2D & 3D Multi Media Group Show
featuring Ray & Barbara Moore, Donna Goodman, Jo Jeffers, Tom Herzog, Walter Sallenger, Dewey Ervin, Pollie Bristow, Sasha & Tari Federer
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
May 22 – July 10, 2007
8:00 am – 5:30 pm Mon-Thur; 8:00-11:00 am Fri
The Quilting Way II:
Quilts by the Swamp Fox Quilters Guild
Smith University Center Gallery
May 22 – July 24, 2007
8:00 am – 5:30 pm Mon-Thur; 8:00-11:00 am Fri
The Swamp Fox Quilters Guild was started in 1980. Its purpose is to educate, create, and stimulate interest in maintaining, protecting, collecting and preserving quilts. Also, the group strives to unite members in bonds of friendship through the shared appreciation of quilt making,
The guild, with approximately 50 members, meets the first Thursday of each month at 9:30 a.m. at John Calvin Presbyterian Church, except for July. It has an annual “quilting challenge.” Yearly, it exhibits at The Columns during the Civil War re-enactment, displaying quilts and giving demonstrations. Also, it makes community service quilts for nursing homes, shelters and various civic organizations.
Stitched!
Embroidery by Fiber Artist Susan Lenz
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
August 7 – September 27, 2007
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Stitched! will be an exhibition of contemporary free motion embroidery techniques by Columbia artist Susan Lenz featuring two ongoing but related bodies of work. One is created on water-soluble fabric. The other uses a burning tool. Both approaches seek to dissolve the very ground on which the embroidery is made. Design inspirations include aerial views of urban architecture and cross-sectional profiles of the earth’s strata.
Although born and raised in the Midwest, Susan Lenz has always traveled, spending much time in Austria and Italy. These experiences have been translated into a love of textiles, textures, and cultural diversity. She has studied under several internationally renowned fiber artists from Great Britain and been juried into numerous national exhibits. With needle and thread and collage techniques, Susan hopes to convey a feeling of appreciation toward all things old and rustic as well as adorned and exotic.
Addicted to Pots!
Selected works from the Huggins Collection
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
August 7 – September 27, 2007
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Textiles from the Orient: Chinese and Japanese Kimonos from the Florence Nightingale League collection of the Florence Museum
Smith University Center Gallery
August 7 – October 25, 2007
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
The Florence Museum of Art Science and History has an extensive Oriental collection featuring objects from China, Korea and Japan. The collection includes the Florence Nightingale Collection of Chinese Art which was purchased in 1940 from Mr. And Mrs. T. J. League, missionaries in china. Mrs. League was a relative of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing and Mr. League was a 1890 graduate of Furman University in Greenville, SC. At the time of her marriage to Mr. League, Mrs. League was presented with a dowry which was spent on collecting important object from the Orient. Upon their return to the United States the Leagues intended to start an Asian Museum but were not able to complete their dream. In search for a good home for the objects they approached Jane Beverly Evans, founder of the Florence Museum to add t0 the already extensive collection which Evans had collected. The League collection accompanied the museums collection perfectly, giving the Florence Museum which was the third largest in the state, one of the largest Asian collection on the East Coast.
In 2003 the Florence Museum expanded their collection once again with a gift from the Gibbs Museum in Charleston, SC; the Blackmon Collection of Asian Art.
These select textiles are part of Florence Nightingale Leagues collection.
Paintings by Laura Spong
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
October 2 – November 15, 2007
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
In 2006, Laura Spong had four solo exhibitions. They included a retrospective at the University of South Carolina and a wildly successful 80th birthday exhibition that might have set a sales record for a solo show in Columbia, S.C., especially for a local artist. Helped further by her inclusion in several group shows, Spong certainly broke her own sales record for a year by a wide margin.
