The Jasper Project Announces the 2025 Galleries Season by Christina Xan

Christina Xan is wrapping up her time as Galleries Manager with the Jasper Project as she pursues her academic career. We thank her for her dedicated efforts to exhibit and make available for purchase art by hundreds of South Carolina artists via the Jasper Project Galleries Series and wish her great happiness and success in her coming endeavors.

~Cb

Down Home by Christopher Lane

The Jasper Project is delighted that, for another year, we have the privilege to show the work of 50+ artists via the Jasper Galleries Series. Starting in 2018 with the Tiny Gallery, Jasper Galleries has now grown to a 6-location series across the Midlands, including our original fully online space. 

Mark your calendars for a full slate of talented local artists, who Jasper will share more info about as their individual shows draw closer. Make sure to follow Jasper’s social media and newsletter (Sundays with Jasper) for all updates!

Tortoise Tears by Rebecca Horne

Harbison Theatre

Running alongside Harbison’s programming, Jasper features two artists in the theatre’s lobby in 2025: a Spring and a Fall artist. While the Fall opening will be announced along with the theatre’s 2025-2026 season, the Spring opening is January 24th at 6:30pm, before Patrick Davis performs at 7:30.

SPRING (January–May): Jeffrey Miller

FALL (September–December): Rebecca Horne

 

Jordan Sheridan with her installation The Mother

Koger Center for the Arts

The gallery at Koger Center for the Arts, fondly named “The Nook,” is located external to the upstairs gallery, on the wall across from the main staircase. New art opens every Third Thursday (except most Decembers) with a reception from 5:30pm-7:00pm.

January: Jordan Sheridan

February: Toni Elkins

March: Thomas Washington

April: Richard Lund

May: Chris Lane

June: Jakeem DaDream

July: Virginia Russo

August: Lori Isom

September: Jeff Amberg

October: Colleen Cannon-Karlos

November: Sean Madden

Lauren Tillar - Compton Sun

Meridian Sidewalk Gallery

These windows proudly feature along Sumter and Washington Streets, at the base of the Meridian Building, with art rotating quarterly. Each quarter, Jasper shows a pair of 2D artists alongside one 3D artist.

January–March

       Emily Wright

    Chris Lane

        Marion Mason

April–June

         Mark Dreher

         Vanessa DeVore

         Sharon Licata

July–September

         Camille Johnson

         Lauren Tillar

         Renee Rouillier

October–December

         Beth Morgan

        Robert Sargent

 

Laurie McIntosh - Low Country Boil

Motor Supply Company Bistro

Jasper’s second quarterly space is a solo show at the Motor Supply Co. Bistro, where opening receptions typically take place on the second Friday of the opening month from 6:00pm—8:00pm.

January–March: Mary Ann Haven

April–June: Rodgers Boykin

July–September: Steven White

October–December: Laurie McIntosh

Judy Bolton Jarrett of Art Can Studio, Chapin

 Sound Bites Eatery 

First Thursday fun is had monthly at Sound Bites Eatery at 1425 Sumter Street, with (mostly) solo shows happening from 5:30-8:00 on each respective Thursday. In August, Sound Bites throws their own party for their birthday month!  

Important note: January 205 Opening Reception will be held on January 9th! 

January: Josef Berliner and Wilma King

February: Sharon Funderburk

March: Lucy Spence

April: Kelley Pettibone

May: Devon Jeremy

June: Pat Gillam

July: Judy Jarrett

September: Candace Catoe

October: Renea Eshleman

November: Judy Maples

December: Holiday Show – Artists TBA!

Tiny Gallery

Last, but certainly not least, the show that started it all. Moved online during the pandemic and kept online due to its success, the Tiny Gallery provides a 24/7 haven of art, rotating artists out every month.

January: Betsy Kaemmerlen

February: Lindsay Radford

March: Mia Estrada

April: Linda Cannup

May: Colton Giles

June: Lisa Alberghini

July: Jean Capalbo

August: Abby Short

September: K. Wayne Thornley

October: Devon Corley

November: Yyusri

December: Ornament Show – Artists TBA!

 

Keep up to date with Jasper for any opening reception changes, artist details, and updates on holidays shows and one-off gallery events!

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by Supporting Local Hispanic and Latino/a Creators by Christina Xan

National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 – October 15 and highlights and celebrates Hispanic and Latino heritage and identity in the United States. Hispanic (those from Spanish-speaking countries) and Latin (those from Latin America) culture is rife with history that enriches the communities we dwell in.  Columbia is one of these diverse spaces, and the art that emerges from this city, specifically, is inundated with a multitude of cultural perspectives. This Hispanic Heritage Month, Jasper encourages all patrons to seek out multidisciplinary art from Hispanic and Latino/a artists and to explore how the creators’ backgrounds affect their work.  Don’t know where to start? Jasper talked with six Columbia-based artists about how their cultural identity affects their creative process. Learn about them and their work below.

Daniel Esquivia Zapata

Daniel Esquivia Zapata – Visual Artist

 Describe the kind of art you make.  

Daniel’s work explores ideas about historical memory, official historical narratives, and what he terms the politics of remembering. He does this through life-size figurative drawings that combine historical texts, the human body, plants, and animals to generate strong spaces that work as poetic imagery, probing the dynamics of narratives in history and historical memory. This represents an exercise not only of why and what, but also of how we remember, especially in societies with conflicting narratives, obfuscated historical memories, and legacies of colonialism. He uses a combination of traditional figure drawing techniques, liquid charcoal and fragmented print and hand-written texts to draw on several layers of mylar, creating life size drawings that combine representations of the human body, plants, and animals to create news bodies that work as metaphors for political bodies intersected by history, newspaper articles and archives. With these drawings Daniel seeks to unveil the "place of memory" within our bodies amid intersecting discourses, making tangible the essence of our collective past and present. His work has driven him to create images that replace the common container metaphor of memory with one that understands memory as something dynamic and interconnected; something alive, inhabited by ideas, narratives, and discourses that live, age, die (or are killed); something like an ecosystem of memories and narratives, and ecosystem that is inhabited by beings of texts.  

Describe the role your cultural identity has in your work.  

In Daniel's life, a multiplicity of narratives and multinational experiences has made him think deeply about the dynamics of discourse and narratives in our societies, especially as an Afro-Latino in the Americas. For Daniel, the intersection of different identities has profoundly influenced his work. His experiences as the son of a human rights lawyer and a social worker in a multiethnic and multiracial family in Colombia; as a victim of forced displacement from his hometown in 1989; as an Afro-Colombian who studied at a HBCU in the US South [Benedict College]; and as a citizen living in Colombia and grappling with the legacies and present realities of its civil war; these experiences have all presented points of encounter with the forces of history’s multiple faces—unofficial, alternative, contested, surviving—that build and situate someone’s identity. 

Alejandro García-Lemos

Alejandro García-Lemos – Visual Artist

Describe the kind of art you make. 

Alejandro García-Lemos is a visual artist based in Columbia, South Carolina and New Orleans, Louisiana. 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 have been shown mostly in the Southeast. Alejandro is a former 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. Lately his work has been shown in Colombia. 

Describe the role your cultural identity has in your work.  

For this particular question I had to look up the exact definition of cultural identity … Cultural identity is a part of a person's identity, or their self-conception and self-perception, and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality, gender, or any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture. Therefore my cultural identity is omnipresent in my work, as I had mentioned many times before, I am three times a minority, I am Latinx, gay, and immigrant, how could you avoid those aspects as an intrinsic part of all your art? 

Emily Moffitt

Emily Moffitt – Visual Artist

 Describe the kind of art you make. 

The type of art I create boils down to what I have the most fun with. I'm still trying to make my way in and have my foot in the door of the Columbia art scene! Like most Gen Z artists, I got into art from a young age via immense media consumption: video games, anime, cartoons, comics, and the list continues. As a result, the kind of work I create typically falls under the "illustration" category. I go back and forth between illustration and fine art, and sometimes I still think the distinction shouldn't even matter! As a recent college graduate who has now experienced the adulthood rite of passage that is working a 9-5 while still having time for hobbies, as long as I take even 10 minutes of my day to get my hands moving and draw something in my sketchbook, it's a successful day for me. 

Describe the role your cultural identity has in your work.  

The "fine art" I created started with a body of work that explored my heritage and connected to it more after my grandmother passed away in 2021, and I aim to continue it either by maintaining the "dreamscape" title or by starting a new collection. My goal in the fine art world is to create a body of work that I'm constantly thinking about, called "My Mother's Kitchen," since the closest ties I have to my Puerto Rican heritage stem from cuisine, my relationship with my mom, and the amount of time I spent growing up in and around the kitchen watching my mother make the recipes she grew up making with my grandmother. At this point, it's just a matter of me finding the time, and holding myself accountable, that's preventing me from following through! I do find that my mixed heritage sometimes feels like an obstacle when I do work, however, and that's an internalized hurdle I try to overcome when I create, too. Taíno symbology persists throughout my heritage-based work, and I wanted to also focus on the importance of my relationships with my mom and sister. My Puerto Rican heritage has been driven and shaped only by women in my life, and I wanted to pay homage to that, especially since my sister and I feel the same internalized obstacle of sometimes feeling "not Latina enough."  

Claire Jiménez – Author

Describe the kind of art you make.  

