Tag Archives: Spartanburg

Spartanburg Artist to Exhibit at West Main Artists Co-op

Well known local ceramic artist Kathleen Moore will exhibit an extensive body of work at West Main Artists Co-op March 6-31, giving the public an intimate look at how art is a storytelling medium. The free and public reception will be Thursday, March 15, 5-9 p.m. during Spartanburg’s monthly ArtWalk. The exhibit will be open and free for public viewing Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

“Kathleen Moore: The Storyteller” will have more than 100 works of art in clay and combined with a variety of mixed media and found artifacts. It will be in the cooperative’s large Venue gallery that was once a church sanctuary. “You will come across great stories every day if you only listen,” the Michigan native said recently. “Someone asked me if I had any good stories that I wanted to share. I have brought several together for you to enjoy. Some will make you cry; others will make you laugh so hard you’ll wet your panties! I hope you enjoy them both. You can expect to be surprised. Some of the works actually require viewer participation. I hope you will smile when they walk away. I hope you will say, ‘Hummm, I have a story, how can I tell it in an interesting manner?’ Some of the stories have been rolling around in my head for several years waiting for some bizarre spark to inspire me to illustrate it. Some pieces sprang to life almost instantly when I came across an interesting object to hold the story.”

Moore’s insightful storytelling through art was mystically foretold when she was 12 years old: She and her family were visiting Northern Michigan, when an elderly woman, most likely an elder from the Huron Indian Tribe — “a stranger with deep penetrating eyes” — gently cupped the child’s face in her wrinkled hands, smiled, and said, “You are not at storyteller yet — but you will be!”

Many of the works will be for sale, starting with functional mugs, bowls, and vases for $30. Other larger sculptural pieces will price as high as $3,000. Most of the work on display will be recently made, however, some of it will from her student days, giving the public the opportunity to see her creative development over time. Some of the more quirky and thought-provoking pieces will include metallic heads with elaborate hair mounted on toy safes with combination locks; primitive and sexualized corked vases; ceramic figures incorporated into machine parts; animal figures; bulbous torsos; and egg-like figures with minimal faces.

Moore’s work often uses a bit of whimsy to tell a story. She has recently completed a week-long teaching assignment at Pine Street Elementary School in Spartanburg where she taught the traditions and methods that allowed more than 120 students to each create their own unique and very ugly face jugs. Kathleen has taught this program for the past three years and said she is still astounded by the imagination of the students. She is fascinated with the way all stories are connected and likes to explore what is hidden within the obvious.

She also enjoys making functional wheel-thrown pieces, as well as hand-built forms, that explore fertility — not just physical reproductive fertility but fertility of the mind. This interest in fertility keeps taking Moore back to the classroom. She loves teaching and calls it her “first love.”  She finds great satisfaction in pushing students of all ages to develop their own style and in urging them to think constructively about themselves and the art they make.

Moore is “approved” by the South Carolina Arts Commission as one of the state’s “Artist in Residence,” which allows her to travel to schools and introduce students to the joy of working in a 3-dimensional format. She has one strict class rule: “If it’s not fun, we are not doing it!” In addition to visiting and teaching at schools throughout South Carolina, Moore has served in many other teaching positions, including being the Art School Director for Spartanburg Art Museum; Director of Educational Program at the Artists Junction in Sarasota, FL; a ceramics instructor at the Sarasota County Adult & Community Educational Program; a graduate instructor in 3-D design; and a teaching assistant in sculpture at the University of Mississippi in Oxford.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts (graphic design) from the University of West Georgia and a master’s degree in fine arts (ceramics/sculpture) from the University of Mississippi.

Known for her sense of humor and quick wit to illustrate a point, Moore declined to directly reveal her age. However, she said: “While doing a pottery wheel demo at an elementary school recently, I mentioned that I first learned on a kick-wheel that had a big stone at the bottom that I had to kick to get the thing to spin. One young man asked, ‘Like Fred Flintstone?’ I am not quite that old! (Also,) I was doing a demo once wearing my University of Mississippi–Established in 1848 T-shirt. A young man looked carefully at the shirt and then asked if that was when I went there. I’m not that old either.”

