the northern shores of the Mediterranean into France and Spain, where steep shorelines meant it took great effort to move the earth and chisel terraces out of high cliffs. Another challenge was to engineer increasingly clever ways to channel waters by advancing knowledge gained from the construction of Roman aqueducts. The reward was lush gardens with exotic plant material and spectacular views of the sparkling blue Mediterranean.

The formal Italian garden was climatically and culturally tailored and embellished through Renaissance France, with Versailles as an extreme example of the trophy garden to display worldly wealth and status. And the French took the idea of conquering and controlling nature to its utmost extreme with fantastic forms of precision topiary, elaborate open and closed parterres, dramatic water features, and endless sculptural and other ornamentation.

Then, of course, the English would not be outdone by the French, so formal Italian- and French-style gardens became the rage there too, and many still today accompany palaces and great country manor houses, such as those in the Cotswold Hills. At Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Winston Churchill, the formal Italian garden is nestled closest to the palace (for exclusive use of the residential Marlborough family and their guests), while the French, via Italian, influence is obvious in the terraced water features and classical sculptures that are open to the public.

The Focus Shifts

Then, in the 18th Century, along came the most famous English landscape designer, Lancelot “Capability” Brown, who transformed the concept of gardens into a more relaxed design in tune with the natural landscape. He designed 170 or so parks and numerous estate gardens with a departure from classical formal symmetry and a celebration of the countryside beyond. His goal was to create gardens that looked as if they were nature’s own creation. But they only seemed so.

He, in fact, moved hills, created lakes, naturalized waterfalls, and strategically planted clumps of trees (a design feature adopted by Thomas Jefferson for Poplar Forest) to look as if they were there all along. Looking past the formal gardens at Blenheim Palace out toward the countryside is a showcase of “Capability” Brown’s brilliant artistry in nature. Thus was born “The English Landscape Style” that to this day influences our gardening here in Virginia.

Another significant shift that changed gardens and garden design forever resulted from the Industrial Revolution. Tools were developed, such as the lawnmower, to make cost and workload of planting and maintaining lawns and gardens manageable for middle class folks who couldn’t afford teams of hired gardeners. With new building materials and engineering skills, “glass houses” at London’s public Kew Gardens were constructed to shelter tropical and temperate plants from around the world for viewing by the general population. An appetite for gardening was, of course, whetted.

When Thomas Jefferson traveled in Europe, he embraced worldwide plant exchange. His fascination with plants and gardens compelled him to bring numerous exotic species of plants to America, and many have grown in popularity through the years.

As the middle class proliferated, well-designed public gardens grew in number and educational value. Love of gardening and interest in garden design was no longer the exclusive privilege of the rich and powerful. Gardening today in England and the U.S., and indeed around the world, has become one of the most popular hobbies and is accessible to almost everyone.

New Styles and Honored Traditions

English garden design further evolved through concepts developed by Gertrude Jykll (1843-1932), horticulturalist, garden designer, writer, and artist, who thoroughly understood plants, color theory, and other principles of art—line, form, structure, color. To her a garden was a blank canvas to which she could translate her knowledge into brilliant, artistic garden designs. Her robust combinations of color created exuberant flower borders that bloomed profusely in sequence as the gardening season progressed, and her aesthetic strategies and motifs have greatly influenced U.S. gardeners, including myself.

Vita Sackville-West, 20th century novelist and designer of the famous Sissinghurst Castle garden, masterfully embraced the concept of individual “garden rooms” with windows and doors in walls and yew hedges linking a multitude of rooms—each with a unique purpose, design, and character. Some of her other concepts expressed at Sissinghurst were mown grass paths, one-color gardens, and roses on brick walls (as we see in our Old City Cemetery). Another notable artistic English gardener was Rosemary Verey, who, according to a eulogy after her death in 2001, “brought the art of clipped boxwoods, laburnum walks and ornamental vegetable gardening to America.”

We in the U.S. continue to be greatly influenced by English garden designers/writers/lecturers, including modern-day experts Penelope Hobhouse (who designed many gardens in the U.S. as well as England), Mary Keen (who visited and spoke in Lynchburg last year), and Heidi Howcroft (who has also visited Lynchburg). The list of English garden gurus could go on and on. Most have taken historic concepts, refined them, created their own oeuvre, and taken our U.S. gardens to the next level. And we in Lynchburg listen to what they have to say.