Claire Jiménez is a Puerto Rican writer who grew up in Brooklyn and Staten Island, New York. She is the author of the short story collection Staten Island Stories (Johns Hopkins Press, 2019) and What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez (Grand Central, 2023). She received her M.F.A. from Vanderbilt University and her PhD in English with specializations in Ethnic Studies and Digital Humanities from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. In 2019, she co-founded the Puerto Rican Literature Project, a digital archive documenting the lives and work of hundreds of Puerto Rican writers from over the last century. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina. 

Describe the role your cultural identity has in your work.

My writing is very much influenced by the work of past Puerto Rican writers, especially the Nuyorican poets. I am thinking of Pedro Pietri's "The Puerto Rican Obituary" and the work of Judith Ortiz Cofer. I remember reading Silent Dancing and "The Story of My Body" for the first time as a young person, who had a hard time finding books by any Puerto Rican authors in the bookstore in the nineties. These texts were inspiring to me as a young reader, and they definitely shaped me as a writer.

Loli Molina Muñoz

Loli Molina Muñoz – Author 

Describe the kind of art you make. 

I write poetry and fiction. I have just finished my first poetry chapbook manuscript in English, and I also have a feminist dystopia novella in Spanish, both of them searching for a warming publishing house.  

Describe the role your cultural identity has in your work.  

Being born and raised in Málaga, Spain, I grew up immersed in both Spanish and English language thanks to literature, music, and pop culture, which deeply influenced my work. However, I have also lived in Coventry (UK), Wisconsin, and finally moved to South Carolina in 2013. For this reason, my work explores themes of identity, feminism, migration, and the intersections between cultures.

[ALMA] SPANISH

Querida madre:

Estos días pienso mucho en usted.

Ayer me acordé de su guiso de 

carne y quise hacer uno yo. 

No me supo igual. 

Me faltaba el sabor añadido de sus 

manos y el olor de su delantal. 

Los niños dijeron que estaba muy 

bueno. Yo les di las gracias y sonreí.

Dos lágrimas que se escaparon 

disimulando para no ser vistas. 

Tampoco vieron las dos cartas del

banco avisando del desahucio. 

Les dije que vamos a pasar unos 

días en casa de Alejandra.

Les hizo ilusión pasar un tiempo 

con sus primos y eso me alivió. 

Luego recordé aquella vez que

usted me dijo que eligiera mi 

muñeca favorita.

Crucé el desierto de la mano de 

Alejandra con la muñeca pegada 

a mi pecho como un amuleto. 

Aún conservo mi muñeca.

Aún tengo a Alejandra. 

Voy a estar bien. 

No se preocupe. 

[ALMA] ENGLISH

Dear mother,

These days I think about you all the time. 

Yesterday I remembered your beef 

stew and I made one myself. 

It did not taste the same. 

It did not have that extra flavor from 

your hands or the smell of your apron. 

The kids said that they liked it. 

I thanked them and smiled. 

Two tears escaped trying not 

to be seen by them. 

They did not see the two eviction

 letters from the bank either. 

I told them that we are going to stay 

some days at Alejandra’s. 

They were happy about spending 

time with their cousins and that soothed me. 

Later I remembered that time 

you told me to choose my favorite doll. 

I crossed the desert holding Alejandra’s 

hand and the doll stuck

to my chest like an amulet. 

I still keep my doll. 

I still have Alejandra. 

I’ll be fine. 

Don’t worry. 

Giovanna Montoya

Giovanna Montoya – Ballet Dancer 

Describe the kind of art you make.  

I’m a professional ballet dancer, so my art is dance. Ballet is a theatrical art form that integrates music, dance, acting and scenery to convey a story, or a theme.

 Describe the role your cultural identity has in your work.

My cultural identity represents who I am; a dedicated, driven, disciplined, strong woman, which stands up for what’s right, and never gives up. I am always aiming to move forward, trying to do better every day, even if it is little by little, and working hard to achieve my dreams and goals. These have been imperative assets to possess, that have helped me to become a professional ballet dancer with 15+ years of experience. Ballet is a beautiful but difficult art form, which requires a lot of time, sacrifice, effort, love, endless hours of training, and a great deal of discipline and dedication. I would never have become a professional ballet dancer if it weren’t for the commitment, dedication, responsibility, and integrity that my parents showed and instilled in me from a young age. Coming into this country as an immigrant it’s very difficult, and you have to work very hard to achieve success. That’s something my parents made very clear to me from the beginning, and they led by example. Always working hard, never giving up and excelling in their fields. My dad is a statistician for the Mayo Clinic. My mom is a Veterinarian doctor and was a University Professor in my home Country Venezuela. I’m so thankful for my parents and my cultural identity that has shaped me, and played a pivotal role in the person that proudly I am today.

Jasper's TINY GALLERY Artist, PAT CALLAHAN, Transforms Columbia Scrap Metal into Wearable Works of Art

May’s Tiny Gallery artist is local jeweler and creative Pat Callahan, who some may know by the name Entangled Jewelry.  

Making and fixing objects were staples of Callahan’s childhood, with “creativity, making, and ingenuity always encouraged & patterned at home.”  

“A small hutch was always stocked with colored and plain paper, crayons, glue, and such. My mother & maternal grandmother helped my sisters and I explore embroidery, crewel work, knitting, crocheting, sewing, and baking,” she recalls. “My father, a mechanical engineer, could fix and repair seemingly anything, had an amazing array of tools, and somehow found time to craft furniture and carve miniature-scale US Naval ships.”  

Callahan spent her childhood drawing, and as she grew, she began replicating the life around her in her drawings: livestock on farms, animals from the zoo, and her own family moving around their everyday life. It is no surprise, then, that she would study art—graphic design specifically—in college, receiving a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University.  

After a career in graphic design, Callahan retired from USC Press—the university’s scholarly book publisher. Now having the time, she took her first jewelry class jewelry-making class at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. At this time, she resumed a sketchbook practice and spent more time than ever in her studio. 

Callahan found her way to jewelry naturally through her figure drawing and sketching. In the 90s, she began figure-drawing with the group About Face, and this was her main form of creation for 15 years. 

“By 2007, I was building shadowboxes, which married my ingenuity with my love of nature findings, metal whatnots, and drawing. As part of this work I learned jewelry techniques to secure items in my boxes,” she shares. “In 2009 I moved my studio home after 13 years at Vista Studios, downtown Columbia, and soon surrendered to making jewelry with recycled, vintage, and metal finds. Through it all, my artistic expression beautifully counterbalanced a computer-based career.”

 This all led to Entangled Jewelry, where Callahan makes her creations through building off a special primary material: metal harvested from the streets of Columbia. She finds these materials to be “beautifully scuffed and abraded and rich with story” and believes “working with recycled and vintage elements honors [her] concern for Mother Earth.” She combines these with additional vintage and repurposed elements—and the rare gemstone—for edgy, industrial statement pieces.

The crafting process itself is organic. Whenever Callahan finds a particularly “tantalizing” piece, she keeps it on her work surface, and from here, pairings begin forming in her mind.

“Some pairings are immediate and assemble quickly; others evolve and demand I learn new skills or discover a tool,” she says. “This assemblage, one-of-a-kind approach feeds my creativity and curiosity. Possibilities are endless!”

 This industrial, innovative assemblage is apparent in her Tiny Gallery show. Washers and watches become wearable pieces of art in her necklaces. Metal you’d think nothing of as you walk over it on Main Street becomes the stunning centerpiece of a pin. Beads interspersed with charms and toolbox necessities transform into earrings.

“My Entangled Jewelry leans industrial style and genderless. This selection includes pins and clip pins as alternatives to necklaces and earrings,” Callahan says. “I believe in adornment!”

Some may be familiar with Callahan’s work from juried artisan markets such as the Rosewood Art & Music Festival, Sesqui Artisan Market, Cottontown Art Crawl, and Artista Vista Live Mart, and patrons can find her after the show as well at Art on State on May 10, 5:30 to 9:30, in West Columbia.

To purchase any of the works in this article, and to view the additional works in the show, head on over to Jasper’s online gallery space: Tiny Gallery.

-Christina Xan

Jasper Welcomes "Embracing Your Inner Child: The Art of Cait Patel" to Jasper's Tiny Gallery for March

DOT MATRIX

Cait Patel, also known as “The Blissful Hippie,” has been popping up around the local art scene with her bright, inviting abstract paintings for some time now. Learn more about Jasper’s March Tiny Gallery artist here!

Patel has called South Carolina home for life, growing up around the Cayce area. She has loved art since she was a child, inspired by her father, who is also an artist and one of her biggest supporters. This led to her studying Studio Art at the University of South Carolina and graduating with a degree in 2014.

“I used to love drawing, which was my focus in college, but as I got older, I got more into abstract work,” she recalls. “I was inspired by the great abstract artists of the past like Matisse and Picasso and that has very much influenced the kind of work I do now.”

Once she started painting, Patel couldn’t walk away from it, saying that she “love[s] painting because of how free and colorful it is.”

Mostly, Patel focuses on abstract expressionism, presently inspired by the flowers and plants she collects around her home. Her paintings are an encapsulation of the nature around her everyday life, and this liveliness is key to her work.

“My goal is to create something and nothing at the same time. I love color and want to brighten spaces with my work,” Patel shares. “But I love that everyone can see something different in a heavily abstracted work of art.”

ARCHIVE

Patel continuously works to connect to her inner child—something she believes everyone has—and she hopes her work will help others connect to this as well. Part of this connection is letting go of “rules and restrictions” of what her work “should” look like.