Starting in 1988, Moore began being recognized for her talents when she received an Art Department Scholarship at the University of West Georgia. In addition to other academic awards, she began receiving professional awards and recognitions in 1990s, including the much-noticed “One Woman Show: Legalized Pot.” At the turn of the century, she began a personal and professional relationship with Empty Bowls, an international pottery program that raising money to feed the needy in local communities. She has been recognized for her Empty Bowls contributions in Florida and in Upstate South Carolina. In most recent years, her work has been seen and applauded in the Upstate and Western North Carolina at various invitationals, benefits, and juried art shows.

Though not a member of West Main Artists Co-op, Moore holds the non-profit and all-volunteer arts agency in high regard. “I have always enjoyed the shows at West Main,” she said. “I think one of my favorite parts is the artists themselves. They have always been open and willing to answer questions. They don’t mind sharing and many give great hugs! The West Main Co-op is an outstanding venue. It gives artists space to work and display their artwork. Everyone I have talked with or listened to has always offered encouragement and constructive criticismto me and other artists. What a great place to get together with creative thinkers; look at innovative, exceptionally well crafted and designed works of art that can be purchased at reasonable prices all while being fed snacks and tasty beverages.”

Self described as “bespectacled, gray-haired, and salty,” Moore summarized her life and life’s work as…

“I was born in the Mitten State – that’s why I talk funny. My mother claims she couldn’t keep me out of the mud there. I left as soon as I graduated high school. Moved to Florida, and married a handsome sailor. Moved to Georgia. Had three sons. Moved back to Florida. Pick up another son: a perfectly good kid whose parents threw out without even bothering to open the door. Moved to Mississippi, where I learned to love the Blues. But Mississippi is too far away from my family. So when half of them settled in South Carolina and started having children of their own, we packed everything up and moved to South Carolina. We have settled on the east side of Spartanburg. I have a great time introducing the grandbabies to South Carolina peaches and North Carolina zip lines! I still have that same handsome sailor too.”

For more information about “Kathleen Moore: The Storyteller,” please visit online: WestMainArtists.org.

Performance & Motion

Spartanburg Photographer to Exhibit at West Main Co-op

During March and April, photography artist Thomas Koenig will exhibit at West Main Artists Co-op in Spartanburg multi-exposure and motion-blur photographs of performing musicians and actors. “Performance & Motion” will open with a public reception on Thursday, March 15, as part of the city’s monthly ArtWalk. The exhibit will be open for free public viewing Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The exhibit’s last viewing date is Saturday, April 14.

The exhibit will explore multi-exposure and motion-blur photography taken during live performances. Multiple-exposure photography is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image. Motion-blur photography is the apparent streaking of rapidly moving objects in a still image and results in the image showing changes during the recording of a single exposure, either due to rapid movement or long exposure.

Koenig has been a photographer and journalist in the Spartanburg art and music scene for nearly 20 years. Some of the pictures he chose for this show are not only representations of multi-exposure and motion-blur photography, they are also a view into Spartanburg’s performances scene of the past 20 years and the changes in imaging technology.

Koenig is the creative lead at AGE K Media LLC, a Spartanburg-based communications agency that specializes in corporate design and identity, brand building, corporate literature, marketing communications, media planning, web design, trade show design and planning, and public relations. “I have been a graphics communications professional and communication designer for all of my adult life and have worked for more than 25 years on two different continents and in two different languages. I have worked in all aspects of graphics communication, photography, design and creative concept. In addition to my professional work, I have chosen photography as my artistic outlet with several exhibits in South Carolina. Art, photography, and graphics communication for me are not only a profession, they are personal, from changes in technique and technology to changes in communication itself.”

Koenig was born in North Carolina, as the second son to Sibylla and Peter Koenig, but has spent the bigger part of his life with his family in Germany. He holds a degree in prepress production from a traditional German apprenticeship program and a diploma from the University of Applied Science Wiesbaden, Germany in communication design and photography. In addition, Koenig has done research in semiotics and practical semiotic applications at the University of South Carolina Graduate School as part of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He has lived in Spartanburg since 1997.

In 2009, Koenig had a solo art show at Spartanburg Art Museum and has since been in several group shows in the US and Germany. “I would be a very happy camper If I could spent my entire professional live behind the camera. But there is still another passion, graphic design and anything that relates to the media. Semiotics are cool,” he said. “I became a member of the West Main Artist Co-op to explore creative collaborations and to go back to my craftsmen roots in print.”

As an all-volunteer and nonprofit arts agency, West Main Artists Co-op is located at 567 W. Main Street Spartanburg, SC. For more information about the Co-op or “Performance & Motion,” please visit online WestMainArtists.com.