As for U.S. garden designers, we already know that Thomas Jefferson, informed by his European travels, set the bar; and we must not forget landscape and garden architect/designer Charles Gillette, who in the first half of the 20th century so aptly created landscapes to pair with Colonial Revival architecture, most notably in Richmond, and earned fame as being the father of what’s known as the “Virginia Garden.”

Since our heritage continues to be of such value to us in Virginia, we revere Rudy Favretti, noted horticulturalist and designer of garden preservation and restoration projects, to complement historic sites, and William D. Rieley, landscape designer in Charlottesville, who works with the Garden Club of Virginia and serves as consultant for ongoing garden archaeological research at Poplar Forest to “honor the past while looking toward the future.”

Other Influences

As important as the evolution of garden design through Western civilization may be to us, it’s not the whole story. Let’s journey east from Italy, where West meets East, and consider that European gardens adopted many design motifs (as well as plants, such as the rose) from the East. Mogul gardens of Northern India were created with Muslim, Buddhist, Persian, Christian, and even Mesopotamian influences. These, like Italian gardens, adhere to principles of formal symmetry. They follow strict geometric and symbolic guidelines and proudly rely on mastering the flow of water, essential to exotic plant survival—a common denominator for all successful garden designs.

Far Eastern garden design also developed over a couple of thousand years. Rather than relying on formal symmetry, famous and elegant Chinese gardens, such as the Lingering Garden in Suzhou, create an entire landscape of rocks, water, plants, pagodas, and pavilions artfully compressed in a relatively small space. Every stone, structure, and horticulture specimen holds scholarly or spiritual significance. According to UNESCO, this and other gardens of Suzhou are the “most refined form” of the art of garden design.

Japanese gardens have certainly made their mark on the Western world. They, like Chinese gardens, can typify complex landscapes, but with cultural variations in their carefully-placed rocks, streams, meticulously pruned trees, and raked sand/soil—designed to stimulate intellectual and spiritual contemplation. Or they may be Zen minimalist, simple, and unadorned to invite meditation and serenity.

The most recent trends to influence our garden design are an outgrowth of environmental concerns. The Native Plant Movement, embracing the critical role of pollinators for bio-diversity and healthy ecosystems, has benefited from substantiation by scientific research translated into lay terms, most notably by Professor Doug Tallamy of the University of Delaware. Understanding native plants and their value in home gardens is further changing the way we design our gardens to focus more on open, loose, and natural looks rather than closed, contrived, and exotic ones.

Designing YOUR Garden

I’ve been fortunate to experience guided tours of iconic gardens all over the world to inspire my vision for my own garden and make informed decisions on what would work for me in translating aspects of gardens from various cultures, and from grand scale to a smaller, simplified, more “human” scale. But if garden travel isn’t in your future, you can easily Google and read to help you sort through garden designs—historic and current trends.

What appeals to you? What’s your vision? And what will work for you? This is the starting point for any garden design.

To help answer these questions, consider your values, goals, desires, lifestyle, and personal preferences. Are you looking for material or spiritual rewards from your garden? Your ideal garden may be an elegantly designed showplace, or you may prefer as simple a setting as possible to grow your favorite flowers. It may be a retreat for private enjoyment of the senses of sight and sound or to soothe your soul. Or you may be looking for an attractive outdoor extension of your home as a garden room (or rooms) for dining, entertaining, relaxing, or playing.

Are you more of a scientist or an artist? You may be focused on growing, propagating, and sharing interesting and healthy plants or more interested in creative, eye-catching arrangements of color, shape, and form. Or you may want it all with a combination of these attributes. It’s not necessarily one or the other. But it is a matter of knowing yourself. It’s up to you to decide.

If all this is confusing or if you need help with your design, there are excellent professional landscapers and garden designers in our area to offer guidance and assistance. Although most of my gardening has been DIY (see my “DIY Garden Design in 8 Steps” on the following pages), I’ve sought help for specific design and planting challenges at times—both Rosser Landscaping & Design LLC and Rainfrost Nursery have offered excellent suggestions as well as quality plant material and workmanship. And don’t forget that the Hill City Master Gardener Association offers the free services of Master Gardeners to come to your home and offer advice.

You may choose to develop a grand garden scheme or master plan before lifting your first shovel full of soil, or you may let your garden design evolve over time, as mine did, by focusing on one challenge or section of your land at a time. Again, there’s no right or wrong way for home gardens. It’s your garden. Within constraints of law and a reasonable nod toward community cohesion, express yourself and do it YOUR way!

