Belly Dancer and Silversmith Ashley Bennett Creates Stories Through Jewelry in Her August Tiny Gallery Show

On August 1st, Jasper unveiled the newest Tiny Gallery featuring Ashley Bennett, the first solo jewelry show in the gallery’s history. Bennett, a dancer and silversmith who runs dance group Tiny Coven and smithing studio Covenite Silver, created 16 pieces throughout July for the show. The show has one week and two pieces left, so take a peek at them and Bennett’s life below. 

Bennett is not a stranger to beautiful art, seeing as she was raised by a “natural singer”—her mother—who was in turn raised by a pianist. A young woman raising a child on her own meant the pair moved quite often, living in Georgia, Ohio, and Michigan. Throughout times of change, though, one thing remained certain.

 “My mom wanted me to have more art in my life, and I always had a wild imagination,” Bennett recalls. “In the 6th grade, my English teacher recommended that I be placed in a magnet school for fine arts, based on my creative writing. I ended up being accepted for music, drama, and dance.”  

While Bennett enjoyed her courses, she found herself struggling to organize her work, time, and thoughts. Unfortunately, due to time and circumstance, she would not have an answer to understanding this part of her identity for years. 

“Thanks to social media and the fact that people understand a lot more about learning and neurodivergence, I'm currently working on getting a diagnosis for adult ADHD and dyslexia,” Bennett divulges, “It's not that I'm excited to have a learning disability—I'm just excited to know that I don't have to feel ashamed of myself for failing at some things.”  

Towards the beginning of this journey of self-understanding, Bennett took a couple of different dance classes, including Appalachian style clogging and belly dancing, the latter of which would become a defining part of her identity. While she did not immediately dedicate herself to belly dancing, Bennett did fall in love with yoga, and serendipitously, with a yoga class taught by belly dancer, Rachel Brice. 

“My yoga practice was never the same after that,” Bennett shares. “It's now been 16 years since I took my first intensive with Rachel…and only 6 months since we spoke on Zoom about a final project that I completed for her during quarantine.” 

This seeking of the self and interweaving of aspects of life continues to leak through Bennett’s art. Belly dancing and jewelry making are her two passions, and as she has explored each, she has found they speak to one another. Belly dancers, for instance, often partake in their own costume and jewelry design. 

“One time, when I was brand new and had made my very first ‘bra’ style top, a woman walked up and exclaimed that she owned the exact same embroidered trim that I had used (from JoAnn Fabrics),” Bennett remembers, “After that, I would only buy costume components from vintage and ethnic shops online. I want my audience to be transported to another world, not to the craft store. Keeping everything thing one-of-a-kind, handmade, and rugged is what drew me to smithing.” 

Even today, Bennett emphasizes that any jewelry she creates she would also wear as a costume piece. A balance of dedication and spontaneity are present in both smithing and performing. Individually, they function like a yin and yang with dance focusing on community and smithing focusing on solidarity, coming together to inform one another’s storytelling. 

“Both disciplines involve a hardy dose of improvisation, which I find deeply gratifying,” Bennett says. “And they both bring me so much joy.” 

Whether dance or jewelry, past work or present, Bennett is inspired by the less tangible aspects of the world around her, claiming that she never stopped believing that magic exists naturally within all of us. She hopes to offer a tangible version of that to others, often with pendants inspired by mythical creatures. 

“My approach to costuming is that I want the audience to believe we may have been born wearing our costumes. While I am still mastering the basics of silversmithing, my aim is to create pieces that look like the wearer came into this world wearing them,” Bennett says. “It would hang naturally, and the closures would be difficult to spot. I love when you can look at a piece close-up and still not really be able to tell how it was made.”  

When it comes to this specific Tiny Gallery show, Bennett was motivated by a desire to make one piece of jewelry every day through the month of July and present a fresh, inspired collection. While 2020 provided much free time to smith, 2021 sucked much that time away, and whatever time remained typically went to custom designs. 

“I wanted to challenge myself not to overthink every piece, to just make something from start to finish in one day, and then build the collection one day at a time and see what happens,” Bennett reveals, “July is also my birthday month, so I saw it as an indulgent treat for myself. No customs—just a few hours of improvisation a day and a fistful of pendants made from my favorite stone.”  

