Mark Pointer - undefined magazine Book 1

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8502-A Two Notch Road Columbia, SC 29223 803.736.0415

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undefined : Book One : January - February - March 2008

features:

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Jennifer Hill Christian Thee Fashion Rocks Columbia Jeremy Carter A New Home for Our Nick Scotty Peek Bob Allison Her/My Family (tie two) detail : Scotty Peek : page 50

Jerry Stover

profiles:

essays: 16 : Frank Martin : Art, Culture and Community Identity 22 : Dan Everett : The Art of Escape 69 : Lisa Holland : How We Live

14 : Anna Redwine 20 : Mike Krajewski & Justice Littlejohn 54 : Les Hall

dialogue: 56 : Featured Gallery : CityArt 57 : Passion Into Profit : Perry Lancaster & Allen Stephenson 62 : Caroline Lewis : Contemporary Dance 70 : William Starrett : Columbia City Ballet

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13 : painted violins 59 : consumptional art 68 : wood you?

78 : mundane or extraordinary?

www.beundefined.com These pages are the labor of many talented hands, from writing, design and editing, to sales and marketing. We encourage you to contact us with any feedback or story ideas at our website. Please support the artists, your community leaders and advertisers. For advertising information please contact Lesley Hoskins at 803.337.6712 or lesley@beundefined.com undefined magazine is copyrighted and may not be reproduced in any manner, in whole or in part, without the publisher's written permission.

Write us at: undefined Magazine 709 Woodrow Street : 322 : Columbia, SC 29205 803.233.3796 Š2008 All Rights Reserved undefined : book one

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Alexis Geiter : alexis.geiter@gmail.com

the crowd 1. David Wright : Editor A graduate of Furman University with a B.A. in Sociology, David is an accomplished musician, avid wood-worker, and ever-attempting perfectionist. His talent, personal insights, and addiction to the written (and spoken) word are self-evident in this publication.

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2. Lesley Hoskins : Marketing/Sales Lesley has a double major in European Studies-History and Literature and has traveled the globe extensively. Originally from California, she calls Columbia home after 16 years in the area. “It's so exciting to finally be working for a publication that has local content and real value for this community.”

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3. Frank C. Martin, II : Writer Writer, curator, art historian, and critic of visual culture, Frank Martin, is a member in good standing of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA: Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art) based in Paris. His current projects include contributions to a forthcoming publication organized

by Harvard University and the Oxford University Press pertaining to biographies of artists of the African diaspora.

4. Melissa Spivey : Graphic Designer Melissa Spivey is a graduate of U.S.C.'s School of Journalism. Born and raised in Columbia, she has always been passionate about art, design and her hometown. Doing graphic design for undefined encompasses them all, so she can have her cake and eat it too!

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5. Jenny Maxwell : Writer Eons ago, Jenny Maxwell moved to Columbia to work at WIS-TV and attend USC. Her professor James Dickey urged her to leave her job, “bag groceries and write poetry full-time.”

Maxwell passed, viewing this as the only career move that could actually pay less than television. She eventually did leave WIS—to work as an independent writer, producer, and director. Presently, she is also editor of a local women’s magazine and recently completed a documentary for SCETV.

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6. Brad Allen : Photojournalist You can always tell when a person loves what they do for a living. Photography is a passion for Brad Allen. His modern approach and timeless style come from blending the best traditional photographic methods with cutting edge digital techniques. From commercial work to portraiture, Brad Allen creates dynamic images with personality and style.

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photography: Brad Allen

Mark Pointer : Designer/Publisher This is a dangerous undertaking. I am a little nervous. Art is, of course, many things to many people; it stirs up passion like few other things in life. We are striving for the “healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude” that my favorite college professor used to preach. You may agree or disagree with some of the topics covered in this issue, but I am proud to have assembled it – by, with, and at-the-side-of a remarkable team of talent.

This journey to uncover the multiple layers of Columbia’s established and emerging cultural visionaries has been an expected joy-ride that I know will encourage, enlighten, and engage our readership. Supporting the growth and new economic development of this city, on any scale, is to be commended; and We, the staff and writers, feel privileged to have interviewed and profiled just a small sampling of artists and residents that truly care for – and are nurturing – this city’s cultural potential.

Undefined – a concept born in 2005, actualized into action just over a month ago. Now a tangible reality for all, it makes its official debut into the hands of You, our Reader.

Thanks for being here. Enjoy.

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the crowd 7. Tony Lee : Musician Extraordinare Tony Lee graduated from the University of South Carolina and promptly moved to Los Angeles, CA. He returned to Columbia to tour the country with a rock band. After stints in the golf and insurances industries, he now teaches private drum lessons as well as maintaining an active playing career with several local acts. You’ll see him out eventually. Talk to him.

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8. Shayna Katzman : Writer Shayna Katzman was born in London, England where she lived and worked prior to returning to her Southern roots in Columbia. Shayna graduated The University of London with a BA, with Honors, in Art History and Anthropology, while working at the top end of the retail market including Tiffany & Co, Jimmy Choo, before landing a job at Modus Publicity. Shayna is currently free-lance writing and working as a PR and Communications Specialist.

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9. Katie McElveen : Writer Writer Katie McElveen was mesmerized by Christian Thee and Bruce Bahr’s home. “Like Christian’s artwork, the house revealed itself in layers,” she says. “Around every corner there was another surprise just waiting to be discovered.” Her work has appeared in Real Simple, Southern Living and Modern Bride.

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10. Lisa Holland : Writer Lisa Holland, Ph.D., has a doctorate in psychology and is a licensed marriage and family therapist. Her practice, Holland Heart, uses cognitive therapy to help clients manage specific emotions that affect heart health.

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11. Kasi Koshollek : Photojournalist Photojournalist, Kasi Koshollek, has been a photographer for over nine years. She has worked for several magazines and newspapers in both her home state of Wisconsin and in South Carolina. Kasi earned a bachelors degree from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 2004, where she studied journalism. She currently owns her own business KasiMya Photo located in Columbia.

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12. Jennifer Reese : Writer Jenny is a graduate from the The University of Georgia with a degree in magazine journalism and a minor in art history. Her experience in media includes print and television work, but her true zeal lies in critical writing. In her free time, Jenny enjoys cooking, painting, playing soccer, movies and television about disillusioned characters, Trivial Pursuit, pranks, zombie flicks, Star Wars and Dynamite Cabernet.

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photography: Brad Allen

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editor’s statement “Anything short of libel or pornography – those are our only parameters. It just has to be good.”

