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.