Florence Visual Arts Guild: New Works
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
May 10 – July 22, 2008
8:00 am – 5:30 pm Mon-Thur; 8:00-11:00 am 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.
The Quilting Way III: Quilts by the Swamp Fox Quilters Guild
Smith University Center Gallery
May 22 – July 22, 2008
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.
FMU Art Faculty Exhibition:
Lawrence P. Anderson, Gregory G. Fry, Howard J. Frye, Steven F. Gately, Douglas E. Gray, Rachel Hamaie, Charles E. Jeffcoat, Roberta L. Olmstead and Kathleen S. Pompe
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
August 5 – September 25, 2008
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Thur; 8:00-11:00 am Fri
Paintings by Jane Jackson
Smith University Center Gallery
August 5 – October 30, 2008
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Thur; 8:00-11:00 am Fri
Jane Jackson is a professional artist living in Florence, South Carolina. Working primarily in watercolor, “the art of Jane Jackson depicts the feeling of the southern lifestyle, preserving places and moments in time with a quiet elegance.”
A Member with Excellence in the South Carolina Watercolor Society and on the South Carolina Arts Commission’s Approved Artist Roster, “her list of clients reads like a South Carolina corporate Who’s Who.”
She has had many one person exhibitions and has been accepted and won awards in numerous competitions. Her work is included in many private and corporate collections throughout the United states and abroad.
“Encouraged by family and teachers in my early childhood, I have always wanted to draw and paint. I was fortunate to have studied with noted artists and thankfully my work has been well received. I am inspired by nature and the life around me. I see paintings every day. I still want to paint subjects I remember form years past.
“The creative process to me is more exciting than the finished work, although I am happy when the work is completed and is shared with others. As the painting develops, there are so many choices to make. The decisions are an exciting adventure.”
For additional information, visit www.janejacksonstudio.com.
Jim Boden – “Spectators”
Jean Grosser – “Sacred Spaces”
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
September 30 – November 13, 2008
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Jim Boden
“For a number of years I have examined the figure in my work. I focused a great deal of attention on body language and the figure’s ability to mirror or externally manifest inner, emotional states of “being.” After a series of constructed body parts amalgamating imperfect Colossi, I turned inward as an opportunity to investigate internal “body language.”
“We speak of our stomachs “twisted in knots” or “hearts skipping a beat” and other outer visions of our internal palpitations and twitches. This loose umbrella of an idea was the start of the Passage series of which Vellicate, Elderly Women and Jazz Musicians, and Cippus are fragments or moments of an internal journey.
“None of these forms are specific internal organs, most actually began as external body parts, but as coloration of muscles, sinew, and fascia were applied to the forms the “internal” became more readable. The rich coloration that we have within our bodies fascinated me. The Passages series was not intended as a journey of the digestive tract, blood stream, or oxygen passages but as an excavation or spelunking of the “inner core of being” within our physical and mental caverns. Passage and distance traveled, as well as, the ancient practices of examining the organs of animals, enemies, or sacrifices to read the future all began interweaving through the series.
“Near the end of the Passage series, I wanted to come back out to the external but I found it difficult to deal with the figure from a distanced stance. I was caught at the boundary that separates the internal from the external and I began to hover just over its surface. Flesh Field is one of the pieces that I created while considering the use of skin as a “map of being.” The fortune telling aspects of organ readings led my investigation to consider the mapping of the hand in fortune telling, past-present-future, the tattooing of flesh, and experience¹s collection of scars that are perpetrated upon the flesh.”
Jim Boden is Associate Professor of Art at Coker College with expertise in painting, drawing and photography.
Jean Grosser
“My purpose is to give visual expression to issues of social and political conflict. These interests stem from a family tradition of political activism. My grandfather was a conscientious objector during World War I. His experiences in military prisons (Alcatraz and Leavenworth) between 1918 and 1921 have been the subject of my artwork in the past.
“My current artistic focus developed out of a call for entries for the Holter Museum in Helena, Montana. The museum asked artists to “transform hate” by making works of art from Neo-Nazi hate literature obtained by the Montana Human Rights Network. I created a series of eight artworks for this exhibition.
“I have continued to wrestle with the idea of transforming hate by exploring issues of racial tension in the American south, specifically the controversy concerning the treatment of the Jena six in Louisiana, and the use of the noose as a source of fear and intimidation.”
Jean Grosser is Professor of Art at Coker College with expertise in sculpture and art history.
Larry Merriman – “Echo”
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
September 30 – November 13, 2008
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
“For the past ten years I have been making large scale temporary sculptures. Usually, I make room-size walk-in sculptures that surround the viewer. Often, I use cardboard, found objects, and my own lighting system to change the interior shape of a room. I do this because I enjoy making enclosures that differ dramatically from the expected architecture. I also enjoy working with recycled and found materials because these materials bring their own history to the experience of my sculpture. Such materials are worn, disposable, and often covered with printed words and images. Consequently, the finished sculpture is old and new at the same time. I find this contrast appealing because it suggests more complex relationships. For example, the boxes in my sculpture create a structure that addresses formal concerns such as volume, weight, texture, and space while the printed words make references that run deep in our consumer oriented society. I design a new sculpture for each site, and the installation exists only for the length of the exhibition. At the end of a show the piece is flattened and recycled.” — Larry Merriman, Assistant Professor of Art and Gallery Director, Coker College.
