Jasper Project Presents 3rd Thursday Featured Artist Sonya Diimmler in The Nook @ Koger Center

Opening Reception - Thursday, July 16th 5:30 - 7

Join Jasper and Friends this Thursday evening our Nook Gallery space at the Koger Center for the Arts as we celebrate the opening of Sonya Diimmler’s new exhibition of highly emotive abstract.

Part of a collaboration between the Jasper Project, the Koger Center, and the Congaree Vista, Jasper programs a monthly rotating gallery on the second tier of the Koger with an opening celebration each Thursday.

Blossoming Romance by Sonya Diimmler

According to the artist, “Sonya Diimmler brings dramatic color to dreamy contemporary landscapes and larger than life abstracts.” The artist “discovered painting during a season of caring for her aging parents. Serendipitously painting became a way to process loss, navigate grief, and rediscover hope. The dynamic color, loose brushwork, and expressive mark-making, convey emotion and energy.”

Diimmler paints colorful South Carolina lake and landscapes along with her favorite subject and muse, her Bulldog Smedley. Sonya’s work has earned awards at the SC State Fair, Union County Arts Council, and Crooked Creek Art League.

Having just started painting in 2015, Sonya fell in love with the process and quickly began a daily painting practice. She continually seeks to improve through frequent workshops and has studied with the late Mary Bentz Gilkerson and Michael Story.

In 2016 she joined the Crooked Creek Art League in Chapin, SC where she served as Workshop Coordinator and President and remains an active member. She has participated in a number of community art projects including her popular “Ship of Drools” sailboat from The Arts Sail into Chapin project in 2019. She also created the colorful canine and feline portraits on the fence outside Chapin Veterinary Hospital on Columbia Avenue in Chapin.

Diimmler now paints full time from her home studio in Prosperity, South Carolina.

Enjoy Diimmler’s art at the Koger Center during standard opening hours as well as before and after all Koger Center events throughout July and until the third week of August.

FROM THE PRINT ISSUE -- Jasper Writes About 5 of the 6 Koger Center Project Winning Artists (and we're adding the 6th to our story bank!)

At the Jasper Project we have nothing but praise and appreciation for the work the Koger Center for the Arts has done to bring more diverse arts disciplines to their halls. In addition to providing Jasper with a designated space called The Nook to offer monthly openings in conjunction with The Vista’s Third Thursday celebration (thanks Koger!), over the past few years they have elevated SC visual arts appreciation by sponsoring their own visual arts contest (sort of awkwardly) titled The Koger Center Project. Jasper has written about this year’s winners already via Jasper Online, but we were happy to find that we have already written about 5 out of 6 of the winning artists in the pages of Jasper Magazine. Let’s take a look back at these stories by visiting the Jasper Magazine archives.

Photo by Perry McLeod

Kate Timbes: Right Places, Right Times

By Emily Moffitt

 

Ten days after Kate Timbes graduated from Wofford University, she moved halfway across the world to Germany. This was a decision that became integral not only to her career, but to her life as an artist.

Timbes graduated from Wofford’s studio art program in 2023 with a minor in business and film. She grew up in a creative household, amongst a sister with an affinity for art and a father who worked as an architect. The creative spirit of her family spanned multiple generations; Timbes’ grandfather is an artist as well, and her mother often brought her to bead crafting shows growing up. “I credit my parents and their support and belief in me to be an artist,” says Timbes. “They never questioned my career choice.” Her parents were there to watch her artistic abilities flourish from coloring with crayons, to creating commissions for their family friends. Even now, Timbes’ studio where she perfects her craft is at her parents’ house.

Growing up, Timbes knew she wanted to pursue art after spending her childhood years painting and making jewelry, but she originally considered graphic design as a career. It was not until her undergraduate years at Wofford that she discovered and fell in love with studio art. While studying studio art, she got to explore with a variety of mediums and pursued as many opportunities as possible to learn what she could. “I accepted a work study at a school in Tennessee where I learned to spin my own wool,” says Timbes. “I saw so many other artists honing their craft, and they were all so encouraging and eager to share their knowledge with me.”