“I don’t want to put a lot of restriction on myself when creating a new painting because I want it to be the truest expression of my feelings in that moment,” she says. “However, if I want to create a cohesive set of pieces, I may stick to one color scheme or style for a body of work.”

When it comes to actually putting a piece on canvas, Patel rarely has a concrete plan, instead selecting a color scheme and simply going with the flow. Though ideas may form in her head, she tries to resist any boundaries, following the piece as it grows and shifts organically.

“I also frequently ‘finish’ a piece and hate it and then immediately paint over it. I feel a work isn’t fully finished until I can look at it and say, ‘I love this, and it makes me feel like an artist’, she says. “That’s typically my gauge of when a piece is done. This can take anywhere from three days to three months.”

For this Tiny Gallery show, Patel made a whole new slate of pieces, each rife with the unboundaried colors she loves. On the show, she says:

I like to think of this show as my Summer Love collection. I wanted to evoke feelings of excitement about spring flowers and warm weather. Two things which I dearly love! I want my paintings to be eye catching and bright and to inspire others to their creative pursuits. My favorites are probably “Dot Matrix” and “Boba Party.” I love bright neon colors juxtaposed with black as it tends to really make a piece pop! I also have been experimenting more with having the frame be a part of the artwork, which is why I really love “Dot Matrix.”

Excitingly, this is Patel’s first solo show. Though this is the case, she has participated in other shows, and she recently took part in the Art for Africa fundraiser, which is an experience she holds dear.

“I really love doing fundraisers or gift pieces as an artist,” she says. “I love being able to use my art voice as a way to help others.”

To peruse and purchase her works from this show, check out Jasper’s virtual Tiny Gallery, and to stay updated on Patel as she continues to work towards larger piece and an in-person gallery show, follow her on Instagram @the_blissful_hippie

Visit Sound Bites Eatery on Sumter Street for Delicious Food, Welcoming Vibes, and this month, Art from the Jasper Project's Board of Directors Visual Artists!

One of the great joys of working with the Jasper Project is becoming warm friends with members of our hard-working board of directors as well as the owner/operators of the institutions that work with us and the venues that host us. A perfect example would be the good people at Sound Bites Eatery who welcomed Jasper as soon as their doors were opened and invited us to make use of their walls to hang art by local artists. This month we are combining our appreciation for both by featuring the art of Jasper Project Board Artists, Emily Moffitt, Laura Garner Hine, Keith Tolen, and Kimber Carpenter in the Jasper Gallery Space at Sound Bites Eatery.

Curated by a committee chaired by Christina Xan who serves as the Jasper Project’s gallery manager, Jasper hangs local art throughout the city at Motor Supply Bistro, Koger Center for the Arts, Harbison Theatre, the Meridian Sidewalk Gallery Space as well as Sound Bites Eatery. But we’re always looking for new permanent or temporary spaces to feature the work of Columbia-based artists.

While we enjoy celebrating new shows with receptions, one of the advantages of showing art in these public spaces is that the art is available for purchase any time day or night by accessing a QR code attached to every piece of art. So if you’re still looking for the perfect gift for someone you love, consider giving art by visiting one of the Jasper Gallery spaces easily accessible in the greater Columbia area!

For Opus and the Frequencies, “All Frequencies Welcome,” is More Than a Motto

This article was originally featured in the Fall 2023 issue of Jasper Magazine. That version incorrectly attributed Kirk Barnes’s quotes to another band member. This is remedied in the version below. Our apologies to Barnes and Opus and the Frequencies for this error.

Genre-bending and categorically defiant, Opus and the Frequencies has  emerged as a force to be reckoned with in the local music scene. Behind the name are four people with an innate love for music, anchored by a desire for storytelling, vulnerability, and authenticity.

The core of the band is the eponymous Opus (vocals, keys, saxophone, clarinet, and more), who originally did not want to be a musician. It was a challenge from a band director to play the saxophone—band itself a simple mix-up in his middle school schedule—that eventually led to music being his driving force. As soon as he found music, Opus became dedicated to creating unique sounds, a journey that eventually led him to the Frequencies.

Columbia is rife with talented musicians, but Opus was not interested in just sound. What he was looking for was raw emotion, something unspeakable and intangible. All at different times, he got the opportunity to hear Jesse Tortorella (drums), Steven Tapia-Macias (bass), and Kirk Barnes (guitar) play. As Opus recalls it: “I wanted the boys that we have now. Luckily, the universe gave me exactly what I asked.”

Today, nearly seven years after forming, Opus and the Frequencies have found their identity as an eclectic group with an eclectic sound. Though Barnes says their genre is best described as “a mixture of rock and funk,” the band sees it as a point of pride that they do not sound like anybody else—sometimes even themselves.

“Everybody always asks, what's your genre? And it's like, I don’t think we have one. We're all over the place,” Opus says, “My music taste is all over the place, so why shouldn’t the music I play be? I feel like what we do should be all over the place because I don't like being limited, sticking to one sound or genre.”

This inherent variation is echoed in their live performances as well. A band has to be intuitive, to read an audience, and, as Barnes says, “play what feels right in the moment.” Opus indicates that there is a current that runs throughout the room during a show, a charge that keeps the energy moving, and everyone has to be connected for it to work. As the front man, Opus directs energy into the rest of the band, which comes back through him and into the crowd, circling back into him—and the cycle repeats.

“I want the audience to know when we play that, yes, obviously if you paid to see the show, it's for you, but the show is not for you,” Opus asserts, “The show is for the band to enjoy, and we love it and give that energy out, and that’s what then makes the audience enjoy it so much.” 

Tapping into this is what has led to two of the band’s notable ‘we made it moments’: their first time playing at New Brooklyn Tavern and their recent July tribute to James Brown. These are the experiences that provide them the fuel to work on their own music, particularly their first EP, “You’re Trash, Kid,” which was released in January of 2023.

The EP consists of five songs, a vibrant mix of sound and emotion where, around each corner is an unexpected turn. Almost all the songs are created collaboratively; take, for instance, “Jesse’s Song.” When Barnes played his hand-written tune (one oft-requested by a college friend) for the band, they all immediately felt a connection After hearing it, Opus penned lyrics about missing old friends, and the four honed it sonically into its final version—and named it after the college friend that first heard it.

Reflecting on their journey, the group sees Columbia as having been vital to the ways they have blossomed. However, as they ruminate on their future—which includes new music coming in 2024—they recognize that significant growth must take place to shore up the city as a supportive space for all artists.

“I think we need more connection between the art scenes; there's not enough communication from the inner circle to the outer circle,” Opus argues. “Right now, there's a centralized group of musicians that more or less control the scene. Fortunately, we’re blessed to be a part of that group, but there are newcomers trying to get into the group who can’t and people who have already been here that don't get recognized—I know this because I used to be on the outside.”

Barnes echoes this, noting that while “it is not any one person’s fault, … there is a lot of socialized power here” that can only be remedied by larger, established venues dedicating themselves to local artists, versus just regional or national, as well as smaller, central venues taking chances on emerging artists.

These concerns are only reflections of the care the group has for the city. This is a place they are fully committed to continuing to grow in while also assisting in the growth of. It will take a village to fortify this community as the art-oriented space that so many creators desire it to be, but the embrace of the effervescent talent that is Opus and the Frequencies is proof we are already on the right track.

“This city, these venues are special. We've played a bunch of shows here, made friends here.” Opus says. “The people are what have made this place special. We've had a lot of good memories here, and we plan to keep that going.”

Little Shell, Big Feelings: Review of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is not what you expect. I mean, if you’re expecting to see a shell named Marcel wearing shoes, then, sure, it’s what you’d expect. But if you’re expecting anything other than absolute emotional devastation that makes you experience every feeling currently recognized by humankind, you certainly do not know what to expect. 

Expanded from a series of shorts, the film has a simple conceit: a young, divorced man moves into an Airbnb where he finds a young, animate shell and his grandmother, the last two remaining members of their once vibrant community that dwelled in the home and decides to make a documentary about them. What follows is a series of hijinks as a young Marcel informs Dean of the history of his family and what it takes to survive in his everyday life as a one-inch creature in a space made for humans, including tying rope from an orange tree to the electric mixer so that a simple switch shakes loose fresh oranges from the tree (rope made from leftover hair in the tub, which is of a particular wiry and curly nature). 

Dean (played by director of the film Dean Fleischer Camp) uploads these videos to YouTube, and the meta-audience in the film falls in love with Marcel alongside us, and soon, he is an internet sensation. This is when Marcel develops the plan that will drive the movie: he will use this new fame to recruit help in locating his family, who disappeared two years ago when the boyfriend of the pair who originally lived in the home stormed out, dumping the community’s safe space, aka the sock drawer, into a suitcase—unknowingly taking Marcel’s entire family with him. 

Though whether or not Marcel is able to be reunited with his community is the climax this film hinges on, it is very much a story that emphasizes the validity of the trope “it’s about the journey.” For even though this is a film about a talking shell, it is at its heart a poignant coming of age tale that focuses on a young boy hiding from change behind his fierce independence and quirky sense of humor. 

This heart is best represented in the scene where Marcel realizes his grandmother is sicker than he initially thought, and he begins once more refusing to do his interview with CBS (where he’s going to meet the actual Leslie Stahl!). He is concerned that bringing all this noise and commotion into the home will be too much for his ailing grandmother, and he is unwilling to risk the family he is sure he has for just a chance at getting back the family he no longer has. Unwilling to fully convey all his fears, he finally tells his grandmother that he just doesn’t want things to change, to which she replies, simply and unfalteringly: “Oh, Marcel—they will.” 

