ARTnews Artists, information & projects of the Arts Council of Beaufort County
July - october 2009
The Going Away
fiction by Vernie Singleton
All Art is Local by Kim Bogan The Arts Council
The Arts Council
of Beaufort County
The Healing Marsh an essay by Kami Kinard Where Are You? The Simple Answer from 16 Far-Flung Artists UNCIL
The Arts Council
The Warning a short story by Alex Moody
of Beaufort County
of Beaufort County
My Corner of the World
ARTnews Artists, information & projects of the Arts Council of Beaufort County
July 2009
2 • beaufortcountyarts.com
s
the Arts Council
On the Cover
Super Cat by Benton Lutz, represented by the Charles Street Gallery in Beaufort, 843-521-9054.
of Beaufort County
2009-2010 Board of Directors, Executive Committee: President: Deanna Bowdish Vice President: Claudette Humphrey Treasurer: Jack Russell Secretary: Kathleen Jordan J.W. Rone Executive Director Jenny Rone Development Director C.J. Norwood Robert Spencer Office Assistants Lisa Annelouise Rentz Public Relations Coordinator Lisa Annelouise Rentz, Editor Lydia Inglett, Art Director Mailing address: PO Box 482, Beaufort SC 29901 Street address: 2127 Boundary Street, Suite 18A Beaufort SC 29902 843-379-2787 info@beaufortcountyarts.com ARTnews submissions: pr@beaufortcountyarts.com
The Arts Council
THE ARTS COUNCIL
From here in my corner of the world I have been thinking about the far-flung artists who live right here in Beaufort CounJ. W Rone, executive director and Jenny Ro ty, or have lived here, and how they ne, dev director. (Photo by ne w resident artist Dian elopment impact the community, the region, a Hoppe.) the nation, and the world. There are so many who come to mind, I won’t be able to list them all, but here are a few. I would be remiss if I did not start with Jonathan Green, famous artist and entrepreneur who has created a whole new artistic school of thought, a new way of sharing the images of the Lowcountry with the world. From way out Yemassee way there’s James Denmark who has shown his work in major New York galleries and is now in galleries across the country and around the world. Right now James is working on a large scale mural project that will open in New York soon. The permanence of art creates a lasting memory. The Arts Council of Beaufort County Mermaid project commissioned a far-flung artist from just over the county line in Jasper County to create the life-sized mermaid forms which were displayed all over the county— there are a few still on display, can you find them? That artist is Kevin Palmer who is still creating amazing sculptures in his corner of the world. The dance educator Caroline Hoadley lives on a boat in Hilton Head when she is not working statewide in schools and communities teaching dance and explaining the importance of the Shag (South Carolina's state dance.) Her new teacher’s guide to Shag was published with support from an ACBC Community Arts Grants, and with assistance by local writer and editor of ArtNews, Lisa Rentz. Fiber Artist Cindy Male from Hilton Head, who also has a studio in the Virgin Islands, is seeking individuals that might want to be an apprentice to her special kind of fabric painting and dying; if you are interested give us a call, you could be a far-flung Beaufort artist as well. Perhaps the artist isn’t far-flung but their art may be hanging in the halls of power— or perhaps power hitters. That is just the case with new and emerging artist Amiri Farris who has just shipped two large scale paintings for the front office of the Mets baseball team. The paintings depict players from the old Negro League era. The tradition continues, right now Beaufort has three high school students attending the prestigious South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts & Humanities in Greenville, preparing to take their art to new corners of the artistic stratosphere. Young artists in theater and dance have moved on from Beaufort and Hilton Head High Schools, leaving their friends and their beloved Lowcountry behind, in order to commit to the demands and competition that await them in real-world arts situations as professional artists. The art and the artists of Beaufort County impact more than just their immediate audience right here at home. The ripple effect of their paintings, songs, books, poems, and multimedia art extends far beyond imaginary county borders to speak to the world. Valuing the arts is our day-to-day life here at ACBC at ARTWorks, and we would like to remind you to celebrate art all the time, wherever your corner of the world may be.
July, August, September, October 2009 A publication of the Arts Council of Beaufort County www.beaufortcountyarts.com
of Beaufort County
Activities of the Arts Council of Beaufort County are made possible in part through funding from Heritage Classic Foundation; Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; Publix Supermarket Charities; the Alexander & Jacqueline G. Moore Memorial Fund to P. Earls of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation; Coastal Community Foundation of SC; the Beaufort Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation; City of Beaufort; Accommodations Taxes from Beaufort County and the City of Beaufort; South Carolina Arts Commission through the National Endowments for the Arts, and annual operating fund contributions from businesses and individuals.
h t e A g r t s n i i n t v o Every a e W
e f i L Day
at work • gallery • bla s t s i ck b t ox t t ar n Tworks AFTE hea R e A • d i ter • R s s c hoo Coasta t Supply re l•v l Ar ountyarts.com c t r o f isito ! u a e b r res ourc es
workshops
Hands-on classes in jewelry-making, batik, fabric arts, watercolors, tai chi, ceramics, belly dancing, polymer clay, and more.
master classes
Pastel Techniques with Emphasis on Color & Light with Linda Sheppard August 19-21 Ceramics with Trevor Foster October 12, 13, 14; November 2, 3, 4 Basketry Beyond Tradition with Kim Keats November 2, 3, 4 Portrait and Figure Drawing & Painting: A Painterly Approach with Linda Sheppard October 21-23 Lampwork beads with Curtis Cecil November 9, 10, 11
ARTblast@ARTworks
5 Themed Summer Camp Weeks for Youth; Beginning July 6
ARTworks home of Arts Council of Beaufort County
Community Art Center Theater & Gallery
ARTworks is 12,000 square feet of dedication to making Beaufort County an arts destination 365 days a year. 2127 Boundary Street 29902 in Beaufort Town Center
843-379-2787
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The Warning a short story by Alex Moody
“Okay,” I said, because this is how it went with Sunday drives and Albert, all games and imaginings. “Or we might walk up to that light, reach out and touch it, and it’ll let us see the future. We might learn everything we were supposed to know in a lifetime, right in that instant.”
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People ask me why I go out there every Saturday morning. They ask me why I put the sign up, why I bother, what’s the matter with me. I used to say it was a favor to the farmer. Or I’d say that it was a joke, a joke they didn’t get and that I wouldn’t explain. But you look like you’ll listen, like you might understand. Maybe you’ll get the version that is true. Where is it? Well, you’ll just have to go out there and look. Get on Lands End Road, then drive past the Penn Center school toward Fort Fremont. It’s like you’re going back in time, brash highway billboards and big box stores replaced by land like it used to be: shy, inviting, with sunlight filtered by aged trees and hardly anything man-made in sight. Take it slow. There’s no rush. Look out on the right and you’ll see my sign. You might see me, if you’re early enough and I feel like talking more. This is how it started: I was driving along that road with my boyfriend, Albert. He was my high school sweetheart. We were going to be married. On Sundays I would take my daddy’s Bonneville out for a drive and that always meant finding Albert and taking him, too. We’d drive under those welcoming arches of oaks, soak in that golden-soft afternoon sun, and we’d talk about what might be. What could possibly happen. It was during a time when we both sensed that we’d probably never see the world like people do in the movies, we’d be living here for good, and that was not something to be ashamed of, it was what we could rightfully expect. Albert told me about the Lands End Light, and how if you found a particular
place on Lands End Road at the right time of day you could see something strange that nobody could explain: a light coming at you, floating, mysterious, attached to God knows what object or being. “We have got to find that spot,” Albert said. “Be careful what you wish for,” I said. “It might not be a good light. It could whisk us away or wipe out our memories.” “I can’t imagine it’d do any harm like that,” he said, “or else we’d have never heard of it. If people disappeared, who’d tell us about the light? I bet it is some sort of alien thing, though, but in a good way. I bet we’ll find that light and discover something nobody’s ever discovered before.” “Okay,” I said, because this is how it went with Sunday drives and Albert, all games and imaginings. “Or we might walk up to that light, reach out and touch it, and it’ll let us see the future. We might learn everything we were supposed to know in a lifetime, right in that instant.” “Let’s hope so, Jackie,” Albert said. Shortly after that conversation, we saw the sign. It was a beat-up piece of cardboard tied to a metal gate, a grinning skull and crossbones drawn on there with “DO NOT ENTER. POISON TOMATO” in block letters at the top. The gate was open. It led to a field full of the thickest, darkest green tomato plants I’d ever seen. I pulled the creaky Bonneville next to the gate so Albert could study the sign up close. “It looks like a tomato head with hot dog arms,” he said. “That is the funniest thing I’ve seen, Jackie.” He jumped out of the car and
Image by Tanya Malik, a photographer and graphic designer living in Bluffton. stood next to the sign, trying to smile like the tomato-skull under the warning. Then he said, “I’m going to eat one of those tomatoes.” “You better not,” I said. “First, those aren’t your tomatoes. Second, you can plainly see they are marked poisonous. Don’t be an idiot, Albert. Come on. I need to get the car back.” But Albert was already off into the field. “What the sign clearly says,” he shouted, “is that there is a poison tomato. Not tomatoes. So I’m pretty certain I’ll get an okay one. Plus, it can’t be poison on the
inside, right? I can wash it off at that pump over there and I’ll be fine.” He plucked a fist-sized tomato from a vine. The tomato was a dangerous deep red. “That’s so red it’s throbbing,” I said. “It looks like a living, beating, human heart. Don’t eat that thing!” Albert washed off that tomato and took a bite out of it, smiling at me as pink juice dripped down his chin. “It tastes like earth,” he said, like he always did. He once said that macaroni and cheese tasted like kisses. “It tastes like pure late summer. It tastes...like...a tomato.”