- Mark Pointer I have been given the task of helping to build a new magazine from nothing but an idea. With the exception of some freelance editing, I’ve never in my life attempted anything like this before.

But when presented with the opportunity and asked if I would like to help construct it, there was not a single moment’s hesitation. Not a second. Because I instantly knew: a) The necessity for what we have in mind; and b) How enjoyable it would be to put together, in every respect.

Thinking about it now, though, it’s not really a “task” - if you consider that word to be a specific “given”, something that falls within a provided set of guidelines, something asked of you that has implied demands to fit within a certain set of boundaries. So, in essence, I wasn’t given a task at all. I was given the kind of free reign most writers dream about – the tabula rasa of assignments. So long as the chosen content is founded in Truth, and uninvolved with the more base aspects of the human condition, “we can do anything we want”. Great. I can work with that.

Thanks.

However: “It just has to be good” is a bit more daunting. As parameters go, that’s got to be the most difficult achievement that any of us can hope for in the things that we choose to do – or the things that we feel compelled to do. So this is where it gets tough. And this is where it’s gotten tough for all of the individuals involved with this magazine – the struggle to attain Excellence.

Now I have the freest of reins, but the somewhat intimidating (non)-task of producing.

That said, most of the individuals featured herein were hand-picked in less than an hour which goes to show that Columbia is in no way lacking talent. More time was spent choosing the actual paper we were going to print it upon. Not just the content, but the medium itself has to be exceptional.

In our opinion, which we are hoping you will respect and appreciate - Talent of this caliber just hasn’t, to now, had the proper platform to be showcased. And this is the very reasoning behind what you are reading.

So, as eclectic as this is – as seemingly different as these people may appear – there is a commonality: They have a dedication to Excellence at whatever cost, and an obsessive attention to detail and perfection within their chosen field, discipline, or craft. An outstanding passion for their art. A compulsion to create better-than-the-rest. An original and perceptive take on the world around them. Whether you want to call it a “talent”, or a “gift”: it is really simply the unwavering compulsion, and a honing over time, to maintain truth, quality, and integrity in the things they do. And in our opinion, these represent the best of the best. Those who take the most raw of materials – be they physical, intellectual, or a combination of the two – and make them their own.

Whatever you do – if you sculpt glass, play cello, or grow vegetables; make wine, beer, or bread; build guitars, chairs, or stone fireplaces – Whatever. If you do it well, and consistently, and to the best of your ability, then you belong Here, among others who share the same level of passion.

And it is our intention to produce as high-quality a magazine as we are capable of providing.

With neither fluff nor filler. A medium that is as solid and outstanding as the individuals represented within.

David Wright, Editor

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7 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7:

Paula Bowers Melissa Ligon Jennifer Hill Fran Gardner Lindsay Wiggins Billy Mustard Kristina Mandell

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What is becoming an annual rite-of-spring will once again take place in 2008 when 34 artists magically transform violins to raise money for the South Carolina Philharmonic.

The Philharmonic’s third annual Painted Violins fundraiser kicks off in March when 34 instruments – including violins, violas, and cellos – are displayed throughout the Vista.

Renowned artists were recruited from around the Midlands to transform the instruments into pieces of art of varied media by painting them, featuring them in sculpture, or decorating them in whatever way the artist was inspired. In addition to being displayed separately throughout the Vista, the violins will be showcased together twice: for a previewshow at the Vista’s City Art Gallery on April 3; and during the Philharmonic’s last Master Series concert of the season at the Koger Center on April 5th.

The Philharmonic will accept bids at the City Art preview show, at the April 5th concert, and at the SCP office suite at 1237 Gadsden Street in the Vista. All proceeds will benefit the SCP. Sponsors for the 2008 Painted Violins are: Congaree Vista Guild, Stentor Violins, Star Music, Mustard Graphics Studio, photographer Les Stringer, Scene Weaver, City Art, Dupre/Dukes Catering, and Musician Supply.

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profile

anna redwine

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once spent an afternoon with Anna Redwine at the Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden, attempting to draw the colorful perennials in the Annual Display of Plants. Anna, a New Orleans native and a student in the Masters in Fine Arts program at the University of South Carolina at the time, brought an arsenal of colored pastels, pencils, and variously shaped canvases. She thoughtfully spread them out on the warm brick, and helped me hunt for images to represent.

A total amateur, I struggled with perfecting shades and lines in a muddled mess, all the while wondering what concerned her – how she saw the bountiful Southern Magnolias and the intricate Gloriosa Lilies; how ridiculous she thought my disproportionate rose drawing was. No matter how silly I felt or how horrible I audibly berated myself for my lack of talent, she made me feel like I was Monet at Giverny. After seeing her body of work – which has exhibited in Columbia and New York City – I realized that she meant every ounce of encouragement she spilled.

She was just as ardently trying to see the landscape through my eyes and to identify with my world.

Simultaneously, she was capturing the perspective of the life in that garden as if she was a part of it.

“If I have to choose one rule, it’s to do my best to inhabit the experience of other things and other people,” said Anna, who is now on staff at USC’s Walker Institute of International and Area Studies. “When I see a butterfly, for instance, it’s not just that I think about what it’s physically like to have wings, but to have a lifespan that has x amount of days, or to live in just one small area of land; I think about how that refreshes my experience and then I go back to my life and I appreciate it for my face value.”

That rule inspired “Anna Redwine: Life in One Breath,” and “April Drawings,” exhibited at 80808/Vista Studios in October 2006 and April 2007, respectively. Influenced by her studies of Asian art and her work with Czech painter Pavel Rouchka in Frauenau, Germany, these carbon renderings on 24 x 28 inch birch panels almost entomologically represent single moments in the existence of small animals and insects.

“I complete each drawing in a minute or two as I’m watching the animal— they’re strictly from life,” she explains on her website, www.annaredwine.com. “When text: Emily Boyle photography: Kasi Koshollek

the animal moves, so do the marks I make. If the animal leaves the drawing is over. In East Asian calligraphy this approach of creating a work of art in one sitting, never to work back into it is referred to as painting in ‘one breath.’

Truth be told, Anna doesn’t spend much time at botanical gardens like the one we toured for our “artist’s day” – a term she respectfully coined more for my benefit than hers. She waits for her subjects to come to her.

“The most interesting experiences are something that happens inside (my house),” she said. “If there’s a spider in the sink, I don’t want to kill it or have it bite me … or watching a tiny, tiny insect on my arm and realizing that my arm is its habitat.”

