Congrats to Shakira Olivera Bautista for Receiving the Palmetto Luna Arts Emerging Artist Award!

From our Friends at Palmetto Luna …

When a door closes on an artist, we can choose to open another. When injustice happens, we can choose to act.

Palmetto Luna Arts is proud to announce Shakira Bautista Olivera as the inaugural recipient of its Latina Emerging Artist Award, created in response to the South Carolina Arts Commission Board of Commissioners’ decision to exclude her from its Emerging Artist Cohort.

When we learned that Shakira had been recommended for the grant by an independent panel but was ultimately denied funding, we knew we could not stand aside. As a statewide Latino arts organization, we believe we have a responsibility to stand up for our artists when they face injustice, discrimination, and barriers to opportunity.

We refuse to let rejection be the end of the story. We choose to turn it into action.

This award is our commitment to Shakira and to the broader community of Latino artists in South Carolina. It is about more than recognition. It is about defending artistic expression, creating opportunities, and making sure our artists have the resources and platforms to share their work with the world.

This award will include:

• A solo exhibition in 2027 to showcase Shakira’s work and artistic vision.

• Featured artist recognition at Palmetto Luna’s upcoming Day of the Dead Festival, celebrating Latino art, culture, and community.

• Featured artist participation in Traditional Grabados Latinos: Printmaking as Cultural Memory and Community Voice, a project celebrating printmaking as a powerful expression of identity, cultural memory, and community voice.

• Fundraising support to help replace the funding Shakira lost when she was excluded from the SC Arts Commission’s Emerging Artist Cohort.

• Additional opportunities through Palmetto Luna Arts programs and events to expand her visibility, build connections, and advance her artistic career.

This is only the beginning.

The Latina Emerging Artist Award is intended to become an ongoing commitment to artists facing discrimination, exclusion, and barriers to opportunity. We will respond not with silence, but with solidarity. Not with despair, but with action. Not by closing doors, but by creating new ones.

At Palmetto Luna Arts, we believe that when our artists rise, our communities rise with them.

We stand with Shakira. We stand with our artists. And we will keep creating opportunities where others close doors.

The denied grant implied $1.8K in support. Palmetto Luna has already committed funding to replace part of Shakira’s lost grant. Help us reach our goal to replace the entire funding  by donating through our donation page and specifying "Shakira" in the message box.

Palmetto Luna Arts — Fostering Latino arts and culture in South Carolina since 2008.

Learn more at www.paluna.org.

Rob Shaw Opening Reception at Motor Supply THIS WEDNESDAY 6-8

Rob Shaw

You’re invited to join the Jasper Project and special guest artist Rob Shaw on Wednesday, October 21 from 6 - 8 pm at Motor Supply Bistro for a casual reception celebrating the opening of Jasper’s new Rob Shaw exhibition at the bistro. Motor Supply Bistro is located at 920 Gervais Street, and Shaw’s art will be featured in the space through the end of 2026.

Shaw is an award-winning fine artist from Columbia, SC. A graduate of the University of SC with years of experience in the local art scene, Shaw is highly respected for his palette-knife paintings, custom framing, art handling and hanging services, and monthly palette-knife classes.

When he was 15-years-old, Shaw aspired to become a professional artist and began painting daily. As a studio art major at USC, he studied painting and began selling his work. After college, Shaw managed a large art gallery, and in 2018 he opened Rob Shaw Framing and Gallery.

Shaw began his artistic journey by creating realistic paintings that could take as long as a month to complete. Shifting from paint brushes to palette knives allowed him to paint more loosely and quickly. The results were transformational: not only was he able to create paintings more efficiently, but he also found greater joy in the process and began to sell more of his work. 

Shaw never considers any painting a failure: "Mistakes lend history to the canvas," he says, and he often paints new works over old ones. At times he intentionally alters an image to lend character to a painting; he will, for example, drag a sheet of plexiglass across a wet painting to achieve a certain effect.

What Rob loves most about being an artist is “the challenge of taking a blank canvas and turning it into a work of art that people will enjoy for years to come.” Equally important are his relationships with other artists and art collectors.

Rob Shaw Gallery and Framing is at 2123 Park Street in the Elmwood Park Neighborhood.

In Memoriam: The Magician is Gone - Remembering Christian Thee

UPDATE: Services for Christian Thee will be held at

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral

November 16th at 2:00 PM

By Joey Vasquez and Joseph Daniels

Walter Christian Thee Jr., known to the world at large as Christian Thee, was a master trompe l'oeil painter, a Broadway scenic designer, and a magic inventor and consultant. His wand was a paint brush and his stage was canvas. The miracles his genius wrought in all aspects of his life were numerous and truly awe inspiring.

Born on Sept. 27th, 1934, in New Jersey to Walter and Edith Thee, Christian and his sister Anita moved with their parents to Columbia, SC when Christian was only three. His father was a regimented man with little time for foolishness, while his mother, “the artist and free spirit” became Christian’s inspiration and greatest supporter.

Never quite fitting in with his peers, even during his later teens at Dreher High School, Christian was already making use of his talents in magic, learned from Ringling Brothers lead photographer, his uncle, Joe Steinmetz. With his mother Edith’s help, and extensive practice and study on his own, Christian developed a genuine gift for painting and design. By that point, his skills as an actor led to finding his tribe; the people of the world of theatre.

By his teens, Thee was designing sets for Columbia, SC’s Town Theatre. A few trips to New York City during his childhood and teens led to Christian and his mother sharing Broadway classics of the “golden era.” By his graduation, Chris had decided to go to New York on his own to study scenic design from the famed Lester Polakov, an acclaimed American scenic and costume designer, painter, and educator, at the celebrated Lester Polakov Studio of Stage Design. Christian would excel and eventually graduate and go on to work on such successful Broadway productions as Hair, Guys and Dolls, Sunset Boulevard, and Dracula among many others, and design sets and scenic pieces for the 1964 World’s Fair. 

Chris also had an affection for games and game design and would create Artifax, a game allegedly stolen from him by Parker Bros (renamed Masterpiece) as well as one that he loved to fool guests at his home with, Detente.

He dreamed in his paintings, and he created fantastical worlds where the viewer danced with their eyes.

While in New York he purchased his first residence—a warehouse in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood he would craft into a secret oasis affectionately referred to as “Some Garage in Brooklyn” which would host guests such as Broadway luminaries like Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, and even the cast of Saturday Night Live. During this time Chris would meet his great love, Bruce Bahr.

Chris and Bruce immediately fell in love, and their romance would last more than 35 years. They were the perfect partnership. Bruce would work in the fashion industry and then go on to later handle all of Christian’s business affairs. The pair were able to work all over the world—they loved to travel—and secure work for the Royal Family, Tiffany’s, and many film and theatre productions. After they sold their Brooklyn Heights residence they moved to Connecticut until 1996 when they experienced a severe winter resulting in 16 snowstorms. The frigid weather would ultimately bring the pair back to Christian’s roots and they returned home to Columbia, SC.

Doorway at Morgan’s Cover

Their new home, affectionately called Morgan’s Cove, would become a jewel box of a showpiece. The magical space featured Christian’s art throughout: secret doors, trompe l'oeil art adorning every wall, a full studio, and even a magic parlor for Chris to present his beautiful magic to invited guests. Over the years, many a person passed through that home on tours or for private dinners.

Sadly, in 2011 Bruce passed away after a battle with leukemia. Of course, Christian was heavily impacted by such a gravitational loss. Rebuilding after Bruce’s loss would help foster new life in the house, which would eventually become the showplace for a production he helped create titled The Dark Cabaret, as well as an occasional business networking evening he called , The DaVinci Society.

Christian continued to work, and even when his health started to fade, his desire was to paint, to work, to create. He dreamed in his paintings, and he created fantastical worlds where the viewer danced with their eyes. Every piece he created invited play. To experience his work was to see imagination come to life. Ever one to impart a wink and a dirty joke,  Christian invited others to dream along with him to create a world that would thrive on creativity and joy. Not only did Bruce give him the tagline “A Brush With Deception,” Chris used his wand to create magic throughout his life, and every one of the lives he touched.

Joey Vasquez and Joseph Daniels, better known as the associates in the name, Christian Thee and Associates, co-created The Dark Cabaret with Thee which ran successfully in Columbia, SC for five years. They are honored to continue the legacy of Christian Thee.