There is no falsity to her statement, no making it better through sweetly coated truths, only the truth itself. Marcel is a symbol of ritual, an attendant of the everyday. He knows how to survive, but his continued cycles of daily practice serve not just as survival but as an attempt to extend the present in a deeply rooted aversion to change. Change has taken everything from Marcel, and now it can give him everything back—at a cost, and for the first time in his young life, he has to decide if he’s willing to pay. 

While I won’t spoil it for you, simply know that in the scene leading up to the reveal of whether or not Marcel will find his family, I leaned forward and gripped my movie theater chair harder than in any marketed thriller. In all seriousness, this film is a masterclass in tone, thanks to Fleischer Camp, animators Stephen Ciodo and Kirsten Lepore, and cinematographers Bianca Cline and Eric Adkins.  

But really, though the script is fantastic, and the film makes almost all the right decisions, what holds this movie together, what really makes it work, are the main characters: Marcel, who is witty and biting among all his innocence is played spiritly by Jenny Slate (who also co-wrote the script with Fleischer Camp and Nick Paley). Golden Globe nominated actress Isabella Rossellini plays the grandmother whose gentle but firm tone brings the elder shell to life and provides a firm center to the story.

There is an awkwardness in not knowing what these living objects are, but the film plays it off well. Neither Dean nor his audience are trying to figure out who or what Marcel is, but to simply understand his way of living. We never know if these types of creatures exist everywhere or if this place is special, and the only hint we seem to get is Marcel discussing community building at the very opening of the film. And in the final scene, it seems as if this community exists not just of shells, but additional anthropomorphized objects (like peanuts, pretzels, and Cheetos).

In a sense, though, it doesn’t matter. The film shows us a symbiotic relationship between what we create and who we are. Here are these beings that may or may not even exist but do very clearly exist. They reckon with the desperation to belong and to hold onto what’s ours. The idea that we, as humans, may have been what anthropomorphized them in the first place only makes the humanity of these characters—and the invented nature of the boundaries of humanity—truer.

The film does not allow separation. It shows us a silly shell and then puts our deepest, most difficult emotions into words and images. It is not only a reckoning with what is alive and how we define the human experience but serves as a stark reminder that even the smallest beings in the corners of the universe have an everyday, lived experience that parallels our own.

Oh, and sometimes, they’re pretty darn cute.

Happy Hour Release Party for Jasper Magazine Spring 2022 - Thursday, June 9th at Black Rooster Rooftop Bar

Join us as we celebrate all the artists honored in the spring 2022 issue of Jasper Magazine for the official release event at 5:30 on Thursday, June 9th at the Black Rooster’s beautiful rooftop bar.

Among the artists we’ll be celebrating are cover artist Lindsay Radford (written by Kristine Hartvigsen) and centerfold Michael Krajewski (which was shot by Brad Martin in the Black Rooster itself!)

In a jam-packed 64 pages you’ll find another piece by Kristine Hartvigsen on Mike Miller’s new novel, The Hip Shot, as well as excerpts from Jane Zenger and Angelo Geter’s new books of poetry from Muddy Ford Press.

Music editor Kevin Oliver put together a detailed section of new music called “10 to Watch” featuring new work from Saul Seibert, Katera, Desiree Richardson, Tam the Vibe, Rex Darling, Space Force, Admiral Radio, Hillmouse, Candy Coffins, and Lang Owen, with contributing writing from Kyle Petersen and Emily Moffitt.

Tam the Vibe

Stephanie Allen writes about Josetra Baxter and Tamara Finkbeiner’s Walking on Water Productions and their new series Secrets in Plain Sight, with photography by Bree Burchfield.

And we highlight Columbia artist Quincy Pugh as well as feature Will South’s interview with Tyrone Geter all the way from Gambia.

The Three Graces by Quincy Pugh

USC filmmaker Carleen Maur helps us understand more about the art of experimental filmmaking.

Emily Moffitt profiles visual artists Rebecca Horne, Lucy Bailey, and designer Diko Pekdemir-Lewis.

Ed Madden curates poetry from Juan David Cruz-Duarte and Terri McCord.

Christina Xan details the incredible success of Cooper Rust and her non-profit organization, Artists for Africa.

Cindi Boiter profiles SC Arts Commission executive director David Platts, with photography by Brodie Porterfield, and writes about the new public art, Motherhood by Nora Valdez, with exquisite photography by Stephen Chesley.

Motherhood by Nora Valdez, phot by Stephen Chesley

And finally, we memorialize two pillars of the Columbia arts community, Mary Bentz Gilkerson and Wim Roefs, whose loss this spring we are still reeling from.

——

We look forward to seeing you Thursday night.

The event is free and Black Rooster’s regular rooftop bar will be serving drinks and food. Come by for happy hour and grab a drink, a magazine, and a hug from your favorite folks. Or plan on staying a while and grabbing dinner or snacks.

Thanks to restauranteur extraordinaire Kristian Niemi for hosting us.

We can’t wait to see you and show off these exceptional artists who call Columbia, SC home!

WE DANCE - New Project by Wideman-Davis Dance Premieres at Tribeca Film Fest June 18th

By Christina Xan

Tanya Wideman Davis and Thaddeus Davis

Dancers, creators, professors, directors. Columbia couple Thaddeus Davis and Tanya Wideman-Davis have many titles. In their newest project, however, not only are they exploring a novel medium to them – film – but are stepping back from titles and stripping down to question what it means for them to inhabit the bodies they are in, where those bodies came from, and what those implications mean for all who migrate within America. 

“We've been really thinking about patterns of migration and thinking about our families…how the shaping of the way we eat is different than the way we may have grown up,” Wideman-Davis reflects, “How we can figure out new pathways to merge old and new ways of thinking about food and have those communal experiences still be nurturing. 

We Dance is a 12-minute experimental film that combines documentary, dialogue, imagery, and dance to share, less a narrative, and more a story—or perhaps more accurately, a series of stories. The film has three parts: in part 1, “Spin,” Wideman-Davis reflects on her grandmother’s home in Chicago; in part 2, “Rise,” Davis reflects on his grandmother’s home in Montgomery; and in part 3, “Hold,” the two reflect on their lives together. 

“A big part of this didn't start out as a love story, but in the end, it was that. But it wasn't just about the love between the two of us, but the love for these pivotal women—Tanya's grandmother and mother and my mother and grandmother” Davis intimates, “People in our families who sustained us like food and allowed us to have these careers that we've had in dance and beyond.” 

In the first two segments, each of the pair’s grandmothers are seen baking a staple in their history—pound cake and sweet potato pie. This focus on food is in many ways the hinge of the stories being told. Food is more than a substance for staying alive – it is life-defining. The process of sourcing and consuming food, the accessibility of food, and how food shifts across region and culture all define our bodies. For certain groups of people, like the black adults and elders featured in the video, food is a distinct way of finding, creating, and asserting identity. 

While the women bake in the background, Wideman-Davis and Davis narrate, speaking words related to the cooking process, themes of their life, and dialogue they recall from these inspirational women. Stitched within the cooking and the words are images from the cities and surrounding areas these families call home – houses, cityscapes, rivers – as well as extemporaneous dance from the married pair. 

Throughout the film, the two dance and speak their histories. And though this intimate portrait allows you to know the duo better, it is not only their story. “It's not just the black migratory patterns. That's what it references, but this is a part of the migratory patterns of people around the world,” Davis emphasizes. 

One of their hopes in creating this film is that the viewer will be able to understand more about where they come from, their own migrations, and how each individual history is in some way interlaced with collective histories. What foods do you eat? How did what you ate shift as you moved from place to place? What did you take with you or leave behind? How does your body express what you consume? How do you dance? 

For if food represents a part of our identity in which we take within us what is part of our culture and selves then dance is how we reveal outwards what is part of our culture and selves. In the migration process, wherever and whatever the reason in moving, we are doing just that—moving. Sometimes the world moves around us while sometimes we move around the world, but this film asks us to acknowledge and embrace the movement, learn how and when flow versus resist, all the while being grounded by what always moves with, in, and out of us—food.  

This is exemplified in a scene towards the end of the short film where Wideman-Davis and Davis stand, completely still, hands clasped around each other’s, in white garb, as an Alabama river rushes fast and hard around them.  

“There’s something about being in that water, at that specific space that was a segregated space,” Wideman-Davis ruminates, “To come back to it and to have to anchor yourself in the water with this current, knowing that it has all the racialized history and the deadly components that it could have had 20 years ago, us being there.” 

It is this stunning tension that has gotten the attention of film festivals nationwide, with We Dance being accepted to the Oxford Film Festival, the Fort Myers Beach International Film Festival, the Experimental, Dance & Film Festival, the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival, the Ouray International Film Festival, and, most excitingly, the Tribeca Film Festival, where it will premiere Saturday, June 18th.  

The two’s hard work could not have been possible without director and cinematographer Ethan Payne and director and writer Brian Foster, all of whom met when Wideman-Davis and Davis were sanctioned by the Southern Foodways Alliance. 

