ArT tO wEaR!
...and other fun stuff!
MONA!
PO BOX 1834
HENDERSONVILLE, NC 28793
United States
ph: 828-808-4799
MONA
MONA! IN THE NEWS!
Article in Huffington Post By B.J. Gallagher November 2011
Oct. 2009 Feature in Verve Magazine
Painting the Town Mona
by Jess McCuan / photos by Brent Fleury
Of all the funky, colorful art objects in her home, her favorites are the butt prints. Five years ago, Mona Groban’s three children, Joey (now 32), Jamey (now 27) and Mikey (now 30) slathered their backsides in bright paint to create a triptych of tush prints on canvas, which now hang in a prominent spot in Groban’s kitchen. Later, when Joey married Amani, she dipped her derriere in paint as well to complete the diorama. The arty irreverence of the whole affair—the fact that the children would make butt prints, and that Mona would so cherish them—seems to go far toward explaining Mona Groban.
A self-taught artist and entrepreneur who worked for years as a dental hygienist, Groban paints everything she can get her hands on, from cars and cabinet doors to clothes and shoes to the insides and outsides of buildings. She almost always paints objects in bright colors—reds, greens, yellows and blues—and in her signature style: zany and surreal, with swirls or polka dots or zebra stripes thrown in to really make the colors pop. "Maybe it’s a compulsion. I don’t know," says Groban, 55, who splits her time between a studio in Downtown Hendersonville and a colorful country compound in Mill Spring, North Carolina. "Things are just prettier that way."
Pretty, yes, but not conventionally pretty. The Groban oeuvre has a bit of an edge—something she hints at when she says, "I’m not a mainstream person." (A sign in her bathroom reads: "You call me bitch like it’s a bad thing.") She’s unabashedly sassy, which can occasionally ruffle feathers. But Groban, who grew up in Cincinnati and Milwaukee and moved to the North Carolina coast in 2002, has managed to turn all that chutzpah and sass into a successful business. She sells her handmade art online, everything from $189 hand-painted purses and $239 sandals to $19 "Mona-fied" martini glasses. Driving down Davis Street in Hendersonville, you can’t miss The Cottages, three once-dilapidated buildings that Groban bought and renovated in 2007. The buildings are painted bright pastels and trimmed in zebra stripes, and in front is the jungle-themed ’66 Plymouth Fury convertible that Groban drove from Milwaukee to Carolina Beach in 2002. She lives in one building, rents out another and in the third runs an airy boutique called "Mona!" filled with shoes, clothes and saucy signs with sayings like: "May your coconuts never hang below your grass skirt."
Deck Mona Groban describes herself as a “house junkie.” In her 40s, she kept falling in love with houses, buying them, painting them up in her quintessential style and then moving on. “There’s been ten of them—maybe eleven,” she says. “A house is just like a bigger art project.”Groban has always been arty. But for years, she didn’t think of herself as an artist. Growing up, her mother’s instructions were to find and marry a nice Jewish boy but have some sort of career to fall back on. So for 22 years, Mona Groban was Mona Bernstein, working as a dental hygienist and raising three children in Milwaukee and Cedarburg, a quaint suburb. In 1996, after her marriage fell apart, her inner artist flourished. At first, she sold her painted furniture and clothing from a small studio, then to stores and galleries. Then she hawked work on the art-show circuit, traveling to some 25 shows a year. She’s also a bit of a house junkie, and for a few years in her 40s, she found herself falling in love with houses, buying them, painting them up in her quintessential style and then moving on. "There’s been ten of them—maybe eleven," she says. "A house is just like a bigger art project."
Her house in Mill Spring, which she bought in 2005, was her first experiment in country living. It’s surrounded by 600 bucolic undeveloped acres, along with parts of the Green River. There are stunning mountain views and two separate buildings, a guest cottage and a large light-filled studio. Mill Spring is a one-horse town 22 miles east of Flat Rock and somewhere north of Columbus and Beulah. Groban loves her house there, but driving ten miles to a grocery store is a pain, and the place can feel rather remote. She uses it mainly as a weekend retreat, a place to chill out with her partner Mark, a business analyst and software engineer who commutes to Atlanta during the week. In the meantime, her constant companion is Buddy, an affectionate Dachsund mutt.