Unfortunately, at the end of June, Bennett’s mother fell ill, and she found out she had to vacate her home in 30 days, moving not only her studio but her family and life. July brought not only these shifts but a hernia and broken tooth. Despite these curveballs directly thrown her way, Bennett still made 16 pieces of jewelry throughout the month of July.  

“I hope that those who see my work get a sense of dauntless optimism. Things will work out, and if they don't, something else will happen,” Bennett says. “I am not a Buddhist, but I am comfortably detached from outcomes—and I think that is the secret to happiness.”

Attached to an outcome or not, the results of her show so far are nothing short of wonderful, though not surprising. 14 of 16 pendants have sold, pendants proving that a handmade piece of jewelry holds just as much soul and story as a painting or photograph. The varied tones of the center stones on each piece, shining in emerald and cerulean, hold and project individual tales. 

As a storyteller and artist, Bennett has two opportunities she considers distinctly special. One is interacting with her dance students—who she calls her closest friends and support system—and the other is being a working artist and a mom: “It is a huge privilege to me that I get to raise my daughter in a community of diverse and talented people, like those from our years at Tapp's Arts Center and presently at Sage Studios.”

 If you’d like to support Bennett as an artist, teacher, mother, and human, visit her gallery by the end of the month. Currently, only two of her effervescent pendants remain with only a week left to bring their stories home with you. The gallery is available 24/7 at the Jasper website:

https://the-jasper-project.square.site/tiny-gallery  

After the show, Bennett’s dance company, Tiny Coven, will be working towards ensemble performances this coming fall and spring. She hopes to schedule more collection releases with Covenite Silver in the coming months as well, which you can follow on her Instagram @covenitesilver. Finally, she’d love the chance to show old and new friends alike around her new space at Sage Studios.

-Christina Xan

Ron Hagell Weaves Personal and Collective Pasts into a Common Future with “Acrylidemic”

“As artists, it's our duty to do things like this—to use our voices to point out mistreatment and wrongdoing.”

— Ron Hagell

As we turn the corner on July and its sweltering days, consider exploring Ron Hagell’s Tiny Gallery show, “Acrylidemic,” from the cool four walls of your home. To learn more about the show, which runs until the end of this month, and about Hagell’s life, keep reading! 

Hagell’s father and grandfather were both artistic creators who inspired him, and the stories of his grandfather’s work linger still today. Hagell’s grandfather was a Canadian cowboy and artist, born in Alberta in the late 19th century, who painted adventures inspired by the natural landscape of the West.  

While Hagell always loved art, drawing throughout his childhood and school-age years, he didn’t go to school for it. The first official art classes he took were electives in college after he joined the army who sent him to school in the late 60s. 

After the army, and with a family to support, Hagell sought a career in film and television. His creative work bloomed in this realm of digital media, directing and creating films and taking and editing photographs. Hagell was a producer and director with PBS for several years before moving onto more hands-on work, making art for films and his own short films.  

“I did a lot of different kinds of artwork in this period, mainly making short films, various kind of experimental films related to time,” Hagell imparts, “I did a lot related to how you tell a story that is constantly jumping around in time.”  

Moving away from the administrative work at PBS, Hagell taught in universities in London before returning to South Carolina where he pursued an MFA in Film at the University of South Carolina. Being in the digital industry for so long means Hagell has grown along the timeline of film, from developing in darkrooms to digital manipulations, all while reveling in the expansion of creative limitations.  

This desire to push the boundaries of creativity was what led Hagell back to painting, exploring watercolor, oil, and acrylic–the latter being what he sits within the most these days. He also pursued many interests, inspirations, and subject matters, seeing the ways his hands could create stories refracted within and away from the films he spent years on.  

Some of Hagell’s art stems directly from his film adventures. His Dancer on Glass Series, specifically, was inspired by short films he made involving choreography and dance design in tandem with the female body. This tension between how fluid the body’s movements are and how individual movements appear when frozen in one moment is featured in several pieces in “Acrylidemic.”

In addition to 7 of these dancers, Hagell’s show features a mix of portraits, still lifes, and socially perceptive creations, altogether presenting a culmination of Hagell’s past experience and present experimentation.  