While human relationships with nature will always be part of her scope, Anna said she is shifting towards a focus on “the wonderful world of people.” Like the mosquitoes and ladybugs that have fortuitously landed on her wrists, some of those people have also found her.

Sligh Films recently commissioned Anna to draw original artwork for the film “The Four Children of Tander Welch,” the story of a hospice worker charged with locating the three daughters of Welch, his ailing patient. The colorless, images (also displayed on her website) capture the heavy introspection of the subjects, who are grappling with the decision of whether or not to connect with their estranged and dying father.

Anna’s portrayal of Rebecca, one of the daughters, is particularly stunning. A carbon on panel drawing of a young woman perched sideways on an armchair with an ignored book on her lap, pensively staring into nothing for answers, exhibits Anna’s ability to identify with the many human conditions. That is no easy task, whether it’s for people or animals.

“During the best drawing experiences, I feel in my own joints the way their bodies move and I am able to predict decisions they make as they interact with their environment,” she explained to 80808/Vista Studios Curator Wim Roefs for the “Life in One Breath” exhibition catalogue. “At these times I view the animal with empathy as another living thing. In Costa Rica I was taught the phrase, sort of a national motto, “!Pura vida!” Pure life. That’s my ambition in art.”

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I

and its most compelling manifestations are often in the creative realm of “Art” and “art.”

What is Art/art? Capital “A” Art suggests the “high cultural” creative endeavors with a principal function of unique expression both personal and cultural, often exhibiting profound intellectual motivations, and engaging elevated emotional powers of communicative viability. Small “a” art is really the creative crafts and artistry of trade and commercial exchange, into which category, much popular cultural work may be consigned (by whom? Well…let’s not go into that topic just at the moment…).

These separations are constantly being challenged in our democratic culture, and rightly so, because what is more indicative as an indicator of democratic freedom than aesthetic expression.? Afterall..”beauty” is in the proverbial beholder’s “eye,” making it (“beauty”) a sadly capricious, completely unreliable, and utterly subjective entity…essentially a reflection of the human perceivers who seek it out.

For instance, what, exactly, is “Art” (or “art”) in South Carolina? What is Art in Columbia? Does A/art matter to our society? If so why and how? The inaugural issue of undefined…is a new tool which may be utilized to investigate the nuances of these questions which undergird significant social and cultural issues pertaining to quality of life, our sense of community, and that elusive incoherence of public consciousness, our collective intellectual awareness (Yes, there is such a thing as our “collective intellectual awareness”…in fact that is pre-

s Art what it used to be? Of course this question is rhetorical… its answer is both “yes” and “no.” The meaning of “art” and the continuing development of the Western-Euro-centrist concept of “Art” (capital “A” and small “a”) upon which a consideration such as this one is predicated, varies with every generation, as well it should, particularly in a democratic society. If, while reading this essay, the perfectly reasonable question of “Why must the meaning of A/art change?” was thrust upon your inner conversation, don’t be alarmed. The answer is quite straight forward. The multiple purposes of A/art in our culture reflect the transformations of the culture itself, and a dynamic, functional democracy must constantly change in order to adjust to the transitions of the society it supports.

Consequently, our A/art today cannot be exactly like any A/art of the past, even when we intentionally and self-consciously imitate, emulate, venerate, and contemplate the past, we are still outside of its circumstances and context. We must originate our own specific A/art of our particular historical moment. Stasis is not really an option, here. This is not necessarily true of other cultures, where canonical traditions mitigate the need for constant innovation. In a dynamic, capitalist, democracy, we must, in other words, remain…”undefined…”

However, our saving paradox is that we are compelled to search for “definitions” of our undefined intellectual, cultural, and aesthetic identities, even as they evolve beyond our immediate grasp. This can be uncomfortable if we fail to realize the value of this self-critical process, undefined : book one

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cisely what is expressed through the politics of aesthetics, in public monuments, in museum collections, in public architecture, through neighborhood beautification (or neglect)…even in the political processes of how we discern, understand and acknowledge our elected public officials.

Many other factors intervene of course, but our collective sense of aesthetics have a powerful influence which sometimes supersedes our awareness of rational truth…for example George Bush and John Kennedy were both elected in large part because of a mastery of communicative aesthetics and an ability to elicit empathy from a large number of spectators, in one instance even when the object of observation made less sense than his opponent ( I will of course refrain from citing which instance I am suggesting and will, with a consummate diplomacy leave the reader to assign Richard Nixon, Al Gore, or John Kerry as the losing rational presence).

Consequently, public arts education, and the discursive interactions that community arts are intended to engender, have quite a direct impact on crucial interpretive phenomena for our contemporary society such as determining our levels of media literacy, or engaging and sustaining our individual and social critical thinking skills, and responses to creativity.

In an age where the proliferation of images surpasses anything known to human consciousness from the past, the inevitable issues of quality, value, and excellence have become much more compelling cultural questions with new challenges that did not plague our ancestors even in the quite recent past? How are we preparing ourselves and our successors to assess concepts of cultural quality? How does the hegemonic domination of technological and scientific interpretations of phenomena unbalance the awareness of spiritual, intuitive and irrational aspects of human consciousness?

We are forced to call the conventions of our lives into question through the exigent critique of the status quo social order by our artists of every description. Art/art is crucial to our awareness of our own humanity, and in order to appreciate mediocrity, goodness, and greatness, or the opposites of these conceptual realities, the ideas discussed around issues of aesthetics are essential to developing axiological “fitness.”

This concept of a kind of “muscular” intellectual inquiry process becomes increasingly important as the sources of our information become increasingly obscure, thanks to the advancements of technology and the spawning of infinite information sources on the world wide web of dubious motivation, reliability, and accuracy. This is not a condemnation of enhanced accessibility to information, on the contrary, this essay encourages the acceptance of increased complexity, but the cautiously cynical power of caveat emptor (“let the buyer beware”) has never been more necessary and appropriate. Skepticism is the post-modern companion of choice, but we cannot ignore idealism and that frightened guardian of “purity”….the dreadfully assailed concept of “innocence.”

Such words seem almost out of place in contemporary culture, but are, again in a paradox, more necessary now than ever before as the world realizes its inter-dependant reality with ever-increasing urgency (note the global causality equations of world financial markets, the universal impact of climate change, and the intensity of geo-political activities that affect our daily lives shaping our access to oil, rice, sugar, various foods and, that most important resource, potable water….).