A well-received, 32-page catalog accompanied her 80th-birthday exhibition. It detailed her remarkable life and career, discussed the context of that career and evaluated her art. “The other day I read the essays in the catalog again,” Spong says, “and I had a hard time believing it was about me.” With the commercial success came critical acclaim. The South Carolina State Art Collection acquired two of Spong’s paintings, and later this year she’ll be in a group show at the Greenville (S.C.) County Museum of Art.
The acclaim has liberated Spong. For years she has painted with workman-like regularity, routinely keeping daily hours at her studio. For years she also has painted with a sense of urgency, not so much because of age but because those paintings don’t paint themselves and she gets out of sorts if she doesn’t work. To this work ethic and passion, the recent success has added new confidence, and Spong has been hitting it on all cylinders since, producing gem after gem.
“I have been inspired and energized,” says Spong. “I think the work is freer. It has a sense of letting loose, of just painting and not obsessing about every little line and dot.” The work has changed some, without losing any of the Spong imprint. While maintaining the lyrical quality of her work and the fluid lines, Spong’s paintings have become more aggressive and daring.
“The breaks in the planes are sharper, the marks at times more forceful, and the scribbles more abundant and perhaps livelier. More often than before, Spong has explored an earthier, even dark pallet. More often also she has limited her pallet, even producing somewhat monochromatic paintings.
“Above all, these developments suggest an increased confidence as Spong further expands her range. But, she says, sometimes they indicate her disposition. “I am not depressed, but I do feel pessimistic about the situation in the world. Still, at times I feel great hope, too. My hope comes from my faith, but when I am not in that mode, I go dark. I get into fears of the future, of losing my independence and my health, and fear about the people I love.”
“I think the paintings are more interesting,” Spong says. “I think I am getting more layers and more depth. My biggest fear has been that I would just paint a pretty piece of cloth.”
Coastal Carolina Clay Guild Members Show:
Geoff Calabrese, Don Johns and Brian Evans
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
October 2 – November 15, 2007
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
The purpose of the Coastal Carolina Clay Guild is to promote and exchange knowledge and information about all types of ceramic arts and to provide mutual support, encouragement, and education for its community.
“My inspiration for my ideas comes from nature and its creator. In my work, I strive for honesty in the use of material. That is, I do not try to force the material beyond its potential, or make it do something for which it was not intended. I consider myself a potter and not a sculptor. Therefore, the majority of my pieces ill serve a utilitarian purpose as well as a decorative.” — Don Johns
“I make pottery because I find the tactile experience of artistic expression in clay exciting. The feeling of the clay in my hands and the rhythm of the potter’s wheel can be quite therapeutic. I enjoy the experience of the smell, sound, and energy of the kiln while firing. I especially enjoy the comradery that the pottery community offers.My pottery mainly consists of vessel forms. I use the potter’s wheel as my primary means of construction. I enjoy making vessel forms because they are an intimate part of the daily rituals of people’s lives. This relationship between the object and person is very important to me. I am recognized mostly for my alternative fired pottery such as Raku and Saggar fired vessels. I draw inspiration for these pieces from classical forms, from nature, and from fellow artists. My goal is to strive for the highest quality in my work as well as to continuously better myself as a professional artist.” — Brian Evans
Student Works by FMU Painting Classes
Smith University Center Gallery
October 30 – November 19, 2007
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Six Degrees of Separation: Senior Shows by Graduating FMU Visual Arts Majors Keith Slone, Meridith Fields, Jason Jones, Vyone Tisdale, Edwina George and Chris Townsend
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
November 20 – December 15, 2007
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Student Works by FMU Photography Classes
Smith University Center Gallery
November 27 – December 15, 2007
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Student Works by FMU Ceramics Classes
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
December 3-15, 2007
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Metal by Mana Hewitt
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
January 2 – February 14, 2008
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
“We live in an age where language is often deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning. The term ‘Intelligent Design’ when considered by an artist may describe the aesthetic or functional aspects of an object that has been created with considerable research and thought. Conversely we are increasingly hearing from groups promoting “Intelligent design” as a theory that living things are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than an undirected process such as natural selection.
