Jeffrey Miller’s Exploration of Life Through Humor, Audacity, Absurdity and Juxtaposition

I was once told by someone that they did not know if they liked my work because I wasn't doing what everybody else was doing. I have never before been so complimented— Jeffrey Miller

Jeffrey Miller’s work traces a handful of related themes, ideas, and images through a variety of mediums. He is an artist always exploring and keeping options open—and he is Jasper’s featured Tiny Gallery artist for the month of September. 

Miller grew up in small-town Campbellsville, Kentucky, a “typical child except for an oversized imagination and an unrelenting curiosity.” While he did not grow up around art, he often drew in the margins of his mom’s old textbooks—deterred from marking up the walls of his home instead. Of all things, though, it was an encyclopedia that began the blossoming of Miller’s identity as an artist. 

“One day my father drew a polar bear sketch that he copied from those encyclopedias; excited, I asked him to do it again but instead he gave me the pencil and told me to do it myself,” Miller recalls. “That was all the encouragement I needed. I was about 5 years old then, and I got my first real commission at the age of 12—I earned $100 for painting a logo for a truck driver on both doors of his truck.” 

From this moment, Miller went on to commit himself to art, receiving an art scholarship from Campbellsville University and finishing his art degree at Murray State University 

“At University I was introduced to and gained more knowledge about materials and art history; as far as process, though, it seems more I just learned the name to call what I was already doing,” Miller says. “The biggest and most influencing thing was the atmosphere and the presence of so many other people involved in the creative process…that I really miss!”

BLACK CAT BLUES

Since getting his degree, Miller has continued to grow and expand his horizons. One of his greatest fears is being trapped in a box. As he says, there are “too many possibilities to explore.” In his mind, work predicts medium, so the more mediums one is familiar with, the more the subject matter can spread its wings. 

“Being a good painter or good in whatever chosen medium is a technical evaluation—creativity is something more,” he says. “Besides which, good is a relative term so it literally tells you nothing about an art piece.” 

And art is something Miller is always doing. When asked what he does when not creating, he says that he sees everything he partakes in within his everyday life as some form of artmaking. In that vein, Miller does not have a specific theme he chases—in fact, he sees this as one of the limitations people place around artists and their work. 

In his mind, work predicts medium, so the more mediums one is familiar with, the more the subject matter can spread its wings. 

“People ask what I was thinking when I did this piece or that piece. The only answer is my thinking was absorbed in the piece I'm working on at the time. Anything else is an afterthought,” he says. “The work is complete when I've done my job as an artist and I'm on to the next canvas. The important thing is what [the viewer] brings to the piece, what do [they] think. A piece of art is not complete without the viewer, and each viewer will bring thoughts of their own.” 

If he could find a throughline in his piece, he would say it is all, in some way or another, a celebration of life in all its forms, regardless of the themes and emotions within. If art is in his every day, his art also shows the everyday.

VENUS OF THE BAYOU

“There is an ebb and flow, a push and pull, a transitoriness about life that must be reflected in one's art if that art is about life. The imagery, ideas, and concepts are a reflection of day-to-day life which I personally tend to express through humor, audacity, absurdity, and juxtaposition,” Miller says. “I was once told by someone that they did not know if they liked my work because I wasn't doing what everybody else was doing. I have never before been so complimented.” 

In this Tiny Gallery show, Miller shows off these juxtapositions of life in his newest medium: printmaking, of which he has had an introductory class and, so far, is “finding nothing about it that [he doesn’t] like.” Adjacently, he has started exploring digital art, and he has found himself particularly connected to a new digital image he made—the cover photo of this article.  

“[The piece] totally reflects the art that is me—the art just described to you in the above paragraphs. I usually work from a fleeting mental image in response to something I've seen, heard, or read,” he says. “The mental image may or may not come immediately but it always comes in the same way, like a light brush across the cheek or a fast, flashing image like from the old slide projectors. I turn to get a better look and it is gone. There are times when I only see it when the piece is done—I like it that way.”

THE FALCONER

Perhaps it is this mindset that has led to Miller winning a handful of art contests, including an advertising award from Doe Anderson Advertising Co., as well as serving as an educator for the Lexington Library Adult Education Program for four years.

 Today, he displays at various festivals and community sponsored events, and you can see—and purchase—his work 24/7 until the end of September at Jasper’s online gallery space. After the show, interested patrons can follow his journey on Facebook and Instagram @ Jeffrey Miller Artworks.

A Message from Cindi for Midlands Gives 2023

Please Consider Supporting the Jasper Project This Year During Midlands Gives.

Jasper is an all-volunteer 501c3 with NO paid employees and NO overhead, so your donations go directly to the Columbia, SC arts community via events and publications.

Me with Jasper Project board president Wade Sellers and Elvis (aka Patrick Baxley) at Bernie Love 2023

Welcome to one of my favorite times of the year—the time for me to report back to you, our supporters, on how the Jasper Project has been using the funds you entrusted to us over the past year. It’s a joy to celebrate what we can accomplish together with your funding and the Jasper Project’s labors of love.

I always have a soft spot in my heart for Jasper Magazine, which was the seed of the Jasper Project and remains my favorite project of all. Last spring, we published a beautiful issue featuring Lindsay Radford Wiggins on the cover and Michael Krajewski as our centerfold artist. Kristine Hartvigsen wrote the piece on Lindsay, and I had the honor of writing about Michael who, actually, was the centerfold in the first ever issue back in fall 2011. This time, however, he is fully clothed!  We also featured a piece on Mike Miller’s new book, The Hip Shot, WOW Production’s first YouTube series,  Quincy Pugh’s Veteran’s Day Parade painting series, Carleen Maur’s experimental filmmaking, Artists for Africa, and two new books from Muddy Ford Press, (Jasper’s original underwriter before we became a non-profit under the leadership of Larry Hembree), including Night Bloomer by Jane Zenger and More God Than Dead by Angelo Geter. We wrote artist profiles on Lucy Bailey, Diko Pekdemir-Lewis, and Rebecca Horne; Music editor Kevin Oliver compiled a jam-packed article on 10 music artists to watch in the coming year; Will South wrote a piece on Tyrone Geter and his work and life in Gambia; and I had the honor of profiling David Platts, the ED of the SC Arts commission. Sadly, we also memorialized Wim Roefs and Mary Bentz Gilkerson.

Our fall 2022 issue of Jasper featured Wilma King on the cover and Jim Arendt in the centerfold. We wrote about Wideman-Davis dance, Baba Seitu Amenwahsa, Steven Chapp and Jerred Metz, Arischa Connor’s television successes, the Soda City jazz scene, Jamie Blackburn, poet Monifa Lemons and her stint as an actor on Lena Waithe’s film, Crooked Trees Gon Give Me Wings, Carla Daron’s new book The Orchid Tattoo, Amy Brower and the life of a casting agent, new theatre editor Libby Campbell, Dustin Whitehead’s new film Hero, Elizabeth Catlett, and included several poems and music reviews.