TONIGHT at The Jasper Alley at Tapp's

Jasper is Back On Main Street for First Thursday Fun! Join us from 6 - 8:30 pm in our old stomping ground at Tapp's! This month we're full or pride for our LGBTQ+ Artist Spotlight featuringJackie Bobo & Barry J. White, Josef Berliner, Tayler Simon, and Alejandro García-Lemos.

Come shop, have a drink, and hang out with us in the alley! The artists and Jasper Board members will be on site to chat about their work.

Our DJ for the evening is Ubaeby!

Ubaeby is a queer, Columbia based DJ with Filipino and Guatemalan roots. She mixes house, UKG, global club, and familiar songs with playful twists, bringing good energy wherever she plays.

Our Visual Artists

Jackie Bobo

Jackie Bobo

Jackie Bobo is the vibrant force behind Bobo to the Max, an art practice and brand that creates emotionally immersive art and experiences inviting people to feel deeply, express fully, and belong as their most vivid selves.

Informed by nearly a decade as a Speech-Language Pathologist—and more than three decades of living at the intersection of queerness, Blackness, and neurodivergence—Jackie approaches painting as its own language, one capable of holding nuance from the playful to the profound.

Through her signature Happy Spooky aesthetic—bright, bold colors paired with ghosts, spiders, and other whimsically macabre motifs—her work explores what it means to unmask, authentically connect, and belong. Each piece acts as a symbol of self-acceptance, affirming that belonging doesn’t mean blending in—it means revealing who you already are.

Bobo to the Max is built on invitation, not instruction—an open door to feel.

Artist - Josef Berliner

Josef Berliner

Josef Berliner's artistic identity emerged early. As a child he gravitated toward sketchpads and drawing pencils, and a supportive family nurtured that spark until his work was selected for the Scholastic Art Awards' national touring exhibition at sixteen, earning his first public showing at the Columbia Museum of Art. He studied at the University of South Carolina among instructors and classmates who remain close friends today, but an unexpected detour into DJing took hold, and he spent years as one of the Southeast's premier nightclub DJs, playing top venues and racking up awards. That chapter also brought him his husband Josh, his biggest supporter and most honest critic. As commission work picked up alongside the DJ career, Josh's encouragement helped Josef make the leap into art full time, fulfilling a lifelong dream.

Since then, Josef has exhibited widely in solo and group shows and founded Eye-Conic Art Studio. His work has appeared in community theatre lobbies, touring exhibitions, and private collections across regional, national, and international audiences, and he's contributed to organizations like Bullets and Bandaids, the Betsy Blackmon Dance Company, the Atlantic Institute, the Jasper Project, the Greater Irmo Art Guild, South Carolina Artists, and Artists for Africa, where he was a featured artist at the 2024 and 2026 Postcard Art galas. Working primarily in oil on canvas with portraiture at his core, Josef pairs technical precision with a deeper aim: revealing who his subjects truly are beneath the surface.

Artist - Alejandro Garcia-Lemos

Alejandro García-Lemos

Bio: Alejandro García-Lemos is a visual artist based in New Orleans, Louisiana and Columbia, SC. He holds a MA in Latin American Studies from Florida International University in Miami, and a BA in Graphic Design from the School of Arts at the National University in Bogotá, Colombia. His work focuses on social issues, mostly on aspects of immigration, sexuality, biculturalism, religion and community. His works has been shown mostly in the South East. Alejandro is a member of the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC), as well as the founder of Palmetto & LUNA a non-profit organization promoting Latino Arts and Cultures in South Carolina since 2007. From 2022 to 2024 he was part of the artist collective “CAVILANTES” in Colombia, showing in Panama, México and Colombia. In July 2025 Alejandro was selected for a residency of Buihno, ArtLab in Messejana, Alentejo Portugal.

Artist Statement: I create art based on the curatorial statement or the intent of the show, which means that I use different materials and technics to convey the meaning of the exhibition. For the LGBTQ+ Pride Jasper show I decided to use some recent homo-erotic collages that I have been developing which depict images of the male nude body, highlighting the issue that men's bodies have been historically minimized, excluded or avoided in most art forms. It still persist an aspect of censorship if the male body is openly presented.

Tayler Simon

Tayler Simon (she, her) is a writer, artist, social worker, and seeker of collective liberation. She owns Liberation is Lit, a bookstore and press that sparks collective action for liberation among readers by promoting stories from intersectional experiences. Her main artistic mediums are digital collage and poetry. She has self-published four books, including her latest, Black Madonna. Through her art, she has made a commitment to radical vulnerability, curiosity, connection, and liberation.

Barry J. White

Barry J. White is a Blythewood, SC-based self-taught multi-disciplinary artist whose works center the beauty, strength, and vulnerability of Black men. Guided by intuition, personal experience, and emotion, Barry’s paintings explore themes of identity and self-acceptance through expressive realism and atmospheric color.

Barry’s work has been featured in exhibitions For the People, Crowned by the Roots, Degenerate II, and Gemini Arts, Stormwater, Roc Bottom, and Drummond studios, where it’s been recognized for its depth, honesty, and visual storytelling.

From the Print Issue: Salley McInerney's Riding Out the Storm Opens at Stormwater Studios -- Read the Story Behind it from the Spring 2026 Issue of Jasper Mag

From our friends at Stormwater Studios:

Riding Out the Storm is an unflinching visual and literary exhibition chronicling artist and writer Salley McInerney’s journey through bladder cancer and divorce. With a collection of 30 mixed-media works and corresponding storyboards, Salley explores a sudden diagnosis of bladder cancer, months of chemotherapy, grueling bladder removal surgery, a difficult physical and psychological recovery, and a most unforeseen consequence—the end of a 43-year marriage. Riding Out the Storm also chronicles Salley’s hard-won journey from profound loss to resilience of the human spirit and the reinvention of the individual self.

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 8, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Exhibition Dates: Wednesday, October 7, 2026, to Sunday, October 18, 2026

Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

From the Spring 2026 issue of Jasper Magazine …

Riding Out the Storm with Salley McInerney

By Cindi Boiter

Salley McAden McInerney opens, Riding Out the Storm, the book she wrote to accompany her visual art exhibition by the same name, with the words, “I have always taken the ability to pee for granted. I’ve peed everywhere. Toilets, outhouses, behind trees, sheds in the bushes, on mountaintops, in the back of horse trailers, off the back of pontoon boats, in lakes rivers and oceans. I’ve peed in my pants because of urgency or because something was so funny there was no stopping the flow.”

These are words almost any woman, particularly women who live in the South or another rural area of the country, can easily identify with. This writer, for example, even peed behind an ancient standing stone in a field in Scotland.

 But her next words stop her readers, including this writer, in our tracks: “In August 2021,” she writes, “all that changed.”

The remainder of the 34 pages in the book is packed with the author’s annotated art, telling the story of McInerney’s journey, starting in August 2021, through invasive urothelial carcinoma. A journey that started with the author waking in the middle of the night with the unrequited need to urinate, a sensation that increased and became more and more painful throughout the night and into the morning, compelling her to visit the emergency room of the local hospital in McInerney’s small town of Camden, SC.

After many tests, McInerney was sent home with a catheter, the diagnosis of a bladder obstruction of, at the time, unknown origin, and an appointment the next week with a urologist. A writer, journalist, and visual artist, McInerney approached her urologist at her first appointment with the characteristic directness that has defined her career. “… I asked him, point blank. ‘Do I have cancer?’ He stopped short, looked at me intently. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Shit,’ I replied.”

The doctor explained that she would need 12 weeks of chemotherapy, starting immediately, followed by a radical cystectomy, or removal of the bladder. He went on to clarify that her urinary system would be rerouted from her kidneys, … “so that my pee would come out of a hole in my abdomen which was called a stoma, and which would be made with a part of my small intestine. He said I would wear a pouch over the stoma to catch the pee.”

If McInerney’s words sound blunt or jarring, or if the reader is less-than-comfortable with the directness with which she approaches such intimate topics, it’s no surprise.

As a former writer for The State newspaper as well The Gwinnett Daily News in Atlanta and the Chronicle Independent in Camden, McInerney’s writing style reflects her approach to moving through life. “Yes, my writing is blunt, to the point,” McInerney says. “In the case of Riding Out the Storm, there are two reasons for this. The first - during my 9-to-5 working years, I was a journalist, writing many stories on daily deadlines in big newsrooms. There was no time or space for flowery language. The job at hand was to tell the story as clearly, correctly, and quickly as possible. Concise language. Simple sentences. Get in, get out.”