Group Exhibition by FMU Art Classes
Smith University Center Gallery
November 6-December 13, 2008
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Senior Shows by Graduating FMU Visual Arts Majors
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
November 18 – December 13, 2008
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Each Visual Arts major is required to exhibit work and write an artist’s statement as part of a senior exhibit. The senior exhibitions are presented on the FMU campus as small groups shows during the final year of enrollment. Each student’s portion of the group exhibit is comprised of works from the student’s specialty area and is prepared under the direction of the student’s specialty area professor and serves as partial fulfillment of Art 499: Senior Seminar.
Group Exhibition by FMU Ceramics and 3D Design Classes
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
December 1-13, 2008
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Paintings by Patti Brady
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
January 6 – February 12, 2009
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Painting demo February 12
Patti Brady’s paintings and prints have been exhibited nationally and reviewed by the New York Times. She has exhibited at the Brand Library, Glendale, CA., Arch Gallery, Chicago, IL., Mills College, Oakland and U.C. Berkeley CA., Greenville Museum, Lander College and U.of SC. Furman University and the Governor’s School.
Her work is in the collection of Greenville County Museum, The Contemporary Collection of MSUC in Charleston SC,(the largest collection of contemporary South Carlina on permanent display), The Mark Coplan Collection at the South Carolina State Museum and County Bank.
Patti Brady has developed curriculum for acrylic classes for artists and art educators. Patti currently has trained and manages 42 national and international artists for the Golden Working Artist Program in the US. Canada, Korea, France, Austria, Spain, Mexico and the Netherlands. 2004 and 2006 she traveled to Japan for Golden Artist Colors to lecture at Universities in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto.
She is currently at work on a book covering contemporary uses of acrylic for F&W Publications due out in 2008, titled Rethinking Acrylics: Radical Solutions for Exploiting the World’s Most Versatile Medium.
“I am continually fascinated by the materiality of paint, the thickness, the texture, the drip, the transparency, the overlap, the overlay and evocative color.
“These images are heavily influenced by my explorations into landscape painting and a physical move to a Southern landscape. A certain claustrophobic explosion of plant life, molecules of air, humidity, and insect invaded a western sense of space.
“These images are an expression of the minutia of botany, containers, irritations, voids, veils, growth, decay, seeds, and about what intrudes into, onto these spaces.
“Patterning, repeating images, fabric, and ornamentation, all derived from plant life are interwoven. Quilting is collage.
“The contrast between the actual materiality of paint, thick and textural, drips, mistakes, stains, happenstance, juxtaposed with a more controlled painterly drawing process are intriguing to me.” — Patti Brady
Pottery by Eugéne – African American Pottery
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
January 6 – February 12, 2009
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Rosa and Winton Eugene, are residents of Cowpens, SC. Winton Eugene began making pottery in 1986 as a hobby to fill his time. Within months, the Eugenes had a garage full of pottery. A suggestion from a loved one took them to the annual Freedom Weekend Aloft to display Mr. Eugene’s work. Mrs. Eugene took time off of her work as a nurse to accompany her husband. They took several pieces of pottery and sold them, and they suddenly realized that they may have stumbled upon a hobby that would be of interest to countless people.
For more information about the background and craft of Rosa and Winton Eugene, see the article in Carolina Arts.
Uschi Jeffcoat and Kara Warren
Smith University Center Gallery
January 13 – March 26, 2009
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Uschi Jeffcoat
“Color is one of my favorite elements of painting. I thoroughly enjoy the thought process that working with various hues provides. I see it as a creative problem to solve. I feel that color balance and harmony are not haphazard but require deliberate execution. The majority of my subject matter is either an expression through color or of something meaningful to me.” — Uschi Jeffcoat
Jeffcoat is an artist living in Florence, South Carolina.
Kara Warren
“The materials I use consistently throughout the Be Home series are beeswax and gold leaf. I’ve chosen these materials because of how they contribute to the overall idea. Beeswax, the main component of a bee’s home, is secreted from the underside of the bee’s abdomen. So the bee is literally creating a home from within itself. Gold is traditionally associated with pureness, wealth and warmth. I use gold leaf, with is around four to five millionths of an inch in thickness — so delicate it will disintegrate if touched with bare hands. However, once applied to an appropriate substrate, this extremely thin substance creates a strong surface layer that appears impenetrable. Both of these materials make me think about the idea of home as a feeling as well as home as an object.” — Kara Warren
Warren has a BA in Studio Art from the University of Alabama. She lives and works in Asheville, North Carolina.