What do all of these things have to do with A/art? Simply this, many of our perceptions of our shared realities are mediated through responses

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processes than any actual answers we may encounter in to A/art. Our favorite song may make us aware of politiour journey. cal or spiritual shifts. Our favorite painting, sculpture, What rationale can we provide for the incredible arroperformance or poem may have transformed our attigance of an A/art critic’s assumption that his or her opintudes concerning politics, abortion, gender identificaion is of any value to anyone besides him or herself? tion, or race. A/art is ‘life’ and vice-versa. In the future Do we, as a society in North America, in the United this column will seek to explore questions concerning States, in South Carolina, and in Columbia, need “sericommunity, art and culture. Is Art an “intention” more ous” or even “silly” art criticism? than a “destination” ? Often it may be both, and then, It cannot feed the hungry. It will not rehabilitate the both simultaneously! Art is not merely the thing we perinfamous “corridor of shame.” So what “good” is criticizceive and its process, it may also well be considered ing a lot of “A/art/” in any case? If we need it, what exacteverything implied in or through the creation and comly do we need it for? Well, first of all, what will happen pletion of an A/art object or performance, or manifestahere will probably be less A/art criticism than A/art advotion of a phenomenon, and all of the co-extant things to cacy. Why? What is the difference? which those things may allude. We will not apologize A/art criticism is in a here for addressing comform of theoretical crisis in plexity.

Western culture in general, Complexity is a reality of because A/art may be perhuman consciousness, and ceived in certain incarnaalthough we may enter tions as a form of externalinto a futile struggle to ized Philosophy. How can “understand” the diverse we critique a system of manifestations of A/art, communication devised we believe that the effort from a unique human made, and its potential experience? results are well worth the The answer is, “Very cauchallenges that will ensue. tiously.” The role of A/art Through offering a criticism in society has process by which we may been equated by one writer begin looking at contemin the past, with the role of porary art and culture, and good plumbing; i.e. sysdiscussing ideas and issues tematically and efficiently with contemporary artists, identifying waste and prothinkers, writers, cultural viding a means for its disworkers and others, we posal and simultaneously may ask questions such as, drawing in clean, life-giv“What does our society ing water without conflatneed contemporary art to ing the two. do and how can we faciliThis maybe a bit hypertate getting it done?” bolic, however, the intenOf course such question toward A/art advocacy tions may be completely will be centered on shapirrelevant to the artists ing or opening a dialogue and the works we may with the public, with aspire to consider. artists and with cultural However, human beings Martin and one of his favorite books. workers and other contribthrive not only on inspirautors to our society contion, but also on agitation. cerning their ideas, aims and dreams for the culture we Our minds, contemplative by design, are capable of share and their ability to understand how individual and transforming not only our individual personal realities, public artistic expression help transform, articulate and but may devise the means of affecting our fellow wayfarshape the values of a community. ers on the small, cerulean orb, third from the Sun, where As an individual identified as a “critic” and as the we formulate our questions on the nature of “reality” writer of this short essay, I clearly have a vested interest and ‘being”. Questions which may be more about our in responding to this question, and I have elected to own individual maturation and evolutionary intellectual

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Politics and art are complementary and interdependent, consequently in order to better understand the culture of Columbia, we must look first and foremost to the strength of her cultural institutions. These will indicate her democratic health and relevance and tell us all we need to know about the openness or insularity of her society. Thus our attitude toward and collective expression of A/art is in some sense our destiny, even our fate as a democracy because of the character of its public dialogue which externalizes cultural and social values with a directness matched by few other cultural institutions, including our traditions of free press and political debate.

Constraints on artistic expression will indicate for our society precisely those challenges to free thought and personal expressiveness that are most likely to provide cautionary indicators to the protectors of the fragile spirit of American individualism so dear to the conceptualists whose sacrifices provide a foundation and guideline for our future.

The interpretative skills and critical discourse necessary to sustain a responsible grasp of a meaningful concept of “freedom” is sustained by the creative, intellectual, spiritual and expressive zeitgeist of our cultural products and processes. We must nurture and cultivate them in order for them to inspire and elevate us.

address it, offering the position that critical assessment and its discourse are crucial to human and humane development, even when, or especially when polemical, because people are social, and communicative creatures, whose brains thrive on stimulation, the processes of evaluation, and our ability to form judgments make us human. Critical assessments, built upon empirical observation, research, and consensus, are based largely upon trust and reputation, often formulated in highly volatile-political climates, and such judgments are notoriously ephemeral, must be subject to personal bias, and are ultimately completely subjective.

But it is the meaning between the individual meanings that creates the dialogue of importance. This does not make them any less fun of course! And silly art criticism is an important aspect of aesthetic inquiry.

Humor often permits a level of candor which would be completely unacceptable in a ‘serious’ critique.

Consequently, some tongue-in-cheek humor may insinuate its way into future cerebral peregrinations across the printed page.

So, in summary, in building a sense of community, A/art and ideology are virtually inseparable; whether we think of the Great Pyramids of ancient Egypt, or early 20th century German Machtkunst (Power Art) of the National Socialist Party, A/art defines a culture’s historical presence.

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mike krajewski & justice littlejohn

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rtists have been collaborating for centuries, meeting in the middle with their ideas, techniques and philosophies.

Justice Littlejohn and Michael Krajewski are doing more than meeting in the middle, they seem to have the same thoughts. Through some unexplained painters’ telepathy, the pair join forces in mind and material to create multitiered collaborative works, each teeming with both allusion and innovation. “We feed off each other,” Krajewski said. The unspoken connection between Littlejohn and Krajewski extends beyond creative direction; “ I felt the familiarity in his work,” Krajewski said after attending one of Littlejohn’s art shows. “It only felt natural to work together.” Now that the two have been, as Littlejohn said, “collabin’” for two years, their pieces are virtually undetectable as a marriage of techniques. “I think we both have our own styles,” Krajewski said, but “It’s harmonious,” the duo said in unison.

Laid back and impetuous, Littlejohn and Krajewski rely on impromptu inspiration. Their self-proclaimed “unmeditated style” is reminiscent of Miró’s controversial process and evident when finished paintings are titled on the corner of Devine Street and impulse. “Sometimes we’ll be out at a bar and one of us will just say, let’s go sling some paint,” Krajewski said. “Usually we’re just freestyling.”

Organized chaos is their style, with pieces containing references to collage, still-life, Cubism, Fauvism and Pop Art, to name a few. In addition to the collaboration between the artists, Littlejohn and Krajewski unite the history of art with original vision. Littlejohn, with a degree in art history from Wofford and a Master of Arts in Teaching degree for art education from USC, presents palpable knowledge through allusion to the artists of the past. Self-taught Krajewski brings a fresh, almost unadulterated point of view to the team, setting the table for a collaboration between formalism and pure conception. “The philosophy is as important as the painting,” Littlejohn said.