I don’t want to give too much away about the spring 2023 issue which is releasing on Saturday May 20th at the Artists Showing Artists event, hosted by Desirée Richardson of Death Ray Robin, but if you meet me that evening at the One Columbia Co-Op at 1013 Duke Avenue, you’ll get some fresh print featuring Philip Mullen, Olga Yukhno, Bohumila Augustinova, Katie Leitner, Dick Moons, Ivan Segura, Drink Small, Alyssa Stewart, and lots of surprises

Fall Lines volume IX - Cover art by Sean Rayford — https://www.seanrayford.com/

After the magazine my next favorite project has to be Fall Lines—a literary convergence. We just released our 9th volume and issued the call for our 10th. I’m incredibly excited to announce that, in addition to the Broad River Prize for Prose, which went this year to Tim Conroy, and Saluda River Prize for Poetry, which went this year to Jo Angela Edwins, that next year we will also be offering the Combahee River Prize to a SC BIPOC writer of poetry or prose. We’ve also formed an ad hoc committee, captained by poet Randy Spencer,  to study the best ways to grow Fall Lines as it moves into its 10th year.

Along the same lines we awarded the Lizelia Prize, named in honor of anti-Jim Crow poet-activist Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer, to Myrtle Beach poet Maria Picone. Maria will have her poetry chapbook titled Adoptee Song, published by Muddy Ford Press through a sponsoring relationship with the Jasper Project. Board member Len Lawson managed this project.

We devoted a lot of our time last summer to the Play Right Series, a project managed by board member Jon Tuttle. The winner of last year’s Play Right Series was first-time playwright, Colby Quick. After spending the summer working with Community Producers Ed Madden, Bert Easter, James and Kirkland Smith, Paul Leo and Eric Tucker, Bill Schmidt, Wade Sellers, and myself, as well as the cast of Colby’s winning play, Moon Swallower, we presented a heavily produced staged reading, directed by Chad Henderson, at the Columbia Music Festival Association in August. We were also delighted to invite the public to the reading and, via our relationship with Muddy Ford Press, offer published copies of Moon Swallower for sale.

Jasper Friends Dick Moons and BA Hohman pose with our host, Clark Ellefson, outside the Art Bar

In December, Clark Ellefson and Andy Rodgers hosted the Jasper Project at the Art Bar on Park Street where we staged our first official Santa Crawl, inviting all comers to don their Santa suits and drink like it was Christmas. We had a fabulous time and enjoyed a delicious house-created cocktail list with a portion of each sale going to the Jasper Project. Thanks Clark, Andy, and everyone at the Art Bar!

In February, the good folks in the Capital City Playboys invited us to partner with them on the fundraiser concert event, An Evening with Bernie Love—A Tribute to Elvis. We themed the event around Valentine’s Day and welcomed more than 100 folks to the 701 Whaley Market space where Marty Fort, Jay Matheson, Kevin Brewer, and Patrick Baxley as Elvis! We also hosted artists Jamie Peterson, Gina Langston Brewer, Cait Maloney, and Lindsay Radford Wiggins who showed and sold their work. At the same time, and thanks to Lee Ann Kornegay, we had reserved the Community Hallway Gallery at 701 Whaley for the month of February to stage an art exhibit we called Love Hurts/Love Heals featuring K. Wayne Thornley and Wilma King.

In March, created a new event called Artists Showing Artists. Artists Showing Artists is an opportunity for established artists to share the spotlight with other artists who may be emerging, new to the area, or who they want to highlight. The project encourages collaboration within and between disciplines and enlightens the community about both the featured artists and the art curation process. Our first event featured Saul Seibert who invited poet Alyssa Stewart (we’re publishing her first ever published poem in the next issue of Jasper Magazine - thanks Saul!), visual artist Virginia Russo, and rapper Keith Smiley.

Our next Artists Showing Artists event will feature Desirée Richardson of Death Ray Robin as our Artist Host. I hope you can join us on May 20th to pick up a copy of the spring issue of Jasper Magazine and check out all the artists Desirée has invited to join us!

In fact, our various gallery spaces across town have grown considerably, helping Jasper to spotlight the work of artists in small, captured spaces. We do a First Thursday artist-in-residence rotation at Sound Bites Eatery on Sumter Street that has thus far included Michael Shepard, Alex Ruskell, Kimber Carpenter, Ginny Merritt, Adam Corbett, Quincy Pugh. Marius Valdes, Gina Langston Brewer, Lindsay Radford Wiggins, Lucas Sams, Colleen Crichter, and Keith Tolen.

Steven White speaking to theatre goers at Harbison Theatre

In January, the Koger Center opened a space on the second floor of their building just outside of the Donor’s Gallery for the Jasper Project to show the art of Columbia-based artists. We opened with Thomas Crouch, then Lindsay Radford, followed by Quincy Pugh. We’ve scheduled additional visual artists to fill out the remainder of 2023 and are already programming into 2024 at the Koger Center as well as at Harbison Theatre in Irmo, where we’ve shown David Yaghjian, Steven White, Michael Krajewski, Lori Isom Starnes, and are currently showing Olga Yukhno. We also keep a running gallery at Motor Supply Bistro and in the sidewalk gallery at the Meridien Building on Main Street.  

I’m actually thrilled to announce that the Jasper Galleries helped put almost $18,000 into the pockets of working artists in Columbia since last March!

Board Member Bert Easter staffs the kegerator at a Jasper Project House Party

As the Jasper Project board of directors has grown, we’ve done a bit of reorganization. Christina Xan, whose work on the Tiny Gallery continues to be so efficient that we tapped her to manage all our gallery spaces, is now also serving as our treasurer. Emily Moffitt was also elected board secretary in January, just after officially joining the board, and Wade Sellers and Kristin Cobb both continue as board president and vice president respectively. Bekah Rice is officially our digital manager as well as our operations manager and, typically, our events director. We welcomed new members to the board including visual artists Ginny Merett and Kimber Carpenter, and Jasper Magazine theatre editor Libby Campbell

I’m sure I’m forgetting an event, a happening, or a party.

Please remember, it is your support of Jasper’s passion for supporting, promoting, and validating Midlands-area artists that allows us to do what we love. Thank you for your continued support.

Cindi

April 2023

Please enjoy a few more photos from the past year of the Jasper Project below —

Carla Damron at Richland Library leading discussion on her book, The Orchid Tattoo, for Jasper’s Nightstand Book Club

Me judging the Mad Hatter Art Show

Featured Artist Wilma King talks with artist Gerard Erley at the Love Hurts/Love Heals art show that she shared with K. Wayne Thornley— a Jasper Project with 701 Whaley

Lisa Hammond served as the poetry judge for Saluda River Prize for Poetry in 2022’s Fall Lines

Jasper was invited by the good folks at Curiosity Coffee to arrange a pumpkin carving contest among the city’s artists — it was a huge success, a lot of fun, and we had some beautiful (and terrifying) pumpkins result!