“We better get out of here,” I said. “Maybe that sign means there’s a half-tomato, half-human monster out there. Look at that picture. That’s your poison tomato. The one that’s going to run out and strangle you.” “Or maybe,” Albert said, wiping at juice on his shirt, “the farmer just wants to keep people out of here. There’s no poison. It’s a lie. Keep the thieves away.” He walked back to the car. “Let’s get going.” By the time I let Albert out at his house that night, the games and imaginings were over. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll be dropping off a load of pine straw like your daddy asked, so I’ll see you when I do that.” His words sounded oddly formal. Any other day he would have suggested slipping off for a walk, and that suggestion would have made blood buzz in my ears until I saw him again. “See you tomorrow,” I said. The next day, Albert pitched pine straw from his pickup truck on to a spot next to our driveway. “There’s your pine straw,” was all he said. And the next day, and the day after that, Albert looked at me less and less like his one and only, and more and more like just another person in the world, a practical world, one lacking adventures and Lands End lights. We no longer spoke the same language. I can’t say when I got used to that, or when I stopped trying. But eventually I found that road again and I saw that gate and I saw the ripped-up sign and knew I’d have to fix it. Maybe that wouldn’t put Albert back like he was, but it’d restore the warning. The warning someone meant to be seen, and that was ignored. When I walk out there, after I’ve checked the sign, I place my feet so lightly on the ground that it feels like I’m gliding under the oaks, listening to the whisper of the Spanish moss as it brushes me along, gentle and solemn, while I strain to see that Lands End Light. I’ll see the truth, I know. When I see it I’ll see the truth. Alex Moody is a writer living in Bluffton, SC. He is currently working on a collection of short stories, and he procrastinates by blogging at http://moodytunes.com beaufortcountyarts.com • 5
&
Cool Projects Laudable Achievements
Beaufort artist Nicole Blower’s jewelry was featured in the Italian edition of Vogue magazine. • The Sea Island Quilters’ 2009 Southern Comforts show first place awards went to Andrea West, Brenda McLeod, Helen Dill, Sheila Wright, Barbara Everett, Peg Allen, Joanne Moss, Ann Godwin, Catherine Kelleher. • The Gallery on Bay Street in Beaufort celebrated its 5th anniversary. • The Charles Street Gallery in Beaufort celebrated its 10th anniversary. • USC-Beaufort, North & South, will offer a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in studio arts, Spring 2010. • AmericanStyle magazine's annual Top 25 Art Destinations review moved Beaufort up from 14 to #12, ahead of Aspen and Chapel Hill. • The Hunting Island Light House turns 150 in October, with a grand celebration on October 17 & 18. • Bill Dula won the first place Cochrane Award for “Pugilist” in the Beaufort Art Association’s Spring Show. • Bluffton Today columnist Barry Kaufman is serializing his novel, The Flyover States, on Facebook. • Kristy Callaway, director for the Arts Schools Network & past president of the SC Alliance for Arts Education, will serve on the Kennedy Center's Alliance for Arts Education Network Leadership Committee, which is a coalition of statewide nonprofits working to ensure the arts are an essential part of pre K-12 education. • The 2009 Hilton Head International Piano Competition winners are Michail Lifits, 26, of
• The Photographer’s Guide to Beaufort is now out, published by the Photography Club of Beaufort and sold at ARTworks. photoclubbeaufort.com. • Love Starts with Elle by Rachel Hauck. A romantic novel inspired in part by glamorous ACBC board president Deanna Bowdish, owner of The Gallery on Bay Street: “Elle loves life in Beaufort, South Carolina— lazy summer days on the sand bar, coastal bonfires...She's found her niche as the owner of a successful art gallery too...” thegallery-beaufort.com & rachelhauck.com • I’m Black & I’m Proud, Wished the White Girl, by Lynn Markovich Bryant. “Our family always had “sets” of children, like series of waves converging on the seashore. The first set was my stepfather’s six children from his first marriage. And for “coloring” purposes, yes they were black. The second set of four, I fell into, my mother’s children from her first marriage. And we
Reading
The Lowcountry
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Germany; Chetan Tierra, 25, of the United States, and Marouan Benabdallah, 26, of Hungary/Morocco. • Hayden Furman of Beaufort was one of 40 finalists, from 28,000 submissions, in the Doodle 4 Google contest. • Joseph Legree Jr. was awarded the 2009 Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award for Cast Net Making. A living legacy in the St. Helena community, Joseph “Cap’n Crip” Legree, Jr. has spent his life preserving the cultural values and traditions of his Gullah ancestors. Born in 1924, he learned the art of cast net making from a fellow St. Helena resident, Mr. Harry Owens, when they worked together on an oyster boat. Legree weaves nets for fishing and shrimping and bases the size of the net on the height of the caster. Admiration for Legree’s skill led local author Pierre McGowan to include him in two books about life on the barrier islands. Kim Keats of Okatie was awarded a 2009-2010 Artist Fellowship by the SC Arts Commission; experience her basketry beyond tradition classes at ARTworks.
A Turtle’s Return by emerging artist Christopher Smalls, part of the Do You See What I See gallery series at ARTworks curated by resident artist Hank D. Herring. (sold) were the white ones. Then came the final set, the four youngest from the union of my mother and stepfather. These were what our family and community always called “mixed” children. Our all-time favorite escape was the beach. Oh how we’d love to head out to the beach at Hunting Island State Park. We’d all pile into the station wagon clad in whatever beat up and beat down handme-down swimwear or made-into swimwear we could muster up. Beg for a dollar or two to put enough gas in the tank from the pump at A.J. Brown’s corner store and get us down the nine or ten miles to the beach...” keepdfaith.com • An Island Named Daufuskie by Billie Burn, mother of Silver Dew potter Lancy Burn. 843.842.6419 • Lowcountry Dreaming Art & Poetry by Amiri Geuka Farris, available at Four Winds Gallery on Bay Street in Beaufort. fourwindstraders.com & amiriart.net • Milspeak Anthology: Warriors, Veterans, Family & Friends Writing the Military Experience, edited by retired Marine and Beaufort resident Sally Drumm, with Lowcountry veteran-contributors and guest writers. Book launch celebration and staged readings in Beaufort July 23, 24, 25. milspeak.org
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B3C & 1,000 Places to See in Beaufort County by Lolita Huckaby
B
eaufort’s landscape is dotted with structures reminiscent of the past— lovely, wide-porch mansions, the stately courthouse on Bay Street, Penn Center on St. Helena Island where freed slaves after the Civil War first learned to read and write. But how often do we notice the few produce packing sheds that still stand, a reminder of the area’s history as a truck crop capital of the South. Iceberg lettuce was once a major crop, tomatoes still are but not to the extent they once were. Some of the packing sheds are still in place and used during the spring harvest season– the Six-L’s facility next to the Lady’s Island Airport, the sheds on U.S. 21 in downtown Frogmore – all updated now with mechanical equipment to make the job of sorting and packing much faster. One St. Helena packing shed has been converted into a Lowcountry gift market.