Hidden in every space of Groban’s life are little signs (and sometimes big ones) inscribed with bits of wisdom: "Remember to color outside the lines"; "Life is mysterious, don’t take it serious"; "Dorothy had the shoes but lacked the vision." You get the sense that Groban, who works on art projects from the moment she gets up until the minute she goes to bed, is giving the advice to herself as much as to anyone else. It also seems clear that, even if she moved on from Mill Spring, she would figure out how to make herself happy no matter which house or wall or pair of shoes she decided to paint next. "Happiness," she scrawled in bold black letters in the window of her studio, "is not a state to arrive at but a method of traveling."
To see more of Mona Groban’s work, check out monapaints.com or call Mona! At The Cottages in Hendersonville, 828-693-1611.
Verve-acious 
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Jan., 2009 Cover Artist-The Laurel Of Asheville
Dec. 28, 2008 Painted Shoes-ASHEVILLE CITIZEN TIMES
The Red Door
This colorful retail neighborhood just south of downtown <0x000A>offers a new shopping destinationBy Beth Beasley
Published: Friday, December 12, 2008 at 3:14 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, December 12, 2008 at 3:14 p.m.
A splash of color is sprucing up the drab grays of early winter in Hendersonville. A collection of cottages-turned-shops near downtown is feeling the benefit of the creative magic of Mona Groban: entrepreneur, artist and creator of artfully recycled clothing.
A unique hair care salon and a handmade mosaic studio have joined Groban in the past few months, with more envisioned to jump on 'The Cottages' bandwagon.
"It's a cute neighborhood," says Groban. "I thought it'd be fun to renovate the buildings and turn it into an arts destination."
Arranged in a C pattern around a kind of courtyard parking lot, the 1920s houses are located just behind Blue Water Seafood, on Davis Street.
The can-do attitude of Groban, 54, is apparent in the enthusiasm she has brought to the decoration of the cluster of three houses she bought in July 2007.
The former residences have been transformed into vividly painted retail spaces that shout out Groban's personal brand of joyful energy.
Mosaic artist Kathy Skomsky, another baby boomer, has set up shop in one renovated cottage, with a third cottage available to rent. Mona envisions anything from a retail store to a coffeehouse going into the space.
Also in the neighborhood is the Red Door Holistic Family Hair Care, offering haircuts and body treatments.
"To have lunch at Blue Water, then to walk down here and look around would be a great day out for a group of women," says Groban, a Wisconsin native who moved to Western North Carolina three years ago.
A wildly decorated 1966 Plymouth Fury parked outside her store - called Mona! - sets the tone for the creative objects within.
"It's mostly wearable art," she says. "The look is unique, cute and with an easy fit."
With short, reddish spiky hair and funky eyeglasses, Groban looks the part, wearing hand-painted black work shoes with a harlequin style wool sweater sporting three big buttons.
From T-shirts and sweaters to shoes and sandals, Groban adds her artistic stamp to new footwear or previously owned clothing with paint and a little help from a pair of scissors and a sewing machine.
The results are fun and one-of-a-kind. She calls a series of reworked button down collar shirts 'Bobby' shirts, after her late father, whom she says was conservative on the outside but had a hidden wild side.
Like her T-shirts and sweaters, the shirts have swaths of various colorful fabrics sewn in at various angles, transforming the original design with new shape and style.
Groban carries more than her own work at Mona! More than a half dozen artists and recycled clothing manufacturers fill the racks and walls of the store's lime green and pink interior.
Simple, solid colors dominate the wispy tops from Oh My Gauze, a company based in Florida. The ethereal, hand-dyed colors of bubble silk scarves and tops from Justine Artwear are hard to resist touching.
Groban carries local artist Kate Stockman's quirky handmade jewelry, like a necklace with a crop-circle image pendant with dangling charms, for $130.
