Phillip Mullen Exhibit of NEW WORK Opens at Rob Shaw Gallery December 2nd

On Friday, Dec. 2, from 6 to 9 p.m., Rob Shaw Framing and Gallery at 324 State Street in West Columbia will host a reception to launch a month-long exhibit of works by internationally renowned artist Philip Mullen.

Since 1969, when Mullen began his career teaching at the University of South Carolina, his works have appeared in numerous exhibitions at galleries and museums across the US, including the David Findlay Galleries on Madison Avenue in New York City, the Dubbins Gallery in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Malton Gallery in Cincinnati, and the Eva Cohon Gallery in Chicago and Highland Park, IL. 

Mullen is known for large acrylic paintings, some as wide as fifteen feet. His 1983 8.5-by-12-foot painting Women in the Country (Series 2, No. 5) is part of the James C. Moore, Jr., Collection of the Work of Philip Mullen, which includes most of the 161 Mullen works owned by the University of South Carolina.

The 2020 recipient of the Elizabeth O’Neil Verner lifetime achievement award, Mullen was named a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of South Carolina in 2000. Since 1990, twenty of his paintings have been on permanent display at the Koger Center in Columbia.  

Artist Don Zurlo describes Mullen’s paintings as “very physical, even sensual in the use of color and texture” to draw viewers “into the mystical elements of the works.” By manipulating tactile surfaces and simple forms on a flat plane, he depicts “infinite layers of human experience in a complex interaction between the physical and spiritual worlds.” 

The opening reception honoring Mullen on Dec. 2 is part of a series of first-Friday events sponsored by Rob Shaw Framing and Gallery. Since opening his gallery in April of 2019, Shaw has hosted monthly exhibits to highlight South Carolina’s many talented artists. 

A Message from Cindi: 37 Issues of Jasper Later and Thanks for Everything

Thank You!

This is the image that popped up in my Facebook memories this morning.

It’s a bundle shot of our second issue of Jasper Magazine released this week in 2011. The cover art is by Thomas Crouch and was designed by Heyward Sims, our art director when we started Jasper Magazine. A small magazine, it featured a piece on Crouch, one on Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School—Ashleigh Rivers was the president of the Columbia chapter, our centerfold was Chris Bickel, articles on Dre Lopez, Caroline Lewis Jones, Bobby Craft, Lee Ann Kornegay, and a story about the 2011 Biennial written by Jeffrey Day. Mayor Steve Benjamin wrote a guest editorial at the back of the book in which he praised the opening of the new Tapp’s Arts Center on Main Street. His editorial was accompanied by an assemblage of the mayor created by Kirkland Smith.

Sigh.

Time goes by so fast.

When this mag came out I had just turned 53 and was realizing that my 50s might very well be the best decade of my life. It was. And for that I am grateful. I’m even more thankful that, 11 years later, someone stills needs me and feeds me now that I’m 64. And I’m particularly thankful for the artists, staff, board, readers, and supporters who made this most recent issue of Jasper—released on Friday night with a lovely little soiree at Kristian Niemi’s Bourbon Courtyard—possible.

This is a photo of artist Wilma Ruth King by Brad Martin holding the image our art director Brian Harmon made into the cover of the magazine we just released.

This is a big fat magazine full of stories about Columbia-based artists and the films they’ve made—Thaddeus and Tanya Wideman-Davis, Monifa Lemons, Dustin Whitehead and his USC crew, Arischa Connor and her list of TV credits, a big piece on jazz by Kevin Oliver, a centerfold story written by Will South about neighbor artist from Conway, Jim Arendt, and another by South on the Elizabeth Catlett exhibition at the CMA. There’s poetry by Monifa and Jonathan Butler, a review of Carla Damron’s new book by Eric Morris, smaller pieces on exciting people and innovative projects—like Amy Brower, Jamie Blackburn, Seitu Amenwahsu, Steven Chapp and Jerred Metz, and Libby Campbell, record reviews of Jump Little Children and Todd Mathis and really, too many subjects to mention here.

I am thankful for this issue of Jasper Magazine and all it represents. An evolving and maturing art community full of grown-ass people who are living the lives they always imagined they’d live, or better. Some of them are stars. Some of them go on brief rides on starlight. And some enjoy basking in the combined and accumulated glow they and their colleagues in the community emit when they make their art and see it received by their fellow humans.

All of this is good.

I’m also thankful for all of you who came out this week to help Jasper celebrate by joining us at Vista Lights.

Jasper Project Board President Wade Sellers at Vista Lights Columbia may, in fact, be Santa.

I’m thankful for all of you who joined us Friday night at Bourbon to welcome this new issue of Jasper to the world.

This is me with Kimber Carpenter and her mom Pat Gillam - both artists - at the Fall 2022 magazine release reception on Friday, November 18th.

I’m thankful for our sponsors, who so generously continue to support Jasper because they recognize it as a gift of art given to the community—not necessarily as just a method media to get the word out about what they alone have to offer. We had 16 sponsors back when issue #2 came out. This issue, we have only 6 — the Palmetto Opera, who have an upcoming concert of Madame Butterfly on January 29th; Harbison Theater who will welcome Tom Papa on January 20th along with a show of Michael Krajewski’s work and who are currently showing an exhibition of David Yaghjian’s work, both sponsored by the Jasper Project Galleries; Trustus Theatre, which opens Hurricane Diane on December 2nd and Mr. Burns, A Post Electric Play on January 20th; CMFA who hosted the Jasper Project’s Play Right Series performance in August; arts activist Eric Tucker’s KW Palmetto Realty, and our truly beloved Columbia Museum of Art who has advertised with us and sponsored us since the very beginning.

I’m thankful for our Jasper Guild Members who, with incredible generosity, trust the Jasper Project with their funding to create a magazine, a literary journal, a film festival, and more, knowing that every penny they give goes right back out to the artists, with no one on our end being paid for their volunteer talent and energy.

Thank YOU for indulging me in this lengthy message, and for reading Jasper Magazine and supporting the many facets of The Jasper Project. From all of our houses, to all of yours —