Meet the Gardener
Susan Timmons served in the 1970s as Virginia’s first Environmental Impact Statement Coordinator, then Assistant Administrator and Acting Administrator of Virginia’s Council on the Environment and editor of The State of Virginia’s Environment. During that time she also served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Environmental Professionals and received the National Wildlife Federation’s Award for Environmental Communications. More recently, she worked in higher education and nonprofit management and, in retirement, she serves as a member of the Speakers Bureau of the Hill City Master Gardeners Association with a series of talks on “Gardens of the World.”

Dig Deeper

www.rosserlandscaping.com
www.rainfrostnursery.com
www.hcmga.com

Flourishes in New Downtown Space

Ecclesia School of the Arts—formerly Ecclesia Dance Ministry—moved from Heritage Baptist Church to its new location in downtown Lynchburg last August, and owner and director Megan Horst is thrilled to be part of the burgeoning downtown community.

“In recent years downtown Lynchburg
has really come to life,” Horst says.
“We are excited for ESA to join in the effort
to continue revitalizing downtown.”

The new downtown space will not only allow ESA to thrive in an arts-focused area but it will also serve solely as the school’s space and thus negate the need for frequent equipment setup and breakdown. “Last year we were really struggling with space issues, as we had grown to approximately 100 students and had limited storage space,” Horst says. “The main obstacle was that we were turning Sunday school classrooms into dance studios three days a week. Between moving tables and chairs, setting up our portable dance floor, mirrors and barres, we were getting really burned out! We knew that we needed a permanent studio space if we were going to continue to grow. We love being able to hold classes in a ‘real’ studio, and we especially love being able to leave our equipment out! We now have three dance studios, an art studio and a café.”

In addition to a larger space, ESA also boasts expanded course offerings. Ecclesia Dance Ministry offered ballet and tap classes, whereas ESA offers beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of dance in ballet, pointe, tap, choreography and lyrical. ESA also now offers mixed-media art, arts and crafts, acting, choir, photography, fitness and balloon twisting.

The driving force behind ESA’s expansion—both in terms of space and course offerings—is Horst’s abiding love of dance.

Horst has been passionate about dance since she was seven years old, and her desire to share that passion with others also blossomed early in her life. “When I was 12 I convinced my parents to let me clear the living room and teach ballet to some young girls in our neighborhood,” Horst recalls.

At the tender age of 15, Horst started her own dance studio. “While living in Indiana, I started my own dance school, ‘Eagle Wings Dance Academy,’ where I taught beginner ballet classes for children,” she says. “Teaching ballet at such a young age was definitely a growing experience for me and helped prepare me for my future ballet endeavors.”

Although she was well-prepared for a future in dance instruction, Horst decided to pursue a different career and thought her teaching days were behind her. “When I moved to Lynchburg to transfer into Liberty University as a junior year journalism student, I didn’t plan to teach ballet,” she says. “I thought that chapter of my life had passed. I continued taking a few classes myself, but I was content with no longer teaching. By the spring semester that all changed. I missed teaching and being in the ballet world more than just once a week. When the opportunity to teach for a homeschool group arose, I jumped at the opportunity.”

That homeschool co-op quickly outgrew its original space, and upon moving to Heritage Baptist Church in 2009, Horst named the dance evangelism team Ecclesia Dance Ministry. The group performed at nursing homes, churches and children’s groups. Outreach is still a major component of ESA’s mission, and the students enjoy these opportunities to interact with the Lynchburg community.

“I love being a part of something bigger than myself,” says 14-year-old ESA student Ruthie Whealton. “Not only do we share the gospel… we also visit and talk with the people in nursing homes when we are there, which is something many of them don’t get to enjoy very much.” ESA student Jordan Reddy, age 17, says that visiting nursing homes is one her favorite things about dancing in ESA’s traveling dance company. “I cherish the bonding experience between everyone else in the company and meeting all the people at the nursing homes,” she says.

ESA has two traveling dance companies: the Preparatory Company for young intermediate dancers and the Ecclesia Dance Company for intermediate and advanced teen and adult dancers. “We typically tour twice a year,” Horst says. “Last year, we performed around Christmas time and will tour our Hiding Place: the Story of Corrie ten Boom performance this fall. We tour in Virginia and North Carolina.” ESA holds open auditions for both companies at the end of their touring seasons.