Photo by Perry McLeod

As her studies progressed, one of her professors at Wofford approached her and asked if she had any experience making paper. “I told her I had seen it be made, and I spent the next two months learning as much as I could about the medium,” Timbes says. “I was going to help lead a class on how to make your own paper. The next thing I knew, I could not get my hands out of paper baths.”

Awakened with a sense of wonder in how to push the limits of this newfound medium, Timbes started to see motifs from her existing practice reawakened. She found that she resonated with the low-to-zero waste practice of making paper from scratch and wanted to learn how to use plant fibers to make new sheets. Timbes says, “I felt very connected to a tradition that is starting to disappear in certain places around the world.”

At the beginning of her papermaking practice, Timbes would experiment with sheet pulling to see what would happen, figuring out if the sheet would be used for painting, sculpture, or just exist as a sheet of paper. Now, just a few years later, paper making is Timbes’ primary method of creating building blocks for her art in her daily routine. “When I am on the journey to find what possibilities exist within paper, and what it is going to do to push me...I find it to be a very conversational art practice.”

Photo by Perry McLeod

Conversation itself is integral to many of Timbes’ artistic endeavors. The paper that Timbes creates is made through a conversation of intention: what will a specific piece of paper be used for, what kind of fibers are needed for the sheet, and how will it react to the additives? Timbes even casts her own body in handmade paper for some of her projects. The resourcefulness of the artist is not reserved for making paper from scratch, however, as she is proficient in using fabric to create stunning installation and performance work. One notable medium that Timbes has visited multiple times in her career is a simple bedsheet. “In 2022, when I was working on my senior project, Roe V. Wade was overturned,” says Timbes. “I looked for an outlet for rage, and turned to tearing up bed sheets, weaving the strips into rage rooms.” The accessibility of bedsheets made the project’s foundation easy to start. Using leftover paint from a previous mural project, the rage room installation came to fruition by throwing the watered-down paint all over the stripped, cut, and torn bedsheets until they dried. Afterwards, she created circular installations with the strips by weaving them together to create a microcosm of rage and relief.

The experience with this project followed her from Spartanburg to Garmisch. In a setting with no formal studio or ample space to create like she had in college, Timbes made sure to immerse herself in the culture of the small ski resort town she worked out of. After spending time researching the local ecology and energy of the town, it prompted her to reflect on her own desires as an artist. “I had to ask myself, ‘What am I passionate about? How do I narrow everything down? Am I a sculptor, painter, or something else?’” She ended up cultivating all these thoughts and experiences with her surroundings into her notable performance piece/sculpture/photography series, “I Cut My Arms Off So That I Could Fly.” In her hotel room, Timbes found an ample number of bedsheets once again to be her canvas. “The piece is a fiber sculpture turned performance that was inspired by a glacier that melted off the top of the highest mountain in Germany,” says Timbes. “There were so many tours going up there, but no acknowledgment of the glacier itself. It was almost like a tourist attraction that did not exist.” Some church groups in the area hosted funerals for the glacier, which pushed Timbes to create a remembrance of her own. After tearing and dyeing the bed sheets, she wove them into a set of arms she could wear. It was not until right before the ski season ended that Timbes came up with the perfect idea: “I took the piece up into the mountain and decided to ski down while wearing it. That’s where the photos came from.” What resulted was a stunning coalescence of movement, reverence, and originality that has reappeared throughout Timbes’ portfolio.

Now in the present day, Timbes has taken all of her life experiences and creative endeavors and melded them into a path she is sure to take with aplomb. Timbes has joined an artist collective named Zerospace, participated not only in exhibits across South Carolina, but as far away as California and Denmark. Building a community and participating in one that exists amongst her artist peers is the most important thing to Timbes’ artistic practice. At Woven Studios, Timbes creates murals and takes commissions, emphasizing the importance of understanding her clients. Building relationships with clients fosters trust, while collaborating with other artists inspires creativity and new ideas, especially now that she's returned to South Carolina. “Within the last year, tapping into the Carolinas’ creative communities has really fueled my practice, and I have acknowledged how important creative spaces are,” says Timbes.

