Nate Chestnut Workshop

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Nate Chestnut Workshop Appalachian folk artist carving and painting stories of the Blue Ridge.

Self-taught in Western North Carolina, I create hand-carved wood panels and painted pieces rooted in mountain life, Southern Appalachian culture, and storytelling tradition.

Which is your favorite bolo for a Halloween wedding?
10/28/2026

Which is your favorite bolo for a Halloween wedding?

Another great showing at the Catawba Valley Wood Carvers competition! Had a clean sweep in the relief carving category! ...
10/25/2026

Another great showing at the Catawba Valley Wood Carvers competition! Had a clean sweep in the relief carving category!

08/24/2026

Going against the flow can look like you’re going nowhere. But it takes effort to be exactly where you mean to be.

“Only Dead Fish Go with the Flow”, a hand-carved and painted piece with a toothy grin and punk rock nails for fins. A little Southern Appalachian folk art reminder that staying aware means refusing to drift.

What’s one current you refuse to let carry you?

Send this to somebody stubborn enough to choose their own direction.

08/20/2026

How does a story survive for centuries?

Watch it travel from one teller to the next, and finally into the carving revealed at the end.

Appalachian Jack Tales follow a poor mountain boy facing giants, witches, and impossible odds with nerve, cunning, and just enough foolishness to get by. They weren’t preserved primarily in books. They stayed alive in human voices.

Ray Hicks became one of their great tradition bearers. Orville Hicks grew up hearing tales from his mother, Sarah Ann Harmon Hicks, and later listened and learned from Ray. Orville didn’t repeat the stories as heard, he carried them forward in a voice all his own.

I carved and painted Orville telling a frightening old tale to a child beneath Grandfather Mountain. I called the piece An Old Story for Young Ears.

Who told stories in your family and which story do you still remember? Tell me below.

Save this piece of Appalachian storytelling history, or share it with someone who keeps old stories alive.

05/07/2026

112 artists.
112 different ways of seeing the world.

This Saturday, May 9th, the Foothills Folk Art Festival turns Newton, NC into a small town full of strange ideas, handmade stories, odd creatures, old traditions, beautiful mistakes, and the kinds of art you can find the evidence of human hands on.

Every piece in this video was made by a real person who decided the world needed one more weird and wonderful thing in it.

Come wander awhile. Find your favorite artist. Find something that makes you laugh, stare, remember home, or rethink what folk art can be.

📍 Foothills Folk Art Festival
🗓 Saturday, May 9
🎨 112 artists • live art • handmade goods • WNC creativity in every direction

Tag an artist you’re excited to see 👇

Foothills Folk Art Festival🗓 Saturday, May 9 I'm bringing a truckload of strange little Appalachian stories to the Footh...
05/06/2026

Foothills Folk Art Festival
🗓 Saturday, May 9
I'm bringing a truckload of strange little Appalachian stories to the Foothills Folk Art Festival in Newton, NC, 10 am - 4 pm.

Hand carved, hand painted, images you maybe remember from a dream, or it might have been a folk tale your granny told you. It's just at the edge of your memory.

Tell me which is your favorite piece and why!

Foothills Folk Art Festival
🗓 Saturday, May 9
🎶 Bring your weird uncle, your grandma, the fun neighbor, and whoever still believes the moon is watching. It's gonna be a dope day.

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Pisgah Forest, NC

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