Point person = Bekah Rice

We featured the art of the four artists on the board at Artista Vista this spring - Ginny Merett, Kimber Carpenter, Laura Garner Hine and Emily Moffitt

Olga Yukhno speaking to theatre goers at Harbison Theatre for her spring exhibit

Our 2019 project, The Supper Table, is still touring. Here it is at the Myrtle Beach Gallery of Art just after being on exhibit at the Morris Center for Arts and History

Michael Krajewski with his exhibit at the Jasper Gallery at Harbison Theatre

Colleen Critcher and the T.Rex as Consumer and Consumed

Colleen Critcher is a Florence, South Carolina based artist who finds inspiration in consumerism, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and all things kitschy and gauche. She describes herself as a “painter at heart,” her favorite being oil painting, though she’s worked with a variety of mediums. She also finds herself turning to printmaking often, a process that matches much of her work thematically in the way that it, according to Critcher, “mimics the industrial production model in a completely inefficient way.” 

Critcher has known she wanted to be an artist since she “learned that it could be a profession” in Kindergarten. She’s always felt called toward it, and always found herself admirably aware of its capabilities. “I’m also addicted to the basic alchemy aspect of art making,” she says. “Making something from nothing feels like magic to me.” 

And make something from nothing she does, over and over again. Critcher’s recent series, entitled Consumed, is a scathing commentary on the American consumerist obsession with excess and features a series of pieces in which the subjects literally consume multicolored plastic dinosaurs.

“I love the fact that decades after I collected them, the T.Rex remains a pop culture icon,” Critcher says. “People are still obsessed with this dinosaur who was once the “ultimate consumer. It’s a bizarre cultural phenomenon.”  

“Beyond the connection from childhood toys and popular culture, I’m also interested in the fact that Rex was once the apex predator. It’s a reminder that humans pretend their dominance is somehow guaranteed to be permanent. There is also a sad irony to the fact that the remnants of dinosaurs (as petroleum) are what we make plastic with, and plastic is slowly killing everything. Yikes.” 

There is something to be said for the deadly consumerist infatuation with plastic, especially considering Critcher’s idea that our induction into consumerism starts with childhood– “I think for most of us it starts with toys.” 

Relatedly, Consumed also includes several pieces with children as the subjects. What A Good Little Consumer and Pretty Please both feature the full body images of children, a girl and a boy respectively, with T.Rex masks on their heads, dressed in what appears to be play costumes. Something about the way the children stand, the way the little girl in What A Good Little Consumer cradles the T.Rex toy in her arms, feels eerie, more sinister perhaps. Is there something to be said here about consumerism eating us back? 

Critcher answers this question with more questions: “I’ve been making work about American consumer culture for a decade now and I’m constantly asking questions about our participation. Are we passively implicated in the process? Are we fully engaged with both feet in this complex system? Are we consuming the things or are they consuming us? What are the benefits and what are the negative effects of a culture built on the necessity to constantly buy more things? When I had children it made me recognize that they, we, become consumers almost immediately.” 

Another unique facet of Critcher’s work is its ability to be self-referential–she puts the literal image of herself into her paintings. Within Consumed, she can be seen chowing down on a purple dinosaur in Devouring Her T. Rex and a neon green one in Keeping Up With The Joneses (Suburban Mom). Perhaps this is a nod to her own participation in consumer culture, a reminder of its inescapable impact on all of our lives. It certainly adds to the uncanny aesthetic of the series.  

Critcher received her MFA in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Since then, her work has been shown at numerous galleries, including The Southern, Redux Contemporary Art Center, Kai Lin Art, Gutstein Gallery, and 701 Center for Contemporary Art, and she has taught several arts foundations courses at Coker University, Coastal Carolina University, and Francis Marion University.  

Critcher is the featured artist in the Jasper Project’s First Thursday Series at Sound Bites Eatery at 1425 Sumter Street. Join us on Thursday, March 2nd as we celebrate the opening reception for her work which will hang throughout the month of March.

For more information about Critcher and her projects, and to check out her delightfully bizarre series Consumed, visit her website, colleencritcher.com.

In Memoriam: Wim Roefs 1959-2022

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In Memoriam – Wim Roefs

This has been a particularly difficult week for the Columbia Arts Community. On Monday May 9th, Wim Roefs, founder and owner of If Art Gallery and one of the founders of 701 Center for Contemporary Art, suffered a crashing heart attack at his gallery on Lincoln Street. On Thursday, the 12th, Wim passed away, leaving his wife Eileen Waddell and hundreds, if not thousands, of international friends and colleagues behind.

The pain of the loss of Wim Roefs from our arts community cannot be overestimated. Wim brought a sense of gravitas to us that many people didn’t know was missing. He reminded us that while art is in no way an endeavor of the elite, it should be taken seriously and respected for the vital role it plays in daily life. Wim made contemporary art accessible to all of us and, thankfully, his legacy will live on as long as art in Columbia does.

When I first realized we would be losing Wim I felt certain that he had done his job well and that the cultural legacy he leaves behind would continue to thrive and inform us.

But I worried a bit about his social legacy. Social media being what it is,  there has been no shortage of folks chiming in about how “sweet” Wim was—that he was “nice” and “pleasant.” This disturbs me. I’m not saying Wim couldn’t be sweet or nice, but congratulations to those who had the unique experience of being around Wim when he was in such a mood.

For the most part, Wim did not indulge in the subterfuge of Southern hospitality or the artifice of American social politics. I don’t know if it was because he was Dutch or because he was Wim, but he and his personality defied any number of platitudes about how we are meant to interact with one another. Instead, he behaved with complete and transparent honesty. Wim was my favorite kind of person in that there was no second-guessing when it came to how he felt about you and your work. His honest and straightforward demeanor required a tough skin and a healthy sense of self. If you didn’t have both when you entered into a relationship with Wim, it was imperative that you develop them for your relationship to continue. I appreciated that.

Sweet? Sure, at times. Sincere? Always.

To that end, we turn this editorial over to some of the folks who knew Wim best and will miss him most. I asked them to share, with sincerity, their thoughts and feelings on the loss and legacy of Wim Roefs.

Condolences to all as we mourn the passing of one of our most respected—and beloved—community members.

And thank you, Wim, for everything you taught us.

-Cindi Boiter

Coming out of teaching at Benedict College Wim was well versed in Delta Americana and its accompanying political and social American commentary. I recall first meetings at his home where he and his wife Eileen would host cutting edge artist showings complete with an impressive euro cuisine and assemblage of artists that rarely ventured from their studios, which in turn led to incredible gatherings that ignited discourse on art and culture and cultivated  new friendships and ideas.

The  founding of if Art marked the debut of a New York standard gallery presence in Columbia. Early on, Wim populated the gallery with a cutting-edge stable of artists, local and international, all with a common thread of Art Spirit; art being who they are, not what they did, this often manifested itself by continuous exhibitions of work challenging patrons and the general public. This if Art gallery model presented a thoroughness which included artist cataloging, lectures, and talks with showings, and meticulous hanging and presentation, this would shortly expand to include poetry readings and exploratory music concerts as well.

Wim was quick to recognize the art spirit in young artists and go to lengths to encourage and supply support and materials to further their unique callings, he was also quick to herald  iconic artists such as Laura Spong and showcase their work as assets to the rich fabric of urban culture. He constantly pushed to highlight The Vista and its rightly achieved formal status as Cultural District in Columbia,  and knowingly worked consistently toward an ongoing goal of Columbia as a cultural destination for future citizens not  fixated on collegian over emphasis.      