Horst attributes a great deal of ESA’s success to her 10 fellow instructors and to the guest artists who have shared their knowledge and talents with the students. “We have a wonderful team of teachers who are proficient in their fields and who love to teach,” she says. Whealton heartily agrees. “Aside from the dancing part, I love being able to have a sense of camaraderie between the students and the teachers,” she says.

“One thing that sets Ecclesia apart is that, while other teachers at other schools are passionate just about ballet and can forget the student while perfecting their skill, Ecclesia teachers are just as passionate about the students as they are about what they teach.”

In the future, Horst hopes that ESA will be able to offer even more classes, particularly in art, acting, choir and balloon twisting. In an effort to extend its courses to as many people as possible, the school allows parents to volunteer in exchange for tuition. “Our purpose is to offer quality and affordable dance and creative arts classes to the community,” Horst notes. “We value the arts and never turn anyone away for financial reasons.”

As ESA continues to grow and evolve, Horst gracefully strives for balance between administrative and teaching duties, but teaching remains her primary passion. “Even though I spend a lot of time on the administrative side, the best part about my job is teaching,” she says. “We have an amazing group of talented students, and they make it worth all the time and work we put into the school.”

ESA Upcoming Events
Acting Camps:
Every Thursday in March/April
Paint Night Event: March 16
Art Show: May 5
End-Of-Year Performances: May 11, 12
Learn more at ecclesiaarts.com

Age: 56 | Title/Occupation: Creative Director/CEO of Jacinto Enterprises

Art has been a part of your life since your earliest memories. Tell us about your dad and what you learned from him growing up.

My dad was awesome! He had the gifts of humor, love, imagination and art. I can remember being in his studio as young as 3 years old. I had a table where I would try to imitate his paintings, utilizing line and shape. At age 5 or 6 I understood perspective and composition, and by age 10 I began to understand color theory.

My dad was extremely gifted. He painted in oils, painted murals, developed logos, and created ads for local businesses. He gave me advice that I never forgot. He said, “Never, ever, ever let anyone place you in a box. You paint, draw, create, express, and illustrate what your heart and God tells you, not where people want to place you. They will tell you that you are either a fine artist or commercial artist or illustrator. Don’t conform to their demands.”

Because of what he told me, when asked what kind of artist I would consider myself, I say, “An artist that creates.”

What was school like for you as a child and teenager?

I loved school until I hit the 4th grade. During the ’60s, the educational system in California was structured in such a way that my learning style did not match the teaching methods. I was labeled as a “slow learner” and was placed in a “special class.” What was not taken into account was that I was not an analytical learner but a global visual learner. Compound that with my dyslexia and auditory processing disorder and instructions and explanations were just words. I was bullied not only by my classmates but teachers as well.

Eventually my reading suffered and studies were impossible. The only thing I thought I could do was art, music and swimming. In 1975, I met Paul Royle, who was the head coach of our city swimming team who also became my high school teacher (and is still a friend of over 40 years). He painstakingly peeled all the garbage away. I was learning physics through swimming, math through music, and my art was teaching me about history, anthropology, geometry, architecture, and even astronomy. Art and art history connected the subjects in school. I was learning and did not even know it. This led to self-confidence and eventually I began to excel not only in art but also in sports, including setting records and state championships for swimming and becoming a national champion and Olympic paddler for sprint kayaking. Still, through all these accomplishments, I doubted my intelligence and knowledge, even after being accepted to the University of Southern California’s Roski School of Art and Design.

Moving on to college, you met someone special. But didn’t know it at the time?

Before I was accepted to USC I had to go back to Ventura Community College to repeat some classes that were hurting my GPA. It was there I met my college sweetheart Alisa Ontiveros. She was a soccer player at the time and had graduated with honors—she helped me pinpoint the areas in Algebra in which I was struggling. We dated that year and fell in love. The plan was that while I was at USC she was going to transfer to Pepperdine in Malibu and play soccer, but that changed when she received an athletic scholarship to Liberty University. We thought we would make the long-distance relationship work but later broke up.

What type of work did you do after college?