Happy Thanksgiving,

Cindi

~~~

Coming Up from Jasper

December 1st - First Thursday at Sound Bites Eatery with Lindsay Radford Wiggins - 6 pm

December 11th - Reception for David Yaghjian at Harbison Theater - 2:30 pm

December 15th - Santa Crawl with Jasper at the Art Bar - 7 pm

CALL for PLAYS - Play Right Series - deadline December 31st, 2022

The Jasper Project and Art Bar Present Santa Crawl 2022!

It’s time to don your gay apparel and join the Jasper Project on Thursday December 15th at the Art Bar for our first ever (official) Santa Crawl!

Traditionally, a Santa Crawl is a bunch of merry-makers climbing into the Santa Suits we all keep in our closets and pub crawling through the city streets. But working in conjunction with the good folks at the Art Bar, this (official) event will find us just crawling all over the Art Bar instead.

Of course, you are welcome to (unofficially) take your Santa and other Christmas Character Clothes for a drink anywhere you’d like. But we hope you’ll at least start and stop with us at the Art Bar.

To make that invitation even more appealing, the bar staff at Art Bar will be creating a special Jasper Holiday Cocktail list and a portion of the proceeds of those drinks sold between December 15th and Christmas will be donated to the Jasper Project to offset the cost of printing Jasper Magazine, Fall Lines, and the winning submission to the Lizelia Prize Project.

To get you in the spirit for some Santa fun, enjoy these photos from our (unofficial) pre-Covid Santa Crawl in 2019.

Jasper Project ED Cindi Boiter and husband Bob Jolley at a previous non-affiliated Santa Crawl.

Dick Moons and BA Hohman Santa Crawl in 2019

REVIEW: CMA's Baker and Baker present Zion. A Composition by Saul Seibert

Zion. A Composition

Live at Columbia Museum of Art

Thursday, Nov 17th, 2022

Baker & Baker Series

by Kevin Oliver

An ambitious instrumental and visual art piece conceptualized by Saul Seibert with help from artist Virginia Russo, multimedia from Ash Lennox, and a cast of fellow musicians, Zion. A Composition came alive in multiple dimensions on Thursday evening at the Columbia Museum of Art, as part of their ongoing Baker & Baker concert series. 

Seibert opened the evening with a short explanation of the story behind the composition, and as he told the family background in front of multiple members of his own family in the audience, the anticipation in the audience built. The delineation of the three acts: The Diaspora, The Sojourn, and The Ascent, was a useful glossary of sorts for the crowd to reference, but as the piece unfolded, there was no visual division on screen or stage to indicate when one movement ended and a new one began. As such, at several lulls in the program audience members interjected applause and exclamations, seemingly unsure if something was ending or maybe just overwhelmed with appreciation of what had just transpired in a concluded segment.  

With two of the three movements already released for a while prior to this live performance, and the third just completed, it was still a much different experience watching the musicians perform the entire piece live. Left to right, they filled the CMA stage: Seibert’s older brother Zach Seibert (E.Z. Shakes) sat quietly cooking up some sinister electric guitar tones, Marshall Brown contributed keyboard swirls of varying tone and intensity, Kevin Brewer held down the beats even as they came and went throughout, Darren Woodlief, also seated, provided a solid bass presence that asserted itself fully in the final movement. Sean Thomson was the musical wizard of the night, starting on spooky, sensual sitar and moving to steel guitar and some wicked electrified mandolin. Seibert himself stood center stage, hollow body guitar in hand throughout, the ringleader of this spiritual, musical circus troupe.  

Every musical composition has an arc, that up-down movement that gives it an interesting story to tell. Zion’s first movement, Diaspora, came through as a slow-building bundle of potentialities, with the audience a bit on edge, unsure of where it might be headed, perhaps. The preshow preface alluded to one beginning to rid themselves of preconceived ideologies, attitudes, and casting those things out, and the music reflected such a sweeping task. Thomson’s sitar was prominent through the early passages, giving this portion a raga-like intonation that allowed listeners to settle into the aural universe of Zion.  

As the middle section opened up, the music soared, searching for those times of sojourn, as the movement’s title suggests–those places of rest, as one searches for home. At times the band resembled arena rockers on an extended jam, bluesy and blustery and supremely confident. In these sections, the drumming and the guitars evoked the percussive jazz plains of Steve Tibbetts’ 1980s work, or a more democratic take on the guitar orchestras of Rhys Chatham. In between those searing, searching sections the dynamic shifted to hushed tones, leaving sometimes a single instrument moaning, or clicking along softly as the band reloaded for the next swell like a surfer coiling his muscles for the next wave. 

It is in its final movement, however, that Zion finds, well, Zion. The Ascent is a lumbering leviathan of a groove, somewhere between Soundgarden-level grunge and the groaning Krautrock grooves of Can or Neu!, just a beast of a display anchored by Woodlief’s mammoth bass riffing. Again, however, there are interludes, lulls in the action. Life isn’t all one trajectory, after all, and neither is the ascent to Zion, musically speaking. The mountain does eventually get conquered, and in conclusion the music doesn’t so much fade away as plant itself on the peak and say “done.”  

Visually, artist Virginia Russo’s live painting/art added a facet to the proceedings that didn’t have to be there, but the performance was richer and fuller for it. As the band’s musical arc proceeded to rise and fall, so did Russo at the front of the stage, clad in black with a rolled out white canvas in front of her. She proceeded to paint over the entire canvas with her hands, no brushes, and then pick up the fully paint-saturated canvas and cut it into long, increasingly narrow strips. Those, she then rolled up before pulling them back apart, one ripped square at a time. The squares were then arranged on a new, clean white canvas to make a totally different piece of art. It was a perfect visual analogy for the thematic elements of the musical composition and served to reinforce those themes as the audience both listened and watched the proceedings.  

Other parts of her artwork for Zion were projected throughout as sometimes moving images on two large screens behind the musicians, lending a psychedelia gauziness to the already evocative visuals. 

Overall, I’d call this a nearly unqualified success, to write and perform such a challenging piece of multimedia art here in Columbia. I’m not sure I’ve seen anything quite like it locally, and Seibert’s prior resume as a garage rock raconteur certainly wouldn’t have hinted at the possibility of something like this coming forth. Going in, Seibert told me himself that there would be very, very limited live performances of this project, and I understand why–the preparation and commitment of all the participants was fully on display for this one.

Artists Rise Up with Neighborhood Art Shows & Bohumila Augustinova Tells Us Why

Given that the Jasper Project is a full-blooded grass roots arts organization with a penchant for do-it-your-selfers and folks who say screw the system that we didn’t design and take problem solving into their own hands, we love and celebrate the, now, many community-based art shows on the calendar these days.

These events have grown organically from the hearts and environs of the artists themselves and been nurtured by their neighbors who know the value of having artists who live next door or just down the street. Those artists tend to live life intentionally, prioritizing beauty and finding their own versions of gods in the tiniest details of their lives. They tend to be kind and respectful of shared spaces. Or they may keep to themselves unless they are needed. In any case, having artists as neighbors usually means lovely yards and porches that bother no one and enhance the world around them, so why wouldn’t non-artist neighbors enjoy participating and encouraging neighborhood arts events like the Cottontown Art Crawl, Melrose Art in the Yard, Keenan Terrace Art in the Yard and more?

Jasper is here to cheer on our local artists as they brave the chilly days ahead and gather under tents (and probably blankets) to show the rest of us how their spirits have manifested into the beautiful art they’ve created and have for sale. We love the lack of a middle person. We love that the artists are turning over the temple tables for themselves. We love the purity of this kind of exchange – value for value. And we love that the artists said We have art for sale, and we need somewhere to sale it, and solved that problem for themselves.

Here's a look at some of the al fresco arts events coming to a neighborhood near you.

THIS SUNDAY 11/20/22

According to their social media, “Historic Melrose Art in the Yard held the first art event in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. The idea was to provide local artists and artisans with a safe place to show and sell their wares while also showcasing the historic neighborhood. The event drew hundreds of people to explore the neighborhood. … The November 20th AITY will be the eighth time the event has been held. This event is entirely outdoors and spread over several city blocks.”

Melrose Art in the Yard welcomes more than 80 artists to show and sell their original work in the historic, downtown Columbia neighborhood. The event also features food and a concert by Admiral Radio, starting at 4:30 pm.

NEXT SATURDAY 11/26/22

Hosts Bohumila Augustinova and Bekah Rice invite you to join them for the third annual Keenan Terrace Art in the Yard with 16 artists selling their handmade, one of a kind creations.

Artist participating in this event include Lucas Sams, Gina Langston Brewer, Adam Corbett, Ginny Merett, Diane Hare, Barbara Howes-Diemer, Michael Krajewski, Wayne Thornley, Valerie Lamott, Flavia Lovatelli, Jennifer Hill, Stan Cummings, Elisabeth Donato-Owens, Ellen Fishburne, Tennyson Corley, and. of course, Bohumila Augustinová.

Bohumila Augustinova Chats About Why She Loves Pop Up Outdoors Art Shows

I was part of Melrose Art in the Yard. It was their second or third year and I was set up next to couple of  my friends. We loved the event. I have a big front yard, so we decided that maybe we could do our own version of the event. Just with all of the artists in the same area.  

Starting the event wasn’t all that difficult. I organized plenty of art events before, so this may have been the easiest event I ever organized. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a lot of work. Just not as stressful.  

There are few things I really like about it. First, I love and adore working with local artists, so showing my work right by their side is always a pleasure. I love that neighbors come on foot, with their dogs and kids. It has a true community feeling to it. I get to know some artists that live right in my neighborhood and so many of my friends come to support the event.  

We have a few artists that been with us since the beginning and few new faces as well. 

We have Michael Krajewski, who’s been selling his work at this event since the beginning. He brings his smaller works of art and sell them at amazing prices. Michael is also a collector of vintage toys, so he always entertains us with different toys he brings.  

This year for the first time Tennyson Corley is bringing her amazing ceramic sculptures. They are really humorous and charming.  

Wayne Thornley, he’s been one of my favorite local artists for years and a good friend. He’s dangerous to me, because I know I’m going to want to buy more of his work. He brings paintings and his wish boxes, and I have the feeling I need another one of those. 

I’m excited because Liz Donato who was my first ever pottery teacher will be joining us. Her pottery is so beautifully made. 

Ellen Fishburne is one of our neighbors and she does amazing watercolor paintings and notecards.  

We are doing this once a year. We settled on the Saturday after Thanksgiving because it’s “shop local day.” 

The only tricky part of this event is that even though our front yard is big, it’s not big enough to grow. We can only have about 17 artists. At this point, the only call for artist we do is on the neighborhood facebook page.