Portraiture is not an unfamiliar genre to Hagell, but he has been exploring new avenues of it in the past year, especially since he started as a non-degree seeking graduate student in the art department at the University of South Carolina. Specifically, these portraits use tones and colors that are “unnatural” like the blue skin in his MLK portrait.  

“I had that photograph of him stuck on my bulletin board and, and when George Floyd happened, I decided to paint it,” he shares, “I've changed it a bit, of course—he’s on high looking down, and he’s blue, which I feel is a representative wash of today.” 

Along the same lines, some of the still lifes emerge as a photographer’s take on capturing a moment no longer present yet still relevant. His pieces “Carolina 1950” and “Colored” are inspired by the era of Jim Crow and segregation that he lived through. While a photograph of this exchange can no longer be taken today, its effects are still felt, and images like this collapse past and present.  

Hagell is not a stranger to including sociopolitical messages in his work. “Bite the Bullet,” his large-scale American flag detailed by bullets, is one of his best-known pieces. For him, pieces with these messages are distinctly important as artists are the only ones who can tell stories with the power of their medium. 

“When I first was living in the South, I was really quite turned off to here, but when I came back, I witnessed change and started commenting on it” he asserts, “As artists, it's our duty to do things like this—to use our voices to point out mistreatment and wrongdoing.” 

While Columbia still has growing to do, Hagell is proud to be here and proud of the ways our city has grown over the years, intimating that “Columbia has come a long way, both in the city’s interest in art and in a social sense—I hope this is just the beginning of things getting better.” 

Hagell’s show can be viewed anytime between now and July 31st via Jasper’s virtual Tiny Gallery site: https://the-jasper-project.square.site/tiny-gallery 

To follow Hagell’s future work, which includes a burgeoning collaborative effort where he is weaving an AR-15 into elements of a church, follow his Facebook @artbyronhagell.

— Christina Xan

B.A. Hohman Shares the Life and Art Experiences That Led to Eccentric Tiny Gallery Show “WILLY NILLY”

 “Sometimes you don’t know what you’re capable of until you just do it.” — B.A. Hohman

DREAMSCAPE

Today is the summer solstice, a new breath of transition, and this turning point, both reliable and spontaneous, sets the stage of our Tiny Gallery show of the month. “WILLY NILLY” by B.A. Hohman is a show rife with verve.   

Tiny Gallery Manager Christina Xan sat down to talk with Hohman about her life, as a human and artist, and what led up to this show. 

Jasper: We’ve known each other for a couple years now, but we’ve never talked much about your past—will you tell me a bit about your childhood? 

Hohman: I grew up in the era following the end of WWII. My paternal grandparents and my maternal great grandparents were German Lutheran immigrants who settled in northeastern Ohio. My parents were hard-working middle-class people who wanted the best for their three children. I was third in line and a bit of an anomaly, being the decidedly right brained one in the mix. I explored imaginary worlds, loved to read and draw, play with neighborhood friends, and was the consummate tom boy. We grew up in a time when we had the run of the neighborhood with no immediate parental supervision. We were one of the last generations to experience the freedom that comes with no internet, no cell phones—the fifties were a time of hope and new horizons.

Jasper: Hope and new horizons—I love that! Was art one of the things on the horizon? Did it exist around you growing up?

Hohman: Art was not a prevalent theme in our home. Basic needs outweighed luxuries, yet I must applaud my father for his exemplary carpentry skills, becoming a volunteer fireman and eventually working in the Emergency Room at our local hospital in addition to his full-time work at General Electric. Kudos to my mother for always encouraging my creative endeavors while teaching nursery school for 40 years. She recognized my artistic nature, enrolled me in summer art classes, urged me to join the youth choir, took me on weekly visits to the library, and introduced me to museums. I also had wonderful art instructors as well as some amazing English teachers throughout my middle and secondary level schooling.

 Teaching Art was instrumental in my own art education. It forced me to break down all the components inherent in the creative process and thereby expanded my own abilities.

Jasper: And did you pursue art in college as well?

