Join Jasper for Vista Lights this Thursday - featuring Lisa Alberghini, Adam Corbett, Karen Sargent, Candace Catoe, Carla Damron, and Valerie Lamott

by Cindi Boiter

In my heart I’m just now switching over from sandals and sundresses to blue jeans and boot weather, but in my brain the calendar tells me that the holidays are sneaking up on us and I think I have to believe it. Unless we’re deep in the darkest timeline, which isn’t out of the question, numbers don’t lie. This Thursday is November 21st and that means Vista Lights is happening this week. Already.

Luckily, the Jasper Team has been at the planning table and we have an evening of local art and festivities planned for you when you join us on Thursday, November 21 at 6 pm at Coal Powered Filmworks at 1217 Lincoln Street in Columbia’s historic Vista. As usual, we’ll have a fun roster of local artists who will be sharing their wares – ornaments, jewelry, small art, surprises!

Among our featured artists are Lisa Alberghini, Adam Corbett, Karen Sargent, Candace Catoe, Carla Damron, and Valerie LaMott!

We’ll have some light snacks, friendly faces, and loads of good cheer as we pretend our political world is still on its axis and we take refuge in the reciprocated pretense of joy on all your smiling faces.

There may be booze.

Join us!

On Jasper Radar -- Upcoming Events at NBT by Emily Moffitt

What’s been lovingly referred to as the “New New Brookland Tavern” by Columbia denizens, (or maybe just me) the freshly relocated Columbia staple New Brookland Tavern in the former Cotton Gin bar has reenergized the nightlife of Five Points and continued to bring communities together. There is a show for everyone there, and with new programming taking place almost every day, there is no shortage of things to do.

On Sunday, July 21, from 6 – 11 p.m., grab a ticket for Daddy Lion, Husband, and Moses & the Wilderness. The concert focuses on celebrating ten years of “introspective indie pop.” It also functions as a touching reunion for Daddy Lion, a dream pop group whose lead singer Jeremy Joseph moved away from Columbia not too long ago. The electro-pop duo Husband consists of resident Jasper Board of Directors member and Managing Director Bekah Rice, along with her husband Adam Corbett. The duo features local sound engineer MIDIMarc in this performance as well. Moses & the Wilderness is the solo project of Moses Andrews III, a live performer and session musician that brings soul and wit to any genre. Tickets for the show are available online for $10 before fees..

Join Mirci at New Brookland Tavern on Wednesday, July 31 for a family-friendly night of comedy, Laugh Therapy, presented by Healthy Laughter. Featuring side-splitting stand-up sets by Comedian Akintunde and "Atlanta's Best Clean Comedian" Joel Byars. Beats courtesy of your DJ & host for the night, Preach Jacobs. Participate in raffles, mental health trivia, and more! Entry is $9.88 to honor the Suicide & Crisis Prevention Lifeline. Proceeds from ticket sales go towards Mirci and supporting their mission. Tickets are available online or at the door.

The New Brookland Tavern adds programming to their schedule weekly. Check out their website for other great events and concerts.           

Virginia Russo Joins Saul Seibert for Artists Showing Artists THIS THURSDAY


For the first installation of the Jasper Project’s Artists Showing Artists series taking place this Thursday night at 7 at The Living Room, Saul Seibert chose Artist Virginia Russo as one of the artists he would like to feature. 

Kara Virginia Russo is a visual and performance artist who grew up in the tiny lake towns of 1980's central Florida, before moving north and earning a BFA from Converse College in Spartanburg, SC. After living for a while in both Asia and Europe, she returned to settle with her husband and two children in South Carolina, where she splits her time as an artist between Columbia and Greenville. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions from Charleston to Asheville.  

Most recently, she collaborated on Zion: a Composition by Saul Seibert, contributing album art, projection visuals, merchandise design and creation, and live ritual based performance art.



According to Russo, “My job as an artist is primarily to SEE, and only secondarily to communicate what I see. In expressing what is unseen (both within and without), I have found it helpful to use the visual language of an inner world I think of simply as The Planet. I like to explore the tension of navigating the wild terrain of the unseen from the safety of the imaginary. Think of my work as paintings, photographs, and explorer’s notes from a place you’ve never been, but one which feels immediately familiar.

“My pieces are built of layers upon layers of wet in wet watercolor and ink, relying on long experience to predict what the unleashed media might do, while staying open to surprise. Over the wet media (or occasionally under), I layer pencil, oil and chalk pastel, collage, and embroidery. I think of the wet media as attempts to paint mystery, and the dry media as attempts to expound and interpret to myself what I have painted, like notes in the margin of a well-loved book.” 