Building The Sound: Q&A with the Guitarist and Bassist of Eighth House

We talked with Gabe Crawford, well-known guitarist for many a local project, and new to the scene bassist, Laurent Duverglas, about their new band Eighth House. Their sound is described by Crawford as “Loud pretty chords, quiet vocals, dub bass, and slo mosh beats,” but you can hear them for yourself at their first show November 16th at New Brookland Tavern with Cathedral Bells, and Surf Rock is Dead.

“If there is a sound missing in your town, build it, and they will come!” – Gabe Crawford

JASPER: How did Eighth House come to be?

DUVERGLAS: I like to think of the story of how Eighth House came to fruition as almost like a true love at first sight kind of tale. I'd been playing bass for a couple of years by the time I moved to Columbia in July of 2021, but I never thought Columbia would be home to the kind of band I'd always dreamed of being a part of. Shortly after moving, I became enamored with the Cola queer, alternative, and music scenes. I first became acquainted with Gabe after I learned he designed the poster used to promote The Beautiful Neighborhood's Grunge prom, from then on it seemed as if out paths never failed to cross. I quickly knew him to be the guy in a million bands, something we still joke about, but also to be this really loving and genuine dude. One night we got to talking about music and we suddenly realized that not only did we have the same taste in music, we were both lovers of "the scene that celebrates itself" - shoegaze.

We formed our first lineup which included our wonderful lyricist and vocalist, Heather. The weekend after that, we had our first practice and a show booked at New Brookland Tavern for the 16th of November. Eventually we recruited the enigmatic multi-instrumentalist behind Cloud Repair, Richard, to join Gabe on guitar. Lastly, we were able to enlist the spectacular drummer from many Columbia bands including Gamine, Rugstain (Jenny) to join me on the rhythm section!

JASPER: Gabe, what sets Eight House apart from the other bands you are currently in?

CRAWFORD: It’s much different sound compared to the other bands I compose/manage because it’s almost completely new people working towards a different sound.

JASPER: Can you talk about all the bands/projects you are involved with?

CRAWFORD: Eighth House is the newest project at the moment, earlier this year I started Gamine with friends Cassidy Spencer and Shane Sanders and months before the original Covid Shutdown. I was asked to be in what would become Flippants by Austin Syms, which I now share with him, for the last few years I have played alongside Richard Wells in his Cloud Repair project, and I work with Kat Hammond in their Charlie Boy collective as well. Each band is sooo different, Flippants is punk band where I focus more on dominant 7th melodies and angular guitar devices, Gamine is where I compose with the bassline as the first layer with emphasis on minor keys, synth lines, and 80s Goth tropes, Eighth House is a space dedicated to alternative guitar tunings, different distortion textures, wandering chord progressions, and 90’s pop/rock sensibilities. 

JASPER: How do you manage your time? 

DUVERGLAS: Currently the band meets once a week to practice which is more than manageable for me as I devote most of my time to my PhD studies.

CRAWFORD: With a planner, pen, and ink. I am often late to things, but I plan my day as it shows itself to me, unless some event has been written in the planner first.

JASPER: What motivates you? 

DUVERGLAS: I would say a culmination of things! The first being my band members and many others within the cola art, fashion, and music scenes. There are a lot of talented creatives in this city and being around them is like an ever-flowing stream of wisdom. Second, I spent so much time in my childhood obsessed with the music and art direction from a lot of video games. Heather and I most recently spoke about our love for the Silent Hill games but particularly their soundtracks. Akira Yamaoka crafted such beautiful testaments to industrial, drone, noise, trip hop, and alternative music with those games, they truly transcend the medium.

CRAWFORD: Columbia lacks certain sounds, we have plenty of stellar metal bands, cover bands, and folksy southern sounds, but we lack the current sounds of the underground, so I just fill in the gaps with the right people and live for the stage, I enjoy booking and the “always-go” lifestyle.

JASPER: What does your writing process look like? 

DUVERGLAS: I will listen to a whole bunch of music that is explicitly reminiscent of shoegaze stylings and then start messing around on my bass until I come into any fun sounding basslines. When I first picked up my bass, I was still reeling off my utter infatuation with post-punk and can say that most of my influences come from that vein of musician. I don't know anything about music theory and though I'd like to learn it to enhance my playing, I also enjoy the ignorance I currently possess because I don't seem to be analyzing everything from a set framework.

CRAWFORD: Right now, I demo out most of a song and then give it to the band, it is filtered through the other members into the song that you hear, and I am only composing the chords and possibly the melody as well, with Heather our singer doing the vocals and words, Laurent also composing songs and pieces, Jenni creating the drum parts and Richard working with me to compose the 2nd guitar parts.

JASPER: What do you do when you are creatively blocked or just not feelin' it? 

DUVERGLAS: I immerse myself in another world! I love reading novels and watching movies where the focus is on character-driven narratives. I seem to get lost in these movies where "nothing" happens, they in turn always inspire something be it a song idea, lyrics, or a poem.

CRAWFORD: Usually Reference listen, I go and wade in the world of music until the inspiration or drive shows itself to me again.

JASPER: Who are some of your favorite local artists? 

DUVERGLAS: There are so many! I feel honored to share space in the Cola scene with artists and groups such as Gamine, Bones Hamilton, Opus & The Frequencies, Flippants, Rex Darling (who just released their first album - Living Room Diaries), Charlie Boy, Cloud Repair, and Death Ray Robin to name a few.

CRAWFORD: Hah! Not locals anymore unfortunately but Melon In was an amazing project that I got to work on, I love them as well as Cloud Repair, which is why I have Richard in the band. And of course, Stagbriar and the like.

JASPER: If you could write or play the soundtrack to a movie what would it be and why?

DUVERGLAS: This is such a fun question! What comes to mind is working for queer and shoegaze obsessed Gregg Araki to create yet another shoegaze-filled soundtrack for a movie of his. But I'd equally love for some academic to contract an album designed to test the effects of, say, shoegaze on animal behavior.

CRAWFORD: Been a huge fan of the film Legend (1986) and I have always really enjoyed the Tangerine Dream soundtrack for the movie, but I would love to take a crack at that.

JASPER: Do you have a favorite Columbia music moment?

DUVERGLAS: Definitely the first time I saw Flippants at the Museum of Art's Arts and Draughts! As an audience member, seeing Austin prepare a ladder on stage and a table close to the audience with a cake on it was bizarre. It wasn't until I saw him jump onto the cake from the ladder did, I understand what was happening. Further, seeing Gabe hop onto Brad's shoulders to finish the set was hilarious. I'll never forget that show! 

CRAWFORD: There are a couple of Eras that I think on all the time, 2010-2015 was the Shredquarters/Queen Punx Palace/ era 

JASPER: What are your thoughts on Columbia's art scene?

CRAWFORD: Columbia’s art scene, everyone knows everyone I think, as much as there are the different groups in town everyone knows everyone, and collaboration is so easy, I think.

JASPER: What could make the scene better? 

CRAWFORD: Money haha, Money would make it better and by that, I mean infrastructure for art in Columbia, as well as more venues, and art spaces available to book at. There literally needs to be a venue that bridges the gap between the room size of Art Bar/NBT and The Senate.

JASPER: What advice do you have for other artists? 

DUVERGLAS: It seems as if the biggest hesitation a lot of people have when it comes to creating, in this case, music is that they have no "talent". This may be biased coming from my punk and post-punk upbringing, but I don't believe one needs to be a classically trained artist to make something that moves people. So, if you make art and you're afraid to share it - please do! If you want to make art and are afraid to do so - please do! Your voice is unique to you, the world is ready to hear it.

CRAWFORD: If there is a sound missing in your town, build it, and they will come!

JASPER: As someone involved in lots of projects, can you offer any advice or thoughts to others hoping to start a band?

CRAWFORD: Find people who are just interested in the idea, look, or sound of the band and then just be ok with the music organically changing as you filter your ideas thru the others.

JASPER: What can we expect at the show on the 16th? 

DUVERGLAS: Roughly a 30-minute set, we'll be playing one cover and four originals! But more importantly, we aim to foster a safe and inclusive space at all of our shows. We won't tolerate any harassment of any within the audience and will also be bringing noise-protecting earplugs for any who wants them!

You can follow the band on Instagram and buy tickets for the show online at New Brookland Taverns website.

Mind Gravy Poetry and More Presents Larry Rhu

Wednesday, November 16

7:00 – 9:00 pm

Mind Gravy Presents Poet Larry Rhu and Songsmith, Branhan, Lowther (Slim Pickens)

Cool Beans, 1217 College Street, Columbia, SC 29201

 

This week, Al Black’s Mind Gravy Poetry will be featuring the poetry of Larry Rhu, a USC Emeritus Professor of English and award-winning poet, and Brahan Lowther (aka Slim Pickens) “a picker of great repute.”

 

Mind Gravy is a weekly show an open mic for original content only and hosted by Al Black

Jasper Talks with Sean Rayford on Inspiration, Favorite Photographers, and Tiny Gallery

“I rode my bicycle on Willie Nelson's ranch —” 

This month, we’re showing off some stunning photography from award-winning and Time Magazine Best Photos of 2021 feature photographer Sean Rayford. Hear more about his life and his current show with us below.

JASPER: Did art come to you young, or did you find it later in life? 

RAYFORD: Shortly after my birth in Annapolis, Maryland, my family moved to a small town in the center of the Australian Outback. If you draw crosshairs on the continent, you'll find the town of Alice Springs on the southern edge of the Northern Territory. Downtown, if you might call it that, there was a photo lab, and the print machine was placed in the front window of the storefront. I remember standing on the sidewalk watching with intrigue as tourists’ photos dropped out of the machine. Every errand downtown was highlighted by the opportunity to see this in action, and if there were no photos being printed, it was a disappointment. 

We moved back to Maryland when I was five. My older brother was into art and me, I was into sports. During one stretch, he was processing film in our basement closet. In high school I’d take an intro class to black and white photography, probably the same one that inspired him to process film at home, and I'd join the school newspaper. 

JASPER: Did you continue to study it officially or did it remain more so a personal project? 

RAYFORD: I came to the University of South Carolina in the late nineties as a computer science major and planned a career in that field. During my first week on campus, I joined the Gamecock Newspaper and by the Spring semester I had taken on the role of the photo editor. Here, I had special access to an endless stream of subject matter, a digital film scanner, and most of the time I'd get reimbursed for the film expenses.  

I earned a Bachelor of Media Arts degree from USC, but there's little art background in my education. Early in photography I was just experiencing life, playing (practicing) with a camera, being curious, documenting things, learning, and making mistakes. Art wasn't a concern of mine. I just enjoyed playing with light, shapes and color and experiencing what the world had to offer, in person. I didn't know what I was doing. I probably still don’t, and I guess that's the beauty of it. There’s always a chance to learn and apply it to the next time.