If you’d like to see the culmination of all their efforts and dive into a world that not only teaches you about the vulnerable movement of others but of yourself, starting June 8th, you can purchase a $25 ticket to all Tribeca shorts here: https://www.tribecafilm.com/films/we-dance-2022

Jasper Talks with Tiny Gallery Artist Lucy Bailey on Her Molding of Nature and Whimsy

We’re in the final week of our Tiny Gallery show with Lucy Bailey, a collection of dreamscapes in both 2D and 3D. Learn more about Bailey and her process below!

JASPER: Tell me a bit about where you’re from and how you came to art.  

BAILEY: I grew up on Lake Murray in an idyllic setting, back when the lake was quiet and there were few residents. My parents weren’t artists, but both were creative craftsmen in their own right. As a teenager I spent every nickel at The Dutch Door craft supply store at Boozer Shopping Center and would decoupage Holly Hobbie wrapping paper and bits of wallpaper onto anything that couldn’t outrun me. 

JASPER: Did you ever go to school for art? 

BAILEY: My degrees are in theatre, clinical counseling, and school psychology. Anything I know about making art has been from a few master classes or through trial and error. I tend to learn what I need to know to do a particular thing. 

JASPER: I know you enjoy a few different mediums, particularly clay – how did you find it? 

BAILEY: Before beginning in clay, I was an admirer of all things ceramic and collected on a shoestring. In my mid-40’s I bought a bag of porcelain to try hand-building masks, unaware that porcelain was akin to marshmallow fluff. Someone at Southern Pottery set me up with a decent low-grog earthenware and building became much easier! 

JASPER: Why do you keep coming back to clay?

BAILEY: There’s something viscerally satisfying about working with clay and there are endless possibilities. Yet, there are significant limitations: it’s fragile and heavy and often big and bulky. Those limitations are exasperating and, simultaneously, challenging. In my next life I hope to fall in love with creating small plastic jewelry or satin bow ties: anything small, light, and easy to ship.

JASPER: Well, I know you do some 2D work as well and recently started experimenting with scratchboards, right? 

BAILEY: While clay is my go-to, drawing and making scratchboards has been a productive detour for me. My drawings are small scale and done with colored pencils and ink. The scratchboards are a thin layer of white clay covered by black ink. Compared to ceramics, which requires building time, drying time, multiple firings, etc., drawing and scratchboards are more immediately satisfying, and I can pivot to them while ceramic pieces are in one of those various stages.

JASPER: In 2 and 3D you make a lot of fun, expressive faces. Have you always been drawn to faces?  

BAILEY: We are hard-wired visually to seek out and identify faces. Figurative work is definitely what I’m most drawn to, with a focus on busts and faces/masks. In terms of sculpting, faces are fickle. Early on a face will have a particular look and later in the process it has adopted a different quality. 

JASPER: Do you find that some images repeat themselves? 

BAILEY: There are certain ideas or imagery I’ll play with for a while then move on to another, and usually circle back to an earlier idea again later. A small skull stamp is commonly found lurking somewhere in my work as a memento mori. There’s a series of what I think of as coins from doodles back in college used in many pieces. Lately I’ve been in a moon phase (pun intended) crossing over from mixed-media-plus-ceramic wall pieces to pendants. For me it’s not about striving to conceive of an image because the images are finding me.

JASPER: How long does it usually take you to feel “finished” with a piece? 

BAILEY: Mary Ann Haven recently told me that older work should just be considered raw material and I love this conceptualization. With ceramics there’s only so much you can do once a piece is fired, but there are still many post-firing possibilities. I have a couple of larger (for me) pieces from a show at Stormwater Studios with K. Wayne Thornley last May and those will be reworked soon by adding wire and photographs.

JASPER: Tell me about this show specifically. What kind of pieces have you decided to show, and why? 

BAILEY: The Tiny Gallery grouping is all connected to clay, even the scratchboards. It felt important to have a couple options for small-scale figures, so I made the three moon cap figures and the three pieces with glaze bands around the base. While glazes don’t feature heavily in my work, this color is really perfect for the sea tides motif.  I wanted to include wall-mounted figurative works, so I created several new masks and included two older ones as well. The (imagined) Lover’s Eye pendants (which are graphite drawings on earthenware) and scratchboards are included to pull 2D into the mix.

JASPER: What’s in the future for you? 

BAILEY: A big change for me is coming up at the end of June when I retire from my day job! I have just started working on a series combining vintage (think late 1800s-mid 1900s) children’s clothing with photographs and other mixed medium—no ceramics involved. There’s also a nascent project integrating larger pieces of wood into the design. And I want to return to some very early ideas and explore them in more depth. 

Some of the new work will be ready this November when K. Wayne Thornley and I host our second annual Art on the Pond open studio, so we hope everyone will come see us then. 

JASPER: Finally, where can we find your work? 

BAILEY: Newer work is on Instagram and Facebook (both @lucybaileyclay). At this point my website (http://www.lucybaileyclay.com) is an archive but it may get revived soon. My business name is officially Lucy Bailey Studio.

To see Bailey’s effervescent scratchboards dancing with figures and faces and her delicate yet striking sculptures each with their own expressive quirks, go to Jasper’s virtual gallery: https://the-jasper-project.square.site/tiny-gallery

Punk Shakespeare Troupe “Elsewhere” Takes Twelfth Night on Tour

“We all believe Shakespeare has been handled with kid gloves when it wasn't intended that way.”

Shortly before the pandemic, three performers and Shakespeare lovers from the East Coast came together to put their twist on Shakespeare. Now, for the first time ever, actors and managers Katie Mixon (Columbia native), Mac MacDaniel, and Hilary Dennis are taking their troupe on tour. Jasper recently sat down with them to learn all about Elsewhere.

JASPER: For those who aren’t familiar, can you say a little about where Elsewhere started? 

ELSEWHERE: Elsewhere began as an attempt to apply the production principles of the punk scene to Shakespearean theatre. Mac (from VA) grew up going to punk shows, Hilary (from MA) was trained in modern style theatre, and I (Katie, from SC) have a classical background. We met at a Shakespeare acting workshop in NYC and it was — what's the platonic artistic version of love at first sight? We went from total strangers to best friends starting a theatre company together in about a week. We all believe Shakespeare has been handled with kid gloves when it wasn't intended that way. 

JASPER: How exactly is Elsewhere different? 

ELSEWHERE: We cut the plays down to 90 minutes. We keep all the lights on and perform with a small cast and try to drag the audience into the show as much as possible. Fast, minimalist, interactive. We believe that all the things that make Shakespeare easier and cheaper to produce also make Shakespeare more fun and engaging.

JASPER: You have to tell me about the name. 

ELSEWHERE: When the title character in Coriolanus is banished from Rome, he says "there is a world elsewhere." As artists who felt like our artistic ambitions and goals weren't being realized in "traditional" theatre spaces, we decided to go outside and find a new world to work in. It's usual for theatre companies to have names like "[Location] Shakespeare," and we thought it was clever to just say that wherever "normal" theatre is happening, we're somewhere else.

JASPER: Y’all usually perform in Richmond, right? Any specific places there? 

ELSEWHERE: Because we don't need a stage or lights, we can perform anywhere there's an open space and room to set up a coat rack. Our usual spiel is to reach out to a few of our friends, organize a very limited rehearsal period (somewhere between a day and a week) and then do a single 90-minute performance with no intermission, and then the show is over. We like the urgency of a single show; either you're there and you see it, or you're not and you've missed it.

JASPER: Have you toured before? 

ELSEWHERE: This is Elsewhere's first time touring, but it definitely won't be our last. Mac was already planning a road trip with his wife Leah, (who is also the Marketing Director and Graphic Artist for Elsewhere), so he pitched this idea of a tour with a core cast of us three and a rotating local cast that would enable each of us to cast our friends in our hometowns and see how the show changes when more than half the cast will turn over between each show.

JASPER: What made you choose Twelfth Night? 

ELSEWHERE: We wanted to do a comedy after doing two tragedies back-to-back. Artistically it has all of the things we love about Shakespeare — poetry, wit, brilliant characters, music, humor. It is deep without being dour. It is an ensemble show rather than a solo star vehicle like a Hamlet or an As You Like It. Logistically it is an audience favorite that requires very little in the way of fight choreo or intimacy work, which makes it easier to put together really fast.

JASPER: How did you cut and change the play for the tour? 

ELSEWHERE: Mac does all our cuts, and what he does with the text would probably horrify a lot of scholars and purists. Mac’s goals with any cut are that the text can be played by a small cast and that the basic throughline of the story is preserved. He is both a Shakespeare educator and someone who is always dragging non-Shakespeare friends out to see plays. It is possible Shakespeare to be staged in a way that is beginner-friendly without being dumbed-down.

JASPER: How structured are your shows usually? I know you don’t have a “director.” 

ELSEWHERE: We just run with the vibes. Part of the fun of this tour is seeing how the vibe changes between cities/venues/casts. Mac, Hilary, and Katie are all the same actors playing the same parts, but not only will our characters' relationships evolve as we go, we will be creating new relationships with the other characters. We try to be very clear that even though Elsewhere is our company, we are not "in charge" of the show or the rehearsal room. Anyone we invite to be a part of the show process is an equal partner. They didn't have a director when Shakespeare's company was performing in the 1600's, so we can do that too.

JASPER: You already had one show in Columbia. Anything you’d keep or change moving to the next two shows?  

ELSEWHERE: There are usually small edits made to the cut during rehearsal, things you don't notice until you get the cast in the room — for example, Mac cut all of Maria's lines from a scene but forgot to cut the stage direction "enter Maria," so poor Lonetta was just wandering around in the scene with nothing to say. Katie chose to wear a huge hat and sunglasses for Olivia, but Joseph Eisenrich (who played our Toby) marched on to stage and put them on himself and I fell out laughing.