“The second source for the bluntness,” McInerney continues, “is that bladder cancer seems to be one of those diseases that doesn't get talked about in ‘polite company.’ It's an intimate subject about body waste, and, in my case, forevermore peeing into a bag stuck to my belly. As I delved into the subject on the internet - specifically muscle-invasive cancer and bladder removal - I discovered that the unpleasant specifics of the ordeal tended to be glossed over. As I began work on Riding Out the Storm, I was determined not to do that. I wanted to be brutally honest about every facet of the disease. It's one reason I painted a self-portrait of my naked body with my stoma visible and my pee bag attached to my belly. Here I am, folks, bag and all.”

Hints of McInerney’s to-the-point methodology are found throughout the book via her written words and her visual art as she details the stages of her experience with honest precision. “As chemo drugs dripped into me week after week, I watched fall approach, the leaves on the trees turning yellow, orange, and red. And with every visit , my body grew weaker.”

After she had completed the chemotherapy course in December 2021, her oncologist recommended that she take the nest month, January, to gain weight and grow stronger before the surgery, she says. Her husband wanted her to take the month to relax and recover, saying, “Can’t we just enjoy this month?” But McInerney remembers that “the waiting was horrible.” And she became more and more aware of an “emotional distance spreading even wider” between her and her husband of more than forty years.

“Unlike me,” she writes, “he was able to compartmentalize the mess we were in. January ‘he felt’ should be a pleasant month. I … was only able to do one thing: count down the days left until I could no longer pee like a normal person.”

The Last Pee by Salley McInerney

McInerney recounts the last days before the cystectomy remembering that when she was a child, she always made a point of committing to memory her last swim of the summer from the SC beaches where her family vacationed. Acknowledging that once her surgery was performed, she would never again urinate the way she had all her life, she applied the same practice to going to the bathroom.

“I sat on the toilet seat and let what little fluid was left in me come out. I felt the warmth of it leaving my body. I heard the trickle. I watched as the last drops of pee created concentric circles in the toilet water. … I stood and pulled my pants up, running  my hands across a smooth belly that would soon be opened and excavated by a surgeon’s tools. I flushed the toilet. I gave thanks to a body part I’d hardly ever thought about. And that was that. The last normal pee.”

While her surgery was successful, the artist still had to remain a patient at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston for seven days, after which she and family members settled in at a beach house, close to her physicians and treatment facilities, for recuperation. One of the images in the book depicts a pair of feet in cozy socks propped against a railing, legs draped with a warm blanket, and the beach and ocean beautifully rendered behind them.

Throughout this unthinkable chapter in her life, McInerney relied on family and friends to sustain her, “I was not in control,” she writes. “At one point, I curled up in my sister’s lap and wept.”

Ultimately, McInerney returned home to Camden, but she was no longer the woman she once was. “I was sure that life as I knew it was over. I would never be able to ride horses,” she writes. A horsewoman all her life, McInerney rides as a “whipper-in” with the Camden Hunt, a role that includes the vital responsibility in fox hunting of keeping up with the foxhounds during a chase. (“We do not kill game, but we chase it,” she writes in her book.)

“When I announced to a close friend that my husband and I had separated a mere five months after surgery to remove my bladder, she, who had experienced cancer herself, said ‘It’s the cancer,’” the artist writes.

“… My friend was partially right about cancer rocking my marriage. The illness was catastrophic for me. Every coping skill, every reserve of patience and energy had been spent on battling cancer and learning to live without a bladder,” she writes. “Shortly before we divorced a year later, … my husband told our divorce mediator that I had ‘gone to a very dark place.’ He was right. … The place was dark and grasping, and when I returned from its grips, a startling light shed itself over what was left of my life. My future came into sharp focus. I was determined to live that future, if not happily, at least peacefully.”

While in many ways her divorce was liberating, it also came with new burdens and responsibilities for McInerney to carry along with recovery. “I was a naïve woman who was suddenly trying to drink life’s water from a firehose,” she says. “But here’s the thing:  I had survived cancer. I had met that battle head-on. When I felt like I couldn’t manage my own life, I remembered that struggle, and I gathered my strength. … I put one foot in front of the other and kept moving.”

According to the American Cancer Society, bladder cancer accounts for 4% of all U.S. cancers. It is the 10th leading cause of cancer death in the country and the five-year relative survival rate is approximately 79%. As McInerney faces the five-year anniversary of her illness, she says that she is doing well physically and that, emotionally, most days are good. She is back in the saddle at the Camden Hunt with her beloved horse, Lee, “who carries me safely through thick and thin. I swim. I walk my dogs. I do my art, …my volunteering. I write,” she says.

“I have always expressed myself best through my writing and through my art,” McInerney explains. “That said, I also believe that my writing and my artwork act as a way of me ‘talking to myself.’ Both mediums make more clear to me things about myself and my world. It's almost as if I'm in a classroom of one, a classroom of me, where the teacher is the art or the writing or both.”

It is for this reason that she embarked on the multidisciplinary art project, Riding Out the Storm. The exhibition will be presented at Stormwater Studios in Columbia, SC October 7th through the 18th, with an opening reception on Thursday October 8th from 5:30 – 7:30 pm.

She continues, “The best way for me to understand the complexities of what happened in a two-year span - bladder cancer, divorce - was to let my writing and my art do the work, unravel the gravity of it all and tell the story to me and, as it turns out, to others.”

It’s a story worth telling; a story of the importance of support and the role art can play in survival.

Jasper Welcomes Artist Patrick Parise to our Nook Gallery in the Koger Center for the Arts + Black Nerd Mafia

The Jasper Project’s newest resident artist in The Nook Gallery is Patrick Parise! Parise’s work will be on display through October 11 over at the Koger Center, and we cordially invite you to stop by for the opening reception on September 17, from 5:30 – 7 p.m.

Jasper will be on site both inside by the gallery and outside during the Koger Center Presents: Levitt AMP Columbia Music Series concert this Thursday, featuring Black Nerd Mafia. Light snacks will be provided inside, but you can grab a drink from the concert concessions outside and bring it in while you experience Parise’s artwork in person.

All paintings in the exhibit are for sale, and during the reception, Parise will also have some additional etchings available for purchase in Jasper’s Nook Gallery on the Koger Center’s second tier.

About the Artist: “When I was young,watching my mother and others paint, it moved me toward wanting to learn more about painting to pursue an art career,” Parise writes. “As a young student thinking only as a painter and sculptor, I never contemplated other ways to make my art. Over the years, oils, and acrylics have been my main mediums, but some newer works are with enamels. Landscapes will always be my favorite subject matter, but I have never shied away from an abstract thought. In my junior year as an undergraduate I was introduced to printmaking, and my entire world changed about making art. Whether etching plates to make limited editions, mono-prints, mono-types, or working a lithograph, a wood block, or a mixed media piece, I began to see the beautiful and innovative ways I could create work with this new medium. So instead of graduate school, I jumped right in and purchased a Charles Brand Etching press and opened my own studio, Southern Printworks, where I have continued to paint and make original prints for over 30 years. I guess we all have a moment of truth on how to pursue a creative path, and by committing to this large purchase, it was my moment of truth. I understand now it was the only choice because, to this day, I haven’t looked back.”

“Over the years I have realized you can spend your art career focusing on the nuance of one process, which many artists find very rewarding. Or you can use that information and leap into the unknown, in new directions, to learn other mediums and to change things up,” Parise continues. “With my paintings, I use varied surfaces - canvas, paper, panels, and plexiglass – and vary the subject matter among landscapes, florals, and abstracts – keeping things interesting for me and the viewer. With printmaking, I often introduce color into my limited-edition etchings, using acrylic washes to create a stronger original print. I use multiple etched plates to produce dynamic images with unique combinations of color, shapes, and design to create one-of-a-kind monoprints or, painting on metal and plexiglass allowing me to create one-of-a-kind mono-types. Printmaking, painting, and sculpture are the mediums I will continue to focus on and I will see where it leads me. So here I am, years later, still learning and developing innovative ways to make my art and trying to become a better artist along the way. It has been a fun ride, so far. Enjoy!”

Jasper Galleries Presents the Opening Reception for Wilma Ruth King at Harbison Theatre

Friday September 18th 6:30 pm

Harbison Theatre, 7300 College Street, Irmo, SC

Join The Jasper Project on Friday night, September 18th at Harbison Theatre for a reception honoring our featured artist, Wilma Ruth King.