JASPER: What did you do after graduation? 

RAYFORD: After I graduated from USC, I interned and freelanced at The State Newspaper, where I came into regular contact with photojournalists approaching photography with different artistic approaches, definitely more thoughtful than I. They each had their strengths and weaknesses, and those different styles heavily influenced my approach. To my knowledge, I was the last contributing photographer at The State Newspaper who regularly shot assignments on film, processed and scanned negatives. Back then, whenever I processed photos on film, I thought about how I wasn’t making photos. The darkroom was awesome - but cumbersome.  

Here, photo editor Chuck Dye pushed me to look more into the traditional art components of photography. Chuck brought me in with Robert Frank’s American’s and pushed me to look at great painters. I watched a bunch of lectures and presentations on YouTube while I continued to freelance and take on personal projects. This gave me consistent opportunities to apply what I was learning. Now, I’m more likely to be listening to audiobooks about the creative process.

JASPER: And what kind of experimenting do you like to do now? 

RAYFORD: Before I became a full-time photographer in 2015, I bartended at New Brookland Tavern where I occasionally hosted arts and crafts night when we didn't have shows. At the least, most people would color in the weird coloring books I acquired. We’d paint and experiment with all sorts of mixed media in a very social manner. They were typically slow nights, so I had time to participate. But it’s been a while since I’ve consistently done anything like that. I took one of Michael Krajewski’s classes this year though. That was fun. Now, I feel too much pressure as a freelance photographer to find the next paying gig or find the next personal photo project to pick up those types of projects. 

JASPER: What makes photography such a special medium for you? 

RAYFORD: I kinda see photography as a five-dimensional Tetris game, with color and light joining our three standard spatial measurements. Introducing people to the mix, increasing the speed at which your blocks fall. n my primary field of photojournalism, my art form isn’t photography, but rather visual storytelling. And when it's time to "be creative" there is no backing out. You have to perform and deliver. It's somewhat like sports in a way, but there aren't measured winners and losers for each performance. The friendly competitiveness and the continuous repetition using cameras, taking lots of assignments, taught me a lot about photography and especially about photographing humans. However, you won’t see any people in the pieces here in this Tiny Gallery. Most of the photos here are what most folks might call landscapes. I would call them natural "scene setters" in my visual story-telling process. And for much of these, they were made for that purpose. 

JASPER: Along those line, are there any particular ideas you aim to express with your work? 

RAYFORD: I don’t think I’m trying to express many of my ideas with photography, but I can't escape the fact that I'm bringing all of my personal experiences into my photo making process. I'm organizing visual components to tell a story — and my life experiences heavily influence that process. I’m trying to take the viewer to where I’m at, at that time. And if I’m making photos as a photojournalist, I also have to do this within our ethical boundaries — like not moving items and not asking folks to perform for the camera (portraits excluded). 

There are always recurring themes and subject matter with my photography, but it's extremely varied because of what I'm tasked with as a documentarian. And all those different things that I photograph influence one another, both in how I approach it as a human and someone practicing an art form.

JASPER: Tell me a bit about the logistical aspects of your creative process.  

RAYFORD: My creative journey begins when I have my cameras in good working condition, batteries charged, and with appropriate memory cards ready to roll. I should be hydrated and fed. As technology advances so do the tools that I use. Logistics and planning are huge factors. With photography, you physically have to be somewhere at a specific time, and there are no do-overs. It’s typically impossible and would definitely be unethical.  

There's an old adage that luck sits at the intersection of preparedness and opportunity. My creative journey cannot ignore the preparedness aspect. That’s so key because once you get out into the field doing your thing, you shift into your highest gears and need to rely on the brain-hand-camera connection, where fractions of seconds matter.

JASPER: With all these “fractions,” how did you select the photos for this specific show?  

RAYFORD: For the Tiny Gallery I chose photos from recent visual explorations of the natural world here in the Carolinas, from the Midlands to the North Carolina mountains. 

The photos were made as recent as Oct 31st of this, and the oldest about 3 years ago. There is a group of single exposure photographs of "snappy syncs" or synchronous fireflies (photuris frontalis), a rare species that inhabits central South Carolina. 

JASPER: Is there anything specifically you hope people get from viewing these images? 

RAYFORD: I hope the collection will inspire people to explore. We spend a lot of time inside with technology. Go see neat things. Congaree National Park is a time machine. The mountains of North Carolina — epically ancient. 

JASPER: Hard question, I know, but could you pick a favorite photo in the show? 

RAYFORD: My favorite photo may be the most recent photo, the only one here from Congaree National Park. That excursion has been on my calendar for several months, and just when I was at the right spot, I was blessed with gorgeous light. So many times, it doesn't work out that way. 

JASPER: Speaking of favorites, who are your favorite photographers, or artists in general? 

RAYFORD: My favorite photographers are William Klein, Henri Cartier Bresson, Jill Freedman and Saul Leiter — to name a few. Outside of photography, Edward Hopper and Goya got my attention as a kid, and they still do. 

JASPER: Do you have any real “wow” moments in terms of recognition? 

RAYFORD: A photo I made covering the Ahmaud Arbery story was included in Time Magazine's "Best Photos of 2021." 

JASPER: Most random moment related to your photography career? 

RAYFORD: At some point in my journey as a photographer, I rode my bicycle on Willie Nelson's ranch. 

See Rayford’s Tiny Gallery show at Jasper’s virtual gallery until the end of November.

The Beat with Kevin Oliver: Review of Automata - Single Sparrow

Single Sparrow

Automata

Self-released

Single Sparrow is the band moniker of Charleston, SC musician Patrick Leitner, and this new album is truly a one-man project–he plays every note, wrote every song, recorded, mixed, and mastered the final product himself. You’d never know it from listening, however, as the playing is seamless, and the production is spotlessly clean. 

Despite the forced sterility of its creation in a kind of artistic bubble, this is not a soulless, automated performance. Leitner has one of those world-weary vocal styles, resigned but still possessing an intensity that belies the non-demonstrative singing. It’s most effective on the pastoral rock of “Peaks and Valleys,” for example, where a loping beat echoes Neil Young as Leitner sings: 

“Take me to the Atlantic Ocean, let me feel the waves

Running over sandy shores that weren’t here yesterday

If I try to hold on tight it still washes away

And time is running out on me in much the same way” 

The sense of loss is palpable in the song’s metaphor for change, something that the narrator sounds at peace with, if not in agreement to it happening. 

There are stories here from Leitner’s own life–”Tiny Metronome” is a reference to his daughter. He draws from history and culture as well, with “Centralia” taken from a coal mining town in Pennsylvania and “Happy Accidents,” pulled from the story of famous still life painter Bob Ross. It’s the songs that invite more universal interpretations, however, that pull one inside this digital audio world. 

The emotional depth of Leitner’s writing rewards repeat listens, and this album will sink into your consciousness in all the best ways, with lines standing out at different moments. This week it might be the distillation of “impostor syndrome” unworthiness into the words of “A Reflection of the Moon,” as he sings over a jittery percussive track and a single acoustic guitar, “I am a ballad out of tune, a perfect harmony too soon, or the reflection of the moon; a copy of something true.” Next week, it will shift to “Nothing On the News Tonight” and its examination of relationships in a dystopian world; “The apocalypse is over now, just listening still to the static; something in the way you hold my hand that slows down time …”  

Whatever part of Automata connects with an individual listener, the original concept of AI that can think like humans may have been achieved here by Leitner, accidentally or not. The solitary man in a studio created something that connects almost instantly with other humans, through the miracle of digital tech. 

Announcing Tiny Gallery’s 2022 Ornament Show

Last year, Jasper had its first Tiny Gallery Ornament Show, and this year we’re doing it again with five artists across disciplines. From ceramics to acrylic to trolls, these handmade works make a perfect gift or addition to your own holiday decorations.

Check out our lineup and mark your calendars for when their work goes on sale December 1st!

Adam Corbett

Photo by David Russell Stringer

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

Tennyson Corley

Tennyson Corley is a contemporary artist from the heart of South Carolina. Her current work is what she describes as "ceramic illustration." Sculptural story-book creatures with a healthy dose of Beatrice Potter and Orwellian Animal Farm influence, each with their own, at times, humorous back story.

You can check out her work on Instagram @tennyson_corley_art and on her website: https://www.tennysoncorleyart.com/

Michael Krajewski

Michael Krajewski is a self-taught artist who has shown in numerous galleries, collaborated on large, commissioned pieces for museums, painted live at art events and been the subject of magazine and newspaper profiles. He was Jasper Magazine’s first centerfold in 2011. His style has been called neo-expressionist and compared to Jean-Michel Basquiat's, though Krajewski says he is less interested in defining, more interested in producing. He’s had solo shows at the HoFP Gallery, Frame of Mind, and Anastasia & Friends in Columbia, SC, and participated in a two-person show at the Waterfront Gallery in Charleston and in a group show at 701 Whaley.

Holly Rauch

Holly has always had a creative streak, starting as a child sketching characters from the Sunday comics, and enjoying cross-stitch needlework and paper crafts as an adult. Her recent interest in acrylic painting began by attending “paint parties” with friends. With no formal art education but wanting to learn more, she used online tutorials to teach herself dot art, palette knife work, fluid acrylics, one-stroke, and other acrylic techniques. She’s most enthusiastic about abstract designs, but also enjoys painting landscapes, scenes of nature, flora, and fauna. In 2006, Holly lost her only child, Lyssa, to cancer. Lyssa was 20 years old and a sophomore at Winthrop University in Rock Hill SC, studying technical theater when she passed away. The Lyssa Rauch Memorial Scholarship was established in Winthrop’s Department of Theater and Dance, funded entirely by private donations. But when the scholarship experienced financial difficulties, Holly decided to start selling her art and use her hobby to benefit a worthy cause. Now the proceeds from the sale of Holly’s art directly funds this scholarship. A $1,000 award is presented each spring to a rising 4th or 5th year student, keeping Lyssa’s memory alive, and helping future artists follow their own passions in the arts. Holly is a member of the Cayce Arts Guild. She lives in Lexington SC with her husband Todd Leger, Alexandra the Golden Retriever, and three crazy cats: Jaime, Tyrion, and Cercei. You can view Holly’s entire body of work at her Facebook page “Heartisan Love”: htps://www.facebook.com/HeartisanLove

Lucas Sams