Wim's youthful background as a former band drummer, and a political reactionary

surreptitiously pasting political bills at night served him well to establish his distinct curatorial criticism concerning art and culture. He united Columbia artist with our German sister city Kaiserslautern to produce an ongoing relationship of international exchange exhibitions and public sculpture. This in turn established the Lady Street Sculptural Corridor as a hallmark of urban design and international influence raising the bar for future architectural and green space concepts.

And, he loved his cats. 

-Stephen Chesley

It is difficult to express in words the void that's left by Wim Roefs departure. he set the standard for Contemporary Art in Columbia both through his gallery, and his advocacy work in civic organizations including 701 CCA.

His work throughout the state and southeast region as an independent curator was important in laying the path for new voices. He had exacting standards, he believed in risk taking and  championed challenging art and conversations. He made space for emerging talent. His interests were broad. Music, film, theatre, visual art, and dance. His politics were clear. he believed in and practiced inclusion, not as an exercise in political correctness, but as a way of living, a way of being. He brought lots of different kinds of people into shared orbits. He called bullshit when he saw it. He was sincere.

-Michaela Pilar Brown

Wim’s passing is a staggering loss. His passion, intellect, and commitment to the arts in this region are gigantic. We all loved to participate in his presentations of local and international talent. His carefully curated exhibits at If Art, 701CCA, and Art Fields have become a part of our cultural psyche. The wealth of talent here and abroad Wim found and represented is vast and diverse. His boundless energy has raised our cultural consciousness and will continue to elevate the visual arts throughout our community. Wim, Thank you. You are forever in our hearts and minds…

-Clark Ellefson  

Wim with the late Laura Spong

During the 11 plus years my office has been two doors down from if Art there were many days and nights where I was able to stop in and just enjoy a talk with Wim about any number of interests we shared. 

We both parked our cars in a garage a block away from our shops. For me, I walked past the large window at the entrance of If Art on my way to my car every day. This was the showcase window. It allowed anyone walking down Lincoln St., one of the busier pedestrian streets in Columbia, to walk past if Art and view what Wim had to showcase that day, week, or month. 

My thoughts in the past few days, walking past that large window, have turned to the fact that for the past 11 years I have seen every artist that Wim has hung in that window. There have been local, upcoming artists in that window. There have been nationally recognized and established artists in that window. I’ve seen beautiful small painting of flowers, and large painting that served as a bit of a middle finger to whoever walked by. Wim brought us the art he liked to champion and make no mistake, want you to buy so you could show it off to your friends. I was lucky enough to see it all. 

-Wade Sellers

Wim changed the landscape of visual arts in Columbia. He was a powerhouse of knowledge and his demand of excellence and passion helped to create an environment that thrust local artists to a whole new level. As a founder of 701 Center for Contemporary Art his vision helped to shape what has become a leading institution for contemporary art in the region. The team at 701 is saddened by his sudden departure and he will be greatly missed. But we are so grateful for all he has done to raise the bar for cultural arts in this town. 

-Lee Ann Kornegay 

Since I met Wim thirty years ago, he has been a constant force in the South Carolina arts scene, and it won’t be the same without him. He cultivated friendships and fostered collaborations among artists. His knowledge, enthusiasm, and passion for the arts and making things happen was unmatched in our arts community. Wim will not be forgotten and was a hell of a friend.

-Mike Williams

This is a devastating and sudden loss for our community, within which Wim was such a force at 701, at if Art, and beyond. Such a presence. Deep condolences to Eileen and to Wim’s family. I thought of him as the “old fashioned” type of gallerist: if Art is no pristine white cube with an intimidating attendant, but a jumble of walls and levels all filled with art and with books, open and inviting to all, presided over by Wim from his perch in the loft. There is no prevailing style or medium among the artists represented. Simply those Wim thought were good and to whom he was deeply committed. Wim ran if Art more as an art center than gallery, hosting musical events, performances, and book launches—including mine. When I asked Wim if we could do a launch in the gallery the answer was simply: “Sure, when do you want to do it?” No red tape to cut, no waivers to sign. Just set up the table, put out the books and the chairs and do it. He was always open to conversations and to events that would stimulate them. The first public event we attended during the depths of pre-vaccine COVID was at the gallery: Michaela Pilar Brown’s moving sculptural performance mourning her mother’s passing, compellingly enacted by her and Terrance Henderson. The set and the performances were extraordinary; but just sharing a live experience with other people was cathartic for us, as I hope it was for Michaela. Wim created a space in which you felt safe to have deep and perhaps unsettling aesthetic and emotional experiences like this, even during a pandemic. I hope that as a community we can find ways to honor Wim’s life and extend his legacy and commitment to creating spaces for art and experience.

-Peter Chametzky

Wim with Diane Gilbert, Kirkland Smith and James Smith

Wim was a giant in the art community and his passing  is such a loss for his family and friends! 

He made a lasting impact through his work with 701 CCA and his gallery if Art, as well as facilitating the artist exchange with our sister city Kaiserslautern, Germany. He  was passionate about the value of art and passionate about the artists he valued. He will be dearly missed. 

-Kirkland Smith

“I feel heartache for having lost a friend, but also for the wider loss to our art community and the direction of local art. His honesty, drive, and support are irreplaceable. Wim is irreplaceable.”

-Scotty Peak

We were introduced to Wim when we first arrived in Columbia. He and Eileen opened their home and hearts and welcomed us from the beginning. His smile, dry sense of humor, and strong opinion made him the kind of friend we valued and appreciated. We truly loved him. Wim will be missed, and we will miss his voice floating from the loft of If Art Gallery as he greeted us when we arrived.

-Thaddeus and Tanya Wideman-Davis

Wim did so much for Columbia arts and music. But for me personally, during my days at Free Times, his presence offered reassurance that approaching our small but determined creative community with honest criticism (and some well-intentioned snark) was not just OK but necessary for its continued growth. 

-Jordan Lawrence

Wim could be disagreeable and cantankerous and have a need to be right at the exact same moment he was incredibly kind and accepting. A person of great integrity who wasn’t above fucking with you in a good-natured way. Fun and sneaky funny. He was a fierce champion not only of the arts but of people. Mostly people. There was only one Wim. We were so lucky to know him. Zaire and Michaela myself will always remember the One Woman show he gave the Bird at If Art when she  was five(I think). Or how we used to talk about “real football “ , soccer. And how he was helpful . Always helping. Miss you man. Love you Wim. A singular presence in Columbia. 

-Darion McCloud

Wim Roefs was a gift pure and simple. 

-David Yaghjian

A Midlands Gives Message from Cindi & Wade -- The Jasper Project's State of the Heart

Thank you!

As we approach Midlands Gives next week and you make your decisions on where to invest your gifts, we’d like to report back to you on how the Jasper Project has used the tokens of your kindness since last year.