Places of Note & Notoriety
Some places to see already on the Beaufort 3-Century list include: • Fort Frederick • The site of Robert E. Lee’s defense structures • House where Martin Luther King Jr. stayed while visiting Penn Center • The “light” at Land’s End • A baptism in the Beaufort River • Coffin Point Community Praise House • Emancipation Oak on St. Helena Island • The Filling Station on Lady’s Island • L.T.’s (especially on Wednesday when fried chicken is on the menu)
Bishop family packing shed on St. Helena Isl and Perhaps one of the best examples of what the open-air sheds really looked like is sitting quietly behind what is now the Gullah Grub Restaurant at the intersection of U.S. 21 and Martin Luther King Drive. It’s not really visible from the road but from the parking lot of the restaurant, it’s a real flash from the past. The shed, according to county tax records, was once part of the O.H. Bishop family complex. Where Gullah Grub resides, a grocery store once served the community. Mr. Bishop lived in a two-story structure behind the grocery and the packing shed was used by the family until around 1990. The property is now owned by the nonprofit S.C. Coastal Community Development Corp. which operates a community kitchen and meeting center in a newer metal structure located next to the packing shed. The Bishop family shed is on the grow-
ing list of “1,000 Places to See in Beaufort County,” sponsored by the Beaufort Three-Century Project. The project, begun last year by a group of citizens interested in the local history, is a three-year process to bring recognition to the city’s 300th anniversary, culminating January 17, 2011. Various individuals have taken on the responsibility of writing neighborhood histories, documenting the area’s sailing, agricultural and economic history. One group is collecting “memory cards,” 4X5 cards with an individual’s favorite recollection of the city attached to a photograph of that individual. The project now has a home on Charles Street so come on by and share your thoughts. We have an audio booth so we can do some taping. Or give us a call at 843-4891711 and we’ll talk. beaufortcountyarts.com • 7
where are you?
The simple answer from 16 far-flung artists
compiled & edited by Lisa Annelouise Rentz
1.
It’s Right Here by Cindy Chiappetta
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It’s not down on any map. True places never are. - Herman Melville. “This current body of work sprung from a small book of maps – real and imagined, current and ancient. I started thinking about mapping and how it is an excellent example of man’s effort to control and predict nature. Until the late 18th century, maps were never meant to give directions, but to present place or certain spiritual “truths.” And now, I see maps slipping into antiquity themselves as GPS devices take over physical guidance from point A to point B. And so I celebrate the folded, glove compartment map. It is a thing of beauty in and of itself, however fleeting, of a brief moment in time when we thought we really knew where
we had been and where we were going. It was always a dream to make this area our permanent home, and in 1994 we made the dream a reality. The active arts community here afforded many opportunities to rekindle my urge to paint and draw, as the natural beauty here inspires a great many people. After exhausting island classes, I ventured off to Savannah to attend classes at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where I earned a B.F.A. in Painting in 2004. The dreaded blank canvas is never a problem for me. I love the first mark or splash of paint.” — Cindy Chiapetta is an artist and member of the Hilton Head Art League in Pineland Station. hhal.org
2.
“We are outside looking in. Remote sensing is being able to view without tangibly touching. There is an art to aerial images, which gives us several vantage points, and helps you see things you don’t normally. Oblique imaging allows us to look around, to see all the angles. I’ve never been to Daufuskie, but I’ve seen the boat landing, the golf course, Old Haig Point. We can also see the changes that are happening. Beaufort County’s working on what will be, but right now we’re looking at the past and the
magnolias and honey suckles—Oh I’m head’n home.” — Mary Inabinett Mack owns the Red Piano Too gallery on St. Helena Island. redpiantoo.com
6.
Skull Creek oyster beds around Hilton Head Island, image courtesy of Beaufort County GIS & Pictometry present. There’s a lot more pavement now, there used to be only a few roads, in the aerials from the 60s and 70s. People came here for the beautiful environment, and now we have a tapestry of pavement, fewer trees, and urban sprawl. When we turn on an aerial photo, it brings it all to life.” — Daniel Morgan is the director of Beaufort County's Geographic Information Systems
3.
“I found carving accidentally. My mother gave me a set of tools, and it took two days for me to destroy a piece of wood and cut myself up. After that I just kept carving. I carve at home in Bluffton. I'll sit out on the back porch, or in my little cubbyhole work area that I've set up, and put on some music. I went from softwoods to hardwoods from stone to bone. I carve the owl I hear out on back porch in the evenings. The only animal I haven't carved yet, that I see all the time in the back yard, is the armadillo. Hank's done a great job with the Do You See What I See series, the idea of what he's trying to do— to watch the artists grow— is a wonderful idea. I hope that all the artists who started in the first gallery show see it through to next year's show. I'll continue carving and seeing what happens.” — Brian McKinney is one of twenty emerging artists in the Do You See What I See series curated by ARTworks resident artist Hank D. Herring. smokedeckcreations.com
4.
“I am student, that’s where I am. I’m learning a lot, getting a lot of experience at ARTworks. I’ve really grown in the past year, being here. As an artist, I just took my first pottery class and I feel that’s where I’m headed. I really want to teach arts education to kids in South Carolina.” — CJ Norwood works as the office assistant at the Arts Council of Beaufort County's office within ARTworks, as well as an ARTworks AFTERschool instructor and the director of ARTblast @ ARTworks, a summer youth program. beaufortcountyarts.com
5.
“It was an autumn day in the early 1950s that I boarded the New York bound train out of Yemassee, thinking to myself, “I am so out of here! St. Helena Island, South Carolina – you can just watch my smoke. You have seen the last of me!” Then there were the in-between years in New York...then there was an autumn day in the late 1970s when I awoke and declared, “Look out St. Helena, my beloved island, I’m head’n home!” Home to Spanish moss draped live oak trees; home to tabby relics; home to tree canopied roads and by-ways; home to wetlands, marsh grass, pluff mud, salt air and the sweet aroma of the sea; home to Penn Center; home to my Gullah folk; home to shrimp boats and Frogmore Stew; home to Seaside Road; home to
“I've got marsh mud stuck ’tween mah toes...we built our house on the May River. I documented Bluffton’s early growth. We immersed ourselves in the rhythm— and bounty— of the tides. I resisted the urge to become a nature photographer. But one white egret set against dark forest at a time, the river and her marsh sucked me in. Planning efforts to protect her consumed me. When Ohio University invited me to complete a master's degree, I had a final project in mind. After two years - including three months studying in Ohio, hundreds of hours feeding sand gnats and waiting for pictures, and hundreds more learning non-linear video editing— “Keeping the May River Wild” is ready to share. And I finally have my sheepskin— just in time to see Beaufort County’s last “Outstanding Resource Water,” the May, declared “Impaired.” My heart soars and sinks in the same instant.” — Bluffton's Greg Smith is a photographer, writer, editor and producer, with a penchant for photographing wildlife from a kayak, as well as a nationally recognized advocate for photographers, journalists and the environment. "Keeping the May River Wild," his multimedia master's degree project, comprises 23 minutes of photographs, river sounds, kayak-cockpit video and interviews. imediasmith.com
7.