Lucas Sams is an award-winning Columbia, SC multi-media artist working in painting, sculpture, film, digital/multimedia, and installation art. Sams works have been exhibited locally and regionally in major art festivals, galleries, and alternative spaces, and featured in Jasper Magazine, the SC State Newspaper, Garnet and Black Magazine, and the Timber Journal of the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Jasper Reviews Workshop Theatre’s Production of Death of a Salesman

Nearly 75 years after its original premiere, what many consider to be the defining play of modernism comes anew to Columbia. While he may not be Willy Loman, Patrick Michael Kelly (Director) certainly seeks to make his intangible tangible as he brings Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman to a 2022 Columbia, South Carolina, audience.

It's surely nearly impossible to predict the audience for this particular production of Miller’s 1949 work—in this city you could draw anyone from curious supporters unfamiliar with the play to longtime lovers and scholars who have chased it to Broadway and published work on it. What’s pervasive though is the tale itself and what it says about the America we live in. 

As Kelly asserted in our show preview, his goal was to tap into this relatability of the play through the act of  “decoloniz[ing] and deconstruct[ing]” it, which he did through diverse casting and a simple, shifting stage. The casting of the actor that performs best versus the one who may be expected is always refreshing—and this cast certainly is incredible. The stage design highlights this cast, with the small stage (designed by Patrick Faulds) being used smartly, its minimalism emphasizing the failure of the house—an image so important to the story—with rooms feeling collapsed and seemingly every space and place in the play existing on top of itself. At the same time, some added claustrophobia to the apartment or some more emphasis on the monolith that is New York City could have added to the character of the piece, and some set choices, like the decision to use a briefcase in lieu of a headstone in the closing scene, feel a bit on the nose.

Right on the money are the costumes, led by Andie Nicks, which fit the period while also having a somewhat timeless quality. All-in-all, though, they are understated and wisely don’t overwhelm the characters. Characters and outfits alike were clear in the lighting (also led by Faulds), which was consistent throughout the show, with the occasional flourish, though some variation in the opening scene would have been apt; for instance, going lights down on the bedroom with inactive parties and lights up on the bedroom with active dialogue could have added dimension.   

Fortunately, character dimension is not something this production is lacking. Deon Turner and Jon Whit play convincing brothers as they step into the shoes of Biff and Happy, respectively. Potentially recognized by Columbia audiences as recent lead and supporting actors in Trustus’ True Crime Rep, Turner and Whit bring heart and passion into the Loman sons. Turner, specifically, aptly embodies the bubbling rage threatening to spill over on his father at any given moment.

Libby Campbell is a tour-de-force as Linda, not surprising giving her varied, lengthy background as a performer in the city. She is gentle and firm, protective of her husband to a fault, but still very much her own person. Campbell has a distinct control and mastery of her facial expressions that are both easily readable and consistently poignant. And stepping into the shoes of Willy Loman himself is Paul Kaufmann, another Columbia acting veteran who convincingly throws himself into the desperation of a man losing every ounce of hope and possibility he once saw in the world. Kaufmann plays Loman loud but delicately; he has a presence on stage that is electric though not exactly nameable—he’s one of those figures you can’t really look away from, which is perfect for portraying the failing salesman.

Rounding out the cast is a delight of supporting characters, who each hold their own in a script of individually perceived larger-than-life figures. Jeff Smith plays an almost mythical Uncle Ben; Ripley Thames and Jonathan Yi excel as the neighboring father-son duo; and Roderick Haynes Jr., Emily Meadows, and Caroline McGee succeed at making individual their multiple characters each.

The four main cast members play well off of each other, feeling very much like a family, though one in which there is disconnect. This disconnect, for the most part, does feel intentional, as this is a story about people who just can’t see each other regardless of how hard they try. What the audience is left longing for, though, is added nuance in the performances. Whether a result of directorial decisions or simply logistics of performing without mics, there isn’t much variation in the level/tenor of speaking. Sure, during the arguments and climactic moments the yelling is quite distinct—and quite good—but there’s a certain consistent bravado to everyone’s performances that doesn’t quite seem earned.

This is a play about four people who are constantly struggling to know who they are, who are building themselves from foundations that were never stable, and over the course of only a day (about 2.5 hours sans intermission in real time), slowly hurtle (oxymoron intended) towards the reckoning of their foundational façades. This movement asks for a similar movement in the performances, which is not always present. Happy, for instance, is a little too, well, happy. Happy Loman is an ironic figure because he is so desperate to please that he doesn’t even realize how inherently unhappy he is, which is pervasive throughout the script, but only comes out in glimpses in the production. More quiet movements and comfort with silence and pauses in all the Lomans may have created a more apt tone. In fact, there are few plays where the tone is as important as this one.

And, ultimately, even amidst the strong acting, the tone is where the play falls short. There appears a desire in this production to make the play humorous—not to make it a comedy, but to lean into potential comedic moments and emphasize tone and brief beats as if to elicit and expect laughter. Willy’s comments on arresting those who cut down his trees or his anger at Charley for playing a card that he thinks is his aren’t meant to be funny. Of course, this is completely up to the director to interpret; however, it’s disconcerting hearing the audience laughing along when you know what’s to come, and although this isn’t inherently problematic, the humor minimizes the bone-chilling persistent longing and desperation throughout the script. These moments feel in conflict even with elements of the production itself, like the sound design, also led by Kelly, which keenly upholds the eerie nature of the script.

Perhaps the director and cast wanted new audiences who enjoy various genres to have multiple avenues of entry into the story. Perhaps the goal was to highlight the humor to make even starker the dark moments. However, this is a play about a man who has given all of himself away for a dream that never existed, a reality that never was or will be. He has projected it onto his wife and his children, created a rot that seeped into the house and that this family may never be fully free from—mortgage paid or not. This play ends with Willy Loman’s final attempt to make his way ‘into the jungle,’ to make tangible its distant diamonds by giving away the only thing he ever really had a stake in: his own life. The script knows this. The family knows this. This rooted rot has not just now begun to seep. Every word spoken by a member of this household is speaking with the pervasive, inherent knowledge that disillusion can no longer be staved off—regardless of to what degree they explicitly recognize it. The continued distractions of this through making light of certain lines of dialogue or interactions may make the play appear dynamic on the surface but, in the end, misses the mark. Even whipped cheese and bad flirting cannot cut through the tendrils wrapped thick around this family, which makes these decisions feel out of place.

The attempts to bring this story into 2022 are best done through the moments that stay the truest to the script itself. Willy and Biff’s climactic shouting and crying match strikes right to the heart of the audience. Happy’s assertion that he will be able to avenge his father’s death fills the viewer with dread and unease. And Linda’s echoing, closing “we’re free” only convinces the audience that they certainly are not. In these moments, the production shines—it’s effervescent.

The fact of the matter is, though Death of a Salesman may be a relic of its time, it is simultaneously timeless. It doesn’t need tonal flourishes to bring it into an era it is still so reflective of. We all already are the “dime-a-dozen” Willy Lomans whose only potential way forward is to accept who we are—and even in that there is no promise. There is nothing bigger than that. There doesn’t need to be.

Miller’s play has and continues to speak for itself, and Kelly’s production at times aptly emphasizes this, and at times undermines it. The strength of its actors is sure to strike pride in Columbia audiences, and it’s a feat that, even with its occasional moments asking for more nuance, locals should not miss out on. For those new to the play, it is likely to be an experience rife with passion that fills viewers with a spectrum of emotions. For Death of a Salesman lovers, however, the heart of Miller’s script, though there, remains, in part, intangible.

ColaJazz and the Koger Center Team Up for a Groovy Good Time – Motown Live

If you missed a chance to see Columbia City Ballet’s premiere of their brand-new production Motown Ballet back in March of this year, you have another chance to check out a new Motown event at the Koger Center: “Onstage with Rod Foster and Company’s Motown Live” on November 10. This concert is the second of a newer series presented by the Koger Center, bridging the physical and metaphorical gaps between performers and their audience. The performance sees the return of Brittany Turnipseed to the Koger Center as well as Brandon Stevens. We talked to Rod Foster himself about the concert itself, the impact of Motown and the power of music altogether.

Jasper: How would you explain the Motown label/genre to those who have never heard Motown songs, or those who have heard them without knowing the name “Motown”?

Foster: Motown is the rhythm and blues that makes you want to dance and reminisce over your first broken heart or first kiss. It is the feeling of good times and good people. It's the melody and cry of a turning point in America. When you hear the downbeat, you know you are taking part in a special time in history and music.

Jasper: What was that “a-ha” moment that made you want to bring back a Motown event to the Koger Center?

Foster: The a-ha moment that made us want to bring back Motown to the Koger Center was the response from the audience. The people who attended the ballet told us how much they enjoyed the vocalist and the band and how they would love to come to hear it again. My philosophy is to give the people what they want.

Jasper: What sort of elements will you be incorporating from the ballet performance back in March of this year? Will dance still be a big component of the performance?

Foster: It will still highlight some of the dance numbers from the ballet, but the spotlight will focus more on our amazing vocalists: Brittany Turnipseed, Brandon Stevens and the Rod Foster and Company band. We will be able to stretch and really allow the songs to keep you grooving stronger and longer.

Jasper: Do you hope to continue any performances like this through the “Onstage with...” series in particular? Do you have any ideas for future performances?

Foster: I would love to continue doing performances like this in the future. I am still trying to think of what would be attractive, but maybe a tribute to a musical legend, group, or time. There are so many things that can be done. It would just take putting the great minds of ColaJazz, the Koger Center, and myself to create something that will be a good time for everyone.

Jasper: What brought Rod Foster and Company to fruition? How did everyone in the company meet and decide to create the group?