For the first time in more than 10 years, the South Carolina WaterMedia Society’s annual Traveling Exhibit will come to Spartanburg, SC, in September 2017 and will be on public display at West Main Artists Co-Op.

Between Concerts

“Actually, West Main Artists Co-Op is the only gallery in Upstate South Carolina where this most-noted statewide exhibit will be displayed,” Spartanburg watercolorist Dwight Rose said. Rose, a member of the Society, was instrumental in getting Spartanburg on the tour list. “The last time the exhibit came to Spartanburg was when the old Spartanburg Art Center was on Spring Street.”

Dark Beauty

This is the WaterMedia Society’s 39th year of sponsoring this annual exhibit that juries work from watercolor artists from throughout the state and beyond. This year there were 183 entries, from which 30 winners were selected by Canadian artist Marc Taro Holmes. Five of the winners are from the Upstate and Western North Carolina. They are Diana Carnes of Pendleton (Tsunami), Patricia Cole-Ferullo of Tryon (Dark Beauty), Monique Wolfe of Greenville (Between Concerts), Lori Solymosi of Pendleton (Looking Back), and Ann Heard of Anderson (Blue House). More than $8,000 in prize money was awarded in the 2016 competition. The Best of Show winner was titled The Hands of a Fisherman by Lynda English of Florence. This is the 2016 exhibit that tours the state from the fall of 2016 to the fall 2017.

Blue House

The exhibit will open on Sept. 6 and close on Sept. 30. A private pre-opening event for donors will be held Sept. 5, and the free public reception will be held Saturday, Sept. 9, 5-8 p.m. The exhibit can viewed Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. There is no charge to see the exhibit.

Looking Back

“We are so honored to host the WaterMedia Exhibit this year,” WMAC President Beth Regula said. “We are especially excited that this is an opportunity for people from outside of Spartanburg to visit our gallery and community. The work this year is absolutely wonderful in its diversity of styles and content. Just within the five Upstate winners, you have equestrian subject matter, a nude, an abstract, a nonrepresentational, and impressionism. Those are just the ones from this region: There are 25 more works of art to be seen in this collection. If you have any appreciation at all for art, you must see this exhibit while you can.”

Tsunami

The 2016 exhibit was juried by Holmes of Montreal. He is author of The Urban Sketcher: Techniques for Seeing and Drawing on Location (2014) and the instructor for two online classes in location sketching. Since 2009, he has been a correspondent with urbansketchers.org. Additionally, he served as a board member and volunteer editor. Holmes was elected to the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolor in 2016, recently winning their Sloan Award (2016) and CSPWC Second Prize Award (2017). He graduated in 1995 with a bachelor’s in fine art from the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, Alberta. During his 15-year career, he has been as an art director and concept artist for various studios, including Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and Disney. He has worked on games such as Dragon Age Inquisition, Neverwinter Nights, and Baldur’s Gate, specializing in characters/costumes and fantasy-historical environmental design. His second art book Designing Creatures and Characters: How to Build an Artist’s Portfolio for Video Games, Film, Animation and More was released in October of 2016.

“There is a tremendous amount of raw talent, invested effort, and earned experience laid out in front of me,” Holmes said about the South Carolina artists. “It’s inspiring to see the range of ideas on display. Every artist has their own media and techniques, and the subjects they find worthy of immortalizing. With each one I get a new jolt of excitement. Having to look seriously at all the work, to try and understand the artist’s intent, and to deduce the steps in the creation, it’s been like a visit to a world class museum.”

Since 1977, the South Carolina Watermedia Society has promoted the artistic and professional interests of its members as well as providing visual arts programs to the public. The Society works towards achieving its goals by making the accomplishments of its members available to a broad base of South Carolinians. SCWS, the largest statewide visual arts group, is an active presenting organization. It nurtures and promotes South Carolina artists by providing exhibition opportunities, special programs to market their original works, and educational programs.

WMAC is the only studio art co-op in Spartanburg County and art is produced and on display throughout the 20,000 square foot building, which is a former church. The exhibitions, workshops, performances, and educational opportunities, along with artists’ studios, subsist in the creation of a unique environment, a one-of-a-kind facility that houses like-minded individuals who share a common creative consciousness. The nonprofit organization has 32 studios and more than 50 member artists.

Other South Carolina cities and counties that are hosting this exhibit include Marion County, Sumter, Hartsville, North Charleston, Lancaster, and Aiken. The travel arrangements are being managed by the SC State Museum.

