Danny Hornbeck is a close and long time friend of mine. We met in Buckhannon WV almost 20 years ago. Countless hours were spent on skateboards, punk rock music, in various towns and dirt roads all over the state Of West Virginia. Anyone who knows me well in any of the places I have lived has heard, and love, Danny stories. I can honestly say that I love this man like a brother. We have seen each other at our worst and now I can say we are seeing each other at our best.

First step in his craft, finding wood. This is on the same land that 5 generations of his family have lived and worked.

I recently heard on WV Public Broadcasting a story about #StuggleToStay. Its was a story of talented young West Virginians leaving the state. My first thoughts were of Danny and what he shared with me his #ReasonToStay, I apologize for the hast tagging. History, Purpose and Culture. These are the pillars of how Danny and I both came to love the place we live and grew up.

Back at the shop before he begins to turn.

History seems like an easy one at first. But I am not talking solely about the historical events that most West Virginians learn in 8th grade history class. Personal histories, Family histories and the history of the People who came to live here. History of people that crossed an ocean and came to settle in a "no man's land". These early Appalachians arrived in a land that was difficult to travel through, farm on, and physically and mentally isolating. When you take the time to learn what these people did to survive and thrive you quickly understand that West Virginia has never been an easy place to live.

When I was younger I had similar feelings of my friends and also current young people of the state. I hated it here. There wasn't much do to, not much to see and not much opportunity for someone like me. everywhere seemed newer, brighter and better. There was nothing happening here that supported my interest or direction I wanted in life and art. But what I find is that a new generation of West Virginians are doing what i should have been doing. Taking a lesson from those early settlers and making what I wanted. There was nearly nothing here for them, only difficulties. Danny is one of those people. Using the land to create and shape his West Virginia. Being an example of creating a more sustainable way of life. Caring about the people around you and the land you live on.

I really feel this Culture of Making it here. Living and thriving, creating the place we want to live in is growing in importance. the history of this state is one of extraction. Coal, Timber, Gas and sometimes the people who get in the way. All of these things have been taken with out much regard for the land or the people on it. Coal will soon be gone complete from West Virginia. Easier access out west and the Gas industry are the main causes. Gas will one day leave when its too expensive and hard to get to. Timber will slow as more regulations and cheaper less regulated areas are worked for their trees.

Finishing the initial cut before the turning starts

What I am trying to get at is that all of these industries will leave when we are no longer a cheap viable place to extract. We need to focus on whats a head and what we will do. We need to be more self sustaining. Because when they are gone we will still be here. we need to find creative ways to use what we have to bring in industry that will stay and give, not take and leave.

To some my ranting might sound preachy, wishful thinking, leftist, I don't know what else, but I really don't care. In the same way that i never cared that much when people in other places I've lived made jokes about people From here. If you want to believe in some false stereotypical image of an entire region of people, just regurgitating what you have been told without ever finding out for yourself then we don't want you here.

What we need are forward thinking people to help with the great amount of change that will take place here in the decades to come. but enough of my ranting. I feel I am not even that good at it. I make Photos not grand Political and cultural statements and a poem recited by WV Delegate Perdue. It starts around the 6:30 mark. I will Leave you with the rest of the Photos from the day. One of which is one that I have had rattling around in my head for Three or four years. As well as the link for the Podcast that originally start me down the path of ranting and not so much of Danny making his work. And don't forget to find Danny on Facebook at Knot Just Art.

This is the one that I have waited a long for

Thin enough to see light through the wood. and the silhouette of the cutting tool.

Last weekend I was in Buckhannon, WV to visit family and to see some friends. When I got into town my best friend had told me about some things going on that Saturday that we could check out, the Art Festival being one of them. I never thought that coming to Buckhannon would leave me with a feeling of indecisiveness on what to do and see.

Buckhannon is a place, to my surprise, that I have grown up to call my home: a thought I never really expected to have. When I was younger I moved around quite a bit, but we always moved back to Buchannon for one reason or another. This certainly caused a serious mix of emotions in my teenage brain. I was always so excited and eager to leave, yet when we would inevitably move back, I would be confronted with excitement and eagerness to get back as well as relief. I never understood how I could be relieved to move back to Buckhannon until I was much older. I had a personal revelation and discovered why I felt this way while living in Missouri.

I have lived in plenty of places around the country and I have always shared stories of growing up In West Virginia; stories of what we did, where we went, and just being kids. I shared memories of moving away and how I felt that I always seemed to be a little wilder and a little more hard-headed then the other kids I encountered in other states. I also always seemed to have a bit more disregard for authority than others. Mind you, this attitude was normal in West Virginia, but certainly not elsewhere from what I found.

This idea that Buckhannon fostered my wild, stubborn, and anti-authority tendencies was hit home a few years ago while visiting family and friends in Buckhannon one summer while we lived in Missouri. I visited best friend from high school, Danny Hornbeck, who had as much hatred for his hometown as I did... maybe a little more. Danny had found a completely new understanding and love for the place we both call home. Many readers may know Danny from his craft: turning beautiful wood bowls. If you don't... you need to, and you can find him here.

What he found was a purpose and a culture that I was blind to as a teenager. He told me that he had realized West Virginia is not an easy place to live in, and with out purpose it was almost impossible for people like us to do so. He started to hang out with his father more, Gene Hornbeck. Gene was certainly a mysterious figure from my child hood. From his father he started to learn about the real West Virginia and Appalachian culture; a culture of survival, craftsmanship, struggles and perseverance. What he learned changed his perspective and allowed him to see his father and West Virginia in a whole new light.

Armed with my new found admiration of this place, my family and I moved to Weirton, WV in January 2015. While coming back to West Virginia I wondered if my new feelings towards this place were a biased and if my family would see this place in the same way I now do. That idea was short lived: not long after starting work and getting to know the people that she worked with, my wife (originally from Milwaukee, WI), was absolutely blown away. "There is so much culture here!" she said. Almost everyone she has met at work does something: maple syrup, moonshine, music, and more. I know that many people in many places do these things, but here there is such a sense of honesty and people aren't pretentious here. It is just them, who they are and what they do... no fluff... no BS.

So when I found myself in Buckhannon on Saturday September 19th, 2015 at an arts festival with 15 or so tents blown glass, paintings, great music, an awesome giant wooden chair and Oryan McGowan Arrowroot juggling for kids, I didn't have that sense of conflict about where I am from that I had once had. I have a feeling that while I was growing up in Buckhannon these things were there all along, but they were rarely seen on display as they were that Saturday. Coupled with places like Artistry on Main, the 3/4 Cafe and Lascaux Micro-Theater, Buckhannon is turning into an entirely different place than the one I knew growing up... and unlike a lot of places around the country it is changing for the better.

Once again, my family and I expect to be moving to another part of the country in a few years. But while I am here in West Virginia for the ump-teenth time I want to make good use of that time: I want to discover and share the places and people that make West Virginia a special place. I don't want to make just a collection of the mountains and vistas that everyone knows, albeit they are beautiful. What I want to do is find the people that these mountains have shaped and the things they create. Unlike articles such as Vice's 2 Days in Appalachia, I don't want to focus on the "easy" stereotypical topics of this region and state. This is why I need your help: if you know of any craftsmen, artist, and musician that embody what you believe to be the real West Virginia, please let me know. Help me show the real West Virginia, the place that I call home, in it's true colors.

-William "Cody" Downs-

History. Purpose. Culture.

A New Buckhannon