Photo by Perry McLeod

Upcoming projects for Timbes include participation in the Koger Center’s annual art competition exhibit, where a jury-selected panel of SC artists is featured and Timbes was awarded first place. Additionally, Timbes is developing a new collection of fiber and paper-based works inspired by German folklore. Timbes’ explores subject matter and artistic concepts with the originality and passion of someone who has given themself the grace to create without self-imposed boundaries: a tenet passed down from her father. “It is hard to navigate the world right now, let alone as an artist in her 20s,” says Timbes. “But I have to be okay with failure, comfortable with vulnerability, and just reiterate to myself that whatever happens, I got this.” With a knack for storytelling and working with intention, she is well on her way to fashioning herself as one of the young artists to watch in Columbia, SC or wherever her journey takes her.

 This article appears in the current issue of Jasper Magazine, Spring 2026.

Return to this space to read about Koger’s Featured Artists Anna Byars, Lori Isom, Wilma King & Colleen Cannon-Karlos. And to keep up with Jasper’s ALL-ARTS news & articles between print issues, go to JasperProject.org, find Magazine on the front page, then scroll down for Jasper Online. Recent articles have included local theatre reviews, news about Columbia Classical Ballet, calls for art, the SEPF, SCSM artist talks & everything about our current Big Thing,

Jasper’s Play Right Project.

Thursday Night at the Koger Center Brings You the Opening of Ginny Merritt's Exhibition, the Opening of the Koger Center Project Winners' Exhibition & the Closing of the Late Laura Spong's Show

Artist - Ginny Merritt

When we first saw the work of Ginny Merritt years ago at a Contemporaries exhibition at the CMA, we knew she had something special. That’s why Jasper awarded her the Best in Show prize (2018) and wrote a feature on her in the next issue of Jasper Magazine. In the years since, it’s been such a trip to watch this retired art educator pour herself into her own art, after decades of nurturing the art in her students, and grow and grow and grow.

That’s why we’re excited to welcome Merritt back to the Jasper Nook Gallery at the Koger Center this Thursday night from 5:30 - 7pm.

And we’re even more excited to invite you to her opening reception which will coincide with the Closing Reception for the Koger Center’s beautiful exhibition of the late Laura Spong’s work, as well as their Opening Reception for The Koger Center Project Winners’ Exhibition – all three happening at the same time!


About Ginny Merritt

Ginny Merritt was raised in Denver and settled in South Carolina in 1987. She graduated from the University of Georgie and has two master’s degrees from USC. She studied art education and taught art in public schools for 30 years, also teaching as an adjunct instructor at USC.

Her work is centered on mixed media collages inspired by the stylish women from her grandmother’s day which she recreates using vintage and contemporary papers. She has mounted exhibitions of her work all over town as well as  in Charleston, Lake City, Augusta, Brooklyn, NY, and a solo show at the Etherredge Center Gallery at USC Aiken, SC. Merrett published her book Tall Women in 2024, which offered a collection of ekphrastic poetry based on her art.

Ginny Merritt



About Laura Spong

Laura Spong (1926-2018) is remembered as one of SC’s leading Abstract Expressionist artists. Originally from Nashville, where she graduated cum laude from Vanderbilt University, Spong took her first drawing classes in 1948 before moving to Columbia, SC and studying under Gil Petroff among others. Spong was a favorite of the late Wim Roefs and Eileen Waddell of the former If Art Gallery, Waddell wrote of the artist, “Laura was a genteel Southern woman with a Tennessee accent whose ‘Coming Out’ party as an artist was on her 80th birthday.” Spong died at the age of 92, painting until the end of her days.



About the Koger Center Project Winners’ Exhibition

The Koger Center Project Winners’ Exhibition is a group exhibition in the Gallery at the Koger Center. The exhibit features the winning artists from their 2025 call for art sponsored by the Koger Center: Kate Timbes, Lori Isom, Anna Schumann Byars, Colleen Cannon-Karlos, Max Hardy, and Wilma King.

This opening reception coincides with Third Thursday Art Night featuring Ginny Merett.