“My works explore this play on words through imagery associated with technology, evolution and architectural environments. The works are composed of multiple layered metal collages that are based on rearranged appropriated images from historic engravings. The final compositions are a mix of social commentary coupled with whimsical imagery. My goal is to create images that are aesthetically pleasing and conceptually significant, playing off the meaning of the chosen images.”
Gallery Gala Tuesday, 5 February 2008, Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery, 7:00 pm.
Lawrence Jordan: A Life In Clay (1947-2007)
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
January 2 – February 14, 2008
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Dr. Lawrence Jordan taught ceramics, art education and a variety of studio and art history courses at Francis Marion College throughout the 1980’s and into the 1990’s before moving to Norfolk, Virginia. Raised in Florence, Larry received most of his undergraduate and graduate training at Penn State University, interrupted by army service in Japan during the Vietnam conflict. (He wished he had only known at the time how much the orient would influence his life in the ceramic arts!)
Larry’s passions were pottery and poetry, a perfect blend for a man who spent his life trying to understand and to teach “what is called art and what calls for art … what is the purpose of artistic endeavor and how does man become human through art.” Poetry often took the place of the artist statement in his gallery catalogs: “May the angels grant me a clearer view; of even higher up where the radiant white of clouds in patterns to see … for if I knew of some vision or sign I could paint a cloud’s divining line; for a cloud is also the blue’s edge….”
A vital soul has finally broken free of the constraints imposed by confining physical and artificial social orders. We are left with a body of work infused with the essence of that spirit as it passed among us.
Gallery reception Tuesday, 5 February 2008, Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery, 7:00 pm.
Visions of the World: Photography by N. B. Baroody
Smith University Center Gallery
January 8 – March 6, 2008
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
God introduced light into the world in Genesis 1:2. Without light there is only darkness. In photography, we use light to impact on substance in the formation of an image. To my mind and to my eye, therefore, light is highly spiritual and its application in the creation of form is a spiritual metaphor of the highest order. He created the universe and segmented time to our capacity of being. He ordained the seasons and decorated them with oscillating beauty, each with ownership singular to itself. As we passively participate in this panorama of our constantly changing environment, we occasionally expose our film and our finiteness in a futile attempt to possess the moment. But moments like these cannot be captured or possessed for they belong to the Eternal One from Whom they came and to Whom they do return. Our photographic endeavors serve more the purpose of reminding us of that brief moment in time when we actually met the Artist.
Artistic expression in photography is a paradigm. Initially, there must be some advanced knowledge of the science and chemistry of photography, as well as, of sensitized paper products in order to execute and produce the desired images. Additionally, the element of form, design, light, shadows, and substance must be creatively merged with the science of photographic images. Most importantly, however, there is the compelling necessity to manipulate all of the above placing it firmly on the foundation of thought and imaginative creativity so that the intrinsic energy that drives us all to our respective craft might be successfully accomplished.
I was first exposed to the concept of previsualization by Ansel Adams at his workshop in 1980. Just as an artist creates and manipulates his painting as to its composition, color, density, design, and the expression of the image, so Adams proposed his own system whereby the photographer could do the same by exposure and processing of the negative and print. Further refinement in the creation of a fine print was received at a workshop given by John Sexton who served as Ansel Adams assistant for 5 years before Adams’ death in 1983.
This exhibit is presented as an accumulation of images made over 50 years of a serious love affair with photographic expression. Although prints are signed by the one who made and processed the images, their selection shown here was reviewed and approved by my most sincere and uncompromising critic, my loving wife, Margaret. Because of her critical eye for technical perfection and subject appeal, we can present this collection of images hopefully reflecting our sensitivity to a world where beauty and form respond to light and shadows.