“We had sculpture and we had the space for a garden, at the Maye River Gallery, but the backdrop wasn't nice. We realized we had to put in plants. A lot of us went home, dug up, and replanted here, like these cast iron plants and lilies, and I brought in some indigo, and I'm still looking for a sassafras tree. Laurie Flanagan of Garden Design helped us pick out native pants, and we registered for National Wildlife Habitat status, which is important in an urban setting to draw native birds, migratory birds and animal, butterflies. We want beaufortcountyarts.com • 9
The Maye River Gallery’s Sculpture Garden includes work by Donna Ireton, Laura Silberman, Kelly Davidson, Stephen Kishel, Colin McKenzie, Rhonda Fantozzi, Rossi Davidson and Diane Dean. photo by Marci Tressel. people who visit our sculpture garden to feel a connection to nature and art.” — Marci Tressel is a photographer and a member of the Maye River Gallery on Calhoun Street in historic Bluffton, mayerivergallery. com
8.
“I’m thrilled to be here in an ARTworks studio because I could not work at my cottage on Fripp Island. I needed more space— look, this is just one section for working on pastels. About fifteen years ago I came here on vacation, I actually didn’t want to go to Fripp, but it was recommended by a friend. On the way home off the island, we ended up putting money down to build the cottage. So here we are. Since I’ve lived here,
Coastal Woodpecker by Mike Nicastre I’ve broadened my scope, like being in the Beaufort Art Association, Art & Soul Gallery. I went from painting a little bit to becoming involved in the arts community. I miss the museums of Cleveland, but this community is so full of the arts that it just surrounds you, like all the music and theater here at ARTworks!” — Carol Kamm is a visual artist and a new resident artist at ARTworks in Beaufort Town Center. beaufortcountyarts.com
9.
“While I may be up North I find my inspiration for my painting down South. Hopefully, the two can someday come together.” — Mike Nicastre is a member of the Hilton Head Art League. His illustrations for a variety of clients have appeared in the advertising, publishing and manufacturing markets. hhal.org
10.
Carol Kamm in her studio at ARTworks 10 • beaufortcountyarts.com
“I am in the middle of colors and depth, in the middle of the greatest artist mindset that I can wish for, at ARTworks. Being around working artists is amazing.” — Diana Hoppe is a photographer based in Beaufort and new resident artist at ARTworks. beaufortcountyarts.com
11.
“I started here in 2001 because there was a pottery out here— Bob & Emily Burn of Silver Dew Pottery. Daufuskie Island is one of those places where I felt that if I could attract people, then I could live out here with the dirt roads, no visible neighbors, out in the country, and still have a gallery. I live in a Gullah-built cottage, almost 100 years old, the wrap-around porch is the gallery and I live inside. And it's worked out, good enough to open up the new gallery on Charles Street in Beaufort— also off the beaten path and with the synergy of the Charles Street Gallery across the street. I'm a one man blacksmithing shop with an apprentice. It's not easy for me to find help out here. I'm happy.” — Chase Allen is a metal sculptor living adjacent to the maritime forest on Daufuskie Island in southern Beaufort County. ironfishart.com
12.
"Emily and I were married in 1974 and were living on a 28 foot sailboat named "Blue Gipsy" and decided to settle on land I'd bought here on Daufuskie in the 1960s. So, not having a lot of money we wrecked out a big barge my folks owned over on the Intracontinued on page 20
s of Beaufort County
every friday J. Howard Duff/Metro Blues Bluffton; 7:30-10:30 pm; 843-757-6300
every 2nd - 4th thursday Lowcountry Women Writers Beaufort; 5:30-7:30 pm; 843-838-3910
every 3rd thursday Sea Island Quilters Guild Port Royal; 6:00 pm; 843-525-1990
every wednesday Picture This Gallery Open House Hilton Head; 4-7:30 pm
every wednesday Beaufort Shag Club Lessons & Dancing Port Royal; 6 – 9 pm; www.beaufortshagclub.com
2nd saturday of each month Beaufort Shag Club Port Royal; 8 - 11:00 pm; www.beaufortshagclub.com
arts council of beaufort county 843-379-2787 beaufortcountyarts.com
art of the arts! p a e B the
every 3rd monday Island Writers’ Network Open Mike Hilton Head; 7:00 pm; 843-682-8250
every 2nd monday Photography Club of Beaufort Beaufort; 7 pm; www.photoclubbeaufort.com
every 2nd monday Arts Council of Beaufort County Visual Arts “Critique Drop In” Beaufort; $5; 6 - 8 pm; 843-379-2787 www.beaufortcountyarts.com
every 1st monday Island Writers’ Network regular meeting Hilton Head; 7:00 pm; 843-682-8250
every monday Beaufort Belles ladies a cappella chorus rehearsals 4:45, 6:45 pm; 843-838-5787, 843-524-1888 Beaufort; www.beaufortbelles.com
every monday Beaufort Harbormasters rehearsals Beaufort; 7-9 pm; 843-522-0938 or 843-522-0800
THE ARTS COUNCIL Protection by Riann Mihilyov
of Beaufort County
octoBer 17 Old Village Association & the ACBC Oktoberfest/International Chalk Festival Port Royal; Noon – 5 pm
octoBer 12 - 14 Master Clay Class with Trevor Foster 3 day workshop ARTworks in Beaufort; Lodging Packages Available contact 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
The Arts Council
every 2nd - 4th tuesday Beaufort Writers Lady’s Island Airport; 5:30 pm
the Arts Council
of Beaufort County
octoBer 30 4th Friday ARTjam ~ A Creative & Interactive Experience Create your own Art ARTworks in Beaufort; $5; Beaufort County 6:30 pm - 9:30ofpm. 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
octoBer 24 Guild of Beaufort Galleries Fall Art Walk Beaufort; 5 -7:30 pm; www.guildofbeaufortgalleries.com
octoBer 23 & 24 Historic Beaufort Foundation Fall Festival Of Houses And Gardens Beaufort; $40.00; 843-379-3331; www.historicbeaufort.org
8:30 am - 3 pm; $350; 3 day workshop; 843-379-4633; shepstudio@yahoo.com ARTworks in Beaufort; Lodging Packages Available contact 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
The Arts Council
THE ARTS COUNCIL
www.beaufortcountyarts.com
of Beaufort
The Arts Council
Hilton Head; 843-842-8620; www.thejazzcorner.com
October Calendar
beaufortcountyarts.com • 11
July, August, september & OctOber 2009
ARTcalendar
EvEry Monday Beaufort Belles ladies a cappella chorus rehearsals 4:45, 6:45 pm; 843-838-5787, 524-1888 Beaufort; www.beaufortbelles.com
EvEry Monday Beaufort Harbormasters rehearsals Beaufort; 7-9 pm; 843-522-0938 or 522-0800
The Jazz Corner The Jazz Corner's Year-long 10 Year Anniversary Celebration! Hilton Head; 843-842-8620; www.thejazzcorner.com
2nd saTurday oF EaCH MonTH Beaufort Shag Club Port Royal; 8 - 11:00 pm; www.beaufortshagclub.com
EvEry Friday J. Howard Duff/Metro Blues Bluffton; 7:30-10:30 pm; 843-757-6300
EvEry 2nd - 4TH THursday Lowcountry Women Writers Beaufort; 5:30-7:30 pm; 843-838-3910
EvEry 3rd THursday Sea Island Quilters Guild Port Royal; 6:00 pm; 843-525-1990
ongoing
Historic Beaufort Foundation "Bay Street During the Union Occupation (1861-1865)" Exhibit Beaufort; 10 am - 4 pm; 843-973-6335; www.historic-beaufort.org
12 • beaufortcountyarts.com
July 13 - 17 ARTblast @ ARTworks Youth Summer Camp for ages 6 - 12 ”Pop Art using Mixed Media & Collage”
July 10 Art of Couture Runway Show ARTworks in Beaufort; 7 - 8:30 pm; $5; 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
July 27 - 31 ARTblast @ ARTworks Youth Summer Camp for ages 6 - 12
July 22 Arts Council of Beaufort County Annual Awards Ceremony & Annual Meeting ARTworks in Beaufort;6:30pm; 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
Fiddler Crab - winning chalk art from the 2008 Chalk Festival
2009 annual calendar online at www.beaufortcountyarts.com
What’s happening in the arts around Beaufort County, SC
Ongoing Calendar July Calendar
EvEry WEdnEsday Beaufort Shag ClubLessons & Dancing Port Royal; 6 – 9 pm; www.beaufortshagclub.com
EvEry 2nd - 4TH TuEsday Beaufort Writers Lady's Island Airport; 5:30 pm
EvEry TuEsday Open Studio Watercolor Classes ARTworks, Beaufort; 4:30 - 6:30 pm; 843-524-2787