Littlejohn and Krajewski cite few creative differences, but are open to criticism, constructive or not. “We’ll be straight brutally honest,” Krajewski said. It is this honesty that keeps the work cohesive, what Krajewski described as a willingness to be open, rather than so typically private, about art. “Sometimes you gotta get your toes stepped on,” Littlejohn said. “The comfort factor shows in the art.”

Yet to formally debut their collaborative works, Columbia art lovers should expect to see pieces like Thomas Ravenel’s Dinner Party (complete with cocaine hors d’oeuvres), Inertia (what Krajewski called a “refreshing” still life) and the Gauguinesque Touchy Subject on display soon.

text: Jennifer Reese photography: Brad Allen

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the art of escape Our man in Shanghai (and Kuwait, and Sri Lanka, and Bali...)

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the cosmos.” More from the mystery DJ, “Shake your butt super smooth party people test test test.”

That experience is a great example of why I love living overseas. Too many highlights to share them all, but here’s a few: Touring the Grand Mosque of Kuwait and hearing the prayers sung inside the worship area, rolling leeches off my legs during a rain forest hike in Sri Lanka, making hard boiled eggs inside volcano steam vents in Bali, and hiking remote dilapidated sections of the Great Wall with my son on my back. Living overseas has afforded me many adventures, and I am thankful.

I am a School Counselor, trained in the Carolinas. I began working in Avery, Caldwell & Watauga Counties of NC for a few years. My degrees at Furman & Appalachian State University prepared me well, but I was ill-prepared for the debt I had incurred.

Stunned by a School Counselor’s monthly salary, I broke out my mental abacus.

I calculated that I would be 173 years old when I sent in my final student loan payment. Also, that year, End-Of-Grade Testing was in its early stages; the “No Child Left Behind” was starting to rear its ugly head. So, I began to research international education opportunities. I had no idea how

ying on the floor of a Holiday Inn conference room in Kuwait City, I attempt to make the boundaries of my body dissolve. Dr. Shetty, the leader of the Natyananda Meditation Club, weaves his way through the scores of bodies as he speaks into his cordless microphone.

His thick Indian accent softly guides us through our meditation: “You are relaxing…notice your breathing…now feel your body expanding…all of the peoples and buildings inside your body…the whole country is inside you now.”

At this point, I am starting to become one with the building and I can feel Kuwait inside me and, wait a minute!

What’s that static? Who’s voice is that? “TEST, TEST, TEST. More on the bass. "Shake-a-Shake-a-Shake-a 107.9 hits!" A couple of chuckles around the room, but the sound system seamlessly snaps back to Dr. Shetty’s comforting voice: “…the whole globe is inside you…you are enormous…feel it, feel it now.” The room is silent once more, and I fade away. Until the DJ’s voice bursts the silence: “Super sounds 107.9 shake your butt. Shake it.

Can you turn up the treble?” Dr. Shetty is unfazed, and continues: “You are seeing now the stars of the galaxies!

Feel how huge and enormous you are. You are at one with

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text: Dan Everett

much that one Saturday afternoon on the internet would Your day has come and gone. Perhaps you can apply at the change the course of my life. Up until that day, I was only Wal Mart after you file for bankruptcy? I hear they’re lookaware of teaching English overseas, and did not realize the ing for some help. You, your son, and his son could work extensive opportunities that private international schools 39 hours per week as Greeters. Find your own benefits, provide. This is my ninth year working as an Elementary Joe. You’re a part-time employee now. But, hey, Wal Mart School Counselor in international schools. My overseas has brought many jobs to your community. So has Bed, journey started in Kuwait in 1999, and continues today in Bath & Beyond…The Gap…Old Navy. It may be hard to Shanghai, China. find your community now, as you may mistake it for the Missing out on my family’s and friends’ day-to-day lives one down the road. But…here’s an idea, Joe. In twenty has been the hardest part of my overseas life. The internet years, re-open your hardware store and call it this: “Joe’s makes it easier, as well as 8 weeks off in the summers, but Old-Timey Hardware Store: A Fully Functioning Handsthat is still the biggest challenge. Like many before me, I on Museum.” The kids will love it, but you may want to started my first job overseas and thought to myself, “I’ll consider teaming up with the golden arches. You’ll need just stay for my initial two-year contract, and then head something to bring in the patrons. back home. I’ll make a little cash, then get back to real Now at this point, I feel the need to apologize to you, the life.” After my first contract extension, people started askreader. I am prone to rants. I am really not that cynical. I ing me questions like: “So, when are you coming home?” love returning to the States. I love the ease of getting Which to me, sometimes things done. I love the onesounded like: “So, when are stop shopping. I love the air you going to stop avoiding real quality, the water quality, the life and grow up?” Then, I met green space. And if I am ever my wife from Nova Scotia, in in need of specialized medical Kuwait. And we had our first care, guess where I’ll be headchild in Shanghai. Most have ing? It’s just that I see Ronald stopped asking when I’m comMcDonald and Starbucks and ing home. I am home. I have all the rest. I see what they’re many homes. doing. They are slowly spreadLiving away from the States ing their tentacles around this has given me a different perglobe of ours. And soon, I’ll spective on many things. I have to travel to Bhutan or remember coming back after 9 New Guinea for a taste of an Chasing a camel in Kuwait months away one year. I went authentic culture. Maybe I to the supermarket to pick up should look on the bright side? some shampoo. I remember standing in the aisle, staring, In the not too distant future, when China enjoys its place for quite possibly 15 minutes. Someone finally approached at the top of the economic heap, we Americans can have me and asked if I was OK, to which I think I replied, “So the last laugh. many kinds!” At that point, they just walked away quickly We can chuckle to ourselves and say, “Hey China! You and assumed I’d escaped from Bull Street. may have surpassed us in financial & military might, but This story highlights what I notice most now when I we got you China. We sold you our golden arches. You return home. The intensity of our consumer culture may have worked hard to develop your country, but we astounds me every time I’m back. Advertisements inunhooked your kids on Big Macs. And now, we can sit back date us at every turn. I can’t believe how many…billand watch them all become obese, develop Type II boards, radio, TV, and magazines. I understand the corpoDiabetes, and squander what this generation of yours has rations have moved into our elementary schools as well. It achieved.” was only a matter of time. Everything seems to be cenIt happened again. I told you I was prone to ranting. My tered around buying things. We must have 342 choices for point is, that I see others trying to emulate our lifestyle. each thing we buy. We must have these things available to You are successful if you own a car, a house, and all the us immediately. We are entitled to these things. After all, rest. If the same percentage of people in Asia consumed as this is America. Screw Joe’s Hardware and his third generwe do…well, there’s a sentence I can’t finish. It’s simply ation small business. At the Super Wal Mart, I can get not possible. It’s not sustainable. Something’s gotta give. much more than a screwdriver, Joe. I can pick up deodorAs long as it’s not me doing the giving. As long as I’m ant, pickles, some underwear, and a birthday card. Joe still allowed to continue flying around the world. My globdoesn’t even have his own parking lot. Good luck, Joe. al nomad lifestyle requires copious amounts of jet fuel.