Wilmington artist Justine Ferrari has a series she calls "Women as Empty Vessels" in ceramic that graces the store's shelves, selling for $30 to $100.
Clothing, accessories, and art range in price at Mona! from $16 to $220, with most items selling for less than $200.
Next door to Mona! in a cottage painted blue, green and black and white checkerboard, and topped by a wooden alligator, is Tessera, the mosaic studio operated by Kathy Skomsky. She moved her mosaic business to the Cottages from its location at Flat Rock's Rainbow Row in October.
Although she will sell her decorative and architectural glass-tile mosaics from the Cottages location, she is primarily using the space as a working studio and for teaching mosaic workshops.
"I call mosaics the red-headed child of the art world," Skomsky says. "It's a medium not many people are familiar with."
Tabletops with sunburst designs, tile covered gourds, and abstract mosaic bases for wood stoves all vie for attention in Skomsky's rustic, cozy studio space. Her mosaics capture sunflowers, abstract vistas, flaming teardrops, trees - virtually endless design possibilities with many applications.
Skomsky teaches workshops for beginner and intermediate students of the ancient art of mosaic, and even will offer consultation sessions on design and procedure.
A $58 beginner's class, including materials, might involve designing and setting glass tile pieces on an 8 by 10 inch pane. Larger projects, created in the intermediate class, cost $125.
Just across Davis Street is the Red Door, a holistic family hair care establishment owned by Dawn Culverwell that opened in April 2008 in a tiny cottage with a huge oak out front. Culverwell has 20 years of barbershop experience.
"Mona and I have enjoyed being here," says Culverwell. "It's a great group of art-minded people in this neighborhood."
Though she mainly does haircuts, Culverwell also offers special services like a scalp treatment with organic essential oils and hot towel, for $10. The treatment can be combined with a shampoo, cut and blow-dry style for $25. Other cuts range in price from $8 for a child to $12 for a 'style' cut.
Sessions are also available in Reiki, the healing practice developed in 1922 by Mikai Usui that is used as a form of complementary medicine.
"I treat the whole person," Culverwell says. Her business card reads, "Your healthy lifestyle begins at the top.
"If someone is imbalanced, the Reiki works well, otherwise I will make suggestions on diet, exercise or breathing," she adds. "It's all about staying healthy in different ways emotionally, as well as physically - for children, too."
Culverwell's peaceful demeanor spills over into her tidy, comfortable space, where she offers clients a free healthy cookie and tea on each visit.
The interior walls, painted a serene color of green, are set off by fresh wood trim. Outside, the resident five squirrels play around the feeder under the big tree, where Culverwell will sit when she's not busy to write short fiction and poetry.
The Cottages are located behind Blue Water Seafood, on the 300 block of Davis Street (near Kanuga and White Streets) behind The Fresh Market.
Jan 2008-Mona Adds Local ColorTRYON DAILY BULLETIN
Spring, 2007 Driving Her Art CAROLINA HOME+GARDEN
May 26, 2002 - Cedarburg house is filled with creative energy MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
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FindArticles > Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The > Jan 10, 2000 > Article > Print friendly
Women in W-2 stretch skills on wearable art
JEANETTE HURTKeyana Grimage and Latosha Dennis are shaping their destiny, one sweater at a time.
Grimage and Dennis are participants in the YWCA of Greater Milwaukee's Circle of Women at a Wisconsin Works job training site called the Creative Workshop.
Sitting around a large table, Grimage and Dennis cut out pieces of fabric and match them with yarn. Using recycled garments and bits of cloth, they create a line of wearable art clothes that sell for about $150 in high-end boutiques throughout the Midwest.
"Ever since I've been coming here, I thought to myself, `I am a designer,' " Grimage says, snipping a square of pink felt and arranging it over a green sweater.
Grimage, 23, says she initially did not think much of sewing, and she had wanted to go through another job training program for office skills. She also did not think she could sew.
But much to her surprise, and subsequent delight, by the time she had finished her first pair of footies, she was hooked.
