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VIEWING 1 - 2 OUT OF 2 BLOGS.
The Best of the Best Music
DATE: 11/07/2009 10:39:02 / MOOD: full of life
I am so very excited to announce that Pedro Rodriguez and his lovely and talented wife Nancy will perform for The Best of the BEST Art Sale on Nov 20 thru 22nd. If you have never heard these two talented musicians you are in for a huge treat! They are both as talented musically as they are artistically.
Thank you so much for this gift Nancy and Pedro!
And just a reminder
First Annual
Best of the BEST Artisan Sale and Show
November 20th , 21st and 22nd at 10 Storehouse Row
at the old Naval Base, North Charleston, SC
Join the Low Country Artisan Collective
Nov 20th 6 to 10 PM, Nov 21 and 22nd Noon to 6 PM
You’ll find everything from the Ultra Luxe for body and home to little gems $50 and under.
Meet world renowned artists living in our community. Each item selected for this show and sale is of the highest quality and has been exquisitely hand crafted.
Experience old world craftsmanship in contemporary designs, from wood and textiles to watercolor and pottery you will be delightfully amazed.
A portion of the proceeds of the Best of the Best Sale will benefit OperationHome.org.
Friday night November 20th preview by invitation only.
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Operation Art!
DATE: 11/04/2009 11:30:35 / MOOD: full of life
Local fine art meets homelessness prevention at the Low Country Artisan Collective’s Best of the Best Show, Saturday, Nov 21 and Sunday, Nov. 22 - noon to 6 p.m. at Number 10 Storehouse Row on the Navy Yard at Noisette in North Charleston. A portion of the proceeds benefits the Emergency Repairs work of local non-profit, Operation Home. A private Preview Party takes place Friday, November 20, from 6 to 10 p.m.
The event showcases more than 25 fine artists, representing every medium the Low country has to offer, says Torreah Cookie Washington, an esteemed art quilter, who is coordinating the show along with her friend, renowned painter, Arianne King Comer.
“There is a long tradition of enormous good coming out of the partnership between art and philanthropy,” explains Washington, who notes that the upcoming sale offers work by greater Charleston’s top talents at a diverse variety of price points. “The title, Best of the Best, speaks both for the incredible work that will be for sale, and for the double-your-pleasure factor that this show enables anyone to afford to give art and charity as holiday presents.”
Washington notes that Operation Home’s mission to provide safe housing for those in need is a cause that touches many of the artists personally. “Even in the toughest economic times, as we’re seeeing now, Charleston has always supported its creative community in extraordinary ways; but most artists have known at least some period in their lifetime when they did not have housing security,” she explains. “They know how scary and unsafe that feels, and they are delighted to use their gifts to make a difference in the lives of others.”
Artists Bios
Marty Biernbaum
www.martybiernbaum.com
I have been a professional artist for over 27 years, initially as a potter and sculptor and more recently as a painter. The positive energy of many supportive teachers and generous potters and painters I have encountered has kept me inspired. Classes at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts with Bill Foglia and Valda Cox got me hooked on clay. Dr. John Conrad and Rita Marlier also had profound influences on my work. My principle painting instructor has been Veronique Aniel. I’ve studied oils with Joyce Hall and Martin Ahrens.
Steve Hazard
www.stevehazardstudio.com
Steve has received commissions to create art works in glass for numerous collectors and clientele across the nation. His client list includes The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, The Council on Foundations, The Martin Luther King Arts Complex, Morehouse School of Medicine, The Romare Bearden Foundation, The Thurgood Marshall Center Trusts and The United Negro College Fund. Steve has created art glass originals for a host of dignitaries and celebrities including Colin Powell, Aretha Franklin, Nancy Wilson, President William J. Clinton, President George H. W. Bush, Smokey Robinson, Denzel Washington, Ruby Dee, Patti LaBelle and Harry Belafonte.
Rachel Gordon
www.rachelgordonstyle.com
Rachel first appeared on the Charleston scene as an emerging designer at Charleston Fashion Week in 2008. Since then, she opened her first store, Gordon Hall, then assisted in the opening of Seeking Indigo as the lead designer and organizer of regional artists. Now she has moved on and is focusing on her new line One Love. Gordon describes her line, One Love, "as a goddess inspired line of gowns and cocktail dresses, that are created with the intention of making the owner feel beautiful and one with her inner goddess
Lisa Shimko
www.ShimkoART.com
Lisa Shimko’s paintings on the surface are colorful and cheery. Underlying context shows a keen awareness of the dwindling numbers of wildlife, especially birds, due in large part to humans’ off balance relationship with the environment. The birds are the “canary in the coal mine.”