EvEry TuEsday BEginning sEpT 8TH Lowcountry Chorale Ladys Island; 6:45 pm; 843-252-6207
EvEry 3rd Monday Island Writers’ Network Open Mike Hilton Head; 7:00 p.m.; 843-682-8250
EvEry 2nd Monday Photography Club of Beaufort Beaufort; 7pm; www.photoclubbeaufort.com
EvEry 2nd Monday Arts Council of Beaufort County Visual Arts "Critique Drop In" Beaufort; $5; 6 - 8 pm; 843-379-2787 www.beaufortcountyarts.com
EvEry 1sT Monday Island Writers’ Network regular meeting Hilton Head; 7:00 pm; 843-682-8250
beaufortcountyarts.com • 13
EvEry WEdnEsday Picture This Gallery Open House Hilton Head; 4-7:30 pm
July 6 - 10 ARTblast @ ARTworks Youth Summer Camp for ages 6 - 12 ”Acrylic Painting and all its Wonder” Beaufort; 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
July 6 Arts Council of Beaufort County Get Your Art Out Workshop ~ "Awakening the Artist Through Cultural Explorations" ARTworks in Beaufort; 1 pm - 3 pm; $5 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
July 1 USCB July Jamboree ~ Lunch with Author Series with Dottie Frank Hilton Head; Noon; $42; RSVP Mandatory 843-521-4147; kingsley@uscb.edu
THru July 26 Art Center of Coastal Carolina Menopause the Musical Hilton Head; 843-842-2787; 800-860-2787; www.artshhi.org
THru July 11 Art League of Hilton Head Southern Exposures - Four Photographers and a Weaver Hilton Head; www.artleaguehhi.org
THru July 11 Society of Bluffton Artists “Point of View;” Oil Paintings by Deanna L. Brown Bluffton; www.sobagalleries.com
july July 15 - 22 Writers Critique with Stephanie Edwards 6-8 pm; 3 sessions ARTworks in Beaufort; contact 843-597-3910
Beaufort; 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
July 31-augusT 10 Mouth to Hand: gallery show & performances by Natalie Daise at ARTworks in Beaufort Town Center, 843-379-2787
July 29 USCB July Jamboree ~ Lunch with Author Series with Mary Alice Monroe Port Royal; noon; $42; RSVP Mandatory 843521-4147; kingsley@uscb.edu
”Sculpture Is For Everyone” Beaufort; 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
augusT 14 ARTworks Home of the ACBC ARTsplash Free for Fall. Free sample mini-sessions of workshops offered for children & adults in the fall/winter Beaufort; 6:30 pm - 9 pm; 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
augusT 3 - 7 ARTblast @ ARTworks Youth Summer Camp for ages 6 - 12 ”Craft” Beaufort; 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
augusT 1 Blues & BBQ, a fundraiser for ACCESS Network, at ARTworks, 6-9 pm; tickets $50, Claudette Humphrey, 843-522-1831.
augusT 28 4th Friday ARTjam ~ A Creative & Interactive Experience. Create your own Art ARTworks in Beaufort; $5; 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
augusT 24 - oCToBEr 9 Arts Council of Beaufort County ARTworks After School Program Beaufort; 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
augusT 19 - 21 Pastel Techniques with Emphasis on Color & Light with Linda Sheppard 8:30am - 3pm; $300; 3 day workshop; 843-379-4633; shepstudio@yahoo.com ARTworks in Beaufort; Lodging Packages Available contact 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
august
July 20 - 24 ARTblast @ ARTworks Youth Summer Camp for ages 6 - 12 ”Drawing pushed to the Limit” Beaufort; 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
August Calendar
14 • beaufortcountyarts.com
septemBer 25 4th Friday ARTjam ~ A Creative & Interactive Experience create your own art ARTworks in Beaufort; $5; 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
septemBer 23 - octoBer 28 Writers Critique with Stephanie Edwards 6-8 pm; $90; 6 sessions ARTworks in Beaufort; contact 843-597-3910
the Jazz corner The Jazz Corner’s Year-long 10 Year Anniversary Celebration!
historic Beaufort foundation “Bay Street During the Union Occupation (1861-1865)” Exhibit Beaufort; 10 am - 4 pm; 843-973-6335; www.historic-beaufort.org
every tuesday Open Studio Watercolor Classes ARTworks, Beaufort; 4:30 - 6:30 pm; 843-524-2787
every tuesday Beginning sept 8th Lowcountry Chorale Ladys Island; 6:45 pm; 843-252-6207
ongoing
septemBer 14 Arts Council of Beaufort County Get Your Art Out Workshop ~ "The Substance and Semantics of Crafts, Folk Art, & Fine Arts" ARTworks in Beaufort; 1 pm - 3 pm; $5 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
septemBer 4 - 5 Lands End River Festival St. Helena Island; www.landsendwoodland.com
octoBer 9 Arts Council of Beaufort County ARTworks Afterschool Program Community Showcase 5pm; 843-379-2787;
octoBer 5 Arts Council of Beaufort County Get Your Art Out Workshop ~ "Writing While Southern" ARTworks in Beaufort; 1pm - 3 pm; $5 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
octoBer 2 - 3 Beaufort Shrimp Festival Beaufort; Waterfront Park
octoBer 21 - 23 Portrait and Figure Drawing & Painting with Linda Sheppard
octoBer 19 Arts Council of Beaufort County Get Your Art Out Workshop ~ "Speaking Out about Arts-inEducation" 6 pm - 8 pm; Free; 843-379-2787; www.beaufortcountyarts.com
octoBer 17 & 18 150th Hunting Island Lighthouse Anniversary Celebration Hunting Island; www.friends-of-hunting-island-sc.org
october
Camellia by Linda Sheppard
september September Calendar
an essay by Kami Kinard
The Healing Marsh single white heron glides on angel wings over the quiet grasses of the marsh. Ruffles of patient oysters wait for tides to usher food into their stationary shells. Hermit crabs pad silently past the hard-shelled periwinkles that pepper the pluff mud. A gray crescent of dolphin rises and falls as easily as a breath. Beaufort is paradise. I did not want to be here. Four hours away, the lush hilly landscape of upstate South Carolina with its evergreen canopy of cedars and hemlocks was my home. From Greenville’s highest hilltops I could see the protective Blue Ridge Mountains standing guard. In Greenville, where magnolia, crabapple, pecan, and oak greened my yard, I felt hugged by the landscape. I never wanted to leave. A Theodosia Cedar, once voted the most beautiful tree in Greenville, stood proudly in my front yard, though lightning had left a shock of gray in her crown decades earlier. When I arrived in Greenville, I wiggled my toes into her iron-rich soil and began putting down roots, hoping, like the cedar, to Painting of a sweetgrass basket grow old there – nourished by the land – by Cheryl Neison able to weather any storm. And had my livelihood depended on the landscape, I would have too. But people are not like the land. They will cut you down. And sometimes the only way to escape an axe in the bark is to uproot and leave the forest. Which is how we found ourselves planted in Beaufort. When I arrived here, ripped from the land I Resting by Riann Mihiylov
loved, I thought I would never be okay again. No longer could I look out of my kitchen window at red hills swathed with verdant leaves. No longer could I hear the sounds of the vibrant Reedy River tumble and splash over boulders crying, “Alive! Alive! Alive!” Instead, the view before me is now vast and flat. Languid Spanish moss makes every tree willow-serene, and the once vivacious waters of the Reedy have quieted to a disappointing murmur after spilling into coastal waterways. It has been over two years since I left the hills to dwell here at sea level. Most days I find myself pulled on foot or bike toward Bay Street where I can travel along the water and look out over the marsh. I search for the crooked-neck cormorant that sometimes dive for dinner from the bridge, or the endangered Wood Stork who has found a home in Beaufort despite his shrinking world. I’ve learned that the vista changes with the tides and the shifting colors of the sky, whose influence is magnified by the reflective waters below. The flat landscape I once thought static is ever changing. I think there is nothing so beautiful. The marsh does not hug me with green arms or surround me with protective hills. Her waters do not cry out, “Alive!” Instead, she spreads herself before me like a richly hued quilt on a familiar bed. When I listen, I can hear her whisper… “Shhhhhhh. Peace. Heal. Everything will be okay.” And now… I believe her.