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profile

Imagine Strawberry Shortcake had a really bad hair day... and enter the world of Jennifer Mae Hill.

“What I make is inspired loosely by my childhood. I loved My Little Pony and Care Bears. This is a strange mutation of that, the adult version.” Hill has been taking sweet-faced toys apart and re-inventing them since she was a teenager. Now, after years of waiting tables then assembling her sock oddities, plush animals, and dolls late into the night—her work is getting noticed.

“I’m an acquired taste, but there are people out there who like it.”

text: Jenny Maxwell

photography: Kasi Koshollek

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ne of them is director Zach Helm, who selected therapeutic for people. That includes myself. I make things JennyMae Creations for the movie Mr. Magorium’s I would like to have.”

Wonder Emporium, the story of a magical toy store Jenny may have stories in mind for these characters, but starring Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman. The movie’s she keeps them to herself. “I like it when people give them art department found Hill’s website (jennymae.com) and their own story. One woman’s is her co-pilot in her car. showed her designs to Helm. But they left her off the final People email me the stories. I wouldn’t want to take that list of toy suppliers for the away.” film.

Her creativity extends “The director said, beyond inspired stuffed ‘Where’s the girl who creatures. She creates colmakes the freaky stuff out lages and voodoo dolls. of socks?’”

On her worktable is a potSo, Hill was back in. A ted plant she’s making lucky break but not an easy from mismatched doll assignment. “They wanted parts. “It’s so hard to 40 the next day. I said explain when people ask whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a what I do. You should hear minute. That’s not much me blabber on, trying to time. They said ‘we can explain.” give you a week.’”

The tiny voodoo dolls, Jennifer sews each of her packaged in their own plush dolls by hand. “I wooden boxes complete worked day and night.” with pins, have a following Then, the movie requestin Great Britain. “A little ed replicas of the same 40 store called The Twilight dolls, so that they could be Zone sells these. I sell painted gray. “Thankfully, many of them in England I took pictures of everyfor some reason.” thing. But I had to tell The “two-headed I Love You doll” and Jenny, among friends.

Hill sees herself as part them I can’t make them of a large community, identical, no matter how hard I try.” where artists connect to one anothJenny grew up in Chapin with an interest in theater and er’s websites. “If you find one of us, art. “I was making weird art all through high school. My it leads you to others.” mom was always supportive. In the beginning, I think it Missing in Columbia, she says, was unusual for my dad. When I got in this movie, he said is something like the Austin ‘oh my God, really?’”

Craft Mafia, “a group of women After high school, Hill attended a college theater prowho own these cool indie stores gram, but became frustrated, left school, moved back, and online.” In Columbia, she says, it’s started working at the Columbia Marionette Theater. more likely that visual artists “hole There, she met her husband Lyon Hill, the theater’s art up in their homes and work on their director. “I was very much inspired by him and the things own,” much as she does. he was making.”

Jenny’s own home is filled with Her first works were collages. Then, she picked up a kit items that inspire her. It resembles an and sewed a sock monkey for Lyon. That led her to play emporium—of dolls, art, and parts that around with stuffed toys. “I’d never sewn anything before. the house is near-bursting to contain.

Just six months ago, I learned to use the sewing machine.”

There are clouds painted on Commissions are an intersting part of Jenny’s work. the living room ceiling, mari“People give me fabric with sentimental value…an exonettes hanging in the back boyfriend’s t-shirt, a baby blanket falling apart.” She turns bedroom the couple uses as that fabric into characters like No Girl, the two-headed I their studio.

Love You doll, and Brokenhearted Goat. “They are very “We collect pop-up books,”

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Hill says, gesturing to a bookcase crammed full of them. A series of prints by Seonna Hong hang over the sofa. Jenny’s husband proposed to her on Disney’s Small World ride, because Mary Blair, the ride’s designer, is another of Hill’s favorite artists. She sets a laughing clown doll in motion. “He’s from a thrift store. He laughs a long time. It’s really scary. I had to own him.”

Jenny Mae’s tiny voodoo doll set. She sells the hell out of these in Britian.

“I’ve always loved Tim Burton. I’m a big fan of his for sure.” She’s drawn to art, she says, that “blurs the line between grotesque and scary and cute and pretty. I like that place.”

She realizes that’s not a place for everyone, that not every person is comfortable with her work. “If everyone loved them, they’d be way too general.”

When she sells her plush creatures at craft shows, which she describes as “the worst,” she says kids want to buy, “but I listen to their parents talk them out of it. Kids really do love them.”

Hill feels momentum building, aside from her movie debut. A December show at the Columbia Museum of Art was a success. She’s featured in the January issue of Fiberarts magazine. Her website is generating orders. “I have been doing this for seven years. It’s been a slow progression.”

In the works now is a new studio, going up behind her house. Meanwhile, she’d like to get her work into more stores and ultimately, have her late night projects become her day job.

“Waiting tables frees me up to do these creative things. I work five nights a week, usually late at night.

I do most of my work on the couch. I watch bad cable television and sew.”

“I never want to stop doing the handmade stuff. But to have this become a full-time business, stop waiting tables, that would be my dream.”

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St. 803.779.1811 1217 Lincoln S t. 803.7 779.1811 www.funkymonkeysc.com www w.funkymonkeyscc.com

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feature

christian thee By all measures, Columbia-based modern American artist Christian Thee has had a spectacular career. He’s painted sets for 25 Broadway shows, and designed 12 more. His mastery of the ancient art of trompe l’oeil — painting that fools the eye — is so well known that Donald Trump hired him to create a Persian mural for his Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, and Joan Rivers commissioned him to convert the foyer and a ceiling of her New York residence into works of art that transported viewers to another place.