Beginning at 6:30 PM, guests are invited to explore the exhibition and meet King before the curtain rises for Mike Super's "Three's A Charm." Artwork will be available for purchase.

The exhibition is free and will remain on view through December 2026.

Artist Bio:
South Carolina native, Wilma R. King, 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).

Artist Statement:
I am a contemplative contemporary painter. The context of my paintings is based on personal memories, and my style is described as a montage of times, places, and spaces. My goal as an artist is to give broader meaning to my personal experiences, build long-term relationships with communities, invite two-way communication, embody, expand, and present art and culture as significant and socially responsible. I seek to tell inspiring stories about the communities and cultures that were significantly changed, destroyed, or devastated, and to preserve the memories through my paintings.

I also share my love of art and my skills as an artist to positively affect others, particularly through portraits of children with special challenges or those in various stages of cancer, living out their dreams. In addition, some of the most important work I’ve done was commissioned to hang in private homes. Such works include a painting for a fellow parishioner who could no longer attend Eucharistic Adoration as she had done so for years, so wanted to create a prayer room in her home; a painting requested by a 9-year-old that represented his longing to hug his grandmother while she suffered with the shingles; and, a painting from my photographs of neighborhoods in Italy for a third generation Italian family who had never been there; a painting for a young woman who was able to purchase a house after living in a motel for two years, Portraits of children with special challenges or those in various stages of cancer living out their dreams. Of equal significance to me -- five of my paintings hung in the office of a mental health counselor, and another one in an office of a Ronald MacDonald’s House.

The exhibition is free and will remain on view through December 2026.

Memory is a Verb: Exploring Time and Transience

Ten Women Artists Examine Memory, Loss, Legacy, and the Meaning We Make of Time

PhotoSC will present Memory is a Verb: Exploring Time and Transience, an exhibition featuring the work of ten women artists from diverse geographies, experiences, and backgrounds. The exhibition opens September 17, 2026, at 918 Lady Street in Columbia, South Carolina, and runs through October 17, 2026.

The project began as a conversation during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time marked by fear, uncertainty, isolation, and loss. As the ten artists longed for a return to normal life, they also found themselves looking back—seeking comfort in their histories and in their connections with one another. The experience of the pandemic gave the group a chance to see the past differently. Rather than simply looking back with nostalgia, the artists in this exhibition ask what our memories mean to us now. What still matters? What has changed? And what is worth carrying forward?

The exhibition Memory is a Verb: Exploring Time and Transience has traveled across the country and has resonated with audiences along the way. PhotoSC is excited to present this important and beautiful work that travels to Columbia, SC from the Vermont Center of Photography in Brattleboro, Vermont. As Building Bridges Art Exchange curator and founder Marisa Caichiolo writes – “the idea that memory exists in the present moment is something that can also be applied to all the artworks presented. As a cohesive collection of works, the exhibition grounds memory as a vital concept in our fast-moving world.”

At its heart, Memory is a Verb is about our desire to connect, to remember, and to be remembered. The work is about honoring the past while deciding what to carry into the future. The exhibition invites us to consider what we hold onto, what we let go of, and what we leave behind. Through ten distinct perspectives, Memory is a Verb: Exploring Time and Transience explores how we make meaning from a changing world and from the lives we have lived.

The exhibition’s participating artists are Aline Smithson, Sarah Hadley, Diane Hemingway, Susan Lapides, Annette LeMay Burke, Rosalie Rosenthal, Lori Ordover, Dena Eber, Jennifer Pritchard and Elizabeth Bailey.

Jasper Welcomes Jana Willis as our Tiny Gallery Artist for September

Artist - Jana Willis (photo courtesy of the artist)

The Jasper Project welcomes artist Jana Willis to our 24/7 virtual Tiny Gallery!

Jasper’s Tiny Gallery is a virtual gallery that gives artists an opportunity to show a selection of smaller pieces offered at affordable price points attractive to beginning collectors and patrons with smaller budgets. Pieces can be any medium but must be under 15” x 15” and cost less than $200, with no more than 50% of works being above $100; artists typically show around 15-25 pieces.

Artists are featured monthly with a solo show for all months but December, which is group holiday show. This gallery runs via the Jasper website, so patrons have access to the art 24/7

Lapse in Vision by Jana Willis

About Jana Willis

Jana Willis is a visual artist from Columbia, SC who works primarily in oil, acrylic, colored pencil, and pen. They blend translucence, abstracted figures, and illusion to describe memory, spirituality, and insomnia. While pursuing a BFA in Drawing at the University of South Carolina, Jana exhibited work in the Visual Art and Design Showcase at the President’s House and Flux/Flow at the Southeastern College Art Conference in Cincinnati, OH. Since graduating in 2025, Jana’s creative inquiry has led to an interest in visual processing and phenomena and further experiments in layering, texture, and scale.

See more art by Jana Willis at Jasper’s Tiny Gallery page.

Distant View by Jana Willis

All visual artists in the SC Midlands are encouraged to apply to show their work in Jasper’s Tiny Gallery or one of the many other gallery spaces that we program! Our Galleries Committee selects artists for the coming season in the fall and will contact those who have been accepted at the end of the year.

Learn more about showing your work with jasper.

Apply here to show your work via the Jasper Project.

Calls for Art that You Want to Know About - ArtFields, Kershaw County, Cottontown, & McMaster

Sharing a few calls for visual art. Do you have anything to add?

From our friends at the Arts Center of Kershaw County -

Our Annual Holiday Market is returning to the Arts Center of Kershaw County, and we’re looking for talented local and regional artists to join us! 

From December 4–13, the Bassett Gallery will be transformed into a festive marketplace featuring unique, handmade works perfect for holiday gifting.

The best part? You don’t have to be here the whole time! Our Arts Center staff will handle sales throughout the market. We simply ask participating artists to:
Keep your inventory replenished as items sell
Volunteer for one day during the market
Bring your creativity and help us make this year’s Holiday Market special!

Whether you create paintings, pottery, jewelry, textiles, woodworking, photography, handmade goods, or something entirely your own—we’d love to hear from you.

APPLY HERE

******

From the SC Arts Commission, if you’re straight, I guess.

******

2027 ARTFIELDS SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW OPEN –

DEADLINE - NOVEMBER 1

All submissions must be completed and paid for by 11:59 PM on November 1st, 2026. Use our simple submission tool, ArtBooth, to upload your artwork photo, artist statement, and bio. The submission fee is $25.

Artists must reside in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, or West Virginia for at least 6 months and be over 18 years of age.

• 2. Acceptance

  All submissions will be reviewed by an independent panel of arts professionals and rated on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 = lowest score; 10 = highest score).

  Up to 400 artists receiving the top average ratings will be invited to exhibit and compete during the 2027 ArtFields Festival in Lake City, South Carolina.

  All artists will be contacted about their submission status via e-mail in December 2026.

• 3. Invitation

  Venues will view accepted artworks through a private gallery and work with the ArtFields team to choose which pieces to display.

  Artists will be invited by the venue via email in February 2027.

  To confirm participation, artists will electronically sign an Artist and Venue Hosting Agreement.

  Then we’ll coordinate shipping/installation, and your artwork will become part of a town-wide celebration of art and compete for prize money!

  ******

Applications to participate in the Cottontown Art Crawl are now open.

All artists who wish to participate (including previous CAC participants and artists who reside in Cottontown) must complete the application (including payment) by Friday, October 16, 2026.

The 9th Annual Cottontown Art Crawl will take place on Saturday, March 6, 2027 from 10am-4pm. The rain date will be Sunday, March 7, from Noon-5pm.*
*Please make sure you are available for both dates.

APPLY HERE!

******

McMaster Gallery at USC

Spotlight on Jasper's FIRST THURSDAY Featured Artists in the Jasper Alley at Tapp's: Emily Moffitt, Cam Moore, & Kate Timbes with Special Guest Andrew Phillips

Jasper has an exciting show coming up on for our next First Thursday gallery opening on September 3rd as we welcome three singular artists into the Jasper Alley at Tapp's: Emily Moffitt, Cam Moore, and Kate Timbes, each bringing a distinct voice to the space, from illustration to upcycled collage to ecological sculpture. Joining them will be Andrew Phillips, a special guest artist who is showing his work for the very first time.