Throughout my life I have been in and around the arts. I designed t-shirts for high schools and organizations in Ventura County and worked on advertising for businesses, signs and murals for homes and business. Once I graduated I thought I would be teaching high school art and coaching; however, things went in a whole different direction. Right after graduation I worked on the set of How the Grinch Stole Christmas starring Jim Carrey. Then, I was selected as the national junior development coach for Olympic sprint kayaking. I accepted and was working at both Olympic Training Centers in Lake Placid and Chula Vista while also building my own sprint kayak team in Ventura County. I later began working for a billboard company as the airbrush supervisor and developed my own art studio. I worked on movie billboards for corporations such as Disney, Universal, and Warner Brothers and movies such as Armageddon, Mask of Zorro, and Godzilla.

And while in California, you also added teaching to your resume.

Yes! Paul, who I spoke of earlier, told me I would be a great teacher because of what I went through as a child. I began teaching art and art history at Christian high schools in California. I found that the arts really took a back seat in education as many school systems today feel the arts are a waste of time and money. In my opinion, the problem is not the arts, but rather how they are taught, at least in California, where there is no curriculum. I teach my art classes using a very structured curriculum that I have developed. Not only do the students learn about the fundamentals of the arts such as materials, tools of the trade, and theories in composition and color but also art history and how it connects to other subjects. I also teach critical thinking of art history, not just regurgitated information.

When did you and your wife move to Lynchburg and why?

Now, remember I said Alisa and I broke up back in ’93? Well, we didn’t see each other for 18 years and neither of us married. In January 2010, we reunited via Facebook, and on December 10, 2011 we tied the knot. At this point I was rebuilding my life; I had a business that fell hard. When we got married I was teaching, but even with both of our incomes, we knew we would never be able to afford a house in California. Her sister and her family decided they were going to move back to Virginia, so that was when I made an executive decision for us to move back as well in June 2014. It also gave me the chance to pursue my master’s degrees at Liberty. I am currently pursuing a Master of Art in Teaching-Secondary and Master of Fine Arts, both of which I should complete by the end of next year.

What do you think of the Hill City?

I feel that Lynchburg is America’s best-kept secret. The beach is only three hours away, there is snow skiing here, and the one thing we have here that Southern California does not is four regular seasons. Also, the people are extremely friendly, social, and very, very polite. Another thing that is here is talent. The amount of talent in music, dance, and theater is amazing, from the kids of the elementary schools to the college and professional levels. There is also a lot of talent in the visual arts as well; however, my wife and I were extremely surprised with the lack of set designers and painters in the technique of airbrush. Much of the set work for the bigger performances are brought in from other states as far as Illinois, which opened the door for us.

What types of projects are you working on in the community?

When we arrived here in 2014 the plan was for me to fully concentrate on my master’s degrees, while my wife would be the breadwinner. But that plan went out the window—in a great way. In 2015 when I was cast in the Thomas Road Baptist Church Christmas Spectacular, the directors found out that I had worked on sets back in California and asked if I could do some airbrushing. This is where everything took off like a rocket. The next set I worked on was for Masterworx’s performance of Oklahoma. Once word of my work got out, I recruited my wife to help out with the sets and organize my schedule.

Today we are designing and painting sets in and around the Lynchburg area for high schools and other community theaters including the Academy Center of the Arts and Opera on the James. Last year my wife and I produced 29 sets throughout the area, and this year promises to be even bigger. My work is now expanding even further in commissions for children’s book illustrations as well as paintings and portraits. I’m also working on my cartoon characters called Rollerbots and the Elite 7; they will be featured this summer at my art show at the Academy Center of the Arts.

If there is one thing you wish you had known as an aspiring artist, what would that be?

Oh boy where do I start? Well, let me say this to young artists: There is money in the arts, and you can make a great living working in the arts. However, it requires more than just talent. You have to be willing to work hard, meet deadlines, and know where you want to go.

I would also want to tell teachers, parents, and friends of those who have artistic talent, do not tell these individuals, “Wow, you’re so talented you should become an artist!” That statement is equivalent to telling a child who is great in math, “Wow, you’re so gifted, you should become a mathematician!” Direct that artistic student into an area where their strengths are because once they laser into that field, they can expand into other areas beyond their dreams.

How can readers get in touch with you?
Phone: 805-617-8652
For theater set designs: ajsquared@att.net
www.facebook.com/AJSquaredProductions
For fine art, portraits, murals, etc:
jacintostudios@yahoo.com
www.facebook.com/JacintoStudios

A real-life text message conversation with my husband:

Me: “I think I found a rug I like for the living room.”
Him: “Great.”
Me: “I went ahead and ordered it.”
Him: “Sounds good.”
Me: “If I don’t like it…are you going to be mad if we have to roll it up and take it back?”
Him. “No.”

