West Columbia Brought the Magic to Friday Night's Fall Back Festival 2017

Alicia Leeke

Tony Brown

Michael Cassidy

Sammy Lopez

BA Hohman

Dre Lopez

Karl Larsen

Herman Keith 

Michael Krajewski & Lucas Sams collaboration

You couldn't have asked for a more beautiful night on State Street last Friday when West Columbia threw their first ever Fall Back Festival. With the help of the shop owners on State Street, and a very strong influence from Frame of Mind owner Mark Plessinger, the night was warm and welcoming, full of music, food, drinks, and good and new friends.

Among the artists creating street art -- literally art on the asphalt paving of State Street -- were ten of Columbia's top creators, and you could tell they were having a great time creating art for art's sake. As one artist said, "It was nice to be able to just come out and make some art without having to abide by too many rules or fill out too many forms and applications." The artists, whose works are pictured above, included Alicia Leeke, Herman Keith, Sammy Lopez, Karl Larsen, Michael Cassidy, Dre Lopez, Tony Brown, BA Hohman, and Michael Krajewski and Lucas Sams who collaborated on their piece.

After 10 provided some great cover tunes, Pawleys food truck fed hungry bellies, and all the restaurants and bars had their doors open welcoming folks to come in and buy a drink to take back out on the street.

Frame of Mind featured an innovative art show by IRL couple artists Bohumila Augustinova and Barry Wheeler. ( Full disclosure: Barry Wheeler is the president of the board of directors for The Jasper Project.)

Mandala by Bohumila Augustinova

Converge Above the Plane by Barry Wheeler

Art for art's sake. Answering the need to create and share that creation. Music in the air. A happy little buzz from a Friday night drink. Friends, old and new, clasping hands, slapping one another on humid backs, giving good deep hugs. Celebrating Friday, fall, art, and one another. 

Keeping it simple. Preserving the joy. 

FUERZA! New exhibit explores reality of domestic violence through art

 

There’s something that goes on everyday, around the world, country and right here in Columbia. It happens next door, down the street and for some in their own homes. It’s what Palmetto Luna Arts board member Alejandro Garcia - Lemos refers to as “a serious and complicated issue.”

That issue is domestic violence.

The Columbia Museum of Art has teamed up with Palmetto Luna Arts, which promotes Latin arts around the State, to bring a one of a kind exhibit to museum visitors during Latin Month. ¡FUERZA! meaning strength, force, and power in Spanish, Artistas Latin@s in South Carolina, is the effort of Dre López, Sammy López, and Robert Chambers of the Piensa Art Company as well as Lemos, Ashley Berendzen, and Mariángeles Borghini.  Together, the team created panels of art to convey the struggles of domestic violence, specifically in minorities around the country. Aside from the CMA, this group of artists teamed up with the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, which is compiled of 22 sexual assault programs in the state.

The exhibit, which will be located in the Carolina Guignard Community Gallery of the CMA will open on Tuesday, September 23, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will feature music, dance and a lot of meaningful art to take in.

Garcia-Lemos is proud that this art is not solely for the purpose of entertainment, but to bring a necessary awareness to the community.  As an issue close to all the artists in the Latin American community, Garcia-Lemos hopes he can make a difference through this art and bring much more awareness to this often-occurring issue in South Carolina, as well as the entire U.S.

As an issue that can effect any population, gender, race or person, the artists, SCCADVSA and the CMA calls on all members of the community to get a better understanding of domestic violence through a unique form of artistic expression. Opening night of ¡FUERZA! is free to the public and will be on display until November 30., giving guests ample opportunity to experience the heartfelt strength, force, and power.

-By Caitlyn McGuire

Playing After Dark -- This Friday and Saturday Nights

Neither cartoons, puppets, video games, nor music sound all too foreign.  Unless you’ve been living under a rather sizable rock (or had the misfortune of attending an artistically disinclined South Carolina public school), you’ve undoubtedly encountered each of these creative media before.  But chances are you haven’t encountered them together as a single, collaborative event.

This Friday and Saturday, Pocket Productions affords you the opportunity to do so.  Since 2009, this local arts organization has been expanding the public’s definition of art by exposing Columbia to innovative examples of interdisciplinary artistic cooperation.  Their “Playing After Dark” series, in particular, has introduced audiences to visual, musical, performing, and even culinary arts.