Color Has Other Plans by Andrw Phillips - 24x24 $400

Guest Artist - Andrew Phillips

Phillips paints the way he lives—boldly, on his own terms, and without waiting for anyone's permission to take up space. He communicates using an AAC device and gets around by wheelchair, but neither has ever slowed down his imagination; if anything, painting gives him a language all his own, one that doesn't require words to say exactly what he means. Working in acrylic paint with an adapted paintbrush created for him by fellow featured artist and camp art director, Cam Moore, Phillips is drawn to bold color and rich texture, which is no surprise from an artist who's also an active member of the Inclusive Theatre Company of South Carolina and brings a bit of flair to everything he touches.

The piece in this show is his first painting. Moore recalls the moment Phillips first took hold of the brush himself: "It was his first time painting, and his reaction was pure joy. He had this huge smile, and you could see the curiosity and pride on his face." Andrew started with simple strokes and was soon experimenting on his own, moving between dotting and longer brushstrokes to see what he could do.

"I paint because I have something to say," Phillips writes in his artist statement, "that life is full of color and excitement, that it takes unexpected turns, and that dreams get fulfilled. This piece is my proof."

Artist - Cam Moore

Featured Artist – Cam Moore

Cam Moore is a multidisciplinary artist and art educator whose work turns what most people throw away, thin cardboard and packing paper, into mosaic-styled collage pieces detailed with charcoal. "There's usually a moment where the viewer realizes that what they're actually looking at wasn't meant to be beautiful in the first place," Moore says, "and that surprise is a big part of what I'm going for." His work has been shown at Richland Library Main and at Stormwater Studios via Jasper’s Degenerate Arts Project Part II, where it won the Artists’ Choice Award.

Beyond the studio, Moore is the Art Lead at Camp Cole's Camp Rise Above program, he founded the community art series The Sessions, and is currently building The Source Columbia, a creative studio space aimed at underserved neighborhoods. He's been showing publicly since early 2025 and moving fast ever since.

Artist - Emily Moffitt

Featured Artist – Emily Moffitt

Emily Moffitt is an illustrator based right here in Columbia, and a familiar face in Jasper's world. She serves as Secretary on the Jasper Board of Directors and as Visual Arts Editor for Jasper Magazine, alongside her day job as Gallery Curator for the Koger Center for the Arts. A graduate of USC's School of Visual Art and Design, Emily has exhibited at the Driggers Center for the Arts in Greer, at Stormwater Studios for Jasper's inaugural Degenerate Art Project, and at the Richland Library. She's spent her post-grad years deep in the Columbia arts scene and says helping build exhibits for fellow artists keeps pulling her back toward her own studio practice.

Artist - Kate Timbes

Featured Artist – Kate Timbes

Kate Timbes is an interdisciplinary artist working across sculpture, painting, and digital media, weaving paint, seeds, handmade paper, and other materials into pieces that make us think hard about where our resources come from. Her practice, as she describes it, searches for "a finish that borders raw, vaguely familiar, and other worldly all at once." Timbes has exhibited nationally and internationally, including the Koger Center, The Morgan Paper Conservatory, Visalia Arts Center, and the DIS Student Hub in Copenhagen, and she teaches papermaking workshops across the Carolinas. She runs Woven Studios, holds a BA in Studio Art from Wofford College, completed a Work-Study Fellowship at Arrowmont School of Craft, and is a member of Zero Space Collective. Originally from South Carolina, she is currently based in Charlotte.

Come shop, have a drink, and hang out with all the cool kids in the alley. We have DJ Saiteron scheduled to keep us dancing throughout the evening, as well as the featured artists aboce and Jasper Board members on site to chat about the work and what’s next for Jasper.

This Thursday, September 3, 6–8:30 pm at Tapp's, 1642 Main Street.

Jasper Partners with SC State Museum to Present Screening of the New Iteration of Wade Sellers' Film PETER LENZO: IN MEMORY OF HIS MEMORY

Friday July 17th @ SC State Museum

12 pm — Artist Talk with Roxy Lenzo Douthit

6 pm — Screening - Peter Lenzo: In Memory of His Memory

by Wade Sellers

IF I ONLY HAD A BRAIN BY PETER LENZO

Join the Jasper Project at the South Carolina State Museum (301 Gervais Street) in the Lipscomb gallery on Friday night, July 17th at 6 pm for the screening of Wade Seller’s expanded film Peter Lenzo: In Memory of His Memory.

Originally created for the Jasper Project’s February 2026 exhibition Peter Lenzo: A Retrospective and Remembrance at Stormwater Studios, Sellers says, “This current screening expands on the existing film by adding interviews with his brothers Anthony and Steven, as well as his sister, Lisa.” He expects there will be a third and final version of the film at a later date.

“I never knew  Peter Lenzo,” Sellers says. “There were many moments we were probably in the same room, but we never met. I knew his work through his notoriety and through his art dealer and never quite understood why it drew me in so much. This film allows me the luxury to not only meet the man through his family and those that loved his work, but also through his own thoughts and words.”

Lenzo, known world-wide for his reliquaries and facejugs that married his unique style with traditional ceramic vessels prominent in the southern US, came to South Carolina in the 1990s. As Paul Matheny, Chief Curator and Director of Cultural affairs at the SC State Museum, writes in the book, Peter Lenzo: In Memory of His Memory (The Jasper Project, 2026), he “had an almost immediate impact in a state already rich with ceramic history.”

Lenzo, born in 1955 in New York died on October 6, 2024, after decades of seizures and their repercussions from a bike incident early in his life. He grew up in Detroit, and later lived in California, Illinois, and Columbia, SC.

Filmmaker Wade Sellers reflects on his film project, “I am fascinated by why artists, artists who have no choice other than to create, are drawn to the work they make. Peter’s story of a lifetime as an artist, a lifetime of seizures and dependency on others, and finding a home in the work was a story I couldn’t resist exploring and sharing with others.”

Sellers is an independent filmmaker and producer based in Columbia, SC. He is a four-time Emmy nominee whose production company, Coal Powered Filmworks, focuses on producing documentary and independent film projects. His work has been seen on cable and PBS stations nationwide and independent theaters and festivals throughout the United States and Europe. He began work in independent film as a cinematographer and in the late 1990s he followed this work to New York City, where he began establishing a strong resume of work with independent film and corporate clients. After returning to the south he turned his focus to producing and directing, and founded Coal Powered Filmworks, producing work for local, regional, and national clients. His work has been recognized with Addys, Tellys and numerous other awards and he is the 2025 recipient of the SC Governor's Award for the Arts.

The celebration of Peter Lenzo’s contribution to culture will begin at noon on July 17th with an artist talk presented by Lenzo’s daughter, Roxy Lenzo Douthit. Both events are free and open to the public.(Full disclosure, Lenzo Douthit is a member of the Jasper Project board of directors.)

To purchase the book, Peter Lenzo: In Memory of His Memory, scan the QR code below. 

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.

One Columbia Announces Cultural Layers Community Celebrations, Unveiling New Public Murals Honoring Columbia's African American History

"For us, public art is more than just what you see; it's about creating connections …" — Xavier Blake

Artist - Daniel Esquivia-Zapata

From our Friends at One Columbia …

One Columbia for Arts and Culture will host the Cultural Layers Community Celebrations, two free public events marking the unveiling of new public artwork honoring the stories, people, and places at the heart of Columbia's historically African American neighborhoods. The celebrations take place Saturday, July 18, at 2:00 PM at Richland Library Edgewood and Sunday, July 19, at 3:00 PM at the Richland Library Main Auditorium. Admission is free and open to the public.

The new artwork honors former residents and legacies of the Booker T. Washington, Ward One, and Wheeler Hill neighborhoods. Cultural Layers is a public art and storytelling initiative led by One Columbia and funded by the Knight Foundation and the Central Carolina Community Foundation. The project preserves and amplifies histories from these communities through photography, videography, oral histories, archival research, and public art, centering the individuals who shaped the city and the schools and neighborhoods that served as cultural and social anchors for generations.

At each celebration, attendees can view the completed murals and public artwork, meet several of the individuals depicted in the work, and connect with the community members, historians, and cultural partners who helped bring the project to life. The events are designed as community gatherings grounded in memory, local history, and collective pride.

Featured artists include Daniel Esquivia-Zapata, Visual Artist and Educator; Nora Williams, Photographer and Cultural Worker; and Malcolm Vanhannegeyn, CEO of Perspective Cinema and Cinematographer. Community members featured in the work include Crissandra Elliott, Deacon Richard Caughman, and Raymond Richardson.