That’s true love folks. Because here’s the background story—this wasn’t the first try for an 8×10 living room rug. This rug…would be rug number three since we moved into our new home six months ago. The other two just weren’t “right.” (Poor guy. He thought the first one looked fine.)

Call me indecisive, but I would rather have a bare floor than a rug I’m just “okay” with. I believe each item we purchase, each flower we plant, and each update we make should improve the feel of our homes—not make us feel uneasy.

If you are just as deliberate about décor and projects around your house, our special Expanded Home and Garden section is for you. I absolutely love Christina Gerstner’s vintage style in our Home feature—it’s one of a kind. She explains how you can pull it off as well as how to collect with meaning… and without adding clutter. We also talked to local experts about two easy ways to freshen up your home’s look: wallpaper (it’s not your grandma’s wallpaper) and the front door. And in Gardening, learn about the history of garden design before stepping outside to apply Susan Timmon’s “DIY Garden Design in 8 Steps.”

And you won’t just learn a new thing or two in that section. Our Education Issue also features the bigger vision for University of Lynchburg, a growing school of arts downtown, and our 2018 Top Teachers list. Hear from this year’s winners about what inspires them to go above and beyond in the classroom each day.

And in case you’re wondering, third time’s a charm. That third rug was exactly what I had been looking for. Some advice from an amateur decorator: Whether it’s a few pieces of new décor in a room or a complete overhaul of your garden, those home improvement projects take time… and, often, a lot of trial and error.

Be sure to cut yourself (and your spouse) some slack this spring!

Cheers,

Shelley Basinger, Managing Editor
Shelley@lynchburgmag.com

Driven by visions of sunny afternoons and backyard barbecues, we spend the spring preparing our homes for the warmer weather by sweeping off the porch, shopping for new patio furniture, and filling planters for the deck. This is an annual weekend ritual for many of us, but we tend to leave out one important component of our homes’ exteriors: the front door.

In…or Out?

When you’re in the throes of spring cleaning, evaluate your entryway and determine if the door is in good condition. Examine the bottom corners of wooden doors for rot or dents and look for rust on metal doors. Edward Coleman, owner of Anything Doors, points out that doors rot at the bottom corners where the threshold and doorjamb meet. “The only way to really fix it is to take the whole thing out and reframe it—you can try to patch it, but it’s like putting a band aid on the situation,” he explains.

Did you determine that your door needs replacing? Don’t just run out and buy any old exterior door—take advantage of the chance to change or add some style. Coleman notes that Chippendale doors are very popular in the Lynchburg area—in particular, the Williamsburg and the Monticello designs (see Cindy Greer’s great Chippendale door on page 21), according to Michael Pearl of Bailey Spencer Hardware. Pam Smith from Sentry Exteriors adds that many customers are coming in with requests for Craftsman-style wooden doors.

Also, don’t forget to look at your storm door. Is there a quick repair you can make that you just haven’t gotten around to yet? Now’s the time! Maybe it’s in good shape, but it needs some cleaning. If it’s rusted, broken, or otherwise taking away from the appeal of your entryway, you can replace it or just remove it. Storm doors are optional and totally a matter of personal preference.

Add Some Color

If you aren’t in the market for a new front door, but you recognize that yours could look lovelier than it does right now, why not make it a new color? Do not feel like you have to paint your front door to match your shutters. While that makes for a cohesive appearance,
it’s not a design necessity.

Check out these charming color combinations:
• Black shutters with a red door
• Brown shutters with an aqua door
• Navy shutters with an orange door
• Wooden shutters with a gray door
• White shutters and a green door

Smith notes that, surprisingly, yellow doors have become more popular recently. “It looks so pretty on a brick house especially—that or Tiffany blue—but you really have to love it,” she says. She suggests a dark stain on wood doors for a rustic look; if you’re interested in painting your door, Smith always recommends black. “It looks classic, timeless, and makes everything look clean and fresh—and your wreaths will pop!” she says.