Foster: Me and the guys have been playing together for years before there was ever a name put to the band. Me and some of the guys in the band went to high school together. We already had a lot of chemistry and experience with each other and have been able to grow together as musicians. I have to say that what brought Rod Foster and Company to fruition was Chaye Alexander of Chayz Lounge. Long story short, a performer could not make it to Chayz Lounge to perform and she asked me to fill in and do a show. She had confidence in me that I could step out from the background, stand up front, and lead a band. She came up with it being called Rod Foster and Company to promote the show and it stuck. Luckily, we did well enough to continue doing shows and become the house band there. Even though I do not particularly love having my name up front, the opportunity to perform at the lounge was the start that got us here to perform in the Koger Center. I have been able to grow a lot while becoming a band leader.

Jasper: If there is one thing you want audiences to know or keep in mind for this performance, what would it be?

Foster: Come out to enjoy yourself and have a good time. We are honored to play for you. Thank you for listening.

General admission tickets are available to purchase at the Koger Center box office or For more information, check out the Koger Center or ColaJazz Foundation websites.

Jasper Presents A Tabitha Ott Trunk Show & Community Caroling for Vista Lights

You’re invited to kick off your holidays with the Jasper Project at Vista Lights!

Join all the friends and family of the Jasper Project at Coal Powered Filmworks for Vista Lights as we celebrate artist Tabitha Ott with an exciting trunk show of her innovative jewelry and wearable art. We’ll be decked out for the holidays, singing Christmas carols on Lincoln Street (led by Adam Corbett and Bekha Rice!), sipping warm cider (have some, please!) and waiting for you!

Tabitha Ott received her MFA in Jewelry and Metals from Kent State University and her BFA in Sculpture with a concentration in Jewelry and Metals from Winthrop University. Originally from Orangeburg, she now resides in Cayce, SC with her partner Gil. For eight years Tabitha served as a faculty member at Claflin University and from 2020-2022 she was the Interim Chair of the Department of Art there. She recently completed a month-long artist residency in rural Nebraska at Art Farm. For three years her studio was located at Tapp’s Arts Center on Main Street in Columbia. After the center closed in 2019, she relocated to her current studio at Tapp’s Outpost, located in Five Points in Columbia, SC.

Artist Statement: My current research involves investigations into metaphysics and philosophy. In my work, I use symbolism and unconventional material relationships to spark the imagination. In my creative practice, I aim to further understand myself, others, my environment, and the meaning of existence. My work is a communication of this journey toward enlightenment, understanding, and peace.

Coal Powered Filmworks is located at 1217 Lincoln Street in the Vista, across from the Blue Marlin. No unaccompanied children please!

WOW Presents The World You Left Behind – A New Play by Tangie Brickhouse-Beaty

WOW Theatre is back after a three-year absence from the main stage with a new play by Tangie Brickhouse-Beaty premiering November 11th at MTC’s Harbison Theatre.

The World You Left Behind is billed as an inspirational play about trust, reconciliation, and more. WOW’s synopsis reads, “Trusting people hasn't come easy for SC Top Radio Personality, Brian Green, especially since the one person he loved the most, betrayed him. After 6 years of praying, he thinks that his prayers have finally been answered. However, not everyone is sharing in his excitement, especially his 16-year-old daughter, Diamond. After some careful digging, Diamond has found out the true reason for this reunion. Now she has to decide if revealing the truth is worth the expense of breaking her father’s heart.”

Featuring Andre Dorsey, Elicia Moore, Morgan Belton, Arlene Pollock-Salley, Christina Morganelli, Lachelle Shelly Rodriguez, Rob Alton. Kristina Alderman, Shavetta Belton, Gabby Johnson, D’yanna Daniels, Vanzell Haire,  Kyerrah Robinson, Knakea Robinson Macon, Roderick Haynes, Jr., and Joshua Ballard.

Walking on Water Productions, also known as WOW Productions, is an urban inspirational entertainment company founded by Tangie Beaty in Norwalk, CT in 2005. Currently based in Columbia, SC, Tangie (CEO) has created a company that would produce original inspirational productions that empower individuals to rebuild family values, effect change, encourage the lost and restore self-esteem.​

Since 2005, WOW has been performing stage plays, improv, and dinner theaters within 9 cities and 3 states. Directing almost 1200 actors, WOW has held 125 performances in both stage and film projects in front of over 26,000 audience members.  

WOW has been nominated as Best Theatre Production Company, Awarded Black Arts Jazz & Film Best Theatre Company in Atlanta, and Best Stage Play Directors at the Kingdomwood Christian Film Festival. In addition to being affiliated with various associations such as SC Film Commission, SC Theater Association, Urban Playwrights United, and more.

The Jasper Project featured WOW’s Secrets in Plain Site in the Spring 2022 issue of Jasper Magazine.

The World You Left Behind runs from November 11-13 with the following showtimes:

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2022 @ 7:30pm

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2022 @ 3pm & 7:30pm

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 20222 @ 7:30pm

For more information check out this video.

Tickets are available now at www.wowproduction.org

Special Pre-Show Performance on November 11th by Andre Delaine

The Beat with Kevin Oliver: Candy Coffins - Once Do It With Feeling

Candy Coffins

Once Do It With Feeling

Self-released

The decades of experience represented by the veteran members of Candy Coffins comes through in the music on this new full-length album, which hearkens back to “Disintegration”-era Cure, the less abrasive years of the Psychedelic Furs, and lots of David Bowie. The gothic rock edge doesn’t necessarily render the songs dated; there are enough modern touches throughout to peg this as a contemporary work that just pulls from a very specific artistic palette.  

The focus here should really be on the songwriting of singer and guitarist Jame Lathren, however. The liner notes state that the album “Chronicles a relationship from the onset of the first crack to its complete crumbling dissolution,” and there is definitely an emotional arc from beginning to end. 

Midway through, “Tangled Up in Teacups” includes a female voice leaving messages such as “My god, you are the most selfish person I have ever met. If you’re going to be this kind of disaster have fun doing it by yourself…” as bassist Alex Mabrey drives the unsettling melody underneath. 

Lathren shifts back to the male perspective on “French Exit,” singing “I’m not sorry you won’t know what happened, I’m heading out the door…” in a tortured tenor that wails, then drops to a hushed whisper as he sings, “I’m all alone, but it’s better than being with you…” and the band crashes back into a searing musical coda worthy of a Neil Young opus.  

It’s the music that keeps this from being just another self-absorbed breakup album; there are guitar solos here that say much more than any words could, such as the stinging leads on “A Victory Like This.” When the instruments on that song drop completely out at the end, it’s like you just got dropped off an emotional cliff. 

Lathren may lean too far into the goth-rock nostalgia at times, but he does so in service of a set of songs that capture both the euphoria and the angst that exists in volatile relationships.

Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina on view at the MET

… what it means to have and express agency while creating “art through coercion.”  

On view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City until February 5th, 2023, Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield South Carolina features work from African American potters in the 19th-century. The exhibition features roughly 50 items of pottery and stoneware from the Old Edgefield District, a locale for stone masonry in the decades leading up to the Civil War.

Literate enslaved person David Drake, who was a poet as well as a potter, has a couple of storage jars in the collection. Many of his works come from Stony Bluff Manufactory. The collection also features the slightly mysterious face vessels, whose creators are unknown. These vessels speak for themselves, however, with their specific yet enigmatic style.

The uniqueness of this exhibition corroborates the skill, knowledge, and artistic agency of the enslaved people of the American South. Coupled with modern scholarship, this exhibition offers insight into what it means to have and express agency while creating “art through coercion.”  

The exhibition features a catalogue and an audio guide to offer supplemental information on these materials. The audio guide is composed of dialogue from Black artists, scholars of African American history, an archaeologist, and even South Carolina’s own Tonya M. Matthews, CEO and President of the new International African American Museum in Charleston.  

As one unnamed scholar says in the audio guide introduction, “When we don’t interrogate enslaved artisans in the same way we interrogate all of our other artisans and craftspeople, we lose a very big part of the story. Not just the story then, but the story that we’re living now.”   

Visit the MET before February 5th, 2023, to hear this part of our very own South Carolina story.

Pumpkin Art Crawl Results from Friday Night's Fabulous Event

Thank you and congratulations to all the Pumpkin artists who graced our tables on Friday Night at our Curiosity Pumpkin Art Crawl! And thanks to sponsors Gardener’s Outpost and Megan O’Connell State Farm.

~

Winning the award for People’s Choice of the Greatest Pumpkin was Olga Yukhno for this beautiful creation.

The Award for Scariest Pumpkin went to Jennifer Hill for this monstrosity!

J. Michael McGuirt won the award for the Most Fun/Funniest Pumpkin for his candy-centric pumpkin beast!

And Michael Krajewski won the award for most innovative pumpkin for his creation which included a creepy dolly who vomited blood on demand!

Other unofficial awards are as follows:

Bohumila Augustinova for Most Delicate Carving

Tennyson Corley for Best Face in a Pumpkin for her Witch’s Profile

Lauren Chapman for Pumpkin Most Likely to Magically Fly Away

Kimber Carpenter for Pumpkin Most Likely to Find New Home at the Art Bar (and we think it did!)

Thomas Crouch for Scariest Skin Pumpkin

Billy Guess for Best Rendition of the Traditional and Classic Jack-o-Lantern

Abstract Alexandra for Most Mythological Pumpkin with her rendition of the Three Fates

Lucas Sams for Best Deconstructed Pumpkin for this abstract Pumpkin Monster that Bill Schmidt Loved the most!

And Cait Maloney who entered two Pumpkins in the competition — this Punk Ass Pumpkin and …

this incredibly clever creation, unique to Cait — her Signature Pumpkin, if you will — and Cindi’s all-time favorite of the night!

We had a fabulous time enjoying the good food from Mary’s Arepas, good music from DJ Spooky, and all the visitors who loved checking out our Pumpkin Art Crawl!

See you next year and Happy Halloween!

Poems on the Menu

Poet Lisa Hammond

One of Ed Madden's goals these past eight years as the city's poet laureate has been to put poetry in public places. As his term nears an end, drop by Pawley's Front Porch to celebrate one of his last projects, Poetry On the Menu. The winning poem, "Eating Out" by Columbia poet Lisa Hammond, appears on the Pawley's menu, and she will be reading it (and maybe a couple of other food-related poems!) November 2nd. Pawley's Front Porch is located at 827 Harden Street in the Five Points district. Pawley's is the first restaurant in the city to participate in this project, and we hope that the next poet laureate will get others to join in! Small celebratory gathering starting at 6:30, on the porch if the weather is good. Stop by, have dinner or a drink, and join us in celebrating poetry as a public art! More details on the Facebook Event page.

Eating Out

by Lisa Hammond

I can make it at home, my mother says. Biscuits,

yes, mac and cheese. She shells butterbeans,

and there is joy in that—but also in the restaurant,

linen covered table or not, the dishes you don't wash,

the first time you taste chimichurri or grilled Mahi-Mahi,

fried green tomatoes with homemade Boursin cheese.

Good red wine and small plates, prosciutto and arugula pizza—

even just tossing peanut shells on a bar floor—doors wide

open, aproned wait staff smiling, welcome in, welcome in.