Hohman: Yes. My parents worked hard to provide us every opportunity to succeed. We were expected to excel and eventually get a college degree despite the financial burden, and all three of us did. My decision to pursue a degree in Art, I am sure was met with some skepticism. Studio Art at Ohio University became my college concentration from the very start, although English Literature classes nearly outweighed my time in the studio.

MAGNOLIA

Jasper: And at some point after graduation, you started teaching, right?

Hohman: My art took a back seat during the years of raising two girls, but my husband and I constantly found collaborative creative outlets. We had moved from Ohio to West Columbia and then to LeRoy, NY in 1981. The girls were still in elementary when I returned to school at Roberts Wesleyan College and completed my teaching certification. I did my student teaching at my girls’ Wolcott St. School and at Churchville Chilli High School, continuing for a long-term substitute position. I then taught at a local Catholic school. After moving back to West Columbia, I taught art at Pine Ridge Middle School and Airport High School. Teaching Art was instrumental in my own art education. It forced me to break down all the components inherent in the creative process and thereby expanded my own abilities.

Jasper: Oh, I’m all about the breaking down of boundaries. Tell me about how you moved full force into art.

Hohman: In 1999, I made the decision to leave teaching and embark on a career as a muralist and trompe l’oeil artist. A local designer gave me my first opportunity to showcase my work, and business took off! I have painted more murals in more houses than I can count. Although daunting to go from a canvas to painting entire walls and rooms as well as the exterior of a few businesses, I dove in and found it so liberating. I also discovered that I had the ability to paint just about anything my clients wanted. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re capable of until you just do it. I painted everything from whimsical and realistic animals in children’s’ rooms to huge 360-degree historical panoramas in varying styles, and faux windows, doorways and panels that fool the eye into thinking a flat surface is three dimensional. I often surprised myself.

THE SOUP

Jasper: Within those different projects, and today, what types of mediums did, and do, you explore?

Hohman: Over the years, I have explored many mediums, styles, and subject matter, but acrylic painting remains my staple. It was my concentration in college, and it has remained my comfort zone. I found I do not have the patience necessary to work in oil, but all other mediums interest me from pencil and charcoal to marker and colored pencil to clay. My style varies with each project. I look forward to again working in clay and creating 3D pieces as soon as I give myself a refresher course and get my kiln running.

Jasper: Well, on that note, tell me about this show specifically. What went into “WILLY NILLY?”

Hohman: This past year catapulted me into near isolation. My reaction to the outbreak of the pandemic was unexpectedly fierce. The state of our country and the world became an incredible challenge to face. I’ve been around for quite a while, but nothing prepared me for the physical and mental shut down I experienced. On the positive side, I intensified my explorations into the past, into the latest discoveries in physics and the connectivity of all things and read many books. As the world reemerges, my hope is that we all have a better understanding of who we are and why we are here. “WILLY NILLY” is an amalgam of various mediums and styles that reflect this period of my life. What began with a creative spurt, slowly fizzled to small doodles and experiments that steered my mind away from the chaotic state of our country and the world.

CONNECTIONS

Hohman’s show will be up until June 30th on Jasper’s Tiny Gallery site. When you go to the site, plan to see impressions of the natural world that quietly beckon visitation, geometric colors that seem to move like organisms under a slide, black and white illusions in which time seems to shift, and worlds clearly not our own and yet somehow strangely familiar. 

These works can be perused and purchased 24/7 here: https://the-jasper-project.square.site/tiny-gallery  

Hohman is unsure where she will go next but knows “the creative community in Columbia is always there to inspire.” While she embraces this inspiration, you can follow her work on Facebook @bahohman / Art & Murals by B.A.

Olga Yukhno Featured in December's Tiny Gallery Series

Thursday Night December 6th

6 - 9 pm

Jasper Studio #7 at Tapp’s Arts Center

The Jasper Project’s Tiny Gallery Series returns this Thursday night —always for First Thursdays — with an installation of 3D art from Olga Yukhno, who Hallie Hayes profiled earlier this fall. Yukhno is bringing a collection of both jewelry and objet d’art purposefully selected for exhibition based on their unique and innovative designs but also on the exciting holiday presents they will make for those on the discerning givers’ lists.