"For us, public art is more than just what you see; it's about creating connections," said Xavier Blake, One Columbia Executive Director. "Through Cultural Layers and the incredible talents of Daniel, Nora, and Malcolm, we hope to create a lasting impact that honors the lives, spaces, and histories that shape our city."

The celebrations are made possible with the support of community partners and sponsors including Central Carolina Community Foundation, Knight Foundation, Richland County Library, the A'ja Wilson Foundation, the Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina, Columbia SC 63, the Ward One Organization, and Friends of African American Art & Culture.

More information is available at onecolumbiasc.com/public-art/cultural-layers-project/.

FROM THE PRINT ISSUE - PART THREE IN OUR SERIES ON KOGER CENTER PROJECT WINNING ARTISTS featuring WILMA KING

Wilma King

by Cindi Boiter

Photography by Brad Martin

“I  remember an incident in fourth grade that helped me focus in on my love of art and design,” Columbia-based visual artist and winner of the 2022 Draw Jasper competition, Wilma King begins. “My teacher, Ms. Hendrix, knew how to inspire and cultivate creativity. She read to us, held in-class competitions, and infused applied learning into our coursework way back then. Our school was on a military base in Fort Greely, Alaska. My mind was full of dreams of being a nurse like Clara Barton until Ms. Hendrix announced a fashion design competition. My classmates convinced me that I would surely win – but I didn't. So, I launched this compulsion to design paper dolls for my sisters, friends, and anyone who would let me do so. It was an experience that allowed me to delve deeply into individual, and cultural preferences for design, color, shape, size, and form.” 

That lesson, to persevere despite all odds, has served King well as a guiding force driving her to accomplish a life full of achievements and broken barriers that serves as an inspiration to artists and women and people of color today.

Born in Lexington, SC, King, who has a BA in studio art from the University of SC and a MA in journalism from Texas Southern University in Houston, says she grew up both in Lower Richland County and Alaska. “I have lived in 11 different states and done domestic and international sabbaticals that took me to a cumulative 9 months of slow travels and teaching abroad in Italy and in Canada. After more than 30 years of doing some of the things I found interesting and exciting, and to become my mother's primary caregiver, I moved back home to SC.”

But that was not before teaching art at the Art Institute in Houston, O’More College in Franklin, TN, SUNY, and serving as an associate professor in PR at both Western Kentucky University and well as the Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York. “I always felt there should be a collaboration between words and images. I taught graphic design, computerized design, or some form of public relations design most of my career, beginning with launching, teaching, and designing the first courses and curriculum in commercial art here in Columbia at Benedict College.”

King was the first Black faculty member in the Department of Journalism and Broadcasting, and she stayed there for 16 years where “they allowed me to do things I never dreamed I could do.” One of those dreams-come-true was launching an international conference on diversity and inviting groundbreaking photojournalist Gordon Parks to the school for three days of lectures and hands-on learning. “It was then that I started to specialize in art and storytelling,” King says, reflecting on her time with Parks, whose documentary style photography was instrumental in the fight for civil rights but who went on to be the first Black person to produce and direct major motion pictures, including 1971’s revolutionary film, Shaft.

I came to love a very well-written painting,” King says, adding that “art should tell a story,” an endeavor she strives for in her own work. “I enjoy telling my stories as well as those of people I have met along the way. An avid nonfiction reader, I try to incorporate a level of authenticity, through descriptive and narrative detail in my paintings. I focus on the story to give it broader meaning – that is, the painting’s relationship-building potential. People often comment on my style. I paint from memory, not photos (unless commissioned to do so), and I rarely use references. Various elements in each painting are carefully outlined to show that the story is a composite of different places and spans of time.”

King’s medium of choice is acrylic. “My very wonderful art professors at USC, particularly Jim Edwards, taught me that acrylics are extremely adaptable and can convincingly disguise as other paint mediums.” And as for her technique, “I would say that I have either a ‘gentle’ realism or perhaps a somewhat ‘rigid’ surrealism style,” she says. “I am not painting from photographs unless I’m commissioned to or as reference. The white outlined objects in my work come together in my memories from myriad places and times.”

Among her greatest influences are Dony Mac Manus, sculptor/founder of the School for Sacred Art in Florence,  Italy, and Giancarlo Polenghi, the school's director of the master’s program who is an Italian art historian and teaches theology of the body. “They both helped me to understand that the purpose and power of art is to elevate the status of individuals in communities and in society.”

“Now, each day, before I begin to paint, I study some of the great Christian art. I enjoy Biblical stories through the eyes of Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Cristofo de Predis, Rogier van der Weyden, Rembrandt, Vincent Van Gogh, and even Salvador Dali.”

But she adds that, “Jonathan Green has given me some very good advice and critique on my work, as well,” counting Greene as one among her three favorite SC artists. “I love his use of color and form, and the stories of the African American experiences in the South. He depicts an enjoyment, pride, and love for life that is seldom seen these days. His viewpoint and perspective are necessary against a backdrop of sadness, anger, and bitterness in the world.”

Her other two favorite home-state artists are Gerard Erley and Phillip Mullen. Of Erley she says his technique is “akin to that of the ‘great masters,’ not only in his artistic ability, but also in the way he commands his storytelling.” From Mullen, her former drawing professor whose work she says she “has always loved,” King says, “I learned to be meticulous in the details and still develop a style distinguishable from everyone else.”

With a CV replete with honors, awards, grants, and fellowships, listings of lectures given, international conferences organized and attended, publications in books and esteemed journals as well as listings of books and publications she designed, and truly, more accomplishments than can be recorded here, King’s humility is overwhelming. It is beyond anticlimactic to mention her recognition as the winner of a competition as prosaic as the Draw Jasper contest, but it must be done.

It is on the cover of this issue of Jasper Magazine that Wilma King’s painting, Jasper is published, the winning entry in the 2022 Draw Jasper Competition. “My art is of hindsight, unable to catch up with the present – because the present becomes the past too quickly. Nonetheless, each of us are where we need to be when it comes to our art,” King says. “The Jasper painting expresses the joy of being where I am now, and the struggle of recognizing significant moments and collaborative memories from multiple sources. Through the colors and imagery, I try to describe my vision of a world that is seeded and then grows from my South Carolina and Louisiana Creole cultural roots. It also speaks of my age that notices and shares the pivotal history of two generations before me.”

“These days, I read less than I used to (a book each week), and paint more,” King continues. “I am painting each day, whether it is on canvas or glassware. Art is a way of praying. It helps me find positivity in whatever I am confronted with throughout the day – good or bad. I am seeking ways to put the events of the day in proper perspective and finding a way to reconcile my day in gratitude. I began what I hope will become a series of painting based on contemplative and spiritual exercises. I believe art should elevate the status of persons and communities. Finally, I have had a happy life, despite a few calamitous events I certainly hope the happiness is what my art passes on to others.” 

 Wisdom from Wilma King: I think there's a need to not only expose the world to Columbia arts, but to also expose Columbia arts to the world! There are ideas and opportunities for collaborations that are not being explored. Let's create some opportunities for collaborations and universality through perhaps Sister Cities for starters.

On my wish list? It's time for a women's museum, a children's museum, and an independent art school. The spirit and excitement of art is apparent in Columbia’s eclectic art community. Still, the more we venture out, explore, and study the universal art world, the less repetitive we become.

This article appeared in the Fall 2022 Print issue of Jasper Magazine.