Russo continues, “My collaboration with Saul on Zion happened one day while he was looking at some of my recent work. I remember him sending me a message in response to some pieces that read simply, "I know this place."  I felt the same way the first time I heard the beginnings of the music. The work we've done together has been based on that ever since. We are artistically walking the same landscape. I see my role as simply making visible what is already there inside the music. When I listen to Zion, I'm transported to this place that is unique to Zion but is set in some other corner of my own imaginary world that all my work comes from. I can walk around, explore, see the features of this world, and then come back and paint it. The performance art is the same, I use the body as an instrument to convey visually the emotions and narrative of the piece in real time for the audience at live shows. I contribute all visual art for the project, from designing and hand printing the shirts, to the album art, to the bank of film that Ash Lennox, who does our live visual sets, pulls from. It's an incredible piece of music, and I still can't believe I get to collaborate on it. The musicians are phenomenal, I'm blown away every single time they play it.  

“Zion as a project was more or less part of my life as an artist for two years, from the very beginning of the project. It provided the steady thread all through an overseas move back to America, and all the transition that came with it. Zion stayed the same, I think the project kept me sane.  

“When the collaboration began, I had only been making art again for a year after a decade long hiatus. Zion provided the framework I needed to find my voice and confidence. I would ask Saul his opinion, and he would just say that he trusted me completely. I had complete artistic freedom, which was intimidating at first, but challenged me to grow as an artist in ways I'm grateful for. I grew into the project, in a sense. Every now and then, Saul would say something like "wouldn't it be cool if..." and I knew I was about to learn to do something I didn't think I could do. I picked up whole skill sets I had never tried before, ranging from stop motion, to illustration, to block printing. Saul had such confidence in my abilities, anything seemed possible. On top of that, Columbia has welcomed me into the creative community, and I can't imagine making art without all this support.” 

Join Jasper on Thursday night as we facilitate Rebekah Corbett’s project, Artists Showing Artists with Saul Seibert. Saul has invited poet-songwriters, Alyssa Stewart, and NoN (Keith Smyly), as well as his band King Saul and the Heretics. Art will be on display and available for sale by Virginia Russo, Adam Corbett, and Emily Moffitt. 

Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. 

The Living Room, 6729 Two Notch Road #70, Columbia, SC, 29223

Tickets

jasperproject.org/artists-showing-artists/tickets


Refillable Jasper cups for beer and wine will be available for $10 as well as hotdogs and a selection of baked goods. 

All proceeds go toward supporting the Jasper Project’s mission.

Jasper's 10th Birthday Party is Finally Happening! April 14th at 701 Whaley

Join us at 701 Whaley’s newly renovated POOL Hall for the long-awaited celebration of the Jasper Project’s 10th Birthday!

Music from Post-Timey String Band, Adam Corbett and more

Dance performance from Columbia Repertory Dance Co.

DJ Preach Jacobs

Food from Chef Joe Turkaly

Art Sale featuring work from some of Columbia’s top visual artist including Thomas Crouch, Lauren Chapman, Dawn Hunter, Caitlin Maloney, Candace Thibeault and MORE!

Raffle featuring items from your favorite businesses in town.

Emcee Eric Tucker.

Many more surprises!

Plus, be among the first to party on the 100-year-old pool at 701 Whaley!

And CAKE!

Party Guests are limited to 150 people and all guests receive 1 free raffle ticket and can purchase additional $5 tickets at the event


 Tickets

$20 advance - $25 at the door general admission Or

 A limited number of VIP Sponsor tickets are available in advance and include:

  • Early admission at 6 pm for a Champagne reception sponsored by Kristian Niemi (and keep drinking champagne all night if you’d like!)

  • Be the first to sample Chef Joe Turkaly’s dining delights

  • Reserved table seating

  • Recognition from the stage & on social media

  • A swag bag Packed to the brim with gifts from your favorite arts organizations & businesses in town

VIP Tickets - $60 each or $100 per couple

Table for 8 - $1000 (includes a private serenade at your table by musician & visual artist Adam Corbett - and surprises)

Jasper Talks with February Tiny Gallery Artist, Musician and Painter Adam Corbett

“There are several heroes, a ghost or two, a couple of villains, some victims, and comic relief characters in this show…in your version you might pick a different hero and shift all the roles, and I think that would be fantastic” — Adam Corbett

 

RED by Adam Corbett

Adam Corbett is no stranger to the Columbia art scene, having played concerts for years and now beginning to show his art at markets. For his first gallery show, he has curated ten pieces, ten characters, with unique stories to tell. 

Learn more about Corbett, his background, and his current show in our recent interview.

 

JASPER: Did you grow up around art, or is it something you came to as an adult? 

CORBETT: I grew up in Lexington. My mother is an artist, and my grandfather was as well. Mostly they would paint things for their own homes or gifts for someone, but it was for sure a part of my childhood. My family also ran an after-school art/activity program for most of my childhood.