First and foremost, we have published two 64-page issues of Jasper Magazine and we have another issue in design now that will be in your hands in a matter of weeks.  These issues have reviewed, previewed, examined, explained, memorialized, and celebrated more than 100 of our Midlands-based artists. The issue coming your way will look at the art of Lindsay Radford, Quincy Pugh, Rebecca Horne, Lucy Bailey, Tyrone Geter, Diko Pekdemir-Lewis, Mike Miller, Jane Zenger, Josetra Baxter, Tamara Finkbeiner, Terri McCord, Juan Cruz, Saul Seibert, Rex Darling, Tam the Viibe, Desiree, Katera, Lang Owen, Hillmouse, Space Force, Candy Coffins, Admiral Radio, Carleen Maur, the mission of SCAC ED David Platts, and the international efforts of Columbian-founded dance organization, Artists for Africa.

We have published a dual volume of Fall Lines – a literary convergence, celebrating the prose and poetry of 60 SC writers, awarding the Broad River Prizes for Prose to Randy Spencer and Kasie Whitener and the Saluda River Prizes for Poetry to Angelo Geter and Lisa Hammond, while at the same time celebrating the photography of Crush Rush. And we have issued a call for Fall Lines 2022.

We have conceptualized and implemented a competition for the publication of a chapbook for a SC BIPOC writer in honor of Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer and the winner is being announced and celebrated as we speak. Board member Len Lawson brought us this beautiful idea and will edit the book which will be published this fall. 

We have implemented another issue of the Play Right Series, with new board member Jon Tuttle issuing a call for an original, unpublished one-act script, overseeing the adjudication, and selecting young playwright Colby Quick as the winner. Nine community producers have joined director Chad Henderson and his cast to learn more about the page to stage process for theatre arts, and we will invite you to join us for a staged reading of Moon Swallower in August. 

We have featured one artist per month in our virtual Tiny Gallery under the direction of board member Christina Xan, including artists whose work you know very well and artists whose work we think you’ll be happy to learn about including Gina Langston Brewer, Adam Corbett, Bohumila Augustinova, and more.

Because of the dedication of our amazing web maven and board member Bekah Rice, we have a website that is comprehensive, up-to-date, easy to maneuver, and quite lovely, if we do say so ourselves. Since last spring we have brought the good news of Columbia arts to you via more than 160 Online Jasper (previously blog) posts. And counting.

We threw a fabulous party to celebrate the 10th birthday of Jasper Magazine, and, with board member Laura Garner Hine’s incredible work, we welcomed more than 30 artists to demonstrate and celebrate their talents.

We have shown art for Columbia artists at Jasper Galleries that include Harbison Theatre, Motor Supply, also under the management of Laura Garner Hine, and our sidewalk gallery at the Meridian building conceptualized and realized by board member Bert Easter.

We have included the work of 25 (and counting) brilliant SC writers under the auspices of the Jasper Writes project, implemented in conjunction with Jasper poetry editor, Ed Madden. 

We have helped a new non-profit spread its wings by serving as the fiscal agent to Columbia (Summer) Repertory Dance Company, which is now its own entity. Bye bye little birdie! 

We have launched several new projects including:

• A new weekly music column by Kevin Oliver called THE BEAT;

• First Thursday featured artist exhibitions at Sound Bites Eatery – with artists including Marius Valdes, Ginny Merritt, and Quincy Pugh lined up for the next few months, and Alex Ruskell showing his work in May;

• The monthly Jasper Poetry Salon hosted by Al Black at the One Columbia Co-Op;

• Another monthly singer/songwriter happening called Front Porch Swing, also by Al Black, also at the One Columbia Co-Op.

• Last Thanksgiving, we launched a weekly newsletter called Sundays with Jasper that keeps the community up-to-date on Jasper news and arts happenings in general. You can sign up for Sundays with Jasper here.

Of course, none of this could have been done without the support of our community and your recognition of the vital role grassroots arts organizations play in the landscape of an arts community.

We continue to vow to you that every penny that comes the way of the Jasper Project will go directly back into the greater Midlands area arts community as we keep our overhead close to zero, save for insurance and rent (when we have a brick-and-mortar home.) None of your generous funding goes to payroll, taxes, or nice desks and chairs. We work from our homes and from our hearts.

It's worked this way for 10 ½ years. We’re keeping at it as long as you let us.

Thank you for your continued support.

Cindi Boiter, Wade Sellers, and the entire board of the Jasper Project and staff of Jasper Magazine

Jasper Poetry Editor ED MADDEN Wins SC GOVERNORS AWARD FOR THE ARTS!

Congratulations Ed!

We’re delighted to report that Jasper Magazine’s own ED MADDEN is one of the recipients of the 2022 SC Governor’s Award for the Arts!

Ed has been Jasper Magazine’s POETRY EDITOR since the founding of the magazine in 2011. He has served as a major advisor to the Jasper Project as well as co-editor of Fall Lines - a literary convergence since its inception. Ed also serves as the poetry editor for our JASPER WRITES column in ONLINE JASPER.

Ed, who won in the Individual category, shares the spotlight with Darion McCloud, winner of the 2019 Jasper Project Theatre Artist of the Year, who won in the Artist category, and Carrie Ann Power who won in the Arts in Education category. One Columbia for Arts and Culture, the organization that grabbed and ran with the proposal that a City Poet Laureate position be created and that Ed Madden be seriously considered for the post, also won in the organization category.

Ed’s bio reads, “ED MADDEN (Individual Category) is a poet, activist, and a professor of English, with a focus on Irish literature, at the University of South Carolina. There, he is also director of the women’s and gender studies program. His academic areas of specialization include Irish culture; British and Irish poetry; LGBTQ literature, sexuality studies, and history of sexuality; and creative writing and poetry. In 2015, Madden was named Columbia’s first poet laureate, a post he maintains today. Madden has been a South Carolina Academy of Authors Fellow in poetry twice and was South Carolina Arts Commission Prose Fellow in 2011. He has been writer-in-residence at the Riverbanks Botanical Garden and at Fort Moultrie in Charleston as part of the state’s African American Heritage Corridor project. He also works with the South Carolina Poetry Initiative and was 2006 artist-in-residence for South Carolina State Parks. His numerous publishing and editing credits include four of his own: Nest, Ark, and Signals and the chapbook My Father’s House, runner-up for the 2011 Robin Becker Chapbook Prize.”

While we are super proud of the accomplishments listed above we’re most proud of the talents and energy that Ed shares with the community on a voluntary basis, such as the work he contributes to the Jasper Project and as the Poet Laureate of of Columbia. It’s a lovely thing to honor a person or organization for doing well the work they are commissioned to do, and it is encouraging to those individuals and organizations to continue to do well the job they are paid to do. But when someone like Ed, who is already inordinately busy directing a university academic program, maintaining and growing his art, maintaining and growing his homelife, and more, chooses to take on more responsibilities because he believes his gifts should be shared FREELY with his community — then THAT is something to celebrate.

Cheers to our friend and colleague Ed Madden, as well as to the other honorees of this year’s SC Governor’s Awards for the Arts. And thank you for making our home a better place!

THE BEAT: 5 Questions with Caleb Brown (aka Calebjustcaleb)

First off, I just can’t get over how singular what you’re doing is in terms of fusing hip-hop, R&B, pop-punk and metalcore. There are some larger narratives about emo and pop-punk coming into the hip-hop space, but you’re doing something a bit different than Kenny Hoopla or, say, willow. Tell me about how you arrived at that approach. Did you try and separate them out at first?