"This is a very, very great place to be," Grimage says. "Before I came here, I didn't want to do anything. This put a true change in my life."
The Circle of Women is the brainchild of Rita Renner, chief operating officer of Milwaukee Works, a YWCA subsidiary that handles training and placement for W-2 participants, and Mona Bernstein, a Cedarburg artist who is as well known for her color-splashed paintings as she is her leopard-print outfits.
"We were sitting around the Java House (in Cedarburg) talking about work," Bernstein says. "Rita kept telling me `I want you to come down. I know you're going to like it.' "
Their conversation took place in June, just about a year after the YWCA bought the Job Shop (the previous name for the Creative Workshop) and just after Bernstein had designed a new line of wearable art.
When a deal with a fashion representative fell through, Bernstein finally visited the shop, and she fell in love with the environment.
"It's fun to see the women so excited about creating something," Bernstein says. "I'm doing what I love."
Bernstein initially began helping the women make wearable art mittens, but soon she was coming in every day, and the line expanded to include hats, footies, scarves, sweaters, overalls, jeans and ornaments.
She also designed the tags for the clothing items, which bear the name of the woman who made them, and she created "A Circle of Women" painting, which is included on all of her brochures to stores.
"I said to Rita, `Why don't you just hire me? I'm here all the time anyway,' " Bernstein says.
Bernstein came on board full time in June, found a new fashion representative in Chicago, and the line took off.
Since its inception, the line has generated $30,000 in sales from about 50 boutiques throughout the Midwest, including Salamander in Wauwatosa and The Magic Door in Door County. About 30 women currently participate in The Creative Workshop, and since June, 228 women have gone through its doors. About 70% of those women successfully complete the program and either find work or continue with additional training.
Bernstein has plans to take the line to an apparel show in New York.
The real expansion and transformation, however, takes place in the women themselves.
"It's sort of like `How to make an American sweater,' " says Elaine Maly, chief development and marketing officer for the program, referring to the 1995 movie "How to Make an American Quilt."
Maly said that it provides an art therapy component to the welfare replacement program.
"I don't know of another (welfare) program that uses art and creativity," Maly said. "They've used art therapy for years, so why not this situation?"
Many of the women bring myriad problems with them to the sewing table. Some of the women are single parents of children with disabilities, while others face domestic violence issues. A lot of the women struggle with depression and housing concerns.
"When you have a child who's sick or a husband who's disabled, it's hard to get your whole act together," Renner says.
Bridgette Wiseman, Bernstein's assistant, knows firsthand what these women face. College-educated, Wiseman was forced to go on public assistance after her longtime employer scaled back her hours.
"When I came here, I was like, `No, I do not want to be here,' " Wiseman says.
But Wiseman changed her attitude, and in November, she was hired.
In addition to helping Bernstein market the line and coach the women on their sewing skills, Wiseman often gives the women pep talks, and she also makes house calls if a woman is absent.
"Everyone has a purpose in life," Wiseman says. "If I can get that across to one lady, I've accomplished enough for a lifetime."
While Wiseman and other job coaches and trainers mentor the women, sometimes the biggest push they get is from each other.
"Coming here keeps my mind off a lot of things," Dennis says. "The people here help you with your problems. You don't leave here with nothing. You always leave here with something."
Copyright 2000
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
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November 19, 1999 – Clothing Line Prepares Women for the Work Force MILWAUKEE BUSINESS JOURNAL
Feb 27, 1997 – Local Artists Move into Grafton, WI Mill MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINAL
April 4, 1995 – Mona’s Original Crooked Sidewalk Studio MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
FindArticles > Milwaukee Journal, The > Apr 4, 1995 > Article > Print friendly
Artist's touch
Pat RaabThe Journal Sentinel staff
Cedarburg The world beyond Mona Bernstein's crooked sidewalk has been anything but black and white.
Mona's world used to end at the large tree down the block from her home in Cincinnati.
The crooked sidewalk that encircled the tree was as far as she and her best friend were allowed to ride their tricycles. It also was a place where they could play out fantastic adventures.