JASPER: What are some of your goals with this tour specifically? 

ELSEWHERE: We have been working together in Richmond for a while now, but this is our first opportunity to work in each other's hometowns. Usually, Mac is the one in charge of finding a venue and a cast and hosting everyone in Richmond, so it's nice to come to Columbia and for him to be a guest.  

A perhaps bigger goal is to demonstrate for theatre folks just how easy it is to produce Shakespeare shows. The thing that would make us most happy would be for someone to see one of our shows and think "I can do that!" and then take our resources and start producing their own fast popup Shakespeare plays.

JASPER: What’s after this for Elsewhere? 

ELSEWHERE: We haven't the foggiest idea. Maybe we'll start a podcast? Oh! And we have been talking about a longer version of a tour, with a different show.  Maybe Much Ado About Nothing.  Comedies have been fun after two tragedies.

JASPER: Last but definitely not least, how can people support you in the future? 

ELSEWHERE: You can donate to cover tour costs by Venoming me @Mac-MacDaniel (make a note that it's for Elsewhere), or you can make a tax-deductible donation on our website www.elsewhereshakespeare.com  

Elsewhere’s performance of Twelfth Night premiered in Columbia on May 1st, and its next stop is Richmond, Virginia on the 29th of this month. The troupe’s final performance will be in Northampton, Massachusetts on July 3rd.

Jasper Talks with Valerie Lamott About Transforming Nature into Wearable Art

That is my intent—to tell a story of a place or an activity outdoors. Everyone has an emotional connection to some place and the memories are a big part of this for me – Lamott

As we move into the spring, we start to see changes in the natural world around us. Particularly attune to these changes is Valerie Lamott, a local artist and jeweler who travels across state and national parks, becoming intimately familiar with nature, and transforming standout images and experiences into jewelry. 

For her Tiny Gallery show, Lamott crafted 17 new pendants from recent trips to SC State Parks. Learn more about her process and inspiration below.

JASPER: Tell me a bit about yourself and where you grew up.  

 LAMOTT: I grew up in Northwest Indiana. It’s a very unique place that’s hard to describe. I learned to drive a tractor at my after-school job picking pumpkins on a farm and then my friends and I would hop on the train to downtown Chicago (only 30 miles away) to spend the money we earned there.

JASPER: That’s so fun! Did you begin working with art back then? 

LAMOTT: Art has always been a part of my life in the sense that I grew up with access to craft materials and was encouraged to use them. My mom taught me to sew as soon as I was big enough to reach the foot pedal (standing!). I could make whatever I wanted with whatever materials were available. And I did.

JASPER: Did you take that ‘playing around with mom’s sewing materials’ with you into your studies? 

LAMOTT: I have a Master of Engineering degree, and while most would say that is not an applicable education, I disagree. Engineers design and build things. My jewelry is something I design and build. I may not be solving differential equations anymore (yay!), but the basic design concepts are the same. I’ve also taken many informal arts classes, any class I can, really. It doesn’t need to be metalsmithing and jewelry—I’m down for a painting class or stained glass or sewing or printmaking or…I love it all.

JASPER: Inside of loving it all, you found a home in jewelry. How did that come about? 

LAMOTT: I had no intention of becoming a jeweler. My sister and I were both 20-something and living in Chicago when she found a jewelry class she wanted to take. I wasn’t really interested, but she’s my sister, so I agreed to go. She thought it’d be beading or something, but it was torches and hammers and saws. She quit after the first class. 10 years later it’s my job.

JASPER: Ha, I love that! Now that you’ve been inundated in this for a while, how do you choose which materials you want to use? How do you source them? 

LAMOTT: You know those kids who have to pick up every pretty rock and are really annoying about learning about what kind it is and how it’s made and all that?  Some of us don’t grow out of it. Using gemstones was never a question in my work.  I love the metalwork, but once I learned to cut and polish gems there was no going back. I’ll source my rocks anywhere I legally can.  I buy a lot at gem shows, but I find a lot on the ground too.  I also find so many at National Parks and they all stay right where I found them because you don’t take things from National Parks.  If I can leave them there, you can too. Thematically, I think this idea of natural scenes really lends itself to metals and gemstones, as those metals and gems all come from Earth in the first place.

JASPER: Beyond using metals and gems, are there specific styles that you lean towards? 

LAMOTT: My style has changed dramatically over time, and I hope it continues to do so.  I’m always learning new techniques and bits of those will always find their way into my work. My work from 5 years ago absolutely makes me cringe now, and I hope today’s work makes me cringe in 5 years. I always want to be creating something new.

JASPER: Thinking about new and old, what kind of ideas or images usually find their way into your work? Has nature always been your primary inspiration? 

LAMOTT: I’ve always done “nature inspired” work, and I’ve always thought that’s so cliche. Who isn’t “inspired by nature”? So, I set out to see all of South Carolina’s state parks and find different inspiration within them. Instead of being inspired by nature in general, perhaps I could find inspiration in specific (natural) places. That snowballed into creating landscapes. For now, I’m sticking to state and national parks, partially because they give me a cohesive body of work, but mostly because I really like state and national parks and now I get to hang out in them and call it work!

JASPER: Tell me about how you create – what goes into the process of moving from idea to a piece of jewelry.

 LAMOTT: The majority of my design work is done on the trail. I’m starting to find myself taking photos with the intention of creating jewelry from them—if I step a little bit that way, that angle on the tree looks better. That kind of thing. For the inlay landscapes, I have a pretty concrete image in my mind, and that’s what I create. I do make some pieces from cabochons and their creation is far more fluid. I have a pile of rocks and some cut out hikers, mountains, trees, and whatnot on my bench and I move them around till something feels right. One thing that’s nice about metalsmithing is once it’s soldered, there’s not much changing it. It forces you to decide it’s done.

JASPER: What did you do for this show, particularly?  

LAMOTT: These pieces were made specifically for this show. I’ve had both the ideas of making some smaller pieces and doing a series based on Columbia in my mind, so when I was approached about this show it seemed like the perfect time to finally do both. These are my first smaller pieces and I’m absolutely thrilled with them. This size is here to stay for me.

JASPER:  You included images with the pendants in this show – is this typical for you? 

LAMOTT: I always show the images if I have them. I think the pendants stand alone as artwork just fine, but one of the comments I hear most is how my work “tells a story.”  And that is my intent—to tell a story of a place or an activity outdoors. Everyone has an emotional connection to some place and the memories are a big part of this for me.  That’s why I only work from my photographs. It’s about a connection with a place at that time.  I think showing my images along with the pendant helps to tell that story.

JASPER: Speaking of memories, do you have any standouts with your art career?  

LAMOTT: I have too many to list, but every single one involves my artist friends. It takes a special kind of person to decide they’re just going to throw up a tent and sell their work. It’s been a fun ride so far. Recently I won an award of distinction at the Fairhope Arts Festival and that absolutely made my day!!  That is a wonderful show filled with incredibly talented artists, and I’m honored to have won an award there.

JASPER: Well, what’s in the future for you? 

LAMOTT: Upcoming shows include Troyfest and Panoply in Alabama, Rockville Arts Festival in Maryland, Chastain Arts Festival in Atlanta, and Tephra Fine Arts Fair in Virginia.  I have a pretty full schedule this year and I’m traveling quite a bit, so perhaps it may be easier to catch me online. I try to update my Instagram (@valerielamottdesigns) daily, and I can email invoices for anything I post on there.

Lamott’s show will be up until April 30th, and you can peruse her stories and purchase one for yourself 24/7 via Jasper’s virtual gallery: https://the-jasper-project.square.site/tiny-gallery

New Poetry and Songwriter Events from Jasper and Al Black

Jasper Project board member and local poetry event guru, Al Black, is bringing two brand-new, unique events to the Midlands: a poetry salon and an outdoor music concert. Both events are starting this month: poetry month.

Jasper’s Poetry Salon

The mission of Jasper’s Poetry Salon is to give both new and established poets a safe, communal space in which to share their work and connect with other poets.

This is not a workshop, nor is it a simple reading. Everyone at the Salon will be able to share at least one poem, and conversation about the poems read will occur organically. Participants will be able to step into a relaxed environment with like-minded individuals—a space with no judgment where the goal is to hear, share, and appreciate language and story. This event allows any and all poets to enter a singular dwelling space and establish a sense of community with other Columbia-based poets who they may not meet otherwise. This is a wonderful opportunity for poets who feel isolated or who want casual feedback on their work. Whether one has been writing and publishing poetry for decades or has only just written their first poem, they will be welcomed with open arms and warm conversation.  

Occurring on the last Tuesday of every month, the event will hold its first gathering on April 26th at 7:00pm at 1013 Duke Avenue.

Front Porch Swing

The mission of Front Porch Swing is to provide a space for local musicians to showcase their work and for people to share in said work without distraction from what is important: the music.

On the last Sunday of each month, a singular music act will set up on the porch of the co-op on Duke Avenue and play for two hours. Anyone interested can come at their leisure, completely for free, and enjoy the performance. This come-one, come-all experience asks patrons to bring their own chairs, blankets, food, and drink—or whatever they might want to enjoy as they settle under the South Carolina sun with friends, new and old, to hear local music, new and old. Unlike some music-related events, here there is no dance floor, no bar, and no simultaneous events; for the duration of the performance, the focus is on the music itself. Whether a long-term Cola-music lover or brand new to the scene, this relaxed environment is the perfect space for anyone wanting to view local talent. 