Let me preface this answer with the sentiment that the concept of blending genres or subgenres of music in an organic way has been widely practiced for some time now, especially in the music which influenced me as I was coming of age. From bands like Dance Gavin Dance incorporating rap & R&B with progressive guitar based “Core” music, to Drake incorporating alternative/indie sounds in his breakout ‘So Far Gone’ album.  From bands like Woe is Me incorporating R&B vocal melodies with metalcore instrumentals, to huge rap/pop artists like B.O.B & Enimem collaborating with Hayley Williams of Paramore turning into chart topping multi-subgenre hits. The furthest I can personally remember back being inspired by something is Dr Dre’s ‘The Chronic’ which incorporated a great amount of (at the time) “non-industry standard” multigenre production, as well as Linkin Park and everything they did in regards to shifting the “norm” of the industry at the time. What was once seen as only an “underground niche” of music quickly became a chart-topping mainstream soundscape, and the floodgates really opened from there. 

As for more recently, it is for sure impossible to ignore the overwhelming blending of subgenres in literally EVERY commercially popular genre (shifting what the definition of what “pop music” really is, but that’s another conversation for another time) of music. The biggest of country stars are featuring hip-hop artists & beats in their music every day. Trent Reznor of NIN just produced Hasley’s latest album. Travis Barker is nearly single-handedly introducing his personal style of “pop-punk” into huge mainstream artists of all genres (Rappers MGK, Trippie Redd & Yelawolf) (pop stars such as Avril Lavigne, Halsey & Yungblud) (progressive metal bands such as Polyphia) etc. Huge EDM artists like Marshmello featuring A Day To Remember, Kanye West featured on an XXXTENTACION song with metal instrumentation and screaming…It really is blowing up in nearly every facet of mainstream music today. 

I’m not exactly sure if or how my music is any that much different than a ‘Willow’ or ‘KennyHoopla’ besides the fact they are huge artists with millions of fans, and I am not. 

I vibe with some of their music. I think that with this insurgence of formerly considered “niche” genres and subgenres of music raging into the mainstream, it really comes down to personal taste. 

I take pride in the fact that my music is organically created from who I am and a combination of all of my musical influences. I’d rather it be that than a super-formulaic “copy and paste to this template of what we think will produce the most streams” in my writing and collaboration processes. I guess I organically stumbled into a soundscape of music that happens to be blowing up right now, which is cool, but that’s definitely not why I create what I do. 

I wouldn’t necessarily say I “separate” out my music when I create, but I do believe in cohesion. 

In the time of “the dead album,” attention spans are shorter than ever. So, if I have a collection of songs, I will make sure that if they are on a project together, that there is cohesion within the soundscape (even with the blending of genres). For example, ‘CHD’ and ‘CHDII’ are sonically different, even though all of the songs off both projects were written and recorded at the same time. I did that so the collection of songs would sound more cohesive together as projects.

It’s fascinating how well you move across the entire breadth of these genres. It kind of makes intuitive sense on your solo stuff, but how does it work differently with Aim High? How does the background of the other members take the music to different places?

Aim High was (originally) me attempting to try my hand at soundscapes of music that I loved and have forever been inspired by, but didn’t (as a musician) originally have much experience in making, which is why the first couple of singles didn’t translate the way I envisioned. Thats also why we used to really suck as a band. I was simply inexperienced as a producer & composer to the level where it just didn’t sound good. Aim High was also a way I could allow myself to express what I needed to within this soundscape, at the same time, forcing myself to work in a team to bring the vision to life. As time passed, with growth as a producer, composer, and overall musician, this growth began to translate to substantiality within the band’s more recent music (from our two debut EPs onward). One thing about being in a band from a city that doesn't usually embrace the soundscape of music you make, is that you have to produce objectively substantial content and the whole band has to be dedicated to making it work. After a few lineup changes, we found a team of people who hold these sentiments close and will continue to work tirelessly to provide the most substantial content we can, in all aspects of our music and band. As the all-time executive producer/composer/songwriter for the band, it will always be a very personal byproduct of my crazy and neurotic brain, intertwined with the amazing creativity, musicianship & sauce of my awesome bandmates. 

You said that Corrupted Harddrive Vol. 2 was a collection of “old, unfinished songs,” but it sounds really vital to me. What makes them unfinished to you? Why did you decide to release it as a project?

Correct, both volumes of CHD were a collection of older, unfinished songs (roughly 2017-2018). When I say “unfinished,” I mean that the songs simply were not done. A good amount of them were only on their first mix, no post-production on almost any of the songs, etc. There’s even a single song where my voice is 100% raw and untuned. 

I had the collection of project files stored on my external hard drive, and the hard drive was backed up to the cloud for protection. After returning from tour with Aim High, the drive corrupted & the cloud backup was not accessible. I turned to every tech-savvy friend for assistance, to which the conclusion was made that we could recover some demo bounces, but none of the actual session files. In turn, I would either have to remake half the beats, rerecord all of the tracks, get them all mixed and mastered right, OR simply cut my losses and release the current, incomplete versions of the songs that I could recover. As these songs were very old in regards to the amount of (new) music I have, & the options presented, the latter decision seemed the way to go as my back was metaphorically pushed against the wall. I wanted the songs to be out in the world, but I also wanted to move on to my new music, which Is why I’ve already released a new song off of the new ‘Calebjustcaleb’ project. Time waits for no one and I gotta keep my foot on the gas with this new material. 

You seem to rap a lot more on this record than on CH Vol. 1, and it really showcases your faculty with a lot of contemporary hip-hop (ab-libs/flows/wordplay). Can you talk a bit about how you work on those skills, and how the interplay of that and the more rock-based stuff has worked in your creative growth?

Yeah, this goes back to the sentiment I touched on of “cohesiveness within music” (collections/albums/EPs/whatever have you). There were clear sonic differences in the tracks on the respective volumes of CHD. There were a good amount of songs that were straight to the point rap/hip-hop songs and I feel lumping those with the more “multi-genre soundscaped” songs would not be cohesive and would be detrimental to the listening experience. So two volumes of the project were created, respectively. For some people rap/hip-hop & R&B is “just a phase” and for some people rock/metal/alternative/core music is “just a phase.” I cringe as I type this, but these are not simply “phases” for me. All of these genres are forever ingrained into the influences I have as a musician. Like when or if “pop-punk” sound in mainstream music phases out or becomes “uncool,” I will remain right here, continuing to use my organic influences to shape the music I make. 

Growth is such an important concept. I will always work on learning and growing in every facet of my musicianship, whether it be keeping my bars up, taking vocal lessons, practicing my producing, practicing my flows, studying music theory, studying my influences, etc. I will always strive to be a better artist and make every song just as, if not more, substantial than the last, regardless of genre.

You’ve had a lot of success collaborating with other artists, both in Aim High and as a solo artist. What would you say your favorite collabs have been? How has that fueled your work?

Aim High was extremely blessed to be able to work with the roster on our album ‘Local Band Forever.” From the songs to the producers, engineers, graphic artists, everyone. 

