Appalachia to the Andes
Welcome — Pull Up a Chair
If you found your way here, welcome. If you followed me over from YouTube or Facebook, you already know I can talk, so a blog was probably inevitable. Either way, I'm glad you made it. This first post is the introduction — who I am, what I do, and where this whole thing is headed. Fair warning: where it's headed is a pretty good story.
Who I Am
My name is Aaron Best. I'm an artist and content creator from the mountains of Western North Carolina, living on the same generational tobacco farm my family has worked as far back as anybody can remember. I'm a military veteran, medically retired after fifteen years of service. And everywhere I go, I've got Copper with me — my service dog, shop supervisor, and the best-behaved member of this whole operation. You'll be seeing plenty of him around here.
The art is the heart of everything. I turn hardwood bowls and hollow forms on a lathe I pieced together myself, build mixed-media sculptures, and do lapidary stone inlay — taking the timber and stone these mountains give up and turning it into something people want to live with. Every piece carries a little bit of Appalachia in it. That work lives under my Appalachian Elemental line, and soon you'll be able to browse and buy it right here on this site. That page is under construction while I photograph and list the full inventory, so check back — it's coming.
I live by a motto I coined for myself years ago, and I mean every word of it: one hundred percent life, one hundred percent myself. I've learned every lesson life ever had for me — usually in the hardest way possible — and a lot of those stories are going to get told right here.
Where We're Headed
Now the part you might have come for. In about fourteen weeks — the first part of November — Copper and I are moving to Colombia. One suitcase, one dog, and a plan.
Let me be clear about something, because I've said it before and I'll keep saying it: this is not running away from anything. This is running toward everything I've ever dreamed of and wanted in my life.
In Colombia, the things I love aren't out of reach. Mountains taller than anything Appalachia can offer, waterfalls around every bend, and tropical hardwoods I've only ever dreamed of putting on a lathe. Down there, the massive lathe I've always wanted to build — one that takes a whole log instead of a cut blank — stops being a someday dream and becomes a workshop project. The art in my head finally gets room to become real.
And you're invited along for every bit of it. The good, the hard, the funny, and the parts where I learn my lessons the hardest way possible — because some things never change.
What This Blog Will Be
A little bit of everything, same as me. Stories from the lathe and the workshop. The whole Colombia journey, documented as it happens — the wins, the paperwork battles, the culture shock, all of it. Rock and timber talk for the makers out there. And some straight talk on whatever needs saying, because I've never been shy about that.
Some posts will make you laugh. Some might make you think. All of them will be one hundred percent me.
Come Along
The best way to follow this journey is right here and on the YouTube channel, where I'm counting down the weeks until the move and showing everything on the bench along the way. Subscribe, come hang out at a live, leave a comment and give me a hard time — that's half the fun.
Thanks for reading this far. Pull up a chair and stay a while. The story's just getting started.
— Aaron
[YouTube link] • [Facebook link] • [Appalachian Elemental — coming soon]