About the Winners

Kate Timbes (1st Place) is a South Carolina based interdisciplinary artist whose work investigates the narrative and functions of materiality.  Working primarily in painting, video, and sculpture, she weaves mediums together, carrying objects, paintings, seeds, weavings, and sculptural handmade paper through physical, emotional, and digital landscapes. Timbes contemplates sourcing of resources, rethinking use as an individual effort to engage in a curious ecological practice. Timbes has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, with recent exhibitions at the Richardson Family Art Gallery, Greenville-Spartanburg Airport, the Spartanburg Public Library, and the DIS Student Hub in Copenhagen, Denmark. In addition to her studio practice, Timbes teaches papermaking workshops that have been supported by the Tri-State Sculptors Association and Wofford College. Timbes received her BA in Studio Art from Wofford College in 2023. (Read more about Kate Timbes in the current issue of Jasper Magazine, on newsstands now.)

Lori Isom (2nd Place) Artist Statement: It is fair to say that my life has been quite varied as an artist, and all around creative person. Years of my life were dedicated to working as a professional dancer, singer and actress in New York and Los Angeles, and I’ve had several interesting and fun entrepreneurial pursuits along the way, including owning and operating my own baking business! I am predominantly a self-taught artist, however, I studied illustration in high school, and later fine art and fashion design at Parsons School of Design. I would say that I walk the line between illustrator and fine artist. While I work to tell a story with my art, I also produce paintings that primarily express a particular emotion. Artists like Mary Cassatt, Andrew Wyeth, and John Singer Sargent were ones who greatly influenced my work early on. I suppose that’s how I came to love capturing people.

Anna Byars (Honorable Mention) is an artist based in Columbia, South Carolina. Anna grew up in Lexington, South Carolina, and received a BA in Studio Art and Art History at the College of Charleston. Her work has been shown in exhibitions at the Southern Graphics Conference, Sawtooth Visual Arts Gallery, and the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. Anna primarily focuses in printmaking and is currently exploring the idea of transcendence within her work.

Colleen Cannon-Karlos (Honorable Mention) was born in Los Angeles, raised in New York City, and currently resides in Columbia, SC after living in Hawaii for 20 years. Over the years she has worked in a variety of mediums including painting, drawing, photography and ceramics. Conceptually her work is based on quantum physics and ancient metaphysics exploring the illusive abstract nature of reality. Inspiration for her work includes indigenous African, Native American, Asian and Polynesian art forms. (Read more about Colleen Cannon-Karlos in the current issue of Jasper Magazine, on newsstands now.)

Max Hardy (Honorable Mention) Artist Statement: I’ve always loved to draw and paint and make things and have done so since I can remember. When I was in high school I took a few art classes but other than that I’m self- taught. Lately my paintings have been sculptural and deal with illusion in some way. My process is quite slow with visual art; I only produce a handful of pieces a year.

Wilma King (Honorable Mention) endeavors to combine her experiences of living in 11 states (including Alaska) with her educational background into a visual storytelling collaboration through her painting. Her pursuit and passion goes beyond a daily practice of technique and development. She believes that universality — seeking common ground — is what makes art purposeful. She taught public relations, communication studies, advertising design, publication design, and photography for more than 30 years in American universities in Kentucky, Tennessee, New York, Virginia, Texas, and South Carolina, and taught Study abroad courses in Italy several years. She was an associate professor of Public Relations at both Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green, KY) and Rochester Institute of Technology (Henrietta, NY), and served on faculty at Benedict College (Columbia,  SC), where she wrote the curriculum for, and taught the first courses in the college’s now defunct commercial art program; O’More College of Design (Franklin, TN); Texas Southern University (Houston, TX); The Art Institute of Houston (Houston, TX). (Read more about Wilma King in the Fall 2022 issue of Jasper Magazine.)

The Jasper Project Presents Cait Maloney in the Nook Gallery at Koger Center for the Arts

The Jasper Project is pleased to present artist Cait Maloney in our Nook Gallery at Koger Center for the Arts with an opening reception Friday March 20th from 5:30 - 7 pm.

From her engaging color pallet to her nostalgic and evocative imagery, Cait Maloney has made her mark all over Columbia, SC and beyond. The Jasper Project is thrilled to work, once again, with Maloney by featuring her in our Jasper-curated gallery space, The Nook, at the Koger Center.