Kathleen Pompe – Views of Australia
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
February 17 – April 2, 2009
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
“I took the photographs in this exhibit while in Australia during 2007. The coastline of Queensland, one of Australia’s states, was the primary area of shooting, although I include photographs from numerous coastal areas around the Australian continent.
“Some images are printed as a single series of consecutive shots taken from various vantage points and placed together in Photoshop. Other photographs are single, stand alone views. Each photograph is intended to give the viewer an impression of the splendor of the vast country that is Australia.”
Kathleen Pompe is a Professor of Art at Francis Marion University in Florence, SC, where she teaches the photography art specialty area in the Visual Arts Program. For the past twenty-five years her photography has been exhibited extensively in one-person, invitational, and juried art shows throughout the United States. Pompe has worked in traditional black-and-white, color, and in alternative and Polaroid processes. Since 1995, much of her work is in digital imaging.
Paula Smith – Sweet Sixteen Series
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
February 17 – April 2, 2009
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
“The power of your unconscious and collective memory sends a dialog within your mind allowing you to analyze the images or objects. The imagery that I use are things that most people can relate to, in some way. You may not know what I am trying to say but you have some connections to the forms. The surreal placement of identifiable objects give the viewer clues but not always answers.
“The metaphor of ‘woman as vessel’ is one that continues to inspire me. We contain life, energy, emotions, hopes, dreams, and desires. For the past ten years I have been making sculptures that deal primarily with the female torso, either by itself or in combination with other archetypal forms. My pieces are made to represent my individual perceptions and narratives. Going beyond myself these pieces have become a type of visual symbol of social attitudes within our society. Many of the classic torsos we see today in the worlds museums have evolved into a ruin; broken headless, incomplete, they are no longer the ideal figure that they use to represent only a fragment. The ‘Sweet Sixteen’ series deals with this concept. By using just the torso and eliminating the head, arms and legs, I’ve turned the female figure into a ‘cookie cut – out’, the idealized female form has become the female archetype for today’s woman. By making a series and showing them as a group I am using the principles of repetition and variety as a formal reconnection to represent our individuality and differences. The modern day venus form.
“The ‘Sweet Sixteen Series’ were press molded with stoneware clay from an original plaster mold and then fired in an electric kiln. Each piece is made for a specific found object. Some are glazed, some are finished with various materials including dirt, sugar, rice, etc. and some are simply painted.”
Paula Smith was born in Kansas City, MO, in 1960. She attended the Kansas City Art Institute to receive a BFA in ceramics, then went on to the University of Illinois to receive a MFA in ceramics.
Paula moved to Rock Hill in 1987. She opened Oakland Art Supply in 1988 and taught at Winthrop University part time in the visual art department until 2000. She now teaches full time at Gaston College, teaching art appreciation, ceramics, design and sculpture. Her studio is in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
Group Exhibition by FMU Art Classes
Smith University Center Gallery
April 2-23, 2009
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Senior Shows by Graduating FMU Visual Arts Majors
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
April 4 – May 9, 2009
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Each Visual Arts major is required to exhibit work and write an artist’s statement as part of a senior exhibit. The senior exhibitions are presented on the FMU campus as small groups shows during the final year of enrollment. Each student’s portion of the group exhibit is comprised of works from the student’s specialty area and is prepared under the direction of the student’s specialty area professor and serves as partial fulfillment of Art 499: Senior Seminar.
Group Exhibition by FMU 3D Design Classes
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
April 4 – May 9, 2009
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Group Exhibition by FMU Ceramics Classes
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
April 27 – May 9, 2009
8:30 am – 5:00 pm Mon-Fri
Feather Pottery:
New work by Tari & Sasha Federer
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
May 12 – July 30, 2009
8:00 am – 5:30 pm Mon-Thur; 8:00-11:00 am Fri
Sasha & Tari Federer have been working with clay for over 30 years. Sasha, born in Prague, Czech Republic, moved to the USA 35 years ago. He studied ceramic art in Washington and Wisconsin, worked three years as a professional potter in New Hampshire and served as artist-in-residence with the National Endowment for the Arts. Tari spent much of her life in the Southwest. She studied as an art major at Ventura College and the University of California Santa Barbara. Six years ago she closed her studio in North Carolina and moved to Florence, SC to marry and join forces with Sasha. Their joining has resulted in a creative collaboration in their quest to create objects of beauty and functionality in clay.
In addition to exhibiting at The Chameleon Art Gallery, Darlington, SC, Lowcountry Artists, Ltd., Charleston, SC & Interiors of Asheville, Asheville, NC, Tari & Sasha have jointly made one of their artistic dreams come true by opening the Running Horse Gallery beside their studio and home in Florence, SC. Their artwork is one-of-a kind, hand crafted, using an array of firing techniques and surface decoration. Occasionally, the couple will work on the same piece. When this is done, it is signed Satari, a combination of both names.
The Quilting Way: Quilts by the Swamp Fox Quilters Guild
Smith University Center Gallery
May 12 – July 30, 2009
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.