Photographic expression is enmeshed in a lifetime of common and not-so-common experiences whereby we engage in a continuum of life and its experiences. My personal journey has been constructed on a solid foundation of Christian belief and commitment. Christ stated in Matthew 6:33 that we were to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”. So in photographic expression I have been attracted most by those elements in life and environment that convey beauty and truth as seen in the world created around us. Hopefully the images presented in this website may partially reflect this commitment.
Gallery Gala Tuesday, 5 February 2008, Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery, 7:00 pm.
Colleen Appleton Critcher: Abstracts
Angela Ketcham: Recent Works
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
February 19 – April 5, 2008
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Colleen Appleton Critcher
“Painting is the visual documentation of the human experience. Expressive painting is the documentation of emotion. I employ color and shape to express creatively my soulful interpretation of existence.
“The vibrant colors and effects of acrylic paint are the catalyst for my self-expression. I am obsessed with color. I am also fascinated by geometry, phi, energy and light.
“Painting requires equal amounts of intuition and careful thought. Abstraction is the process I use to make the intangible concrete. I believe that accessing creativity and producing art is the most gratifying experience of life.” — Colleen Appleton Critcher
Angela Ketcham
“Everyone knows the world ain’t flat. It’s bumpy.
“The body of work in Seen/Unseen-A Textured Life is an exploration – and celebration – of the layered and tactile nature of the everyday experiences that make up Life. A humid drive on a familiar road, the grainy melt of cheap chocolate, a bug bite… Each carries a wealth of sensory memory, an amalgam of smells, tastes, and yes – textures.
“Using color, symbol, and layers of paint, reclaimed consumer throwaways and materials from nature, these paintings and sculptures attempt to distill such rich yet mundane experiences to a visual form. Each piece functions as a kind of topographical visceral map; they are intended to inform at gut level.
“Many of the works may reveal surprises upon close inspection…and who can say what is buried unseen beneath the surface?” — Angela Ketcham
Robert F. Lyon: Art and Craft
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
February 19 – April 5, 2008
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
“For several years, my sculpture has focused on abstraction, architectural images, and issues regarding the earth and our relationship to it. I draw inspiration from these sources, as I continue to explain my view of the world through the relationship of objects. Environmental fragility, memory, beauty, and a cultural identity are reoccurring themes in my work. With wood, pigment, flame, smoke, and carbon, I make the effects of my hands evident. Like many of the artists of the 1960’s, I am committed to the physical work traditionally associated with woodworking and the making of sculpture. This philosophy reinforces my link to previous cultures and civilizations, which often appears to be in contrast to the digital heavy age in which we live. This intense though intermittent identification with natural materials and forces causes time to dissolve and work to become indistinguishable from play. I know when I’m working properly everything else disappears.” — Robert F. Lyon
Artist Lecture & Woodturning Demonstration during Art’s Alive Festival on Saturday, April 5, at 1:30 pm in Hyman Fine Arts Center 117 (Sculpture Studio).
Student Works by FMU Drawing Classes
Smith University Center Gallery
March 18 – April 5, 2008
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Senior Shows by Graduating FMU Visual Arts Majors
Courtney Wigfall, Shane Clevenger, Marcus McMillian, Susan McElveen, Shaketa Preal, Shelton Sherrill, Tim Busscher, Maurice Glover, Nicole Johnson, Leah Kunz, Amber McKenzie, Brittany Mesimer, Adam Tyner and John Whitley
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
April 8 – May 3, 2008
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Student Works by FMU Photography Classes
Smith University Center Gallery
April 8 – May 3, 200
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Student Works by FMU 3D Classes
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
April 8 – May 3,2008
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Florence Visual Arts Guild: New Works
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
May 10 – July 22, 2008
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
This multi media exhibit of new artwork by 23 members of the Florence Visual Arts Guild showcases the diverse artistic talents of the arts guild members, many of whom have exhibited and won awards on a national and international level. The guild was formed in 1983 and has had numerous exhibits throughout the region and state. Besides exhibiting artwork, the guild holds workshops, organizes art-related excursions, and provides a opportunity for artists’ interaction within the region.