FROM THE PRINT ISSUE - PART TWO IN OUR SERIES ON KOGER CENTER PROJECT WINNING ARTISTS featuring COLLEEN CANNON-CARLOS

Welcome to the second article in our series on the Koger Center Project’s Winning Artists. You can get the background on this series in yesterday’s article on Kate Timbes, and learn more about the project and the other winners from an earlier Jasper Online post. Today we’re featuring Colleen Cannon-Karlos and sharing the article by Emily Moffitt that appears in the spring issue of Jasper Magazine!

~~~

Colleen Cannon-Karlos:

Left Brain, Right Brain – One Artist 

By Emily Moffitt

Photography by Perry McLeod

The intersection of art and science is sometimes explored only in name, particularly in academic settings. However, for Colleen Cannon-Karlos, the two fields are inextricably intertwined both in her art and her personhood.

Cannon-Karlos' upbringing took her across the country to both coasts—born in Los Angeles to native New Yorker parents, she ended up moving to New York after her parents divorced. During her school years, she excelled in all subjects, participating in gifted student programs and having a strong handle on both sides of her brain. The left brain seemed to dictate her path slightly more as she had not considered being an artist when she was younger. She still enjoyed creative endeavors, however. According to Cannon-Karlos, “I never had a formal art class growing up in school, and the gifted programs in the Bronx that I participated in had music as the cultural enrichment.” This did not stop Cannon-Karlos from pursuing artistic hobbies at home as her mother taught her how to knit, sew, and crochet. At home, she made her own art projects that combined her budding fiber arts skills with recycled materials like popsicle sticks and old fabrics. This resourcefulness has resurfaced years later in the Cannon-Karlos work we see today.

Even as the designated artist of the family, Cannon-Karlos still initially enrolled in schooling oriented toward a career in math or science. “I went to the Bronx High School of Science and had an affinity for math and physics,” says Cannon-Karlos. “There was a drafting class available if anyone wanted to be an architect or engineer, … I absolutely loved taking it. The precision, tools, and learning how to transfer schematic drawings into three-dimensions—I use these skills in my work today all the time.”

Precision is the key to much of Cannon-Karlos' artistic practices today. She developed these tools even further when she studied at Stanford University and worked in the physics lab. Her curriculum was strenuous and extremely scientific, but she always had art in the back of her mind. While in college at Stanford, the artist’s aunt asked her to make some art for her. This became an “a-ha” moment for Cannon-Karlos, whose time spent in the lab, identifying subatomic particles of smashed atoms, did not leave much time for creative hobbies. “I rediscovered my love for making stuff, using materials as simple as magic markers,” she remembers. It was time for her to find her path not only as someone with a knack for science, but also as an artist.

Cannon-Karlos decided to take a gap year from her Stanford studies and moved back to New York City to, hopefully, establish a career as an artist. She spent her days teaching herself how to paint, exploring museums and creative communities, and communing with playwrights, artists, and musicians. “This was during the 70s, so a lot of the community’s creative endeavors coalesced with different sociopolitical movements of the era,” Cannon-Karlos says. “There was this explosion of creative, dynamic energy that was so immersive and different from today.”

Working on her art career paid off early as she had her first gallery representation when she was 19-years-old. She began dabbling in photography and even convinced the staff photographer at the Studio Museum of Harlem to let her work with him in the darkroom. After spending the year building her portfolios in a variety of media, drawing, painting, and photography, she went back to Stanford and switched her major from sociology to art with a concentration in photography.

 She flourished in the field while also continuing to experiment with other media. The inquisitive Cannon-Karlos always had a knack for trying and learning something new and says that “some artists do the same thing for decades, but it is my nature to explore.” In her twenties, she began to bring back her fiber arts skills to simultaneously turn a profit and make some serious work; she was introduced to fabric design by her former husband, a fellow artist. She began to sell her handmade fabrics and clothing in flea markets, then boutiques and stores in New York. Eventually, Cannon-Karlos took the lessons she had learned practicing her art and began to apply them to something new: academia.

Throughout her career, Cannon-Karlos has instructed students of all ages, from elementary school through college. Since her methods of problem-solving combine both artistic and scientific approaches, she uses this thought process to her advantage in the classroom. She teaches her students that they may have analytic tools but they still need to be able to think outside the box.

The artist has also created curricula based around projects in which students can learn scientific concepts by making art. In Durham, NC, for example, she worked with the local art council and taught classes to elementary schoolers in which they studied ocean science through technical concepts but also had opportunities to create sculptures like jellyfish and tube worms with plastic bags, paper tubes, and other recycled materials that can, unfortunately, easily be found in oceans and bodies of water.

While she lived in Hawaii, she created curricula that truly captured the intersection of her interests. “I was finally able to make a proposal for an Art, Science, and Technology Class that collaborated with the marine science department,” says Cannon-Karlos. “We had a mix of art and science majors in the class, and we were allowed to use lab equipment, including their scanning electron microscopes. This allowed us to see the intricacies of the designs of a particular specimen at a microscopic level and beyond.” The designs found on the plates were only black and white, so the students would then learn how to use Photoshop to add color to their discoveries. While this was an art project in essence, Cannon-Karlos made sure that all students flexed both sides of their brains and wrote explanations of each step of their project, including why they dissected the image in a particular way, how they manipulated the image, and what they learned from the experience. The science-minded students loved the opportunity to express their inner creativity, and the arts students jumped at the opportunity to exhibit their talents on an academic level.

Thess lessons were among the many ways that Cannon-Karlos exhibited her proficiency in seeing things beyond the material plane and comprehending, on a deeper level, the use of an object or material for something completely different. Using recycled materials for creating artwork started in her childhood, and it has manifested contemporaneously as her preferred medium.

Piles of cardboard boxes inevitably piled up across Cannon-Karlos' cross-country moves. After collecting so many, but not wanting to throw them in the waste, she decided to express her resourcefulness by stripping, cutting, and tearing the boxes apart. “Being a science aficionado, I like to experiment with my materials and am always in that mindset of play,” says Cannon-Karlos. “I realized I could make some imagery with these strips.”

Cannon-Karlos had started to experiment with cardboard in 2019, but it was not until after the pandemic and a final move to Columbia that she seriously started to create with it. The cardboard allows Cannon-Karlos to work as a scientist again, finding ways to challenge herself and test new hypotheses regarding how she can use the cardboard and adapt the surface to do different things. One such test of skill was born out of observing sweetgrass basket weaving. “When I saw the weavers … I asked myself if I could simulate the weaving process with the corrugated cardboard.” This process also made Cannon-Karlos reflect on the resourcefulness of African artists, especially with recycled materials of their own. Her work is a constant conversation between culture and science, always looking to explore what that conversation could look like on a surface with one of the most accessible materials available. “A lot of recycled materials are brought over and dumped into Africa,” notes Cannon-Karlos. “The artists are very resourceful; they can go to the dump and pull fabrics, electronics, and other trash then turn it into the most amazing work. I am very inspired by people who look at things differently and turn them into something new.”

Like many other artists, Cannon-Karlos' career path did not follow a straight trajectory. The moves, twists, and turns provided great opportunities at each bend, but nothing necessarily consistent. “If I followed my trajectory out of grad school in the 90s, I may have become more prominent in the art world,” says Cannon-Karlos. “I have had to put my career aside working as a single parent. It is hard to be an artist when you are taking care of a family.” While working in Hawaii, she had first-hand experience with the exorbitant costs of shipping artwork, and the transience of teaching positions in higher education. Her trips across the country, while pursuing her dreams, created different bumps along the road. But when asked if she had the chance to do everything all over again, Cannon-Karlos admits that she may not change anything at all. Her life experiences and her way of approaching art, as both an academic and a creative, are what make her portfolios so alluring, with viewers waiting with anticipation to see what she’ll create next.

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.

Jasper Welcomes SC Photo Artists to the Jasper Alley at Tapp's for First Thursday in July

The Jasper Project is excited to announce our July First Thursday lineup for the Jasper Alley at Tapp’s. Still Here is a group photography exhibition featuring the work of SC photographers Jackson Campbell, Perry McLeod, Nora Williams, Alexander McDonald, Jr., and TuJuan “TJ” Huiett.

Please join us on Thursday, July 2nd from 6 – 8:30 PM to view their photography and spend some quality time with all of our artists. There will be wine & beer for purchase, music (TBA), and new issues of Jasper Magazine. When you enter the building through the front door at 1644 Main Street, head all the way to the right where you’ll find the Jasper Alley. Our featured artists will be on hand to answer questions about their work and processes.

Artist - Alexander McDonald, Jr.

Featured Artists

Alexander McDonald, Jr.