We caught up with Olga and asked her a few questions about this upcoming show.

~~~~

Jasper: From an earlier conversation with you we know that you are from Russia and have been in the states about 10 years. Can you specifically reflect on your time in Columbia and tell us how you've grown as an artist and who has influenced you the most in terms of your growth?

Olga: My time in Columbia has been challenging at times- it’s very hard to change countries, cultures and even art media. However, I’m tremendously grateful that I faced and was able to overcome such challenges as this process made me a better artist and, I hope, a better human being.

In the 10 years since I moved to Columbia, it has changed a lot. I feel that the last few years especially have been particularly good for the local art scene. I’m excited to not only witness this change but be an active part of it developing my work, helping other artists, connecting people and creating new opportunities!

I’ve been lucky to have quite a few people in my life who have influenced and supported me. Until this year I did all my work in community studios. Over the years I received so much encouragement from fellow artists who were working next to me! It has been a very humbling experience and I’m very grateful for all the friendships I made along the way.

Sheri Hood, the former owner of Our Hands Together Studio, has been one of the biggest supporters I’ve ever had and a wonderful friend through many trying and happy moments in my life. Her incredible kindness and wisdom have changed my life in many ways and served as a personal example for me.

My first Solo Exhibition and consequent gallery representation also happened in Columbia. Donna Green of Southern Pottery believed in me and gave me this opportunity that served as a powerful push in the development of my work. Since then I have been working with many other galleries throughout the Southeast but the first person who took a chance with my work will always have a special place in my heart.

I’ve been working at USC as the Gallery Director of McMaster Gallery since this summer and it has been an absolutely amazing experience of professional and personal growth. It’s been such a joy working alongside so many talented and dedicated people and being able to bring incredible art to Columbia.

And, of course, probably the most wonderful thing that I owe Columbia for is meeting my wonderful husband who is my biggest fan and supporter.

Jasper: What have you been up to since we last spoke earlier this year?

Olga: Life is getting more exciting every day! As I mentioned above, I’ve been enjoying curating exhibitions at McMaster Gallery. But I also work with other groups in Columbia to bring more opportunities to our city.

I have been working with Flavia Lovatelli to organize a series of EcoFab art exhibitions and fashion shows in Columbia and other parts of South Carolina. Just last week we celebrated the closing of EcoFab 2.0 at Anderson Arts Center and now we are getting ready for our biggest event yet - Charleston Fashion Week.

I also serve as a Gallery Coordinator for the Crooked Creek Art League and a Workshop Coordinator for Midlands Clay Arts Society. I’m a big believer in promoting and connecting people and creating new opportunities for artists. So I try to find ways to express this passion! My dream is for a bigger, more vibrant art community working together to help all the local talent really flourish!

Jasper: We're looking forward to hosting you as the third artist in our Tiny Gallery Series on Thursday, December 6th at the Jasper Studio (#7) in Tapp's Arts center. Can you talk a bit about what you'll be showing at this event? (would love to have some photos -- for the blog so no worries about hi res or anything)

Olga: First of all, I would like to thank the Jasper Project for this opportunity! I’m honored to have been selected and I know I’m in great company.

I will be showing some of my pieces from the Meditations Series. They are ceramic and mixed media Mandalas that symbolize peace, happiness and balance. They have brought a lot of joy and mindfulness in my life and I think these are the things we can all benefit from in the Holiday Season and the New Year. I will also have some jewelry. Personally, I love all jewelry related things- wearing, making, collecting- and I’m excited to share some of my favorite designs with the Jasper patrons!

Jasper: How does the Tiny Gallery Series work for you as an artist -- is it beneficial to you at all, and how so?

Olga: The Tiny Gallery Series is a wonderful idea! I love the opportunity to have a mini Solo Show as a part of a larger event. What I’m mostly excited about is meeting new people who have never seen my work. I think Jasper is a perfect “cultural bridge” to connect supporters of visual art, literary work and a richer cultural life in Columbia. I’m very glad this project has been started and look forward to many more successful events!

Jasper: After the Tiny Gallery Series, what's next for you and your art?

Olga: My 2019 is shaping up to be very exciting! The Tiny Gallery Series is a perfect introduction for me into the TAPP’S community as I will be a Resident Artist there for 5 months with a Solo Show in May.

