FREE
october Augusta, Aiken & Columbia
E scape
th e
o rd in a ry.
The thing about sparks is that you might have to sit in the dark to see them, but when you do—boy-oh-boy–do they ever shine. Sparks start revolutions. They glow like crazy diamonds in our pounding hearts. Everything is possible. Once ignited, we can shine on and on and, blinding the world with our brilliance. We don’t sweat, we sparkle. We gleam, shimmer and shine. Lightning and rocket fuel are nothing compared to the sparks of “I can” and “I will.” Create, innovate, nurture. The day wakes up a little brighter. A spark of kindness rises from ash and we bask in the glow. A spark of curiosity dazzles and we follow the brilliance. A spark of hope has healing powers. That thing about not hiding your light? Don’t forget it. Tend the kindling, fan the flames, look for the light. You’re combustible, you’re an inferno, you burn with love and light beyond anything you could have imagined.
Cover Art: Ali Douglass
“Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” A.A. Milne
2014
october
S PA R K
Founder
Nikki Hardin Creative Director Caitilin McPhillips caitilin.mcphillips@skirt.com
I S S U E
Market Manager Kate Cooper Metts kate.metts@skirt.com
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
Contributing Editors Jenny Maxwell jennymaxwell@mindspring.com Gracie Shepherd gracie.shepherd@gmail.com Sales Director
Maya Angelou
Lisa Dorn lisa.dorn@skirt.com
Features
ISSUE
Sales Executives
Doressa Hawes doressa.hawes@skirt.com Lisa Taylor lisa.taylor@morris.com
Living The Hollywood Life In North Carolina Nancy Rapp .........................................8 The Accidental Immigrant Reba Kochersperger .........................9
Maidi McMurtrie Thompson maidi.thompson@morris.com Mary Porter Vann mary.vann@morris.com Circulation
In Every Issue
Jessica Seigler jessica.seigler@morris.com
Letter from the Editor......................4
Photography
J.M. Sullivan Molly Harrell
He’s So Original................................25
Advertising
Sales: 706.823.3702 Fax: 706.823.6061 1.800.622.6358
skirt! is published monthly and distributed free throughout the greater Augusta, Aiken & Columbia area. skirt! reserves the right to refuse to sell space for any advertisement the staff deems inappropriate for the publication. All content of this magazine, including without limitation the design, advertisements, art, photos and editorial content, as well as the selection, coordination and arrangement thereof, is Copyright © 2014, Morris Publishing Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No portion of this magazine may be copied or reprinted without the express written permission of the publisher. SKIRT!® is a registered trademark of Morris Publishing Group, LLC.
SKIRT! THIS M O N T H
Skirt of the Month............................16
This month, we’re honored to include a particularly strong woman on these pages—a two-time Olympic gold medalist, former WNBA star, respected college basketball coach—and a breast cancer survivor. Nikki McCray has spent her life taking on challenges and working as part of a team. These days, she coaches some of the country’s most talented female basketball players. For the last year, those young women, along with her fellow coaches, have rallied around her as she juggled a new baby, a demanding career, and a grueling round of cancer treatment. October is a month for national breast cancer awareness and on October 18 at Columbia’s Finlay Park, McCray will lead a different kind of team in the Walk for Life. Team “Pay 4 McCray” is raising money to annihilate a tough opponent. You’re welcome to join Nikki and thousands of other walkers and runners, either by donating or getting out there in your sneakers on Palmetto Health Foundation’s walk day. You’ll find information at WalkForLifeColumbia.org—and a photo of Nikki in her pink boxing gloves, ready to put up a fight.
About the Cover Artist
Ali Douglass lives in Asheville, North Carolina. Her awardwinning work has been used by clients including MasterCard, American Girl, Georgia-Pacific, The Wall Street Journal and more. alidouglass.com
jennymaxwell@mindspring.com
Like to see your ad in skirt! Magazine? 706.823.3702 4 october
2014 www.skirt.com
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2014
Photo by J.M. Sullivan
october
Diane Boyd | Anointed Hands
Carpentry, floral arranging, sewing, painting: you name the creative hobby, Diane has taught herself how to do it.They were all just hobbies until she stumbled upon a jewelry display at a craft show in 2007, and she couldn’t draw her eyes away from the beads. “I thought to myself, man, I could do that,” she says. She bought supplies and started making and selling at local arts festivals such as Arts in the Heart and Aiken’s Makin’, but was amazed to find people loved her creations. “I think we’re all our own worst critics,” she says. Diane’s business name, Anointed Hands Adorn, has a deeply personal meaning. She was born with a birth defect that altered the formation of her right hand, but she didn’t let that stop her from building and creating. “I grew up with people being very cruel,” she says. After starting her own business, Diane had a friend who referred to her jewelry as works of “anointed hands.” When she heard that, the name just fit. “I began to see the glory of it all.”