I don’t know if I can pick a single favorite, though I have a few for different reasons.

Collaborating with Dan from Four Year Strong & collabing with Sleeping With Sirens hit different, not only because both of them are huge and amazing artists/bands who have no reason to agree to work with a barely up & coming band like us (much less vouch for us to their respective labels to clear us to release this record independently and retain the equity), but I personally came of age listening to them and have been heavily influenced by them. Getting to collaborate with people whom you musically idolize and who inspire you is always a “am I dreaming” type feeling. 

Getting to work with Andrew Wade was amazing as he has engineered/mixed/mastered & produced some of the biggest albums in the soundscape for a while (A Day To Remember, Wage War, Real Friends, Neck Deep, The Ghost Inside, etc). Same with Mike Cortada who illustrated our album artwork. He is the pen behind legendary album covers for huge bands in the scene as well (Fall Out Boy, A Day To Remember, Pierce The Veil, All Time Low, Sleeping With Sirens, The Wonder Years, etc.). 

In regards to my ‘Calebjustcaleb’ collaborations, I usually just collaborate with other artists who I know personally, or artists/bands from the area. I’ve collaborated heavily with Jace on multiple occasions. He somewhat recently got nominated for a Grammy for his work on the “Revenge of The Dreamers III” (2019) for Dreamville Records [Editor’s note: this is J. Cole’s label].

I’ve also collaborated with LightskinMac11, who was also a part of the “Two-9” ATL rap group including Jace, among others. Their whole camp has been stupid talented for a long time. 

Another frequent production collaborator is Grammy nominated producer Supah Mario (SC) who has blown up and established himself as one of the biggest producers in the hip-hop game (landing multiple placements with Drake on his last two projects, placements with Jeezy, Young Thug, 2 Chainz, Lil Uzi Vert & Post Malone), as well as collaborations with huge companies such as Lyrical Lemonade & Splice. (Stay tuned for some production from him on my next project!)

I like to soak up every piece of musical knowledge, life advice, industry game, etc. from the people I collaborate with, and I feel like this helps me in my journey of growth as an artist, and human.

Read our review of Calebjustcaleb - Corrupted Harddrive Vol. 2 →

The Beat is compiled weekly by Jasper Music Editor Kevin Oliver and will frequently include input from Jasper writers Kyle Petersen and Emily Moffitt in addition to Kevin's own regular contributions.

SC Philharmonic Celebrates American Composers and SC Poet Dr. Frank Clark in “American Memories”

South Carolina native, accomplished psychiatrist, and poet Dr. Frank Clark has the prestigious honor of having his poetry featured alongside the SC Philharmonic’s upcoming performance “American Memories.” While featuring familiar works by composers like Gershwin and Still, the ensemble will be performing the world premiere of pieces by Dick Goodwin, inspired by Clark’s poems “Partial Absence-Full Forgiveness” and “Foggy Brown Sugar.” We interviewed Dr. Clark in order to gain some insight on the creative processes behind his poetry, what inspires him, and the existing relationship he has with music.

JASPER: Have you always held a fondness for music? When did your interest first start?

CLARK: My relationship with music stems back to my childhood. My mother, a retired Chicago public school teacher and advocate for the arts provided an early exposure to music. I grew playing several instruments including the piano and flute. I have fond memories of attending various symphonies and performing in recital as child. These experiences allowed me to develop an appreciation for music.

JASPER: Did your love of music create an interest in poetry, or did that come up on its own?

CLARK: My love of poetry came later during a pivotal point in my life. I was diagnosed with clinical depression in medical school and experienced seasons of unrelenting despair.  One day I decided to start exploring more of me while sitting at my favorite tea shop. I needed to find another way of coping with the array of thoughts that had percolated through my mind. These were thoughts of feeling like a failure and questioning if I would ever succeed in medical school after experiencing multiple academic hurdles. In retrospect my academic struggles in medical school were a blessing in disguise. I don’t know if I would have taken the step of putting the pen to paper to explore humanity in all its glory and imperfections. Writing poetry along with Lexapro at that time were my antidepressant that had synergist effects for my mind, body, and soul. 

JASPER: With your poems being a key component in the upcoming SC Philharmonic performance, we were wondering if this is the first time your poetry has been featured in direct conversation with music, or do you consider this type of conversation whenever you write new poetry?

CLARK: I had never considered having my poems set to music until last year when I was blessed to meet University of South Carolina School of Music Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Dr. Gordon (Dick) Goodwin and his wife Winifred Goodwin. Dr. Goodwin and Winifred performed a virtual concert as part of the South Carolina Philharmonic Healing Harmonies program for the patients at Marshall Pickens Hospital and for our faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Prisma Health Upstate. I became aware of Dr. Goodwin’s composition skills and decided to take a leap of faith by asking him to consider setting several of my poems to music. He graciously accepted this offer. My providential encounter with Dr. Goodwin and Winifred Goodwin has created a snowball effect. Currently, I am working on several collaborations with composers nationally and internationally. These collaborations remind me of one of my favorite scriptures: Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed (Proverbs 16:3).

JASPER: The subject matter of the featured poems “Partial Absence” and “Foggy Brown Sugar” are quite personal; do you find that writing about your family comes the easiest to you?

CLARK: Poems such as “Foggy Brown Sugar” and “Partial Absence-Full Forgiveness” were not easy but necessary for me to write in order heal during the grieving process. The former is about my mother who was diagnosed with a neurocognitive disorder (dementia) several years ago. I wanted to find a way to capture the emotions that were evoked for me. As I psychiatrist I have provided care for individuals with neurocognitive disorders. The impact is different when it hits close to home. I still have days where I vacillate between acceptance, anger, bargaining. I am mindful of these feelings and am comforted by the fact that she is an environment where she is well cared for. I’m thankful that she is still able to recognize me, her daughter-in-law, and her granddaughter. We share the joy and love of music. These are all silver linings for me.

“Partial Absence-Full Forgiveness” is about my father, who was partially absent throughout my life. He passed away when I was in my early 20s. I wanted to find a way to express forgiveness given that for many years my heart was full of anger due to some of his decisions that impacted our family unit. I was able to process my feelings in therapy, which led to a sense of relief and peace. Writing this poem was difficult as it conveys my raw feelings, but it also allowed me to remember the important of grace, love, and mercy. 

JASPER: Are there any other major ideas or concepts you tend to explore through your poems?

CLARK: Other concepts and ideas I have explored through my poems revolve around diversity, equity, and inclusion; the importance of exploring humanity; world events; and my Christian faith.

The SC Philharmonic’s performance of “American Memories,” which additionally features guest tenor Johnnie Felder, is on February 5 at 7:30 PM. Tickets are available to purchase on their website.  

Read the poems that inspired the performance:

“Foggy Brown Sugar”

Foggy brown sugar reclines in her regal chair.
I wonder if she remembers the days we viewed movies starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.

Foggy brown sugar mourns the loss of her previous independent dwelling.
Confabulation is her new peer that welcomes whimsical story telling.

Foggy brown sugar crumbles at the site of multiple short acting injections.
The mirror reveals a storage shelf filled with a variety of sweet reflections.