I’m also working on a collaborative project with the amazing Columbia based artists Susan Lenz and Flavia Lovatelli to create a joint exhibition in conjunction with the Deckle Edge Literary Festival. Our show Alternative Storytellers will focus on literary stories with unexpected, thought-provoking new endings.

I’m very honored to have been selected as a featured artist for the Southern Exposure Series in March. This will be a very unique experience for me of creating a body of work based on the music performed at the closing concert of the Series.

In addition to Columbia based events, I will have a Solo Show Beneath the Surface at the Francis Marion Gallery in Florence, SC from February 18 till March 18.

Jasper’s Tiny Gallery Series Returns with Columbia’s Own, Thomas the Younger

 by: Christina Xan

Last month, The Jasper Project presented the first installment of its new Tiny Gallery series. With the help of the Columbia community, the inaugural event was a success. Continuing on this series will be local artist, writer, and creator, Thomas the Younger, aka Thomas Washington.

I was fortunate enough to meet with Washington this past Tuesday and experience his person as he shared with me details about his art and life and all the ways those two overlap.

Washington grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts where he says everything creatively sparked in him at the age of four. “Before four I had those foundational memories, like my first memory of my grandmother’s spiral staircase or my younger brother who peed on everyone,” he paused, and we laughed, “But after four my mind just woke up.”

Washington shared with me how after four he started consuming all the art and literature he could find, whether it was the Bible, stories, or the dictionary. As for how he started his art, specifically, he began by copying his father.

“I watched my father drawing one day while he was on the phone, and I saw this image come out of his pen, and I thought that was crazy,” Washington said, “When he was done, I took it and began to copy it over and over again until I felt I was closest to what he had done. That’s why I call myself Thomas the Younger.”

This experience didn’t just affect how he started his art, but it has influenced how he approaches creating every time he nears a canvas. “When I started copying my father’s art, I never thought that I could draw with something else, so I just drew with the same pen until it ran out, and even when it ran out, I drew with that same make and model,” Washington continued. “Through that, I learned something: even mistakes can be employed. If I made a mistake, I’d turn the painting right and turn it into something else.”

Approaching his art and literature in that way allows Washington to never be boxed in by specific conventions or genres. “I don’t limit myself to a genre because I just want to tell the story of people, whatever that means or needs,” he explains. “I believe there’s a story that all my art and literature is part of. It spans many worlds and contains all the genres you can imagine, because I love them all.”

Exploring a plethora of methods and genres not only allows Washington to create with limitless possibilities but to reach people in unique ways. “Yesterday someone came up to me while I was painting outside to ask for a cigarette, but after walking away, he came back and started talking to me,” Washington recounts. “After a bit, I went in the house, and, when I came back out, he was staring at my painting with an entirely new energy. He had walked around it, moved it, looked at all the angles.”

Washington proceeded to tell me how this young man shared with him how his painting made him feel something he couldn’t explain, and then he began opening up to Washington about the details of his childhood. Seeing this piece of art gave the young man an opportunity to connect with himself in a way he may not have otherwise been able to, a testament to the power of art itself. Washington says he “felt honored with how much he shared with me. He shared with me the core material of what makes him him.”

Humbly, he continued to say that when he finally came back to the house, he was visibly shaken. “My girl asked me what was wrong, and when I told her, she said that’s why they call you Shaman, because you can pull this out of people; you make their doors open, and their stories begin to flow.”

It’s all but impossible for a human being who feels the passion of all forms of creating so deeply to pinpoint what specifically their art is like. To do so would be to box it inside language. However, Washington knows what is important about it. “Every time we create, we are really expressing a part of ourselves, even if we think we’re hiding it behind someone or something nothing like ourselves,” he asserts. “It’s that way when I paint – I’m really painting me or some aspect of me or something I’m trying to express.”

His passion for creating parallels what he is passionate about in his life, both as a human and a humanitarian. “I consider myself an Afro-futurist, by default, really. My favorite subject is African-American women. Stoicism manifests itself so heavily in the African American community in general, through toughing it out or being tough, and women are as tough inside as others may project on the outside,” Washington elaborates. “It’s infinite. I try to not idealize it when I paint them; I just try to show their truth.”