Kami Kinard’s first book, The Adventures of Dreadlock Jones, is forthcoming from Putnam (2010). She writes from Beaufort SC where she lives with her husband and children. Kami actively volunteers for Beaufort County Schools and is on the South Carolina Arts Commission’s roster of approved teaching artists.
beaufortcountyarts.com • 15
The Going Away a short story by Vernie Singleton
I rode home so fast that autumn afternoon that the chain fell
off my bike and I nearly ran into the cement steps of my Grandma Nellie’s house. The screened-in back porch was dark, but when I entered the hallway I could see past my bedroom door, to the dim light of the ceiling’s bare bulb as it shone on Grandma Nellie while she sat at the wooden kitchen table shelling early June peas. I stumbled to her, grabbed her by her well-endowed arm and shook her so much that the pan of peas fell from her aproned lap onto the linoleum floor and scattered like green pearls from one corner of the room to another. To me, Grandma Nellie was a jewel herself, but at that moment she was like a mysterious rock. Granny’s eyes focused on me as she turned her sharp voice in the same direction. “Chile, look what you done did!” As much as I had been taught manners by a long line of Browns on my Daddy’s side and Millers on my Mama’s side, all I could get off my seventh grade tongue was, “Elnora is moving away, Granny! “Elnora is going away!” I wanted to whoop, but instead I looked my eighty year old Granny straight on and tried to calm her eyes that had grown huge like hard black walnuts. “Granny, Granny, Granny,” I spoke softly. “Leave me be and clean up these peas you got all over this fresh mopped floor.” She pointed to the far corner of the kitchen where a straw broom was next to a mop and bucket of dirty water, settled, and ready to be thrown in the back yard. “Go get that broom,” she ordered. I crouched because the force of those words knocked the wind out of me. I muddled for a few seconds then I managed to get out some clear words. “Can’t you see, Granny? Can’t you see? 16 • beaufortcountyarts.com
I’m telling you, Elnora and them are moving away from here.” Here was Stoney, a coastal Carolina town that had grown out of control since nearby Silverton had just about run out of land to build condominiums and restaurants and other tourist bait. Then here comes Stoney, a thousand heads off-season, sitting downwind on Bay River, minding its own business for over three hundred years, says the plaque in the town park. It’s home to five generations of my family’s history, all recorded in the big family Bible in Grandma’s room where she kept important papers in a cedar box. The section of Stoney where we live is called Mullet, and it is where the black folks live. Visitors expect to find a ghetto here, but we managed our lives well with little or nothing. Our community dates back long before the tourists came, to when black people just freed from slavery could buy their own land, my Mama once told me. In fact, before Mama and Daddy died and Grandma Nellie took me in, they told me all about how this land gave them everything they needed. And even if I didn’t have to farm, fish or hunt like they did to survive, they wanted me to know that way of life that came before me. They said it would give me something solid to stand on other than the land itself. We also had our language, Gullah, to stand on, but it was changing a little bit everyday like the shores of the nearby Sea Island beaches eroding out to sea. And like the ocean whispers in its own voice, my mama told me we were Gullah people and we used African words and ways of saying things. Grandma didn’t want the new people to think we were ignorant since they couldn’t understand what some of us were saying, so she told me to always speak English the best I could. She said I’d go further in life.
The newcomers, whether they knew it or cared, made us do things, like changing our words, as though what we had been doing wasn’t good enough anymore. Take, for instance, Old Man Phillips who dug up roots for Miss Hannah, the root doctor. He raised hogs on his farm, too. They say he sent his two grandchildren to college with hog money. But somebody put the Health Department on him, so he had to stop raising hogs on his land. People in the condo complex down the road from him complained about the stink when the wind stirred off the creek. But I never heard them complain how bad the processed ribs and pork sandwiches smelled at the Annual Spring Barbecue for Visitors in the park. at first because the more tourist spillover Mullet got from the nearby Sea Island beaches, the better everything got for me and all my friends. After all, we got new bike paths, and they even built a Pizza Palace where me and my friends could get together. It was especially nice because we could park our bikes in the rack there. But I knew something was going wrong when I heard the announcement one Sunday morning for church members to meet and discuss how Mullet had become a little city; kids were skipping school to work for money, and there were traffic problems as well. What Granny feared the most for me was riding my bike on the busy streets. This wasn’t the case for Elnora, though. She didn’t ride bikes anymore since lightening tore a limb off a tree and smashed hers. It was a sign from God, she said, that she wasn’t supposed to ride a bike at all. Instead, she walked beside me while I pedaled mine. I had never thought much about the traffic jams, never paid attention to a whole lot of things until one day, Elnora, my best friend ever, told me about the real problem. With tears streaking down her dark chocolate face, she said, “The taxes are eating my parents alive, and it’s all about these new buildings going up everywhere. We need to pay three thousand dollars in taxes for the land we live on, and we don’t have the money, Becky.” I always thought taxes were what you paid when they added on extra money for what you owed at the store. This led me to think Elnora’s folks must have been buying a whole lot of stuff because it’s just five cents on a bag of chips. But I found out from Elnora they weren’t buying anything at all. They owed taxes for land they already owned— just like everybody else she said, and you’re supposed to pay them year after year until you die. Then after you die, she went on, someone else has to take over paying them until they die. I told her it didn’t make sense to keep paying for something you already owned in the first place. Yet that day in Grandma’s kitchen, I didn’t have time to think about anybody dying and leaving anybody to pay for anything. I had to sweep up those peas, and to break-up Grandma’s stare, I asked, “Grandma, why didn’t you ever tell me about taxes on land and how they hurt people?” Grandma’s lips went so tight I was surprised she could squeeze words out of them. “What craziness in your head now, chile? Taxes is the way things is. Been that way since Bible time. Hurt if you ain’t got money to pay, but you can’t do nothin’ bout ’em. Who told you ‘bout taxes?” All this didn’t bother me
I hesitated. “I don’t remember, Granny.” I prayed that she would not see the lie in me that burned and made my mouth go dry and caused my eyes to avoid hers. I knew Grandma didn’t like Elnora’s ideas. She said they came straight from Elnora’s Dad who she said was too radical for his own good. But he was always extra nice to me. “Well, you just get your mind workin’ like your mouth’s been doin’ and try to remember.” She sat back in the straight chair and folded her arms tight. I swept and thought. I knew that most black people in Mullet didn’t make enough money to pay no three thousand dollars a year extra, not with bills for electricity and gas, car payments, clothes, insurances and something to eat, too. It was impossible. Why couldn’t they just pay what they had? I couldn’t make sense of it, but since it was the way things were, I could only give way to a dreamlike hope that if those peas were really green pearls, they’d be rare and valuable, and we could sell them and give the money to Elnora’s family. Maybe this is what made me sweep harder. It was like I could sweep away all the things that had gone wrong that day. The broom itself felt strange, though. It felt heavy and hard and reminded me of the thick pen the lawyer couldn’t put down when he spoke that day to Elnora’s parents. Even his sharp, boney face came back to me as I remembered. It was unseasonably cool that Wednesday afternoon
when I rode to Elnora’s and saw her parents with the lawyer. As I eased in the yard on my bike toward Elnora’s house, she held onto the bike’s handlebar. She had to hold on; it seemed she was unsure of her footing. Her pony tails drooped around her narrow face and her brown eyes were busy as Mullet traffic. I could tell she was hiding a flood of bad news. She motioned for me to go inside the house with her. We snuck behind the open doorway to watch and listen to the conversation in the living room between her parents and the lawyer. The lawyer waved his thick pen like it was a magic wand, like he could make the house disappear. Their house was prime location for a seafood restaurant, he said, and the tourists would make it a good business. “We can help you out, Mr. Williams,” the lawyer said. “You mean you’re going to loan us the money to pay our taxes?’ “No, no, Mr. Williams,” the lawyer said with a chuckle. “But my client will give you and your wife the figure I showed you.” He touched his opened briefcase on the sofa next to him. “Then you can go anywhere you want.” “Anywhere, you say? For half the value of our land? I don’t think so. Besides, we’re where we want to be right now.” “Take it or leave it, Mr. Williams. Sell it while you can or lose everything. You’re the one in trouble for unpaid taxes.” He tapped the wooden coffee table to finalize his point. Elnora and I had heard enough. We snuck back to the yard. The rain clouds were gray and heavy, as though someone were sitting down on them. I looked down at the ground and saw dying grass give up its life, while a sudden wind scattered oak leaves around us. “I’m gonna have to go away, Becky.” beaufortcountyarts.com • 17