There is no cost to see this exhibit, and it is open Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. WMAC is located at 578 West Main Street, Spartanburg, SC. For more information, please call (864) 804-6501.

Spartanburg’s West Main Artists Co-Op (WMAC) will open three new exhibits in May: “Residuals” by founding member Addam Duncan, “Explorations In Wax” by Terry Jarrard-Dimond, and “Calming Rhythm: Washing the Soul Clean,” by Converse College students Christine Swetenburg and Nancy Vaughn. All of these exhibits will be open for free public viewing on Thursday, May 18, during ArtWalk, the city’s monthly self-perpetuating and self-guiding tour of local art galleries. The free opening reception will be 5-9 p.m.

WMAC, 578 West Main Street, is a converted 20,000-square-foot church now being used by more than 50 member artists to produce and showcase their work. The 32 studios accommodate various media, including printing, ceramics, pottery, textiles, jewelry making, quilting, sculpture, photography, and many others. In addition to the studio space, there are several art galleries and the opportunity to purchase locally made art.

Duncan, 36, is a native of Inman, SC. His artistic abilities travel many avenues, including painting, printmaking, sculpting, and writing both prose and music.  “Residuals” will be an exhibit of his use of leftover or discarded ink and paint to make abstract monotypes, printed directly from the pages of telephone books. “I’m using the ink and the paint that I would normally throw away to make abstract monotype prints on nice printmaking paper,” he said. “They are printed directly from telephone book pages, as the phone book is kind of an obsolete item in this day and age. The concept is ‘Why dispose of something that has the potential to be something beautiful?’” With no formal art training or education, Duncan has exhibited in New York, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Charlotte, Asheville, Columbia, Pickens, Greenville, and Spartanburg. Since 2012, Duncan has owned Honor & Glory Tattoo in Inman. The unframed prints in this exhibit will be reasonably priced for sale. This exhibit will end June 10.

Jarrard-Dimond’s “Explorations In Wax” exhibit is a collection of nonrepresentational canvas images created with encaustic paint, which is a combination of beeswax, pigment, and tree sap. This is a rich medium that has been used for many centuries to create images known for their sense of depth. The works in this exhibit were created during the past three years and are noted for their striking colors and bold, organic, and contemporary images. In her artist’s statement, the Seneca artist said: “My work is the physical manifestation of my dreams, fantasies, and imagination. I experience the act of making as an altered state where I make unique visual relationships between marks, smudges, stains, and shapes. I look for moments of chance where these same elements unite to reveal figures, structures, landscapes, and mindscapes.”

Jarrard-Dimond earned a bachelor’s degree from Winthrop University and a master’s degree in fine art from Clemson University. She worked for more than 15 years as a sculptor and taught at several colleges and universities. Her work is represented in collections such as Coca-Cola International in Atlanta, The Federal Reserve Bank in Charlotte, and The State Museum of South Carolina, in Columbia. Her work has been featured in many solo shows, including Furman University, Columbia College, The Fine Arts Center in Greenville, and Upstairs Artspace in Tryon, NC. This exhibit will open Tuesday, May 16, and end Saturday, June 10. More info about Jarrard-Dimond is found online at TerryJarrardDimond.com.

“Calming Rhythm: Washing the Soul Clean” will be the joint graduate exhibition featuring the work of Swetenburg and Vaughn. This exhibition will showcase artwork created during their education at Converse College and will consist of acrylic paintings, handmade books, soapstone carvings, and clay work. The name, “Calming Rhythm: Washing the Soul Clean,” blends together the two artists’ themes for their creativity. Swetenburg works with a range of materials, including clay and handmade books. This body of work shows her exploration with water and its spiritual and cleansing effect that it has in her life. Much of her work is abstracted from the rain she saw hitting windows as an undergraduate student. Swetenburg is an art teacher in Greenville County, where she teaches 4K-5th grade students. She is also a candidate for a master’s degree in art education from Converse College.

Vaughn is a mixed media artist who incorporates dimensional aspects in her works, which include sculpture and the use of trapunto techniques in her paintings. She has always been influenced by words and music that often evoke vivid pictures in her mind, she said. Vaughn used these images as inspiration to create the work in this exhibit. She teaches art in Spartanburg County and is a candidate for a master’s degree in art education from Converse College.

For more information about these new exhibits at West Main Artists Co-Op in May, please call (864) 804-6501 or visit WMAC’s website at WestMainArtists.org or on Facebook.