MAY 20, 2010 ISSUE
Blowing Rock Artists Herb Cohen and José Fumero Head Down the Mountain
Host Artistic Moving Sale Memorial Day Weekend
Herb Cohen, right, and José Fumero choosing items they won’t need in their new, smaller home in Charlotte, when they move from Blowing Rock shortly. If Herb Cohen and José Fumero feel sad about leaving Blowing Rock this month, they hide it well in jokes about the huge job of moving after a long artistic life in the mountains.
“We intend to divest ourselves of everything that we haven’t used that we brought with us from Charlotte that we still have some of,” laughed Cohen.
Master potter Cohen, and master painter Fumero are heading down the mountain, rewinding their lives back to Charlotte, where they lived before dropping out—two self-professed middle-aged hippies—from the Piedmont art world and industry, to concentrate on their art.
In the 38 years since that last move, the two have been a fixture in Blowing Rock art, not only as creators, but as promoters of the arts, on the board of the Blowing Rock Art History Museum and other organizations like Blue Ridge Fine Arts Guild.
Several years ago their work took major new directions. Fumero’s failing eyesight forced him to devise new ways of producing art based on computers. Cohen’s muscles, worn out from years of throwing pots, forced him into creating new shapes and sculptures in clay. They overcame these challenges, both producing work very different from what went before.
Cohen, in his 70s, and Fumero, in his 80s, made the decision to move off the mountain long before last winter.
“It was a joint decision,” said Cohen. Then they debate whether it was a year-and-a-half ago or longer.
“I started thinking about it four years ago,” said Fumero. He continued, “That’s one thing we cannot leave, either in Charlotte when we moved [here], or when we are leaving Blowing Rock and going to Charlotte. There is still this difference of opinion that we cannot leave behind anywhere. But isn’t that wonderful?”
The two found their new abode last July. But this move is not retirement.
“I’ll be retiring from working with clay, but in Charlotte I’ll be able to do some work with clay, though not with my own equipment,” said Cohen.
“I love making big paintings, but the space [in our condo] for our studio is not that large, so I won’t be able to make big paintings, but…I’ll work with small paintings…I can join [together] and…I can have an 8-foot by 8-foot painting if I want to,” said Fumero.
There are “lots of things” they will be sorry to leave behind, from “all the wonderful friends” to the “the Blue Ridge Parkway and the space that we have had around us [and] the mountain air in the summertime,” said Cohen.
But Fumero, who was born in Cuba, is glad to leave the winters behind.
“I am very glad to go back to Charlotte. I do not like the snow and I do not like very cold weather,” said Fumero.
Yet, with invitations to stay pouring in from friends bereft at their departure, they could be back in Blowing Rock regularly.
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