Alexander S. McDonald Jr. is a photographer whose studio has been the American highway for eighteen years. A long-haul truck driver by trade, he has crossed nearly every road in this country – building a quiet, sustained practice of documenting what most people drive past without seeing. His work focuses on landscape, sky, and the charged stillness of in-between places: cloud formations, mountain ranges, open plains, and overlooked roadside moments. McDonald's images don't reach for spectacle. They reach for honesty – the feeling of a place, alight a second that insists on being remembered. He is based on the road and everywhere in between. 

Artist - Perry McLeod

Perry McLeod

Perry McLeod is a Fullbright scholar, retired high school teacher, a photographer and avid traveler. He shoots sports, concerts, events, “and just about anything else I can point a camera at,” he says. “I love photography! Every day is a new adventure and I just want to capture the moments that will make people stop and think. Make people want to make a change. Make people smile. Make people go –‘Damn’ or ‘Nice’ or ‘Wow,” he says. “Photography is the most perfect art - we all get moments that will never happen again. It's frozen in time forever - how cool is that?”

A USC alumnus, McLeod taught Social Studies and Digital Media Production in both Richland District One and Richland District Two for 31 years. During his teaching career, he established a digital media production program at Richland Northeast High School, which fueled his love for photography and his fascination with video production. After retiring from education, McLeod's passion for photography continued to grow, and he has worked for several local and national media outlets. In addition to photography, McLeod has a deep love for travel. He says, "When I travel, my mind races with all the new things around me. I see a face, an old building, or an amazing vista, and I have to capture that moment." He believes that "a photograph is magic!"

Artist - Nora Williams

Nora Williams

Nora Williams was born and raised in South Carolina. As a fine-art, documentary artist, she explores the complexities of identity, place, and history in the American South. Her work examines themes of resilience, belonging, and social change, often focusing on underrepresented narratives.

Williams’ photographs have been exhibited in galleries that include the Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art. Williams has covered stories for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Huffington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. She is an FAA-certified drone pilot and a member of Black Women Photographers, Diversify Photo, NPPA, and Alternate Roots. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Studio Art with a concentration in Photography at the University of South Carolina. 

Artist - TJ Huiett

TaJuan "TJ" Huiett

A photographer based in Columbia, South Carolina, Huiett says his work is “all about capturing the real and raw moments of life through the lens of my camera. I’m inspired by documentary style photography and strive to tell authentic stories through my images. As an African American artist, I also aim to showcase the diversity and beauty of Black culture and experience. My love for travel has taken me all over the world, allowing me to capture stunning landscapes and unique cultural environments.” He continues, “I hope my photography can transport you to a different time and pace and make you see the world in a new light.”

Jackson Campbell

Jackson Campbell is a photographer based in Columbia, South Carolina. His work moves between abstraction and observation, often focusing on atmosphere, form, and texture. His images balance recognizable subjects with mood-driven compositions.

The Jasper photography exhibition Still Here will be on view in the Jasper Alley at Tapp’s throughout July and until the first week of August.

Spotlight on Jasper's Featured Artists in the Jasper Alley at Tapp's in June: Jackie Bobo, Michael Morris Zamora, and Barry J. White

This month, Jasper is featuring three artists in the Jasper Alley at Tapp’s that we want to make sure everyone knows about—Jackie Bobo, Barry J. White, and Michael Morris Zamora.

Artist - Barry J. White

Barry J. White is a Blythewood, SC-based self-taught multi-disciplinary artist whose works center the beauty, strength, and vulnerability of Black men. Guided by intuition, personal experience, and emotion, Barry’s paintings explore themes of identity and self-acceptance through expressive realism and atmospheric color.

Barry’s work has been featured in the following exhibitions For the People, Crowned by the Roots, Jasper Degenerate Arts II, as well as at Gemini Arts, Stormwater Studios, Roc Bottom Studio, and Drummond Studios. His work has been recognized for its depth, honesty, and visual storytelling. 

White says that his exhibition at the Jasper Alley has given me the confidence to start working on more pieces daily. I'm creating a collection I'm naming, I Drew Him. It's a collection of people that I have known over the years that inspire my current artistic expression. My next show is By Any Means, curated by KELA, with the opening reception on Juneteenth at REDUX Studio in Charleston, SC.”

Continuing, White says he is inspired by many local artists including Dre Lopez, Skrilla, Cam Moore, Keith Tolan, Damion Johnson, Sanford Greene, Jahnna Blyden, Ija Monet, and Tyrone Geter, but he really appreciates the work of his show-mate, Jackie Bobo, saying, “I can't look at Jackie's work without thinking about the kindness she extends to the people around her. Before I ever spent time with her artwork, Jackie encouraged me to embrace vulnerability and find the courage to share my own art and show up as my authentic self. That same spirit lives inside her paintings. In her work, what's typically viewed as different or spooky becomes a strength instead of something to hide or be ashamed of. Little Lonely Ghost feels less like sadness and more like an invitation to be seen. Her "Happy Spooky" aesthetic reminds me that belonging isn't about fitting in, it's about showing up as your authentic self. Spending time with her art feels like receiving permission to take up space exactly as you are.”

Artist - Jackie Bobo

Jackie Bobo is the vibrant force behind Bobo to the Max, an art practice and brand that creates emotionally immersive art and experiences inviting people to feel deeply, express fully, and belong as their most vivid selves.

Informed by nearly a decade as a speech-language pathologist—and more than three decades of living at the intersection of queerness, Blackness, and neurodivergence—Bobo approaches painting as its own language, one capable of holding nuance from the playful to the profound.

Through her signature “Happy Spooky” aesthetic—bright, bold colors paired with ghosts, spiders, and other whimsically macabre motifs—her work explores what it means to unmask, authentically connect, and belong. Each piece acts as a symbol of self-acceptance, affirming that belonging doesn’t mean blending in—it means revealing who you already are.

Bobo, who is currently an artist-in-residence with One Columbia for Arts & Culture at the Garage Studio, says she is “in the ideation phase of another immersive experience, but I'm being intentionally tight-lipped about it for now!”

About her show-mate Barry J White, Bobo says, “Barry captures the power, in both strength and tenderness, of Black masculinity in a way that's magnetic. His work makes you feel, in real time, suspended between society's limited understanding of and ability to hold space for Black masculinity, showcased through his daring vulnerability and technical skill.”

Artist - Michael Morris Zamora

Michael Morris Zamora was born in Puerto Rico to a South Carolinian father and a Puerto Rican mother. Mostly self-taught, he began creating art at the age of ten, and by fourteen, was painting in oil and acrylic mediums with a tendency toward abstract expressionism.

A chemist, film actor, writer, poet, and drummer, in Puerto Rico Zamora is also a Certified Artisan specializing in wood carving and sculpting, harkening back to his childhood interests in iron sculpting, wood carving, miniature buildings installations, and jewelry-making from natural seeds and seashells. In 1972 he published some of his first poems and stories. In 1980 he published his poetry book, Telarañas (translated, Cobwebs). 

Zamora also taught elementary art and later studied art at the San Juan Art Students League under Professors Rafael Rivera Ortiz (drawing and painting), and Hiram Rosado Poupart (ceramics).

According to Barry J. White, “I've met Michael on several occasions, and what stands out immediately is his warmth. He's a natural storyteller, always ready with a conversation, and he has a genuine enthusiasm that makes people feel welcome. That same sense of curiosity seems to carry into his artwork. Michael's paintings move between dreams, emotions, memory, and abstraction. Two pieces that especially resonate with me are Depression and Dreaming in Green. While very different in mood, both feel deeply human. Depression captures a quiet heaviness and vulnerability, while Dreaming in Green feels expansive, imaginative, and full of possibility. Michael’s paintings don't simply depict a subject; they create space for reflection and emotion. Like the stories he tells from his life experiences, they stay with you long after you've walked away.”

Bobo agrees adding, “Michael's work makes me feel like I've found a visual escape hatch from this reality into a world where my thoughts, galloping as they may be, are supported by his artistry the whole time. His use of color and the integration of various subjects on his canvases invite ease and reflection while maintaining presence—like a daydream.”

Zamora returns the sentiments about both his show-mates. “When I met Jackie for the first time in person at the Jasper Magazine release party a couple of months ago, it was a magical moment. For some reason, we recognized ourselves immediately,” he says. “Since we were notified we were going to be in the June Tapps show together I was touched by the magical vibrance of her creations. Her work and personal energy really synchronized with me and we spent over an hour engaged in a wonderful exchange of ideas and artistic views.”

He continues, “About Barry I can say we connected from the first moment as well.  He is such a humble being with a spiritual aura that you can feel every time you coincide with him on any artistic venue. His sensibility can be felt both on his great artistic expression and his person as well. [Barry is] always ready for a fraternal hug with his contagious smile. I feel so honored by being with both great artists. Thanks to the Jasper Project for this memorable experience.”

The work of all three artist will remain on display at the Jasper Alley at Tapp’s until the end of June when the group photography exhibition, Still Here, is installed. Still Here features the work of Jackson Campbell, Perry McLeod, Nora Williams, Alexander McDonald, Jr., and TaJuan "TJ" Huiett.

Read about showing YOUR work via one of the Jasper Project’s gallery spaces throughout the city and apply today!

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.)