This weekend’s installment of Playing After Dark (titled “1001”) revolves around the unique collaboration between digital and analog art.  It will feature the following performances: Dre and Sammy Lopez of Piensa Art Company will present a combination of digital and analog drawings; Lyon Hill (puppetmaker and puppeteer with the Columbia Marionette Theatre) and Wade Sellers (commercial producer/director and owner of Coal Powered Filmworks) will perform a marionette/cartoon act; Professor Fripples (brilliant young programmer David Hamiter) will show off an audio controlled video game that runs alongside a puppet show; and DJ Deft Key (Entropy Studios’ producer, sound engineer, multi-instrumentalist, and remix artist) and singer/songwriter Bob Benjamin will perform a fusion of digital and acoustic music.

Playing After Dark “1001” begins at 7 pm this Friday and Saturday at CMFA Arts Space (914 Pulaski).  Tickets are available for $10 in advance (online at www.pocketproductions.org), $12 at the door, or $8 with membership.  In addition to the one free drink with admission, fine IPAs, stouts, Merlot, Syraz, and hors d’oeuvre will be available.  The event may also feature a “puppet” boiled peanut stand courtesy of Happiness Bomb (a diverse group of artists, musicians, designers, programmers, and, of course, puppeteers).

For more information about Pocket Productions, check them out on Twitter (twitter.com/PocketProSC) and Facebook (facebook.com/pocketproductions).

-- Austin Blaze - intern, Jasper Magazine

Bullets & Bandaids: Behind the Eyes of Combat War Veterans

On January 31, 2012, local artists will showcase works inspired by combat veterans’ stories at Bullets & Bandaids, an art show honoring local war veterans, from 6 – 10 p.m. at 701 Whaley in downtown Columbia, SC.

Robert LeHeup, PIENSA: Art Company’s resident writer and a combat war veteran himself, organized this art show to give audience members an introspective view on the impacts of war told through visual interpretations of the stories of those who have lived them.

Bullets & Bandaids will feature a collection of war veterans’ stories depicted by local Columbia artists including Robbi Amick, Alex Coco, Thomas Crouch, Michael Krajewki, Whitney Lejeune, Dre Lopez, Sammy Lopez, Nikoai Oskolkov, Adam Schrimmer, Jonathan Sharpe and Kiril Simin.

“My hope is that these talented artistic pieces will give a unique and intricate interpretation of the experiences of our veterans and how they’ve reacted to those experiences,” said LeHeup.

Films screening at Bullets & Bandaids include: Soldier Girl: South Carolina Female Veterans, a short documentary about women veterans dating back to WW II, a largely undocumented but ever expanding segment of our military population share stories of their trials and triumphs, hopes and dreams in provocative and inspiring interviews, produced by Cathy Brookshire and edited by Lee Ann Kornegay; and Spent Rounds, a short film about the internal struggle of a combat war veteran suffering from PTSD entering back into civilization, written and directed by Robert LeHeup. Also, there will be the music video "Quiet" which deals with a vet's struggle with PTSD, done by Atlanta-based recording artist Dirty Dickens who himself is an Iraq war veteran.

Ticket sales and 30 percent of art sales will be given to Hidden Wounds, a non-profit organization dedicated to the treatment of combat veterans who suffer from PTSD. Hidden Wounds was founded by Columbia native Anna Bigham in honor of her brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Mills Palmer Bigham, who committed suicide suffering from PTSD inflicted by war trauma. Marince Lance Cpl. Bigham’s story is featured in Bullets & Bandaids.

Admission for Bullets & Bandaids is $5 for entry; $10 for entry and a copy of Spent Rounds; or $20 for entry, a copy of Spent Rounds, and a Hidden Wounds T-shirt.

The event will be held on the first floor of 701 Whaley on 701 Whaley St. in downtown Columbia, SC. For inquiries contact Robert LeHeup by calling (864) 216-1492 or via email at RLeHeup@yahoo.com.

Bullets & Bandaids is brought to you by PIENSA: Art Company in partnership with 701 Whaley, Hidden Wounds, the local veterans who have shared their stories and the local artists who have honored those stories through their respective pieces.

Wikipedia: lay definition: to beat or strike down with force. →