Hampton R. Olfus, Jr.
www.absolutearts.com/holfus
Hampton R. Olfus, Jr. creates works of art, that are direct links to, African, Native American , and European styles. Most of the art pieces are very detailed, and sculptural in appearance. His art has been referenced to be, "artistic jewels." The Washington Post says ,” Jamaica: A Visual Odyssey”, an exhibit of Olfus’s vacation inspired paintings, capture the island in so many different moods, and employ so many different styles and media, that it’s hard to believe the 14 paintings were all done by the same hand. Olfus’s diverse art career of over 30 years, is a integral part of his life, by way of expression, vision, education and communication. His art reflects his formal training and personal studies. His guiding philosophy “Let art be art, fresh and new, no egos or selfish wants, just the artist, pure spirit.”
Anna Ruggiero - Wood
Anna Ruggiero attributes much of her gift for woodturning to her grandfather, William Hartman. He also gave me my first set of tools when I was seven, some of which I still use today.” “Pa-Pa Bill's 1948 Shop Smith, was given to her after his passing in May, 2007. Not knowing how to use the lathe portion of the Shop Smith, Anna took a class in woodturning and discovered that she had a knack for it.
“My goal is to create items that are both
beautiful and practical. When I’m turning a box, I don’t always know what the finished product is going to look like. Sometimes once I start turning, I’ll see something in the wood that makes me change the form and direction I initially had considered for the piece.
Elie Koukoui
http://africanexpressiongallery.com/index.html
Elie Koukoui was born in Cote-d'Ivoire was raised in Benin. He relocated to the US in 1981 to establish his African Art Company. His art is hand craved with the skill of an old world craftsman. His work must be seen to be appreciated. These are wonderous works in wood.
Pat Keown Photographer
Just a few thoughts about my photography. On most days I work as a psychiatric nurse and clinical social worker: but, then there are those special times when I get to play with my camera. About four years ago as I moved into my sixth decade the need to say YES to myself and my art became even more clear. Since then I have been in numerous art juried shows and try to share my vision wherever I can. The joy comes when someone else is touched in some way by the moment held in time by my camera.
Jane Word
Jane really is the coolest "Word" in art! Jane is a citizen of the world, but now resides on Folly Beach. Her work features mixed media sculptures based on her love of nature and includes both free-standing sculptures, lamps and purses.
Jane's truly must be seen to be believed, it is beautiful and contemporary.
KTC Karole Turner CampbellArt is one of the purest vehicles of self-expression that we are privilegedto experience. As an artist my passion is to utilize this mode of expression in order to engage in on-going communication with my work and then ultimately with you, the viewer.I want my art to speak to you, to engage you in a visual dialogue that speaks to and resonates in your heart, your mind, your gut. I want this conversation to be ethereal and visceral; sublime and earthy; universal and specific; spiritual and profane.
My motto, with kudos to Shakespeare: “Art is the stuff of life.”
Arianne King-Comer
An Indigo Artist, Arianne King Comer, a BFA graduate of Howard University, has been an Artist in Residence on the Old Navy Base in North Charleston, SC since 06. In 1992, Arianne received the UN/USIS grant to study under the renowned Batik artist Nike Olyani Davis in Oshogbo Nigeria, where her passion for indigo manifested. She was owner of Ibile Indigo House on St Helena House '98-04. In 2007, she had the opportunity to join The Charleston Rhizome Collective to conduct a textile workshop in batik and indigo at the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya. In 1999, she was featured in the PBS documentary, "Messengers of the Spirit," and in 2003 was featured in an Indigo Art segment on HGTV's "Country Style," which is still in syndication.
Jillian and Robin Carway.
www.SilverPailPottery.com
Silver Pail Pottery is owned and operated by daughter-mother team Jillian and Robin Carway. Jill, a university-trained clay artist, has studied with master potters such as Jim Connell and Cynthia Bringle. At Silver Pail Pottery, most of our work begins with the thought, "I wish I had..." Just about everything we make is something we would, and often do, use at home ourselves. Having handmade things, for us, is like having little pieces of art that can be picked up and used all day long, and it can make the simplest parts of each day just a little more interesting. It can be very powerful, too, if you let it; sometimes the coffee cup or cereal bowl you choose in the morning can set the mood for your entire day.