 

JASPER: So, when did you begin to get into art, and where did you start? 

CORBETT: Middle school band was my way into music, honestly. I had tried some things before that—mom and dad both play piano—but something about fifth grade band (with Mr. Rhodes) and that saxophone section really got my brain at the right time. I think I took up guitar that summer, and the cool factor was enough of an incentive there; I was hooked. I started performing and teaching lessons for pocket money around fifteen.

 

JASPER: You’ve worked as a musician for some time since then—what drew you to visual art from there?  

CORBETT: Outside of greeting cards for my mom (family tradition), visual art was something I really just did for myself, to decompress or just pass time. That was until the pandemic happened. I absolutely escaped into carving, painting, cartoons, and little doodles during the most troubling times of 2020. Watercolor painting became a daily mental health thing very quickly. I’m always playing with different materials and art forms, but I don’t see myself giving up my watercolor practice anytime soon. 

Vultura - Adam Corbett

JASPER: If you were to reflect on your visual and aural work, what would you say about their relationship to one another or what is unique about each method of creating? 

CORBETT: To write and perform music is an exercise in vulnerability for me, even if the song is about something silly. I’ve been blessed to sing my songs to rooms full of people who knew the words and joined in. I’ve even had a couple of those moments at shows where I got to point the mic at a mass of people, and they took a chorus. With my paintings the rewarding part is different. With visual art, to me, a success happens when the creation is completed, and then there is a whole other accomplishment in the work being chosen, even if it’s just a “like” by someone. Then there is the big win of someone purchasing and displaying it in their space, wherever that is. The specific feeling of knowing a sad bat-clown man I painted is on display in a stranger’s home somewhere in Columbia is as strong a feeling as those singalong moments; it’s very different but just as strong.

 

JASPER: Do you find you pursue similar themes in your music and paintings, or does each hold an expression of different themes? 

CORBETT: I feel about my themes like a deer feels about headlights. Humor, fantasy, sci-fi, whimsy—all with a heavy helping of grossness, I guess—are some of general themes I’m working with right now. With songs and lyrics, I feel like I’m telling you how I feel, and we feel something together about it. Music taught me that the audience decides what you meant, whether you meant it or not.

 

JASPER: When you sit down to create, regardless of medium, do you go through a specific mental process? Do you have any creation rituals, so to speak? 

CORBETT: I have the most inconsistent creative process—calling it a process at all might be too much. I draw and paint in my kitchen at the counter. I write lyrics in my car a lot. There is something to those places typically being the messiest places in my day to day. Sometimes I'll make an awesome doodle at a social gathering or pull full verses and choruses out of the air. Sometimes a really great piece can go from nothing to done in 20 minutes (but we all know there was time invested prior to that). Other times, I work on a song or painting for months, and it might never see the light of day. The quality of the work doesn’t always go with how much time goes into it.

 

JASPER: How do you know when to walk away from a piece? When is it “done”? 

CORBETT: Emotionally, song lyrics are like mantras; if you write a song to sing over and over you will hear those words more often than anyone. With painting there is this moment when a painting is done. The idea of adding more paint to it is out of the question. Lyrics never feel that way to me.

 

JASPER: When piecing together this show, how did you go about selecting works? Are there any larger ideas or concepts tying it together? 

CORBETT: I painted “Red” to round out my show to ten pictures, and I selected the other nine from what work I had done over the last year. I picked out what images I thought told the most story individually while also telling a larger story as a group. There is a bit of a fantasy theme throughout. There are several heroes, a ghost or two, a couple of villains, some victims, and comic relief characters in this show. I think the story will be best if I let you (the audience) decide who is who. In your version you might pick a different hero and shift all the roles, and I think that would be fantastic. 

Horns - Adam Corbett

JASPER: Looking back at showings you’ve had of your art; do you have a favorite memory? 

CORBETT: At one of the first markets I did, there was this young kid, maybe like 11 years old. They thought all my art was cool and told me so. I haven’t received a better accolade yet.

 

Corbett’s show will be up until February 28th, and his work is available to peruse and purchase 24/7 via Jasper’s virtual gallery:

 If you want to follow Corbett, check out his music here: https://adamcorbett.bandcamp.com/ and his art on Instagram @s4d4mz

February's Tiny Gallery Features Adam Corbett

It’s always exciting to us at Jasper when we get to witness artists cross genre lines to dip their toes in disciplines other than what they are known for. This month, musician and music educator Adam Corbett is doing just that by participating in the Jasper Project’s Tiny Gallery Series. But this isn’t the first time Corbett has wandered from music to visual arts waters. Corbett has been participating in several of the pop up community arts festivals that have become so popular since Covid grounded most of our gallery showings. In fact, Corbett’s little Christmas gnomes, offered as part of Jasper’s Tiny Gallery Ornament Show were so popular that we sold out of his creations.