A Look in the Mirror: Black Nerd Mafia Talks Identity and Black Opportunity in the Columbia Music Scene

Black Nerd Mafia was born out of frustration– frustration with stereotypes and people’s ignorance about Black people. Choosing to not be named or be the focus of this article, the creator and founder desired to showcase the diversity within the Black community and provide a place for those who don’t fit in society’s boxes– a safe and inviting space for independent Black artists and fans. Originally started as a Facebook group in 2014 for Black people tired of being typecast, Black Nerd Mafia has grown into so much more.

JASPER: Best dad joke you've heard? 

BNM: A dyslexic man walks into a bra. 

JASPER: So, the Facebook group was the original manifestation of it, but how did Black Nerd Mafia come to be what it is today? 

BNM: I always pushed entrepreneurship on my sons and then one day in 2021 I’m talking to my son and I’m pressing upon him to be an entrepreneur and he very frankly just asked me, “Well, you always tell us to own our own business, why don't you own your own?” He said it just like that, and I said, son, you're right. The next day we went and did the LLC paperwork and that's how Black Nerd Mafia came to be. 

JASPER: You do lots of things today: you have merch, you organize shows, poetry readings, and trivia just to name a few. Where did you start?  

BNM: The first year it was completely different than what it looks like now. We were doing website building for people, we were doing interviews, we were doing photography, videography – doing just a lot of things that I knew how to do and pretty much anything that I knew how to do to try to make it a business.  

It really didn't start becoming what you see it as now until about a year ago. In 2021 we had our first shows in November after I met Greg at Curiosity… I went to Greg with the idea that I wanted to host shows for independent local artists. He loved the idea, and he pretty much just gave me like carte blanche to do whatever I wanted to do. 

JASPER: Tell us a little more about the logo you sent in place of a photo.  

BNM: The little person isn't like a little mascot… it isn't just something that looks cool—it's all intentional. The very first thing you see he's holding like a big water gun. The water gun is a Super Soaker and Super Soaker was invented by a Black person, a Black scientist; his name is Lonnie Johnson. A lot of times people associate Black people with violence and guns and everything. I wanted to take a spin on that and have a gun but a gun that was created to be this amazing child’s toy that was created by a Black person, so that's where the little gun thing comes in. He also has a mirror face… basically that says there's no face to Black Nerd Mafia. He has a mask on so you can't see his face, but also, it’s a reflective mask so if you did look at the character, all you would see is yourself in the reflection. This is to say that Black Nerd Mafia is all of us.

JASPER: Tell us about some of the shows and events you have put on. Any that were particularly special to you?  

BNM: It's going to be hard to say, and this is gonna sound like cliché, but all the shows that we've had are dope. I will say that that's the one thing that I do well. I can curate shows well, and I know how to match artists together well, so I quite frankly think that all of our shows have been really dope– really talented people.  

I don't want to like single any of the guys out either, but I would say our first show. It was Eezy Olah and Tam The Viibe. MidiMarc and Airborne Audio did beat sets. It was our first show, so it was really dope and that's always gonna be special to me.

JASPER: What do you look for when putting together a lineup for a show, what is your process?  

BNM: I don't pick artists because they have a name. I don't pick artists because they have a lot of followers. I pick artists because I watch, I listen to their music, and I watch their Instagram profiles, and I see their energy, you know, and I go off that. I look for just dopeness first, like I'll come first and foremost… That’s the first thing I look for– the talent. Once I find that and it's easier than you would think, there's a lot of very talented people here in Columbia and the surrounding areas.  

I also listen to the subject matter of the music. I don't want to censor people, but I also just don't 

want to promote music that has just arbitrary violence, just random doesn't make any sense violence. If you can make it artistic, if you can make it great art about your life and why it’s so hard and why you had to do these things, I’ll listen to it and I'll put you on stage.

JASPER: What are you looking forward to? What does success look like for Black Nerd Mafia? 

BNM: I'm looking forward to people becoming more aware of the artists that perform at our shows… and Black artist getting to perform comfortably at any venue in Columbia just like anybody else. I want to be a non-biased, platform where the only thing that matters is if you're dope, no politics, nothing. 

JASPER: What advice do you have for other artists? 

BNM: Make the music that you love, make the music that you like. Don't try to copy what's cool on the radio. Don't try to sound like Drake. Don't try to sound like anybody else. Make the music that you like and talk about the things that are in your life. You don't have to live some kind of fake lifestyle in your music. Write the music that you know and write about the things that you are passionate about. Just don't give up. I come from a different generation, and it was like if you turned 30 and you were still rapping at 30 years old, you were a loser. I let that type of thing stop me from making music and I want to say if you really really love it and it's really really in you, you gotta dedicate yourself to it and not listen to anybody else. 

The biggest thing I tell all the artists—you need to have some type of merch. Get T-shirts, get stickers and get something that you can sell to finance the things that you're going to need as a musician. You can pay for your studio time, for photo shoots, for anything else you need to pay for by selling merch, and that's something that you can make yourself for very cheap.

Ultimately, it's not the artist fault, it's the venues and the publications. They just keep regurgitating the same people because they don't want to do the work to go find the real dope artists around here, and that is what I do. So hopefully if people come out on November 4th, they can see that.

JASPER: What are your thoughts on Columbia's Art Scene?  

BNM: I just gotta be honest about this. I wasn't going to do this, but I gotta be honest– not a fan of Columbia's scene. The music scene here, the art scene, it can be very discouraging and anti-Black.

That’s kind of why I like doing what I do, and that's why I'm doing what I do. I've lived in Columbia ever since I was a kid, and It's always been the same thing. A lot of these venues, downtown Vista, Five Points—quite frankly—don't want Black people in their venues. They don't want Black people in their establishments, so they make rules and do their best to try to keep Black people out of these spaces. If you talk to a lot of Black artists around here, they're like it's very hard to get to play downtown or all these other places, because essentially the owners don't want a house full of Black people, and that's really sad.  

I'm sure some people say “no, that's not true, because I saw this and that person.” There are a few that they let through, and it seems to me—not just me; I talk to a lot of other Black artists—that they only pick Black artists that have a primarily white fanbase… Another reason I know venues treat people bad is because after shows, Black people come to me all the time like, “Man, I love Curiosity, I love it here. Everybody was so respectful to us and was so nice to us. Everybody treated us like people.” That very simple thing—“they treated us like people.” That’s why I’ll always love, Greg and Sandra. 'Cause you can tell that it's a culture that they bring top down, that everybody that works there is always nothing but nice, nothing but respectful to any and everybody. No matter if you're gay, Black, white, male, or female like, everybody is treated fair and equally there. ­ 

[Black Nerd Mafia] are creating an environment to where Black indie artists, get to perform “downtown,” and I think that we've been successful at proving their fears wrong– that Black people are going to be there and there is going to be some kind of violence and fighting or something stupid. We've been doing shows for a year…with zero violence, zero fights, zero calling the cops, zero tempers flared. There's not been one person to even get angry at one of our shows. No pushing, no yelling, no throwing a drink or whatever, nothing negative whatsoever has happened at any of these shows, and the majority are black, and the crowds are all majority black, and so I think that if people can see what we do at Curiosity and what Black Nerd Mafia does maybe it'll let these other venue owners know that, hey, we should be more tolerant and we should be more open to black artists.  

Ultimately, it's not the artist fault, it's the venues and the publications. They just keep regurgitating the same people because they don't want to do the work to go find the real dope artists around here, and that is what I do. So hopefully if people come out on November 4th, they can see that. Right here in Columbia, there's dozens of super talented amazing artists that make positive music that's not about killing people or selling drugs or things like that. You can come to our shows and feel safe. You can bring your wife and you can bring your kids. They are people that bring their whole families to our shows, and I take pride in it. 

JASPER: Tell us about the anniversary party. What can we expect?  

BNM: If you've ever seen Dave Chappelle's Block Party, it will be a block party, like a big jam session where we have a bunch of artists that are really good performers lined up and on deck, ready to go. A freestyle type of vibe, but controlled… I like things that just feel organic. They don't just feel like this person is gonna perform and then this person. Let’s do something different here, use some creativity and give the crowd something they haven't seen before.  

I don't wanna talk about some of the artists because I'm just gonna like leave people out, but Midi Marc is a producer from Columbia and he's just amazing and he really is the key to all of this. I've known Midi for a long, over 10 years. The majority of people that you see on this list make all of their own music at home and in a home studio with very cheap equipment, but they’ve mastered it, and they know how to make the music sound good. I feel confident saying that you could pick anybody off this list, and they're dope in their own right. They're all very different, but they're all dope, and that's really all that matters. 

Come to Black Nerd Mafia’s one year anniversary show at Curiosity Coffee Bar Friday November 4th from 5-10pm featuring everyone that has performed for them this past year. Attend the show for free by donating one item from the Oliver Gospel Mission list of winter needs.

A message from Cindi

Look at these amazing Jasper supporters! Every year for Mardi Gras the Krewe de Jasper Arts gathers to celebrate the arts. Like most of our Jasper projects, it costs very little — mostly just time and energy — but it delivers an incredible sense of purpose, community, and joy. Please plan to march with us in 2023.

Hi Friends!

I’m coming to you once again to ask for your help in bringing to fruition a project that I’ve devoted almost twelve years to–the publication of Jasper Magazine.

As you probably know, Jasper is a grass roots non-profit with no paid employees—including me! Every penny that comes into the Jasper Project goes back out to artists either in the form of promotion, sharing their work via events, or actually as remittance for their work. Other than insurance and a few cyber fees, we have no overhead that would suck up any money you might give. No office, no desks, no benefits.

But we do have an amazing working board of directors and helpers and a volunteer staff, made up of your friends and colleagues, all of whom have invested their energy and talent into the Jasper mission.

Mission Statement

The Jasper Project is a project-oriented, multidisciplinary arts facilitator serving the greater Columbia and South Carolina communities by providing collaborative arts engineering and community-wide arts communication.