If you go with a dark color for your door, be sure that the entryway has some sort of awning or covering over it. Coleman likes to remind homeowners that “if you paint your doors a dark color, it won’t last as long because the sun beats down on them, and if you have a storm door on top of a dark color, you’re just baking the door.” Not only will the paint inevitably fade and peel faster, but the door will also age faster, develop problems sooner, and ultimately not last as long.

Hardware and Accessories

Now that you’ve decided whether to keep, paint, or replace your door, consider updating your door’s hardware. After all, hardware can be both beautiful and functional, and many designers see hardware as furniture’s jewelry. If you’ve scoured the aisles or the internet looking for the just-right drawer pulls for your kitchen, have you thought about doing the same thing for your front door?

Pearl’s store carries solid brass hardware and hinges in five different finishes. “Some people hear solid brass and only think shiny yellow, but with other finishes (as in bronze or satin nickel), they can have rust-proof hardware that can withstand the seasons of Virginia.” Whether you choose brass, brushed nickel, wrought iron, or something else entirely, make sure that your metals match. Sure, mixing metals is en vogue right now (and Rolex has been doing it forever), but the one place where the mis-match looks like a mis-take is on the front door. From doorknockers to house numbers to the actual doorknobs themselves, keep it streamlined and down to one finish.

The door is new or clean and colorful, the hardware is gleaming—you’re almost there. Add a new welcome mat and, perhaps, a wreath, and you’re finished. (At least for now—there’s all the rest of that spring cleaning you need to do!)

Experience a menu that’s animal-free…but full of taste!

When you step inside the cozy space that is home to Urbavore on Church Street, you may see some familiar faces. Elizabeth Russell and Matthew Kaplan owned the Cheesy Rider food truck prior to opening their vegan brick and mortar restaurant at the end of 2017.

While the food truck was always vegetarian, the idea of opening a permanent space serving only vegan food has been the long-term goal. Both Elizabeth and Matthew are vegans who love to cook but also enjoy dining out. They realized the lack of options for vegans in Lynchburg and wanted to fill that void. The twosome chooses not to consume or purchase products made from animals out of concern for the environment, animal rights and their personal health.

However, regardless of your beliefs about the vegan lifestyle, there is something for everyone at Urbavore.

On a recent visit I enjoyed the Diner Burger with “cheese” (they use a vegan brand called Follow Your Heart), diner sauce, and sweet potato chips. My meal was prepared fresh, tasted delicious and was loaded with flavor.

The menu appeals to all palates—even if you think you don’t like vegan food. It is full of dishes that meat and dairy eaters love, just substituted with plant-based alternatives. With the exception of a few items, everything is made in-house including the burger, the sweet potato chips and the soups.

But they’ll admit when someone else can make it better. For example, the cheesecake comes from a vegan bakery in New Jersey that Elizabeth tells me came after a failed attempt to make the dessert themselves. After that, “we found someone who knows what they’re doing,” she says.

Their bread comes from local favorite Lorraine’s Bakery at the Lynchburg Community Market. Urbavore’s Reuben Burger is topped with “curtido,” which is an El Salvadoran ferment made by Gathered Threads in Roseland. When the temperatures warm up, the goal is to source more produce from farms around Lynchburg as well.

The husband and wife team love their downtown location and are excited to be part of its revitalization. Dinner service is in full swing, and they have applied for an ABC license. Elizabeth’s next plan is to get a retro scooter and deliver to downtown businesses. Long-term goals include fine dining in a larger space.

At Urbavore you can order waffles any time of day, enjoy crab cakes without eating seafood, or try the “eggs” on toast for dinner. Wash it all down with a Virginia-made Kombucha if you like. Finish feeling full and satisfied without the guilt; so you’ll never feel bad about grabbing a slice of that cheesecake or some chocolate pudding on your way out!

Behind the Scenes
Photographer RJ Goodwin took 10 Top Teacher portraits in four days near the end of January. This year’s 2018 Top Teacher, Melissa Neumann, didn’t know she was going to be on the cover at the time of her session! See who made this year’s list starting on page 65.

Quotables
“I was labeled as a ‘slow learner’ and placed in a ‘special class.’ … The only thing I thought I could do was art, music and swimming.” – local artist Arnulfo Jacinto. Hear more about his school struggles and his unique path to Lynchburg on page 24.

#lynchburgliving
Hope Stevens (@hopestevensphoto) shared this photo showing a senior aviation student who had just completed his first solo flight! Be sure to share your photos with us on Instagram by using the hashtag #lynchburgliving!