In Connecticut, he turned a lowly elevator into a library with nothing more than a palette, a brush, and his instinctive ability to create depth where there is none, to create light where darkness ruled. Tiffany & Company used Christian’s work as a backdrop for the precious jewels on display in the windows of its legendary 5th Avenue store.

Even the British monarchy has been impressed by his talent: in 1981 Queen Elizabeth asked Christian to paint a portrait of Prince Andrew on his 21st birthday. Along the way he’s had numerous one-man shows and has been featured in Interior Design, House and Garden, Art in America and Town and Country magazines. Oh, and he’s also a magician so talented that David Copperfield performs a trick that he developed.

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The artist: Thee works on a large scale piece in his studio.

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ith such an immense and diverse body of work, it would seem logical to wonder if Christian Thee has a masterpiece.

Turns out he does, but you won’t find it hanging on a wall. That’s because it’s his home.

I couldn’t have been less correct. Like much of Thee’s work, the house unfolds like a perfectly-timed production, sharing its delights only when the time is right.

“The house is an extension of me,” says Thee as he gestures around a great room that glows the shade of a Tuscan sunset. “I looked around and got ideas and went to work.”

That was a few years ago. Thee had just returned to Columbia after more than 35 years in New York and Connecticut, back to design the set for a play that one of his dearest friends, Columbia advertising executive Cynthia Gilliam, was producing. “We’d just been through a winter with 17 snowstorms,” he recalls. “We hadn’t used the front door in months. Then Cynthia called. How could I resist?”

After searching for a house, he found one that, though stodgy on the inside, was on a lot that would allow for the expansion of a studio. Being on a lake didn’t hurt either. “I loved the lake location,” he says. “I knew I

Tucked behind a tangle of foliage, the house sits almost hidden from the street. There’s no view of the backyard from the driveway, no open garage door to offer a glimpse into who lives here. Stepping toward the front door, I even wondered for an instant if I was in the wrong place. But given Thee’s talent as a trompe l’oeil painter, his love of magic, and his playful spirit, I found myself expecting the home to resemble Willy Wonka’s wild Chocolate Factory: where doors led to crazy spaces or to nowhere at all, where windows could be real or imagined, and where innocent-looking light switches, when flicked on, might fill the room with sound.

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text: Katie McElveem

photography: Kasi Koshollek

could make the house wonderful.”

He has. Each room is a gallery of its own — a treasure-trove of stories and memories, of surprises and delights, that reveals itself layer-by-layer. The great room’s built-in bookcases, for instance, are filled not only with books and bric-a-brac, but with what look like tiny dioramas. On closer inspection, they are actually intricate models of some of the sets that Thee built during his time in New York, complete with tiny actors, props and architectural details that were faithfully recreated when the plays were performed and lighted professionally. These models are captivating.

Light is part of what Thee does best, and in this instance he uses the floor to achieve the look he’s after. Thanks to a soft glow that comes from a coat of wax and a lot of elbow grease, the handcrafted terra cotta tiles give the light a place to dance.

In Thee’s house, even the walls are canvases: the twig motif that borders the walls is a Victorian design that Thee felt would, along with the yellow walls, bring the room alive. Tromp l’oeil surprises, like the vase whose flowers are actually painted onto the surface, bring smiles, as does a tiny bird’s nest set into a corner. A single real twig, perched on a beam, gives depth.

But Thee’s trompe l’oeil work isn’t his only talent that’s on display. In the past year or so, Thee has been working on pieces that represent an Italian art form called arte informale. Characterized by compositions of found objects — think bits of hardware, The magician: Thee performs in a magic room of his own design. shells, lids, spools, and other random items that catch the artist’s eye and are then Thee wove throughout the informale elevates it from a attached to a surface and united with paint — informales beautiful composition to a unique — and thoroughly test an artist’s eye for composition. In Thee’s capable modern — work of art. “Actually, I apply the Mylar hands, the pieces have a geometric elegance that belies before the piece even begins to take shape,” explains their humble parts. “It’s a complete departure from Thee. “That way, the light that refracts from it is an intewhat I’ve done in the past,” says Thee. “But it fulfills gral part of the design.” something in me.” The informale that hangs from the Besides giving him the ability to make rooms come wall in the great room is a case in point. Rich with texalive, one of the benefits of Thee’s training as a set ture, its pattern of rectangles and repeating circles make designer is his skill at hiding things that most people just it a study in structure. Bronze paint, aged ever so slightlearn to deal with. Take his red room. The shirred fably, gives the piece the look of an antique metal door. ric that covers the walls is in-and-of itself very attractive, Thee could have called the piece ‘finished’ then. But yet it also serves a purpose by hiding the wires that suphe didn’t. The counterpoint of the rainbow of colors port the many pieces of art, including a ruby-colored reflected from the strips of holographic Mylar film that

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informale, that decorate the space. “It makes it really easy to change up the artwork, too,” says Thee. Two easy-chairs and a remote hint at a television, but it’s nowhere to be found, until Thee picks up one of the remotes. One-push of a button and suddenly a television rises out of the top of a lovely painted chest. I hadn’t noticed that the family photos on display were set around the perimeter of the chest — not in the middle where the appliance laid in wait. “There’s nothing pretty about a television, but you need to have one,” says Thee. “This was a perfect solution.”

The house has a number of other ‘perfect solutions’, including four secret doors that provide shortcuts through the sprawling residence, a bed that Thee designed and had constructed to include storage, and a room devoted entirely to Thee’s magic. “It makes it easy to put on magic shows after dinner,” he explains.

As lackluster as the rest of the house was when he bought it, the room that Thee admits he hated the most was the dining room. “It had white enamel panels with

green wallpaper inlays,” he recalls. Although the room had no windows, Thee didn’t mind. “That played into my plan to make it look like you’re inside a garden pavilion.” The plan worked. The room is a day that’s perpetually clear and sunny. Monkeys and brightly-plumed birds peer into the room as peacocks strut on the grounds beyond. The sky is such a perfect shade of blue that you can almost smell the emerald-green lawn. At night, the 600 Austrian crystals that Thee placed around the room sparkle enchantingly. “I was accused of gilding the lily,” smiles Thee. “I guess I did.”

Gilded or not, the room, like the house, has become a favorite gathering place for Thee’s friends, family and neighbors. “Christian’s parent’s home was a gathering spot, so it makes sense that this house would be, too,” says Cynthia Gilliam. “I think it signifies that he’s putting roots down here and that he’s here to stay. I hope so, because it’s wonderful to have him back.”

The set designer: Thee peers through his mock-up of The Orientation Gallery at The Columbia Museum of Art.