Janelle Wilfong and Nikki Cook,
Zen Funk Art
www.blamejanetics.etsy.com
Janelle Wilfong is a first generation American born and raised in Washington, DC and Rockville, MD by Trinidadian parents. She lives on Folly Beach as a stay- at- home mom / wife of three and an artist creating unique and funky mixed media art and jewelry for her business Janetics Ink. Genetically disposed to fathomless creativity and the love of colorful jewelry, she created up- cycled bracelets using glass cabochons made in her beach cottage; and old leather/ faux leather jackets, skirts, purses and luggage she acquires from friends and thrift stores.
Nikki Cook is a Charleston native. She left Charleston to study in New York and travel the world. Her hand crafted sterling silver, one of a kind pieces are reflection of her travels to cities near and far. She is a seasoned jeweler that has sold up and down the east coast especially in the open markets and boutiques of Manhattan. She finds her center by making beautiful silversmithes jewels and spending time with her son on Folly Beach.
Nikki's the Zen and Janelle's the Funk. They bring their unique visions and merge them to create Zen Funk. Sometimes your chi just needs a little pow!
Pedro Rodriquez
Born and raised in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico Pedro has participated in many exhibitions in South Carolina, including the Statements of Heritage Exhibition in 1991 and the Triennial Exhibition in 1992, both at the South Carolina State Museum. Pedro participated in the Artists Who Teach Exhibition at the Gibbes Museum in 1992, Piccolo Spoleto Juried Exhibition, Coastal Carolina Fair, and the North Charleston Arts Festival. In the early nineties he had solo exhibitions at the Colony House, Cooper River Federal, City Gallery at Dock Street Theatre, and the Gaillard Auditorium. Pedro received various grants and awards for his artwork, including two grants from the Community Foundation. Pedro continued to paint in the midst of teaching and raising three children but took a hiatus from exhibiting for many years. He has recently renewed efforts to exhibit including, Church Street Gallery in 2004, 10 Storehouse Row Opening, North Charleston Arts Festival (2nd Place in 2006, Purchase Award in 2007), and the MOJA Juried Exhibition (Honorable Mention, 2007). Recent exhibitions in 2008 included a solo show at The Saul Alexander Gallery at the Charleston County Main Library and currently works on display at The Meeting Place Art & Craft Gallery in North Charleston. Many of his recent paintings have leapt from the traditional canvas and landed on guitars, bridging his love of painting with music. He has also been making ceramic drums that he stretches with goatskins.
Cookie Washington Fiber artist
www.artscuttlebutt.com/cookiesews
Torreah "Cookie" Washington is a textile designer specializing in elegant wedding gowns, unique, soft accessories, fiber art murals and Goddess blessing dolls. Cookie has been creating beautiful, one-of-a-kind textile art for over twenty-five years. She has also designed costumes for theater and film. Cookie is a mostly self-taught quilt artist. I like to create works that blur the lines between quilts, wall hangings, wearable art, soft sculpture, and installation. She is the creator of the Kissbag (1999), a pyramid shaped evening bag that has been described as "the shape of things to come, a bag for a new millennium. "My specialty bags, sold by Nieman Marcus, are now being carried by such Hollywood luminaries as Camryn Manheim, Cher, Star Jones of ABC's The View, and Dame Judi Dench.” Cookie was to chosen as one of only 44 quilters from around the country commissioned to create a quilt to celebrate the inauguration of President Barack Obama in January of 2009.
Jery Taylor, Folk Artist
No biography available
Betsey Wall Carter
Betsey Carter is a utilitarian potter in Charleston, South Carolina, and is a partner in Cone 10 Studios. Betsey works primarily in porcelain, fired to cone 10 in reduction, creating functional but decorative pieces. In her work she explores and exploits the strength, fluidity, and whiteness of the porcelain, striving for clean lines and simplicity of form. Her work expresses a contemporary ethos in a traditional art form, while heeding the philosophy of William Morris, of the British Arts and Crafts movement, that the objects surrounding us should be useful and beautiful. When she is not making pots, Betsey is Associate Professor of Library Science and Head of Reference and Instruction at The Citadel in Charleston.
Robin Cruz, Metalsmith
So, about my work. It tends to be jewelry and small sculpture, sometimes hollowware. Usually the pieces are fabricated and hand wrought. I love metal because it is so plastic. I like texture, patinas and surfaces rich in detail. I feel shiny surfaces have their place and usually that place is to contrast with and accentuate the other surfaces. Recent influence on my work has been some of the ritual objects we use to get us through everyday life, specifically the little wadded up pieces of paper we carry in our pockets. Think business cards, money, recipes, various lists, things written on the back of those gas receipts that were important but have become indecipherable due to the wear and tear of life. Our memory is not just in our head. For better or worse, these various items figure greatly in our interactions with other people. Much of the past year's work has to do with these frayed and folded bits, these torn chronicles of things we were to remember, questions we meant to ask, or are in some other fashion prophetic or profane.