Cait Maloney - photo by Cait Patel

In her Artist’s Statement Maloney writes, “I help businesses and individuals visually communicate through thoughtful, engaging and effective design.

I have had a passion for visual communication and carbohydrates as long as I can remember. Growing up in a small town in upstate New York, I was one of few with a serious interest in art and design, but I knew I could make a career of it when one of my early works were stealthily heisted from a maximum security bulletin board in high school. I went on to navigate the waters of art school and earned a BFA in illustration from Syracuse University.

I’m currently based in Columbia, South Carolina, working as senior art director for Flock and Rally while also doing specialty illustration, design and mural projects; creating new things every day and slowly sweating to death.

When I’m not brainstorming a new brand concept or inking a drawing, I’m working on art for myself, reading a magazine on the beach or seeing some live music.”

Maloney has worked nationally and internationally with clients like Abita Brewing Company, Diesel Fragrance, the YMCA, TD Bank and PGA Junior League Golf and locally with clients like the Central Midlands Council of Government, The City of Columbia, Charleston County, and the South Carolina Asphalt Pavement Association. Cait serves on the board of the Columbia Design League, an affiliate of the Columbia Museum of Art. Her mural, “Lady Vista,” was commissioned by the Congaree Vista Guild and is located on the east wall of 916 Gervais Street in downtown Columbia, S.C.

Join The Jasper Project at the Nook Gallery on the second tier of the Koger Center for the Arts for our opening reception where you can meet and chat with the artist, and view and purchase her work.

See you there!

The Jasper Project Welcomes Trahern Cook -- "Easel Cathedral" -- to the Nook Gallery at Koger Center

Born in 1970 in Columbia,  SC, Trahern Cook, aka Easel Cathedral, has been drawing and painting and telling stories his entire life. In 1992, Cook graduated from the Ringling College of Art and Design with a focus on Illustration and worked as a full-time freelance illustrator from 1993 until the 2000s. When he moved back to Columbia in 2006, he took his easel outside and has been painting all over the southeast and abroad ever since. His work is shown in private galleries, homes, and businesses throughout the country. 

Dubbing his style of painting as relational and experiential, Easel Cathedral has coined himself a “Jam Painter” given that so much of his subject matter is musicians from various genres performing everywhere from small taverns to large outdoor festivals, exploring brush strokes and colors, and matching the rhythm of the music he hears. 

As a “live painter” of events and weddings, Cook creates visual stories of his surroundings in his own unique painterly style, marrying a free folk recklessness with a trained and practiced deliberateness. This performance shares the space with everyone in attendance, enhancing the moment and using the moment to inform the painting itself. 

As The Jasper Project’s featured Third Thursday artist for the month of February, Cook’s art will be exhibited from Thursday February 19th until the third week of March in Jasper’s Nook Gallery on the 2nd tier of the Koger Center for the Arts.

An opening reception will be held Thursday February 19th from 5:30 - 7 pm. The event is free and open to the public.

Congrats to Columbia's Koger Center for the Arts - A Grantee of the Levitt Music Series!

Huge Congrats to the Koger Center for the Arts for being a Levitt Music Series Grantee! The Jasper Project is proud to be among the SC organizations that partner with the Koger Center to make it more than just a performance venue, but a true center for the arts. Every Third Thursday patrons can join Jasper on the center’s second tier at our Nook Gallery space where we feature the work of a Midlands-area visual artist as part of The Vista’s regularly scheduled Third Thursday programming. The intimate space offers patrons the opportunity to meet and chat with our featured artists, share a snack, and often hear our artists speak about their work. This is always a free event and we typically go from 5:30 - 7 pm, but it’s always a good idea to check the Koger Center calendar to be sure a performance doesn’t result in a change in time.

While the Koger Center has been offering a program of free events in the lobby and on the outdoor stage for a while now, director Nate Terracio says this is the first time the organization has been awarded a Levitt Music Series Grant. “The grant provides 3 years of support for free outdoor concerts in 2026, 2027 and 2028,” Terracio says, explaining that, “We have hosted both local talent such as: Longtooth, Prettier than Matt, The Ramblers, CammWess, David Rodriguez, and members of the Black Nerd Mafia,” as well as regional and national acts including Claudette King, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, J Roddy Walston, John Hollier, She Returns From War, and Indianola.