~~~

The Jasper Project Priorities

The Jasper Project is committed to four integrated priorities:

• Process – illuminating the unique processes endemic to all art forms in order to provide a greater level of understanding and respect for that discipline.

• Community/Collaboration – nurturing community both within and between arts disciplines.

• Narrative – creating a more positive and progressive understanding of SC culture.

• Economy – being efficient stewards of arts funding committed to creating more with less.

But to be honest, because we’re small and facing greater and greater costs of publishing Jasper, we’re finding it harder and harder to keep Jasper free. Call us naïve, but we really hope we can continue to put Jasper into the hands of everyone, no matter what their ability to pay, for as long as we can.

So, I’m coming to you once again, our readers, supporters, colleagues, and friends, to ask for your help in continuing the work of the Jasper Project and publishing Jasper Magazine. The fall 2022 magazine is written and ready to go to the printer. We have stories about the Midlands beloved Jazz scene, artists Jim Arendt, Wilma King, Elizabeth Catlett, Jamie Blackburn, stories about three local films—two of which made it to the Tribeca film festival this year, poetry, book reviews, album reviews, and so much more!

Publishing this issue of Jasper will cost well over $10K. Please donate whatever you can at our website , on Facebook, or by joining the Jasper Guild.

I can’t thank you enough for your generous support over the past 11+ years. It’s because of donors and helpers and good-hearted people who believe in arts at the grass-roots level that the Jasper Project has grown to be the force that it is, impacting thousands of Midlands artists and arts lovers each year with our events, publications, and more than 20 active projects.

Thank you. And remember there is always a place for you at Jasper.

Take care,

Cindi

This is me at the launch of Jasper Magazine in 2011. I’m holding the first ever Jasper featuring one of my favorite artists, David Yaghjian, on the cover. Next month, Jasper will install David’s art in one of our captured galleries at MTC’s Harbison Theatre lobby. We’ve grown a lot in the 11 years since we started, but we’re still here for the arts and the artists we value so highly. Thank you for your continued support of the Jasper Project and Jasper Magazine.