Foggy brown sugar searches for the proverbial spice of life.
Heavenly angels recite familiar psalms to provide protection from any strife.

Foggy brown sugar gazes at the spirited hawk.
She relishes the sight of princess feet frolicking on the sidewalk.

Foggy brown sugar ingest acetylcholine to sweeten a cognitive taste bud. 
Her puzzled progeny still grieving the colorful substance that was once clear as mud.

“Partial Absence-Full Forgiveness”

I remember a childhood that left me partially love parched.
His routine became predictable and at times left my heart charred.
His mouth spewed messages that were entangled in my disorganized web, filled with mixed emotions.
His act sustained itself during the formative years of my life and left me in a state of delirium.

I remember a childhood that left me partially puzzled.
His adoration for Our Father was transparent like a glass ceiling.
His love for my faithful fan left my airway obstructed with questions that went unanswered.
His deceitful nature left my receptors feeling that his presence was indeed a placebo.

I remember a young adulthood that left me wandering into a bewildered wilderness.
Hatred, ambivalence, and regret disturbed my digestive system.
Love and father did not coexist in my world for many years.
Sanctuary became polluted with earthly pleasures.

I remember the moment in my life that left me fully transformed.
Molecules of love, peace, and forgiveness easily penetrated my once stubborn blood brain barrier.
My countenance lifted, thermostat reset, arms outstretched.
He offered prayers from heaven and his presence is more palpable than ever before.

Until we meet again.

Featured CCA Biennial Artist Reclaims the Feminine Through “Monstrous” Installation

“…rather than reiterating these narratives throughout history of what makes women ‘women,’ or what makes women monstrous, I think women should be the ones to decide and to retell those narratives.”

Think of your favorite werewolf. Are you a traditionalist watching American Werewolf in London? Maybe your high school years were filled with Team Jacob debates or MTV made you a Scott McCall fan. Regardless, think about what all these representations have in common. What would these look like if the main monsters were women? 

This is what new South Carolinian, artist Marina Shaltout, asks in her installation Bad Bitch. Told best in her own words, this installation is a “meta-camp, multi-channel video installation that tells the story of a female werewolf exhibiting three symptoms of PMS (Ravenous, Reckless, and Raging).” 

A female werewolf being new or surprising is inherently ironic—women are no strangers to being portrayed as monsters. However, the feminine monster is typically just that: feminine. Think Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy or Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique; even in a non-human form they remain feminine, complete with sexual organs and rife with sensuality.

 If women are ever portrayed as fur-covered monsters, they are rarely allowed to be seen as women, losing all sense of femininity. This is the dichotomous relationship of the female monster, either too feminine or not feminine at all.

 Shaltout relates this in part to the experience of women portrayed by the media, saying, “It's this really interesting process where we women have this notion of, ‘I want to be this woman, but society hates this woman and deems her crazy or problematic or undesirable, so I also hate this woman and therefore I hate myself.’”

 With her own body, Shaltout resists this patriarchal narrative that defines the feminine by its standards. In these installation videos, she dons a full-body wolf costume and dresses it up with wigs, jewelry, and nails. She refuses to let the monster lose its femininity and refuses to let that femininity be comfortable.

“I explore mythologies of females throughout history and the way that we conflate femininity with evil and societal problems. I specifically consider how female monsters are sexualized while male monsters are bad-ass grotesque figures, and I'm interested in flipping those gender notions of what a monster has to be,” Shaltout reveals, “But rather than reiterating these narratives throughout history of what makes women ‘women,’ or what makes women monstrous, I think women should be the ones to decide and to retell those narratives.” 

This narrative consists of three videos, featured on three individual, decorated TVs. Each video presents the main character—Shaltout in costume—in three action sequences: in one, she is eating cakes messily, surrounded by purple fur and the moon that beckons her; in the second, she is putting on makeup at a light blue vanity with its shattered pieces creating the frame itself; and in the third, she is dancing, moving with glitter and framed by the oxymoronic exotic yet inherently natural foliage. All three parts of this installation coalesce at a peak wherein the character at their center stops existing to please the watcher.

 All the materials seen in the videos and on their frames are either handmade or personally sourced by Shaltout. The vanity was found, while the pieces on the frame were created to simply look like the broken furniture in the video. The cake fixtures actually came first with the pastries in the video baked by Shaltout to match. These “moments of artifice,” as she calls them, are key to her work and bridge the faux with authenticity. 

Learning what to create and what to reuse is key to ensuring her process moves along seamlessly, and Shaltout’s varied artistic background surely helps. Though born in Missouri, she grew up in Illinois where she went to college and received her BFA in Jewelry and Metalsmithing before doing a residency at New Mexico State University and finally becoming an MFA candidate in 3D and Extended Medium at the University of Arizona.

 Her work with 3D sculpture aids in hands on work, like wrapping violet fur or placing robin egg blue wood on a TV frame. Her work creating appendages supports her visual eye, seen in the careful cultivation of wardrobe or recreation of baked goods. And her work with body-based installation and performance allows her to blur the line between self and other. 

“Visuals is my favorite part. It's me saying does this glittery dress work for this? It's a gathering of materials and then kind of playing around to see what will work, and a lot goes into it,” she intimates, “I think I debated about the color of the wig for two weeks straight. These little things—they're arbitrary and yet hold so much weight—and at the end of the day, I get to make those decisions myself, which is really cool.” 

Video installation adds a fresh layer to performance in this ability to shift visuals and have multiple takes and edits. There are never many cuts, but Shaltout is able to play with lighting and color, even recreating sound. There always is an organic element, however, to what happens when the camera is turned on, and some things, like breaking the vanity, can only happen once.  

“I do script; I storyboard. But I'm more of a writer, so I'll write out the sequence of actions that I plan to take in my videos. And I kind of have that as like a blueprint, but a lot of times my work is improv,” Shaltout describes, “I set myself up with my props and with the general idea, but a lot of it is just kind of going with the feeling in the moment.”

 Donning these costumes and props both makes Shaltout appear as if she could be anybody and specifically embodies a particular part of femininity and perception of the feminine. What at first glance could appear as a strange, silly Halloween costume is a rumination on the very control of women’s bodies and personas, and by turning our expectations of both storytelling and genre on their head, Shaltout is able to reclaim the monstrous feminine.  

In the future, Shaltout aims to continue these stories in different, yet perpetually linked, personas. Her current idea involves mimicry, flowers, and phallic-shaped foods, but that’s your sneak peek for now. Regardless, she will continue to assert that if you’re going to represent me as a monster, I’m going to make you look at me as the “monster” I truly am. It is her, and our, narrative now. 

So—why are there no woman werewolves? They make people in a patriarchal world uncomfortable. They represent a breaking of boundaries and a power that makes people scared. But they should be. And we, as women, should be comfortable and proud of our power, fur and claws included. 

Bad Bitch is currently on display at 701 Whaley’s Center for Contemporary Art as part of their “Biennial Part 1,” which is up until November 14th. Read more about the Biennial here:

Shaltout now resides in Hartsville, South Carolina, teaching at Coker University as a Visiting Assistant Professor. You can follow her journey at her website.

-Christina Xan