The first Front Porch Swing will take place on April 24th at 2:00pm, featuring the band Jazz Dog, also at 1013 Duke Avenue.

 In the coming week, we will feature deep dives with Al Black on each event, so if you aren’t following Jasper’s online magazine, scroll down and enter your email to be updated when the articles come out!

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

Artists for Africa Hosts 9th Annual PostCard Event in Support of Original Art and Kenyan Youth

When Cooper Rust traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, in 2012 as a volunteer dance instructor, she didn’t expect the experience to stick so strongly to her skin. It did, however, and soon after her return to the states, she founded Artists for Africa, a non-profit organization that supports and provides dance, new experiences, education, and shelter to Kenyan youth.

 In the past decade, the organization has grown, led by C. Rust (Executive Director) and her sister Brie Rust (President), and now hosts a plethora of events in both Kenya and South Carolina, such as bringing dancers from Nairobi to study and perform at the University of South Carolina. 

One of these events, almost as old as the organization itself, is the PostCard Art Event, an evening that pairs small, postcard sized art with drinks and finger foods for a collaborative, community-oriented experience. Next week, the 9th annual PostCard will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn. 

The evening begins with a cocktail hour and appetizers in the spacious lobby, and at 7:00pm, the ballroom will open to reveal the art donated from various established and emerging artists across the United States. Patrons can peruse the art for around an hour as they continue to enjoy drinks and snacks. 

Over 50 artists are included in this show, including some familiar Columbia names like Bonnie Goldberg, Bill Davis, Rob Shaw, Rebecca Lynn Horne, and the Honors Art Students at Dreher High School. 

The art is available first come, first serve, for $65 per 4” x 6” piece. While the artists sign each piece, these signatures are on the back. Thus, before purchasing, the artist remains anonymous, and patrons are able to select art based on individual desire and attraction. Beyond the small art, larger pieces will also be available, including jewelry and ceramics, each appropriately priced. 

PostCard Art is one of two major annual fundraisers for Artists for Africa, making it one of the organization’s vital events. “100% of the profit goes to support our mission of providing arts and educational opportunities to vulnerable children in some of the world’s poorest slums in Kenya,” B. Rust shares. 

The organization is particularly looking forward to this year’s event after having to move online during the pandemic. “We are very excited to see everyone and share the evening,” B. Rust says. “We have moved our event to the Hilton Garden Inn downtown and are really excited to share this newly renovated space with everyone.” 

B. Rust credits and thanks the group’s Board of Directors, plus their friends and family, for the time they have and will donate to “organize each detail, set everything up, and get it all wrapped up at the end of the evening.” Further, the expenses of the event are generously covered by sponsors, so all money from ticket sales will go directly to Kenya and C. Rust’s efforts in Nairobi. 

If you want to see unique art and support education and opportunity for African youth, be sure to attend this year’s PostCard Art. The event will be Wednesday, February 16th at 6:00pm at the Hilton Garden Inn in Columbia. Tickets are $30 in advance and $35 at the door and can be purchased here: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/5344995  

Colby Quick Wins Play Right Series and You're Invited to Join the Play Right Project Team as a Community Producer

The Jasper Project is proud to announce the winner of our 2nd PLAY RIGHT SERIES project—Colby Quick for his play, Moon Swallower

Colby Quick is a thirty-one-year-old writer, singer, musician, actor, husband, and father of two. He is the lead singer and guitarist of a Stoner Doom band known as Juggergnome and in the development phase of a rap duo project called Ski & Beige. Colby played Ebenezer Scrooge in Northeastern Technical College’s stage production of A Christmas Carol in 2019 and is currently in his final semester at Francis Marion University as an English Major and Creative Writing Minor. “I have mostly written poems, songs, and short stories, as well as an unpublished novel.: Quick says. “When I was young, I would make stop-motion videos and I wrote scripts for all of them. I think this helped a lot with writing the Moon Swallower.”

Now it’s your chance to join the Jasper Project’s Play Right Series as a Community Producer.

Are you the kind of person who always wants to know more about the art you experience?

• Why did the playwright make their characters the way they did?

• What was the director trying to accomplish by having an actor move across stage, turn their back to the audience, or break into dance?

• How did an actor make me feel the way they did simply by turning their head?

If you have a passion for knowing more, understanding process, inspiration, and impetus, and seeing how a virgin play goes from page to stage, you are a good candidate for becoming a Jasper Project Play Right Series Community Producer.

 

What is a Community Producer?

Community Producers are important members of the Play Right Series Team who, in exchange for their investment of a modest amount of funding, ($250 each or $500 per couple) become engaged in the development of a virgin play from the first time the actors meet until the production of a staged reading of the play in front of an audience.

Between February and August 2022, Community Producers will gather monthly to explore the process of a play moving from page to stage with presentations that include

• ·         Meet the Playwright: Colby Quick

• ·         Meet the Director: Chad Henderson

• ·         First Table Reading with your host, Jon Tuttle

• ·         Behind the scenes with the Cast of Moon Swallower

• ·         Stage managing, props, costumes, lighting, & sound with your host, Jon Tuttle

• ·         And finally, a Staged Reading before a live audience with the Community Producers front and center as our esteemed Guests of Honor*

You’ll enjoy wine, cheese, socializing, and an assortment of other unique snacks at every event, as well as Jasper Project swag bags and FREE admission to the Jasper Project 10th Birthday Celebration rescheduled for Thursday April 14th at 701 Whaley!

* For the Staged Reading, Guests of Honor will be seated in the best seats in the house, acknowledged from the stage and in all programming, promotions, and press releases, as well as on the Jasper Project website and in the Fall 2022 issue of Jasper Magazine.

Play Right Series History

The Play Right Series is an endeavor to enlighten and empower audiences with information about the process involved in creating theatrical arts, at the same time that we engineer and increase opportunities for SC theatre artists to create and perform new works for theatre. Our first project in the Play Right Series was in 2017 when Larry Hembree led project members to ultimately produce a staged reading of Sharks and Other Lovers by SC playwright Randall David Cook. Sharks went on to win a number of awards and has been produced off-Broadway. SC Playwright Professor Jon Tuttle of Francis Marion University is overseeing this project for 2022 with a new team of theatre artists including Chad Henderson (director), Colby Quick (playwright), Cindi Boiter and Christina Xan (Community Producer Liaisons), and more.

The Jasper Project is currently recruiting 10 individuals to join the Play Right Series as Community Producers. Click here or write to Cindi@Jasper Columbia.com for more information.

Lori Starnes Isom Explores Emotion Through Faces and Figures in New Tiny Gallery Show Sentimental Mood

Jazz Stylist

As we bundle up and get prepared to gather around tables and share thanks with ourselves and the ones we care for, consider expressing that love with an irreplaceable drawing or painting from Lori Starnes Isom, Jasper’s featured November Tiny Gallery artist, whose show Sentimental Mood is up now. 

Lori Starnes Isom is a New Yorker at her origins, born in Brooklyn and growing up in Queens, where she went to an arts high school and college. Her first interest in art came far before school, however, around age six.

 “I remember drawing lots of go-go dancers wearing white boots - probably inspired by the show ‘Laugh-In,’ which most likely inspired my desire to be a dancer as well!” Isom recalls. 

Though her schooling in art absolutely aided in Isom’s understanding of the genre, she roots most of her ability to “voraciously” consuming and studying other artists’ work as well as art content in print. This seed continued to grow not just as a student but a teacher, with Isom having taught children's art classes at the private level.

 As an artist, Isom is proficient in a plethora of mediums, though her favorite is charcoal due to her longstanding history with it and its “depth and richness.” When it comes to painting, specifically, she prefers watercolor due to its translucent texture and visuality. 

Visionary

“At first my work looked really stiff because I was trying to control the paint. But after a while, I learned that watercolor works best if you let it do its thing,” Isom explains, “I eventually switched over to acrylics because framing charcoals and watercolors got way too expensive!”  

Acrylic also provides a “versatility and ease of use” that allows Isom to repaint and alter art while already in-progress, which works in tandem with her personal style that she refers to as “loose [and] painterly.” In contrast to this is the detail she puts into faces, with figures and portraits often being the subject of her work. 

Isom credits artists such as Mary Cassatt, Johannes Vermeer, and John Singer Sargent as being inspiring forces for her. This compounds with her personal motivations in storytelling.  

“My driving force is always to tell a story or pursue an idea. I work from old photos a lot because I'm familiar with the people in them, and I deeply enjoy the challenge of bringing life to them,” Isom intimates, “I also really enjoy working in monotone and large, solid swathes of color because it causes the viewer to focus more on the story.”   

Isom’s process is one of balancing the freedom of ideas and maintaining simplicity, which allows for a striking expression of emotion and affect, finishing a piece when there is “nothing more that needs to be said.” 

For this Tiny Gallery show, Isom offers an intimate exploration of humanity, focusing on what she loves most: people. Sentimental Mood is a collection of 8 new and old pieces in multiple mediums.  

In one, a watercolored woman stands tall, gazing above her at something just off canvas. In another, a couple with soft, blurred faces yet stark emotion stand pressed against another, with an emerald green dress its center. Another zooms in close to a singing woman, mouth open in the ecstasy of song, fingers softly tendrilled around her microphone. 