“The Koger Center for the Arts is beyond excited that Columbia has been chosen as the first city in South Carolina to be recognized and funded by a Levitt Music Series Grant and we are thankful to the community and individuals that supported our efforts and took the time to vote for us,” he continues. “We look forward to expanding our free outdoor concert series through this grant to include spring and fall concerts.  As Columbia’s center for the arts, we want everyone to feel welcome and hope to bring the whole community together through music both inside and outside.”

For more about the grant please refer to the press release issued by the Levitt Foundation: “The Levitt Foundation, a national social impact funder supporting the largest free outdoor concert series in America, today announced the largest number of Levitt Music Series grant recipients in its history—providing 66 communities with multi-year grants, up to $120K each.

Levitt Music Series Grants are an exciting, multi-year matching grant program bringing the joy of free, live music to towns and cities across the country. Each Levitt Music Series location presents 7-10 free outdoor concerts per year, injecting new life into underused public spaces and creating joyous, inclusive community destinations. Reflecting the Foundation’s commitment that all Levitt projects be community-driven, the top 50 finalists were selected through public voting in September 2025 (via online and text to vote). The Levitt Foundation then conducted a comprehensive review process of all finalists to determine the Levitt Music Series grant recipients.

The Levitt Foundation will be awarding over $7 million dollars over three years to the nonprofits presenting Levitt Music Series, supporting 34 new grantees and 32 returning grantees to bring free outdoor music to their communities in 2026, 2027, and 2028. Also new this grant cycle are funding partnerships with state agencies—in Tennessee and Mississippi—to bring even more free outdoor concerts to their communities.

“The Levitt Foundation is thrilled to announce the communities across the country receiving Levitt Music Series grants, and we congratulate all the new and returning Levitt grantees. We know from decades of supporting free concerts in public spaces how the power of free, live music brings friends, families, and neighbors of all ages and backgrounds together, strengthening the social fabric and economic vitality of communities,” said Sharon Yazowski, President & CEO of the Levitt Foundation. “We are also excited that our partnerships with Tennessee and Mississippi are supporting additional communities in those states—a model we hope will inspire other states throughout our nation for future collaborations to bring free, outdoor concerts to their towns and cities.”

What’s Going on at the Koger Center? Free Low-Cost Events Next Week & Jasper is Playing a Part!

The Koger Center is stacked with a wide array of free and low-cost events and happenings throughout the month of September! The first full work week of the month has plenty going on, so check out what they have to offer.

On Monday, September 8, we are co-hosting a free artist talk with Lori Isom in the Nook, where her artwork is currently on display. The Nook, for anyone who has not had the chance to check it out, is a gallery space located on the second floor of the Koger Center, adjacent to the Gallery at the Koger Center space, that is programmed by the Jasper Project. The talk will last from 6 – 7 p.m. All artwork in Lori’s exhibit is available for purchase.

On Wednesday, September 10, Preach Jacobs will host his second SoulHaus Session in the Gallery at the Koger Center. After the sell-out success of the first session, Preach is returning and this time, bringing renowned chef Amethyst Ganaway and artist Dogon Krigga in for a conversation. Tickets are available for purchase on EventBrite; doors open with a vinyl spinning session at 5 p.m., and the talk begins at 6 p.m.

The evening of Friday the 12th kicks off with another free concert in the “Koger Center Presents: Live Outside” series. Starting at 5 p.m., Charleston-based act She Returns from War will perform, with a to-be-determined opening act accompanying the evening. Hailing from the historically rich city of Charleston, South Carolina, She Returns from War is defining what it means to not only live in the modern south, but to be a trans woman and artist within this landscape. The full Live Outside series runs on Fridays in September and October; check out the whole series on the Koger Center website here. If the weather turns stormy, the concert will still happen, just inside on the Koger Center’s second floor lobby instead!

And mark your calendars for later this month when Jasper welcomes Photo-artist Jeff Amberg to the Nook Gallery —