“No, you don’t. They can’t do that. We’ll run away together.” “Where to? Who’ll take care of us?” “Anywhere. The Lord’ll see after us. I know he will.” Elnora wiped her eyes and stood firm. “Becky, I don’t see where the Lord is gonna lead two twelveyear-old black girls in a world full of people like that lawyer in there trying to make us disappear like he’s some kind of magic man.” She was scared, and had given up on us all by saying there was no hope, no way out for us. Then she got an idea that I didn’t want to hear. “Magic! That’s it, Becky. Miss Hannah – the root doctor. Her magic can fix anything. That’s what I heard.” “You really think so, Elnora? You think Miss Hannah can come up with three thousand dollars for you every year for the rest of your life to pay those taxes? I doubt it, Elnora. Besides, I don’t believe in magic. My Grandma says it’s devil’s work, and we’ve got enough of that now. Leave me out.” The last words got gobbled-up in my anger, I flipped up the kickstand on my bike and took off, never looking back, even when Elnora’s voice screamed behind me. “Come back, Becky. Come Back. We’ll think of something.” The idea that nothing could be done to keep Elnora in Mullet cluttered my head. The old Mullet where people looked out for one another was going away and I couldn’t bring it back. New people had come to take our place and others were coming to help them dig deeper into the Mullet soil. The memory of the lawyer and his pen brought me back to where I really was that day, back to Grandma in her kitchen, as I swept up the peas with a thick handled broom that I prayed would do something good, unlike the lawyer’s pen that was writing us off our land. But I had to be real. What could a broom do? Grandma was all I had, but at that time, she was not a rock anymore – she was a mountain. I couldn’t climb that mountain or manage to touch it. She folded her arms tighter and stood up. “I said, who told you about taxes, chile? And don’t you lie to me.” I had no choice. I wanted to silence myself forever because if I didn’t, it would mean I would sell-out my best friend. But her name came out my mouth like a stampede of cars taking off when the
light turns green releasing a roar to almost knock me off my bike. I could feel myself falling, but I said it. “Elnora.” “Oh. Miss Elnora this and Miss Elnora that. Well, she wrong. Williams shoulda sold years ago ‘fore they got deep in trouble. That’s what they git for messin’ wid them long eye people. The rich get what they want; that’s the way things is, but e teet da dig e grave. Watch what I say. Only God can make them pay.” “Is that how you see it, Granny? Things are the way they are and we can’t do anything about them? And where’s God now that we need him?” That was where I stopped, held the broom away from me and tried to squeeze out all its life. I expected the mountain to fall on me and shut my eyes. But they were open just enough for me to see Granny’s hand on mine. Her wrinkled fingers moved up my arm and pressed gently in my skin. The light from the bare bulb shone all of a sudden bright on her hand, the same wrinkled hand that braided my hair every night, the same hand that fed me meals and washed my face since Mama and Daddy died and until I was able to do it myself. “All you do is try to live right, chile, and God’ll do the rest. Yeddy me?” I pushed away from her and all I could think to do was get out of there. Dizzy from all her mixed up words, I stumbled out the screened door to get on my bike, but the chain was still hanging loose from when I nearly ran into the porch step an hour ago. So I ran. I ran faster than I ever imagined I could, for hours it seemed, into the streets of Mullet. As I tried to lose myself in the silence, I could still hear Grandma calling, “Come back, Becky. Girl, what’s the matter wid you? Get back here.” In the darkness of Mullet, I heard dogs bark messages to one another in their own secret language. I wanted to see someone I knew at the Pizza Palace, but only saw strangers who could afford more than a slice, something my friends and I never could do. Why was this happening in our community – to my friend? How many homes would be replaced by businesses next year this time? I wondered. Would the changes miss Grandma and me or would they tear down our home and leave us with splintered wood sticks? I knew it could happen because look at Elnora. Someone was just waiting for us to fall short so they could pick up the pieces and build their own where we were now. I hurried home to Granny. I walked down the hallway to Granny’s bedroom door that she had left open for me. I didn’t know what to say or how to explain how alone I felt. She sat with the family Bible on her lap and her wrinkled fingers rested upon it. Then I touched her warm hand. Her eyes opened up huge and bright and a smile spread across her face like rays of a rising sun across the sky on a summer morning. What had gone away had come back in a rush. “It’s gonna be alright, chile. God is gonna make a way, like I told you.” She pulled some papers out the cedar box on her bed and handed them to me. They were insurance papers for my Mama and Daddy from when they were killed in the car accident five years ago.
18 • beaufortcountyarts.com
"It’s for you, Becky. Help your friend. I’ll help you do it. I’ve known ‘bout them Williams for a while, but I could see you needed to do some searchin’ and I couldn’t do it for you. The old Gullah people used to send the young ones out in the Wilderness to seek God. I think you partway out of darkness. We can’t change the world in one day, only He can. But we can change ourselves if we seek.” She closed the Bible. “I love you, Chile.” I believed her and that was all I needed to know. I don’t know whether it was the magic or the prayers, but somehow those green peas had worked. It was only my fears that would be going away.
Now I could take a deep breath and prepare for the long road ahead for Elnora and me because Granny had given me one more thing to stand on. Vernie Singleton’s work has been published locally since 1985. “The Going Away” is her first published short story. She was recently awarded a scholarship to attend the Norman Mailer Writers Colony at Provincetown Massachusetts, and has received grants from the Arts Council of Beaufort County and the Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina to continue her work. She is a fifth generation native and resident of Hilton Head Island.
All Art is Local by Kim Bogan
Kim Bogan, 2nd generation born and raised in Port Royal, is proud to be a shrimperman’s daughter, artist, and shark tooth hunter. She has a show coming up at the Beaufort Art Association with Annie Estes, opening with a reception on Friday, September 18, through October 26. “I'm at the Sands in Port Royal. This is where we always looked for sharks teeth as kids, they were a lot bigger back then. About fifty years ago they dredged this area and my dad found some real prizes. The Sands is home. My family is in fishing, and the smell of the marsh and the seafood— that's home. Growing up we'd have picnics and look for sharks teeth, it was our private beach with friends. I have sharks teeth in glass vases and I've used them in various craft projects. Everyone in my family has a jar somewhere, they're little precious memories stacked in a jar. The Sands is getting to be quite a busy spot now, the town is trying to grow and improve— the boardwalk, changing the road to the Sands, providing oyster shell drop-off. The whole town in changing. Port Royal is growing, and the residents are working together pretty well and making their community fun, hanging out together. No matter where you roam the smell of marsh will bring you home.” beaufortcountyarts.com • 19
up a piece of grey clay...of which there is a strata running all over this island about 8 to 10 feet down...and started folding and pushing on it, like one does with clay, and made a small pot. I showed it to Emily and she said, “it's kinda cute, lets keep it.” I carefully placed it on the back seat of the car and drove home. A week later after we had grilled steaks on the hibachi
and thought of that little pot. It had dried without cracking, so I filled it up with fresh charcoal, raked the ashes back, set it on the grill, poured fresh charcoal over all and went to bed. The next morning I had a really nice little pot. I was excited about that and collected more clay off the beach and coiled several pots like the Indians did and fired them in piles of debris I raked up in the front yard. I was hooked. I then built a potters wheel from a wringer washing machine and a lawn mower, from plans I found in a “back to the earth” mag and started throwing pots in the spring of 1995. By 1996 I gave my sister a cup and she said “this is good enough to sell.” I listened and sold pots through the marina I worked for on the north end of Daufuskie. Emily threw pots too. I quit the marina in the spring of 1997, we secured a business license and became the Silver Dew Pottery. Our decor is copied from Indian pottery found here on the island. Especially a wave pattern from a shard found at Pappy’s Landing on the south end of Daufuskie by my Aunt Ruby (Shortly) Smith, and buttons from a shard I found at Chaplains’ landing on the west side of the island. I figured out that the Indians used bamboo (or river cane) to make these marks. — Lancy Burn is a Daufuskie native who owns & operates, with his wife Emily, Silver Dew Pottery. 843.842.6419
Silver Dew Pottery on Daufuskie Island; Photography by Anne/Courtesy of the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce and Visitor & Convention Bureau.
