Scene Miriam did of a family waiting at the laundry mat while attending classes at the Burnsville Painting School in the 1980s.

"My favorite place was the “Burnsville Painting Classes” (SeeCelo) in North Carolina. John Bryan and Everett Kivette were teachers there who took over the classes started by Frank Stanley Herring and his wife, Frances. I attended classes there in the summer for two weeks over the course of ten years. The criticism was frank but never cutting.

We mostly stayed at the Nu Wray Inn, which had wonderful country food—a huge breakfast with grits, ham, etc., and dinner with vegetables and southern cooking. I would paint all morning at the studio on the mountain, come back, eat lunch, paint all afternoon, eat dinner, sit on the porch, and watch all the people go by. My favorite place to do work was early morning or late afternoon on the front porch of the Nu Wray Inn.

The studio was perfect. Located on the side of the mountain with a large first-floor room filled with easels and model stands, a large stairway leading up to the balcony with a second floor for students to stay, and a huge window with northern light. The porch was a wraparound kind where you could do still life or paint outside. It was beautiful up there and very quiet."