Like most people in the greater SC Midlands arts community, we’ve known visual artist Regina Langston for a long time. Her work is bright and happy, whimsical, and clever, with a color palette that grabs the viewer and commands them to take notice.
For Jasper, Gina has always been a great go-to artist for our gallery spaces when a previously scheduled artist has to drop out. Of course, we love showing her work during scheduled periods, but we’ve come to rely on her, too. Prolific as hell, Gina is the kind of artist who keeps a large inventory of art despite regularly selling out whenever she shows her work. Yet she has always answered our call when we’ve needed her.
But on July 6th, Regina suffered a spiral fracture of her ankle along with the tearing of essential ligaments. Surgery provided her with a plate, 14 screws, and one pin and forced her to be out of work from her job teaching art for three months. She just got back to walking and driving last month.
The Jasper Project services six gallery spaces, including our monthly exhibitions via Tiny Gallery, The Nook at the Koger Center for the Arts, and our First Thursday exhibition at Sound Bites Eatery on Sumter Street. These three spaces each show the work of one featured artist per month. While it had become a bit of a tradition for us to organize a special group show at Sound Bites in December at which multiple artists offer artworks that make for lovely holiday presents, this year we decided to do things differently. Given Regina’s injury this year and subsequent loss of work, we thought it would be a good thing to offer her a solo show for December to show her our support and appreciation. Regina happily accepted, saying, “This experience has given my heart much-needed mending because my community of amazing artists and friends really showed up and showed out for me.”
This makes us happy.
Please join the Jasper Project, Regina Langston, and our delightful hosts at Sound Bites Eatery on Thursday, December 4th during Main Street’s First Thursday festivities as we celebrate art, the holidays, Regina, and the amazing community we enjoy every day.
It’ll make you happy, too.