When Mona decided to turn her one-of-a-kind creations into a business, picking a name for her third-floor studio at Cedar Creek Settlement, N70-W6340 Bridge Road, was easy Crooked Sidewalk.
Besides the black and white crooked sidewalk she painted on the floor, the only black and white you'll find are chairs perched on a rafter, spelling out her philosophy: "Things are not just black and white."
Mona definitely sees the world through technicolor glasses. Her world also is colored with the unexpected.
It's hard to know where to look in the little shop that has a view of Cedar Creek below. But you can't help notice the staid armchair with its embellishments of theatrical whimsy and metal curlicues attached to the chair back.
Hanging overhead is a chair, transformed into art you can sit on, a "This Is Your Life" gift for a retiring teacher. Chairs are a favorite canvas decorated with the tools of an architect's trade, school mascots and children's faces.
A pair of punk rock Barbies seem perfectly at home as splats for a vintage wooden chair, its bright pinks, greens and purples offset by black and white designs.
And who says a leopard can't change its spots or move them in the case of a vintage suitcase. Its well-traveled look is disguised by spots. It might never make a trip on the Orient Express, but standing in a corner it is a reminder that "Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a method of traveling."
Many of Mona's creations are punctuated with favorite sayings and lines from favorite songs.
Most of her creations never make it up the three flights to the studio.
When she has a piece of furniture in progress, it's easier to keep it on ground level than lug it up and down stairs. That's why her studio is open only Friday through Mondays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (or by appointment).
The rest of the time she's plying her brushes at her home studio nearby. If you need ideas or encouragement, she keeps a more-or-less-complete portfolio of finished pieces in albums on the counter.
Much of her work is on consignment, with prices generally starting at $100.
Copyright 1995
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
FindArticles > Milwaukee Journal, The > Apr 4, 1995 > Article > Print friendly
Artist's touch
Pat RaabThe Journal Sentinel staff
Cedarburg The world beyond Mona Bernstein's crooked sidewalk has been anything but black and white.
Mona's world used to end at the large tree down the block from her home in Cincinnati.
The crooked sidewalk that encircled the tree was as far as she and her best friend were allowed to ride their tricycles. It also was a place where they could play out fantastic adventures.
When Mona decided to turn her one-of-a-kind creations into a business, picking a name for her third-floor studio at Cedar Creek Settlement, N70-W6340 Bridge Road, was easy Crooked Sidewalk.
Besides the black and white crooked sidewalk she painted on the floor, the only black and white you'll find are chairs perched on a rafter, spelling out her philosophy: "Things are not just black and white."
Mona definitely sees the world through technicolor glasses. Her world also is colored with the unexpected.
It's hard to know where to look in the little shop that has a view of Cedar Creek below. But you can't help notice the staid armchair with its embellishments of theatrical whimsy and metal curlicues attached to the chair back.
Hanging overhead is a chair, transformed into art you can sit on, a "This Is Your Life" gift for a retiring teacher. Chairs are a favorite canvas decorated with the tools of an architect's trade, school mascots and children's faces.
A pair of punk rock Barbies seem perfectly at home as splats for a vintage wooden chair, its bright pinks, greens and purples offset by black and white designs.
And who says a leopard can't change its spots or move them in the case of a vintage suitcase. Its well-traveled look is disguised by spots. It might never make a trip on the Orient Express, but standing in a corner it is a reminder that "Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a method of traveling."
Many of Mona's creations are punctuated with favorite sayings and lines from favorite songs.
Most of her creations never make it up the three flights to the studio.
When she has a piece of furniture in progress, it's easier to keep it on ground level than lug it up and down stairs. That's why her studio is open only Friday through Mondays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (or by appointment).
The rest of the time she's plying her brushes at her home studio nearby. If you need ideas or encouragement, she keeps a more-or-less-complete portfolio of finished pieces in albums on the counter.
Much of her work is on consignment, with prices generally starting at $100.
Copyright 1995
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
MONA!
PO BOX 1834
HENDERSONVILLE, NC 28793
United States
ph: 828-808-4799
MONA