“As far as a favorite,” Isom shares, “I think that would be "Close to My Heart", because it's a simple pencil drawing of my mom and her mother, Daisy, whom I never got to meet.”  

Close to my Heart

Within or outside the show, Isom has and continues to make a mark on our community with her expressive, pointed, and unique work. “I am acutely aware that it's a gift to be able to express myself in a creative way and know that I am in full control of how far I allow that creativity to grow,” she effuses. 

Isom’s show will be up until November 30th at Jasper’s online gallery, which is accessible 24/7: https://the-jasper-project.square.site/tiny-gallery.    

Concurrent to and after the show, Isom’s work can be viewed at the new Gallery 537 in Camden, South Carolina. You can also follow along her journey on Instagram and Facebook @loristarnesisom. 

—    Christina Xan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Christina Xan

Local Poet, Musician, and Painter Will Pittman Unveils First Gallery Show

 “Art is life and life is art, and like it's like closure to have these materials and put in the time and the execution of the vision of what you're trying to” — Will Pittman

Will Pittman

Will Pittman thrives in the interstices of poetry, music, and painting. A longtime lover of the arts and dweller of the city, he is finally revealing his first art show at State of the Art in Cayce next month.  

Pittman was born in Arkansas, but his family moved to Cayce when he was only 2, and he has long considered South Carolina his home. Even after leaving for college, travel, and experience, he came back to Cayce, where he resides now.  

Pittman, now 32, recalls his first encounter with art being comic books, joking that he used to fill his head with stories and images of Wolverine and Spiderman during class. While he took drawing classes in high school, it would be several years until Pittman began dedicating himself to this craft. 

While working in the distribution center of an Amazon factory, Pittman made a deal with himself: on his off days, he would dedicate 10 hours to painting, which he started by imitating the artists he admired most like expressionists Kokoschka, post-impressionist Van Gogh, and founder of impressionism Monet.

“My work is categorically original—it's still, in my opinion, similar of the beauty of perception in nature,” Pittman reflects, “You know, the thing about the expression of nature is that it can't be totally objective—documentation can't be totally separated from the artist's own mark inside of that.” 

In this interweaving of old and new, Pittman expresses with oil paints and portraiture. He roots part of his style in his relationship with John D Monteith, a local painter who Pittman worked with as an “informal protégé” before building a friendship. As for inspiration, it comes from all over, Pittman never quite placing where it might strike.  

“I'll put it like an author—it's whatever turns a phrase. When I write poetry, sometimes I'll take out books and just flip through and look for words, and then it's like an engine for creativity,” Pittman explains, “That's what portraiture is like for me; it wasn't something that I consciously saw out. And at the same time, it's a reason to load your brush, get that viscosity, and put it on a canvas.  

These ruminations follow Pittman across a number of disciplines, specifically writing and singing. He remembers first reading the American transcendentalist poets and feeling like a “tornado blew his windows out.” He started writing and performing soon after, opening for artists like Justin Townes Earle, Shovels and Rope, and Dex Romweber. 

“My love for literature feeds into songwriting, and those two are like sister arts, and then the painting and drawing, speak to each other, I think, in their craftiness, their intelligence,” Pittman relates, “When I approach a canvas, it's like being a carpenter's apprentice again.” 

Upon desiring forming these experiences into a show, Pittman walked directly into State of the Art and made conversation with gallery owner, Levi Wright, saying it was a form of “American neighborly friendliness.” Pittman showed Wright his art, and Wright knew it was the kind of stories he wanted to help tell. 

“Sometimes you see someone’s work and know they have something special,” Wright says. “And I believe Will is one of those people—he has that something.” 

Pittman is the gallery’s featured July artist. Around 12 canvases of various sizes and prices will be featured, including the two photographed above and a painting of the Hunley, a Confederate submarine Pittman just happened to stumble across last year and knew he had to record. The show is titled “Intervening Time: Facsimile and Ragbag.” 

“I decided to go all out and call it ragbag because the whole main kernel of painting and visual art is that it imitates life. You know, if I were to paint your portrait I would consider elements of art, like line and value and sort of render that with tools,” Pittman details, “But it's really like illusions—your face really doesn't have lines, your face has forms. And I have to make these sort of falsehoods on the canvas, and then that produces the image.” 

The show runs from the 1st to the 31st, and the Opening Reception is Thursday, July 8th from 3:00pm – 6:30pm. During this time, there will be pop-up vendors with food, vintage clothes, and jewelry outside, and Pittman will play his music. 

As the show turns towards its opening, Pittman has eyes set forward even beyond: painting more, playing his music, writing, and reminiscing on the overlaps—and—he’s currently in school to become an art teacher. 

“Art is life and life is art, and it's like closure to have these materials and put in the time and the execution of the vision of what you're trying to,” Pittman effuses, “Maybe having a show will be like a form of emphasizing a period of my life and then putting it away to move onto other material.”  

To support Pittman, follow him on social media (like his YouTube where he shares music, readings, and ruminations) and stop by State of the Art in the month of July to see his intimate reflections of the world around us, a world you might come to learn you didn’t know quite as well as you once thought.

—Christina Xan

South Carolina Potter Levi Wright Brings Life, Art, and Storytelling to Cayce

“It’s special being able to show that pride in a non-selfish way that says, ‘I'm proud of these people—this is our art that we make in South Carolina.’” – Levi Wright

Levi Wright

Levi Wright, 32, is a South Carolina native and longtime art lover and maker, who, in the past several years, he has used his passion to breathe new life to Cayce’s art scene with gallery State of the Art. 

Before this though, Wright grew up moving between Lexington and Cayce, where his parents owned an adult daycare center. His first prominent experience with art happened in school when he made a sculpture based on a Native American tradition for an art class.  

“One Native American tribe had a tradition that when a great chief would die, they would have a sculpture made of his face, and they would put the ashes in there and throw it off the cliff,” Wright tells, “And that was their final goodbye.”  

This uniquely inspired piece was entered into the State Fair. Wright reveled in this praise, recalling that, not being particularly outstanding at school, this was one of the first times he received praise and felt accomplished in work he cared for—and he stuck with it. 

If you look around Wright’s work now, you’ll be setting yourself up for a lot of staring back—that’s because Wright’s work mostly involves sculpting faces, which started in his art class but blossomed when he encountered Peter Lenzo—prominent Columbia sculptor—while taking classes at Southern Pottery.  

“I would see him during my lessons, and the whole time I was thinking, ‘That's what I want to do,’” Wright recalls, “We ended up doing a private session, and it grew into an apprenticeship and then a friendship.”  

Their friendship continued, and a wall at Wright’s house is intermixed with pieces he made and pieces Lenzo made for him, a space that Wright refers to as a “reflection of himself.” Lenzo’s care pushed Wright to become a better artist and pursue different elements of pottery. 

“I really didn't know how to throw because I was just throwing a form big enough for me to put a face in it,” Wright remembers, “You need to learn your fundamentals better before you can grow as an artist.” 

Lenzo’s encouragement resulted in Wright going on to study pottery at the Piedmont Technical College in Edgefield where he received two certificates. While there, he also began teaching classes, something he quickly fell in love with. 

“When I see that smile a person who wanted to throw a plate gets upon successfully throwing a plate, it’s instant satisfaction,” he intimates, “I mean, who doesn't want to be a person to celebrate when people accomplish a goal? If you don't celebrate the small things in life, then life's going to be a big disappointment.”

Wright with Peter Lenzo-inspired art

Now, Wright offers classes at his very own gallery, one that came to be in 2019 after years of planning. As Wright dwelled in Cayce, he felt one thing was missing: bright, local art. Then, a friend—potter John Sharpe—approached Wright and Valery Smith—a local artist whose vision aligned with his—with the idea of opening a gallery. Together, Wright and Smith opened State of the Art.  

Soon after the birth of her first child, Smith left the gallery, and Wright has continued their initial trajectory. The gallery proudly shows only South Carolina artists and hosts around 20-25 artists at any given time, takes part in city events, has monthly featured artists, and offers pottery classes.  

“That's one thing I take pride in, in having a gallery that only carries South Carolina artists because I've always grown up a little bit of just a proud South Carolina boy,” Wright effuses, “It’s special being able to show that pride in a non-selfish way that says, ‘I'm proud of these people—this is our art that we make in South Carolina.’” 

When it comes to selecting work, Wright shows artists that he loves and brings in his family to add an external opinion and aid in selecting pieces he may not have picked on his own. Some artists are reached out to directly, and some walk right in the front door. 

“I've tried to ensure this isn’t a gallery where you go in and even though there are different artists, it all has an identical vibe or feel,” he shares, “I love the fact that you come in here and there is such different stuff.” 

As mentioned previously, Wright shares this love in part through offering community pottery classes at the gallery—one-on-one lessons, several-week courses, and group parties. His classes are for throwing, but another artist can be called in for people who request sculpting classes, and Wright hopes to include painting soon as well.  

Currently Wright is re-vamping the gallery’s website to make scheduling classes easier, but people can still book online or call Wright directly. As he says, “you should never be too old or too smart to learn.” 

If you want to support State of the Art, go by the gallery, share their posts social media, and spread some word-of-mouth love. Their next event will be the opening reception for July artist of the month, Will Pittman, on Thursday, July 8th from 3 – 6:30pm. 

If you want to support Wright and his work, of course support the gallery, take one of his classes, and maybe take one of his heads home too.

—Christina Xan