Corbett is back in the Tiny Gallery this month with a collection of watercolors and mixed media portraits with sizes ranging from 8 x 10 to 12 x 14 and price points from $30 to $125.

Visit Corbett in the Tiny Gallery and snap up one of his original pieces while they’re both accessible and affordable.

Red by Adam Corbett

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Adam Corbett is a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and visual artist from Lexington, South Carolina. After releasing numerous records, helping to produce a musical, and taking a break from his career as a music teacher, Adam branched out into visual art as a way to cope with the COVID-19 lockdown. Throughout this period, he has experimented with various mediums in a variety of formats focusing always on exploration, play, and following his muse.

The Other One by Adam Corbett

Check out the rest of Adam Corbett’s Show at

Jasper’s Tiny Gallery

Art in the Yard - This Week it's Keenan Terrace w/ 20+ Artists & Music AND Art from Adam Corbett

It’s spring and, along with the blooms and blossoms reminding us that there is life outside our homes, there is a mightily welcome crop of cultural events beckoning the vaccinated among us to don our loveliest masks and venture out to see what the winter created.

Some of these events are still scary — it’s surprising how many people are hesitant to get that free superpower injected in their arms. (But chances are they’re the same people who still refuse to wear a mask, no matter how fashionable they’ve become.)

But some of these events are no-brainers even if you’re concerned about conspiracy nuts and their germs, given that the events are outside and you’re on your feet at all times, ready to run away from unsavory-looking mask-less marauders.

Neighborhood art festivals, for example.

Saturday brings us Keenan Terrace Art in the Yard and April 25th bring us Melrose Park Art in the Yard — two completely different but equally exciting events.

The Keenan Terrace show, created in the fall of 2020 by Columbia-based artist and curator, Bohumila Augustinova, is located in and around 409 Cumberland Drive, runs from 2 to 6 pm, and is free and pet friendly.

Among the artists whose work you’ll both see and hear is Adam Corbett.

Adam Corbett is a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and visual artist from Lexington South Carolina best known for his work in local band, The Restoration. After releasing numerous records, helping to produce a musical, and ending his career as a music teacher, Adam branched out into visual art as a way to cope with the COVID-19 lockdown. Throughout this period, he has experimented with various mediums in a variety of formats focusing always on exploration, play, and following his muse.

Corbett will also be providing live music for the event.

artist - Adam Corbett

artist - Adam Corbett

artist - Adam Corbett

artist - Adam Corbett

adam3.jpg

artist - Adam Corbett

Additional artists include but are not limited to Michael Krajewski, Flavia Lovatelli, Bohumila Augustinova, Candace Cotterman Thibeault, K. Wayne Thornley, Stan Cummings, Lucas Sams, Aimee Norris, and many more.

Now is a great time to start thinking about Mothers Day and Graduation presents, or even something special to reward yourself for making it through this winter of our discontent and embracing the new day.

artist - Stan Cummings

artist - Stan Cummings

artist - Flavia Lovatelli

artist - Flavia Lovatelli

artist - Michael Krajewski

artist - Michael Krajewski

artist - Susan Lenz

artist - Susan Lenz

artist - The Tie Lady

artist - The Tie Lady

artist - Candace Cotterman Thibeault

artist - Candace Cotterman Thibeault

artist - Bohumila Augustinova

artist - Bohumila Augustinova

Jasper Magazine Release Party Featuring THE Exclusive Preview Of The Restoration's Constance - The Musical

Exclusive Preview. Pre-Show Concert. Gallery Opening. Supper. Silent Auction of Stuff You Love. Intimate Talk-Back with the Director and Composer. ANND the New Jasper Magazine?

Yes, Please!

Constance_social.jpg

In a celebration of the release of the 34th issue of Jasper Magazine, The Jasper Project presents an exclusive preview of the Restoration’s Constance – The Musical on Thursday, May 3rd, 2018 at Trustus Theatre. The party includes the opportunity to be among the first in Columbia to see and hear the long-awaited original production of Chad Henderson’s Constance, based on the album Constance by Daniel Machado, Adam Corbett, and The Restoration, in its entirety.

But in keeping with The Jasper Project’s mission of bringing multidisciplinary artists together we will also feature an intimate pre-show concert by Daniel Machado and Adam Corbett; the opening visual arts exhibition of Jasper cover artist Ansley Adams in the Trustus gallery; a post-show interview with former roommates playwright Chad Henderson and Constance creator Daniel Machado; a silent auction featuring signed books, dinners, bar tabs, and art generously donated by supporters of Jasper Magazine; a potluck picnic dinner that you don’t have to cook for; door prizes, and more.

Tickets are $20 – a savings over regularly priced tickets via The Jasper Project (you’re welcome!) at Brown Paper Tickets – https://constance.bpt.me