“My special corner of Beaufort County is hardly an out-of-theway place. South Beach in Sea Pines—almost to the jetty at Braddock Creek—is a well-populated beach in the summertime. Winter on South Beach is a different story, however. When we first moved here 14 years ago, it was late in the year and there was rarely anyone on the beach when I’d take my walks. Oftentimes, I felt a bit like Robinson Crusoe—all alone on a deserted island, hoping to see another’s footprints to prove that he wasn’t alone. In the morning fogs, Daufuskie Island would disappear from view and all sound was eerily muffled. So, when I'd find the washed up pieces of painted wood which I collect for my art, I thought of them as Crusoe must have when he first saw Friday's footprints: as signs of life.
The simple Answer: Where Are You? continued from page 10
The Iron Fish Gallery sign; Photography by Anne/Courtesy of the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce and Visitor & Convention Bureau Coastal Waterway and built an A-frame house, which is now part of the pottery, and, after many years of various and interesting pursuits we started making pottery. It was in the fall of 1994...we were walking up the beach towards Melrose Plantation, looking for arrowheads and Indian artifacts that constantly washed out of the ever eroding high ground. I picked
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I’m not sure where these washed-up pieces come from. The long, curved painted ones seem to have been cast adrift from the wreckage of a lap-strake dinghy. An occasional piece of signage leaves me trying to puzzle out what it might have said when new. Twice I’ve found miraculously intact light bulbs full of sea water, buried up to their tops in the sand and looking like smooth jelly fish. Occasionally the fingers of an oysterman’s glove will be poking up eerily through the sand. Among my favorite beach finds are high-water markers, sometimes affixed to bridges or docks to show the level of the tide. This piece incorporates one of them. It’s called ‘Four Feet and Rising’. — Caroll Williams is a collage and assemblage artist living on Hilton Head Island, and a member of Pluff Mudd Art, a co-op gallery on Calhoun Street in Bluffton. carollwilliamsart.com
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“I have decided to join the e-business world, and I’m excited about the possibilities of sharing my art with the world. My enthusiasm for the arts goes way back to the 70s when teaching first graders in New Rochelle, NY. I joined other arts-minded teachers in yearlong workshops at Lincoln
Trail by Riann Mihiylov Center for the Performing Arts in Manhattan & Julliard School. I consider myself a renaissance artist, renewing and enjoying different styles, learning new techniques. I took some tutoring from my friend, Julian Gooding. He helped me set up and operate my own web page, artbyclaudette. com. and virtual art gallery. He walked me through the process of setting up a Mobile Me and Pay Pal account and which options that best suited my situation. I have received wonderful and positive feedback. I have been asked to hold two of the paintings already, and I thank all of my friends and family who encouraged me.” — Claudette Humphrey is a painter and board member of the Arts Council of Beaufort County. artbyclaudette.com. Julian Gooding is the owner of outsidetheboxmedia.com, and a presenter in ACBC’s Get Your Art Out emerging artist initiative.
mysteries published by St. Martin’s. She will speak about her writing process at the Get Your Art Out/Writing While Southern session ARTworks on October 5th. kathrynwall.com
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“I am at the beginning of my journey being guided only by my eye and its instinct. I learn as I go and will take a better photo than I did the day before. I try to remember that the way something is, is not always the way it will be captured. I hope that I will one day spend my time at the places I love to photograph. My journey will then have come full circle.” — Riann Mihiylov is a Beaufort native and photographer who has worked with Adagio Creative, Plums Inc., Iron Fish Art, Lime Light Salon and Main Street Beaufort. madmilo76@ yahoo.com & 843.812.6280.
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Four Feet & Rising by Caroll Williams
“Where I belong. I’m a transplanted yankee, but I've always felt somehow stuck in the right place. I’ve spoken before with true southerners on a panel and gotten ragged on a bit, but when I come across that bridge it's like a sigh of being at home.” — Kathryn Wall lives in Hilton Head Island and is the author of the Bay Tanner series of
beaufortcountyarts.com • 21
Get Your Art Out Workshops on the business of art
July 6th, 1 to 3pm, Awakening the Artist Through Cultural Explorations with Paddy Bowman: "Quality of life is tied to the vitality of our grassroots folk cultures — the neighborhoods and communities in which we live our daily lives. In an era when mass culture and commercial media increasingly press upon our lives and threaten us with sameness, traditional culture is a resource we can turn to for renewed inspiration and a better quality of life." Bowman is the coordinator of the National Network for Folk Arts in Education, specializing in Folklore in K-12 education, race relations and place-based education. ACBC's Quarterly Community Arts Grants deadline is August 15th. Speak with ACBC staff about applying: 843-379-2787. Get Your Art Out visual art critique session, $5, every second Monday, 6 to 8pm, facilitated by artist and gallery owner, Deanna Bowdish. Artists should bring their own work for critical evaluation. September 14, 1 to 3pm; $5: The Substance & Semantics of Crafts, Folk Art, & Fine Arts. How do these
genres compare and what is their role in the creative economy? Panelists: artist Jennifer Kassing-Bradley, coordinator of the SCAD-TCL arts program; artist Deanna Bowdish, owner of The Gallery in Beaufort; Amy Zurcher, director of shopSCAD in Savannah, Atlanta and Lacoste France; Jenny Rone, development director for the Arts Council of Beaufort County and former owner of a #7 Contemporary American Crafts gallery in the US. October 5th, 1 to 3pm, $5: Writing While Southern. The South has a renowned literary tradition and an international readership. How are the writing-residents of Beaufort County contributing to the genre, how are they being shaped by the land, and how can they improve their writing process? Novelist Kathryn Wall shares her process of creating the Bay Tanner mysteries, starting with In For a Penny in 2001, through her latest release from St. Martin’s Minotaur, Covenant Hall. Monday, October 19th, 6 to 8pm, free: Speaking Out about Arts-in-Education. Learn what's happening in the schools, what's changing in arts-in-education, what Teaching Artists do, and how the arts improve learning.
All Workshops held at ARTworks. 2127 Boundary Street 29902 in Beaufort Town Center (adjacent to the visitor center) 843-379-2787. Sign up for email updates at beaufortcountyarts.com Featured above: Details from artwork by Resident Artists Hank D. Herring, Lisa Clancy, Pat Willcox, and Natalie Daise; work by master artist Linda Sheppard; and one piece from the afterschool showcase. 22 • beaufortcountyarts.com
Do you believe art is essential to a well-rounded community? The Arts Council of Beaufort County is proud to announce a New Supporter Challenge Grant from the Dorothy & Gaylord Donnelley Fund. Every new supporter’s donation will be matched dollar for dollar. Help make a difference! Join in supporting the Arts Council of Beaufort County’s goal to “weave the arts into everyday life” by making your tax-deductible charitable of Beaufort County donation to the 2009 / 2010 Annual Fund Campaign.
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