Hank Herring
Working with driftwood or found wood, artist Hank D. Herring illustrates the natural patterns (eyes, faces, animals) that can be seen without the manipulation of tools or paint. His construction and assemblages are made with "found objects" or "rescued materials" as he calls them. "Using rescued materials in my work reminds me the future can be built by using the past, whether its advice, thoughts or objects." Working with "rescued materials," Hank illustrates that beauty can be found in anything. "It requires the desire, the right attitude, and a healthy imagination. Art should stir your soul and ignite your imagination." Hank D. Herring is a retired Marine living in Beaufort, SC and is a studio resident artist at ARTworks, Home of the Arts Council of Beaufort County. Hank is also a teaching artist with the Beaufort County School District.
Susan R. Olfus, Fiber artist wearable art, Home décor
Susan was inspired by her grandmother and by her mother to make learn the textile arts. Susan loved to sew anything that she saw as a challenge. At the age of 16 years old, she reupholstered her first armed chair just by taking it apart with no written instructions. Susan’s custom made afro-centric items and wearable art are sought after by well know boutiques such as MIYA gallery and The African eye, Artist Consortium gallery and Artspin gallery all in the Washington DC metro area. She has been creating for over 35 years.
Kim Lucia, Photographer
http://kdluphoto.com/
My photography ranges from the beautiful places my extensive travels take me to capturing the love between two people during their wedding to the hardship of life seen on the face of the man sleeping on a corner street in downtown Charleston. So come stroll with me and view the world through my eyes.
Tammy Rudd
Tammy Rudd is a Goddess of fire, and from that fire she produces stunning lampwork glass beads, then crafts them into exquisite pieces of wearable art.
Though the art of lampworking glass has been practiced since the 14th century, Tammy's work has a most contemporary feel to it while her skills as a craftswoman are truly "old world."
In in the near decade that Tammy Rudd has been perfecting her craft, she has risen to the level glass sculptress extraordinaire. Her beads are vibrating with life and light. Her work is inspired by landscapes, especially deserts and oceans.
"I carry the colors of those landscapes into my bead designs," she says.
Those colors are delicious, exciting and so very wearable, and when mixed with fresh water pearls and beads.
Charleston Spice
Charleston’s only source for organic hand blended herbs and spices. The spice blends we produce are in small batches to ensure quality and freshness. The spices and blends are packaged in small quantities. We developed our own blend recipes. We produce a few blends, such as Herbes de Provence, based on a classic recipe. We do not add fillers or extreme amounts of salt or sugar to our blends. No preservative added, no MSG is added. Charleston Spice Company is locally owned and operated by Jeremy DiAsio and Garnette Tuten.
Winifred Sanders was born in Harlem, New York. She is the daughter of a quilter and the granddaughter or a quilter. She began making art quilts in the early 1980's.She is a member of Quilters of Color of New York. She has exhibited her work in New York, New Jersey, Brockton Mass, and Ohio. She not only makes art quilts but also makes bags, dolls and wearable art.
Ashley Harwood Turning Native Using salvaged wood, primarily from local trees and native species, Ashley Harwood creates turned wood art. She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004 with a major in Sculpture and Installation art. Her father, Marcus Harwood, first taught her how to turn wood in 2006. She moved to Charleston in 2007 and started her business, Turning Native LLC, in April of 2009. She is a regular feature at the Charleston Farmers Market in Marion Square on Saturday mornings. Over this past year, she has developed a body of work that includes functional and decorative pieces, reestablishing the relationship between the immediate natural world and daily life that has been lost to so many of us in modern times. Through her work, she seeks to recover that blend of natural and cultural memory.
C & R designs Jewelry
Cris and Ruthie Sumpter - jewelry designers of Johns Island. After working in clay for years, they've turned their creativity to metal and stone jewelry. Their sense of joy is in the jewelry they create. Necklaces, pendants and earrings are in sterling silver, brass and copper. Using the flexible shaft to help form pieces that are forged, fused, soldered or riveted and a torch to alter the malleability of a piece of metal. The metal is slowly formed into finished piece to be fitted with a stone or an added metal surface. One of a kind chains are made of circles, triangles and fence post style links. Cris and Ruthie create miniature works of art.
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