Of course, this is not the only subject Washington paints or writes about. It is simply one of the many. His art can be colorful or black and white, can show people or monsters, can be chaotic or simple. In a more honest analysis: it is all of these at once. Regardless of what he will paint for this event, it’s of great importance to him as “This is part of my emergence.”

So, as for what to expect, really, it’s anything. It’s a convergence of the above, a reflection of the self, a reflection of the world. It is none of this, yet it is also all.

Confused? Good. That means you’re thinking. It means you’re curious.

To find some answers or better yet, more questions, come see Washington’s exhibit this Thursday at 6:00 p.m. at Tapp’s Art Center, Studio 7.

If you want to check out some of Washington’s past and current work, pop over to his website at: www.thomastheyounger.com

Follow The Jasper Project on Facebook and on Instagram @the_jasper_project

for more updates on local artists and events!

Keith Tolen Opens Jasper's First Tiny Gallery Series this First Thursday at Tapp's

Artist Keith Tolen - photo by Michael Dantzler

The Jasper Project is bringing a brand new project to light during First Thursday this month: The Tiny Gallery Series.

Jasper’s goal with this project is twofold – to support artists in our community and to encourage budding art collectors to start their collections. During upcoming First Thursdays, Jasper will be teaming up with local artists to display their work for sale at affordable prices in their studio at Tapp’s Art Center.

Kicking off the first series is local artist and South Carolina native, Keith Tolen. “I’m honored that I’m kicking this off; it’s hard to believe,” Tolen said with a chuckle as we chatted over coffee, “But I’m nervous too. I want to do this event justice.”

Tolen has been studying and working on his craft for decades now. An art education major in college, he worked in both retail and real estate before landing the job as an art teacher at Camden Middle School – a job he cared for and worked at for 30 years.

Beyond teaching, Tolen has been creating art since a young boy. He and his brothers used to draw together, and Tolen’s first love was film and photography. When he focused on painting in college, he became heavily influenced by the abstract expressionist styles of the 1970s, the art style that still influences him today. In his recent years, Tolen has tried to challenge himself by taking classes in different art styles, such as still life. All of these influences come together for his Tiny Gallery Series where there is one thing in particular to expect: eggs.

Tolen said that the form of the egg is key for painting. It is between shapes, not circle or oval, pointed at the top, and plays with light and shadow in simple yet complex ways. He is using eggs in these paintings as a “balance of the simplicity of the egg and the chaos of abstract expressionism.”  

“I hope these eggs take on a personality and travel from canvas to canvas, taking on the identity of its surroundings while still maintaining its own integrity,” Tolen says, “I love color, and the challenge with these paintings was to have backgrounds rich with color but for the eggs to be the draw, to be very neutral.”

This will be the third time Tolen has shown his egg paintings this year, the first two times both to a positive critical reception. When asked about past accolades in his career, however, Tolen told a powerful story about a young girl in his first 6th grade class who took her passion for origami and taught an entire class of 50 students her art, holding their attention on a Friday far after the bell had rang.

“I could sell a painting for a million dollars,” Tolen said, “But it wouldn’t compare to the moment that girl stood in front of her peers and captivated them with her art.”

From this comes the importance of an event like the Tiny Gallery Series. Like what that girl did for her class, “Art inspires us; it educates us.” Tolen said.

When asked about his goal for his paintings in particular Tolen said, “There’s two things I want people to say. Either ‘I can do that’ or ‘I appreciate that.’ I want people to see my paintings and be inspired to go use their creativity and make something of their own, and if not to at least look at them and know they mean something special.”

This event is, again, not just a chance to see art from local artists but to help the community of Columbia start their own art collections. “It’s important to have art in the home beyond just for exposure,” Tolen says, “Having original art on your walls builds bonds, connections, and it demystifies the idea that only certain people can experience art. Art is for everyone.”

Future artists participating in the Tiny Gallery Series include Olga Yukhno, Bonnie Goldberg, Dave Robbins, and more.

To see Tolen’s work, stop by Tapp’s Art Center in Studio #7 starting at 6:00 p.m. this Thursday, October 4th, and be sure take a piece of his passion home for yourself.

—Christina Xan

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