10 october
2014 www.skirt.com
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SHESAID “THE MOST COURAGEOUS ACT IS STILL TO THINK FOR YOURSELF. ALOUD.” COCO CHANEL
HESAID “WHAT WOULD LIFE BE IF WE HAD NO COURAGE TO ATTEMPT ANYTHING?” VINCENT VAN GOGH
12 october
2014 www.skirt.com
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2014 13
2014
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makeit!
Neatography curates a monthly subscription service ($27 a month) and sends packages full of creative inspiration— notebooks, letterpress cards, paper templates, and more. Neatography.com.
Kate Spade neon notebooks One. 453 Highland Avenue Augusta 706.869.2254
Table Topics conversation starters Gibson’s on Devine Columbia 803.771.4520
Portraits of the Renaissance Folly 116 Laurens Street SW Aiken 803.226.0550
14 october
2014 www.skirt.com
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Illustration by Monkey Mind Design. monkeymindesign.etsy.com
I dreamed I packed my skirt, and danced under the harvest moon.
Roberto Cavalli hand-painted silk skirt Grande Finale Boutique 2850 Devine Street Columbia 803.799.3000 grandefinaleboutique.com
WHERE Will Your Skirt take you
next?
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THE SPARK AWARDS
GJWF! XPNFO!! XIPTF!! JNBHJOBUJPO!! JT!NBLJOH!! !UIF!XPSME NPSF!IVNBO! NPSF!BNB[JOHNPSF!TFDVSFNPSF!CFBVUJGVM BOE!CFUUFS!! QSFQBSFE/ what’s uncommon are people who’ll work hard enough to bring them about. Ashleigh Brilliant
www.skirt.com october
2014 19
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20 october
2014 www.skirt.com
THE SPARK AWARDS
three
POF More Human
More Secure For Female Athletes. When 43-year-old Cheryl Kellond couldn’t find a
GPS fitness tracker that worked for women, she launched a Kickstarter Inc. campaign to make them and raised $408,000 in 2012 for Bia Sport Inc., which shipped its first 3,000 multi-sport GPS watches this spring. The watch features a unique SOS safety alert (late night and early morning runners will love it) and a lightweight, sleek design. We love the fun colors, like “Believe I Am Purple” and “Fierce Heart Pink.” $279 at Store-Bia-Sport.com.
Leave it to one of our favorite quirky creatives to invent an app that incenGetty Images
tivizes interaction instead of the other way around! Miranda July announced the release of her new app
four
at the Venice Film Festival last month, along with lots
M o r e B e a u t i f u l Birchbox co-founders Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp
of buzz. Once downloaded,
met at Harvard Business School. With inspiration from Hayley’s beauty editor best
the Somebody app sends
friend Mollie Chen, they created Birchbox to help consumers cut through the clut-
your message not to its
ter of the retail world to find products that really work for them. Since the box’s
intended recipient, but to the closest Somebody user nearby. Built-in actions like [hug] and directives like [cry] encourage the messengers to really add feeling to their performance. SomebodyApp.com.
More Amazing
launch in September of 2010, our hearts beat a little faster every month when we
This new iteration of
see the trademark pink box in the mail! Subscriptions are $10 a month; Birchbox.com.
Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz features the illustrations of Olimpia Zagnoli, a quirky Italian artist who often collaborates with The New York Times,The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Taschen and many others. She lives in Milan in a house with kaleidoscopic floors. We love this new spin on a classic tale! The Rockport Classics
B e t t e r P r e p a r e d Another Kickstarter-funded project—that raised a record-breaking
Reimagined version of
$100K in 24 hours—is Hello Ruby, a children’s book by tech pioneer Linda Liukas. She spent
The Wonderful Wizard
the last three years teaching programming and making the world of technology more ap-
of Oz is available at QBook-
proachable through her non-profit, RailsGirls.com and working at Codecademy. Motto: Teach
Shop.com for $25.
them young and often! Hardcover and e-book versions available from $20 at HelloRuby.com. www.skirt.com october
2014 21
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22 october
2014 www.skirt.com
2014
Photo by Molly Harrell
october
Maria Fabrizio | Headline Artist
In early 2013, Maria challenged herself to illustrate one news story every day and post it on a blog. Twenty-two months later, Wordless News has proven to be good news for her career as an illustrator and graphic artist. “It’s really helped my business. I’ve seen a lot of personal growth in my process. And it’s been a good way for me to learn about the world,” Maria says. Her work day starts early at her home in Columbia, where she scans the headlines for inspiration. “Every morning, it’s a gamble for sure,” she says. One of the ways it’s paid off is in her new base of national clients, which includes NPR. After doing a story about her, NPR hired Maria to create illustrations to accompany its news. Her blog, in the meantime, has expanded from a handful of followers to thousands. You can find her work at wordlessnews.com.
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2014 23
2014
Photo by J.M. Sullivan
october
Kristen Smith | Space of Her Own
“Since I was very little, I knew I wanted to do something artistic,” Kristen says. She taught herself illustration by drawing her favorite comic book characters over and over as a kid, and took every graphic design and art class available in high school. “I was lucky enough to be exposed to a lot of mediums that other kids were not,” she says. Now at 28 years old, Kristen has built a successful graphic design business creating just about anything design-related, specializing in illustration and stationery. She loves how design rewards her for inventing and imagining inside her own head, and can’t imagine doing anything different. “It’s so much a part of who I am,” she says. Her work is available at kris10smith.com, and she’s part of the Minted.com online design community. Locally, Kristen has been a part of efforts to connect local makers and build community within a predominantly freelance field, opening the Flourish workspace at 1141 Broad Street downtown with several other creatives. “There’s an amazing creative community here, and I feel really fortunate to have that,” she says. “I feel beyond grateful, every single day.”
24 october
2014 www.skirt.com
2014
HE’S SO ORIGINAL
Photo by J.M. Sullivan
october
Rickey Jones | The Mod Prep
Georgia Regents University sophomore Rickey Jones wants to be a global fashion name someday, but for now he’s happy bringing fashion to his hometown. At GRU he has founded Fashion Forward, a student organization aimed at bringing fashion to a more diverse audience in an inclusive way. “Fashion is not some pretentious thing, it’s for everyone,” Rickey says. He found his love of all things fashion at 16 when his grandmother insisted on teaching him how to sew. He wound up loving it, and dove head-first into the world of fashion and designers and couture. Now he writes on his blog TheModPrep.com as well as designing and creating clothing for friends, family and customers.“It does something really, really good to my heart to see someone wearing something I designed,” he says.After college, Rickey plans on further launching himself as a brand.After that, the sky is the limit.“My dream would be to get that call from Anna Wintour, and be included in the September Vogue.”
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2014 25
october
Nikki McCray-Penson Basketball Coach, Olympic Gold Medalist, Former WNBA Star, Columbia, SC
5 Things That Describe Me:
5 Favorite Things:
1. Disciplined
1. Singing
2. High Energy
2. Ice Skating
3. Cancer Survivor
3. Four-leaf Clovers
4. Team Player
4. My Faith
5. Giver
5. Being a Mom
Photo by Molly Harrell
“Three things you can control: Your attitude, how you treat people, and how hard you work!”
26 october
2014 www.skirt.com
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www.skirt.com october
2014 27
28 october
2014 www.skirt.com
2014
october
Carry a Moleskine, preferably black. Wear a scarf at all times. Stare off into space. Often. Silently judge email fonts. Work. That. Messy. Updo.
Spark Notes for Non Creative Types.
Get a word tattoo. In Latin. Shop: All Etsy, all the time. Only black coffee. Daydream, a lot. Short nails, dark nail polish. Pin magazine tear-outs to your bulletin board. Warby Parker frames, even if you have 20/20 vision. Name drop your “work in progress.” Change “experience” on your resume to “body of work.” Blackwing pencils are so retro cool. Suffer (theoretically) for your art.
30 october
2014 www.skirt.com