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#6, 2005, 30 x 31

#10, 2006, 37 x 37

#12, 2006, 24 x 24

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The artist/magician: One of the many trompe l’oeil jewels in Thee’s home.

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Clothes are inevitable. They are nothing less than the furniture of the mind made visible.

–James Laver

fashion rocks columbia Headliner’s “Music Fashion Fusion”: fashion and music showcase” revealed much of the extraordinary and exciting cultural renaissance currently underway within the community.

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text: Shayna Katzman

photography: Jason Steelman

T

he feeling of an imminent climate-change shivered my spine on the night that Headliner’s burst at the seams with crowds of Columbia’s most fashionable. Stylish arbiters of local arts-and-fashion scenes swarmed the venue to witness an army of models transform the shadowy, beer-splattered venue into a shimmering style-spectacular!

Headliner’s “Music Fashion Fusion: Fashion and Music Showcase”, achieved more than to merely showoff local talent. It revealed a part of the extraordinary and exciting cultural renaissance currently building from within our community. Almost without knowing, this event and its reception summarized a current outpouring of creative innovation, independent thinking, cultural-progression, and general sense of acceptance.

By the time the doors opened, crowds of people had already gathered outside the club and lined the halls, eagerly waiting to be let in. A single row of seats surrounded the runway, and was already at-capacity when I arrived. VIPs perched in anticipation, waiting for the moment that models would begin cascading down the runway.

I ventured into the VIP area, permitted only by the red wristband, which had been confusedly secured onto my wrist by the bemused doorman as he managed the crowds at the door.

Hairstylists, make-up artists, and event promoters anxiously flew around the sectioned-off area, preparing for the show to begin. I sipped my complimentary cham- Fierce make-up and hair pagne-inspired drink from a plastic and feel of this show. flute, and stared up at the delicate silver chiffon drapery flanking the stage and sparkling under bright, colorful lights. Focusing on the doorman, who resembled a Metallica band member, was all I could do to remind myself that I was at Headliners. The poor man appeared stunned – as was I – by the size of the crowd, and the manner of people this show had attracted. Headliner’s is more commonly home to wearers of baggy jeans, wallet-chains, Converse-sneakers, and everything pertaining to Rock-and-Roll. But on this night, girls poured in shaking their heads of golden highlights and clicking 4” stilettos. In equal numbers, men wearing outfits pulled together with shirts tucked-in,

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strutted polished loafers. The venue had most likely never hosted such a star-styled audience.

The fashionable crowd stormed the bar, mingled and exchanged air-kisses while music by DJ Conquer started to pump. However, the room stopped as the first model was propelled down the runway to parade the collections.

Models styled by Sid-and-Nancy, Revente, Bohemian, Salty’s and Lola transformed the models into a parade of chic-groupies. They displayed a mad mix of very of-themoment, but still very wearable looks, that transported the audience in many stylistic directions. From bubbledresses to trouser-jeans, shirts and T’s, to sexy sequined minis, knits and sensible hooded sweatshirts and coats to an incredible Michael Jacksonesque red velvet jacket. We saw plenty of pieces for those who like basics with a toughened-up edge and lots of cool, chic, clothes that girl’s love to wear.

Unfortunately there was one bad turn in the show, when curators seemed to favor a particular pair of black Lycra hot pants, veering dangerously close to lingerie-territory.

Each of the models stormed the catwalk in a pair during the night, leaving us all wondering if this was intentional or if the models were just too slow to put on their whole ensemble before their next turn.

Whether it was the boring repetition of this single item, or the fact that some of the models were not quite as skinny as Baumer’s guitarist, I really felt that the stretchyinfluenced the look offenders took away from the overall high-quality show. Robin Price, buyer for Bohemian, was blown away when one of her shirts came down the runway paired with nothing but hot-pants (and not the jeans she had planned for that outfit). More dressed-up aspects of the collections – such as demure evening-coats, pretty dresses, and girly tops – fortunately provided a fresh hit of sweetness to counter the scary hot-pants!

What pulled the runway show together was the thematic styling of the models’ hair and make-up (perhaps what the repetition of stretchy shorts was intended to do?). The models’ uniformed look was quite Pop-y, and arty. Mac Make-up artist’s painted harsh, graphic stripes, in bright or neon colors across models’ cheeks and drew

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ed a pair for herself!). Emphasizing how fashion is so important to live music acts and their ability to command an audience’s attention, and another example of the mutual benefits that occur when fashion and music are brought together.

Over the past decade, numerous bands, designers and promoters have caught onto the “Fusion” concept, exploiting its targeting of wide and varied audiences.

Headliners were the next to pick up the trend Fashion Rocks originally conceptualized for The Prince’s Trust, U.K non-profit organization, debuting in London, in 2003. In Columbia, production organizers may have seemingly lacked charitable cause; however, any good exposure for Columbia’s up-and-coming fashion industry is a great cause in-itself. Opportunities like these are vital for individual successes, but also important in creating opportunity for cultural progression within the wider community.

Daniel Price, one of the pair of Mac Make-up artists invited to paint the faces of the models used in the show, agreed the evening had proved to be a success: “I don’t care what you want to call this, as far as I am concerned, tonight we are in New York!”, said Price. “There is such a buzz in here tonight, everyone looks amazing and everyone is having a good time”. A South Carolina

attention to their eyes by keeping the eye make-up very strong. Kelly from Salon Solé styled models’ hair using feathers and twigs to accent dramatic, teased and tousled up-do’s.

The models exited the catwalk with a showering of cheers and applause. Baumer, the headlining band, set to play directly after, had a hard act to follow, and I was not sure if they could rise to the challenge. I had never heard Baumer prior to this event, but found a Guitar World quote on their band website that described their sound as occupying “a musical purgatory between New Order and Nine Inch Nails” which made me certain that as soon as the band embarked the stage, the room would clear. However, like Guitar World’s write-up, I was wrong!

The audience, previously poised VIPs included, mounted the now vacated runway to catch a better look at the band. Their set was a mish-mash of old and new musical styles (Think Killers or Modest Mouse), played with rocker-cool style for the duration, winning over the fashion crowd by creating a sexy, stormy atmosphere that made them want to get up and dance. The “Music Fashion Fusion” was confirmed and achieved when I overheard an audience member pondering where one guitarist might have found such skinny jeans (she want-

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Models discuss “strategery” before the show.

native, Price exemplifies the many young, homegrown talents, living in Columbia and working hard at making it big in the fashion industry, who all share an active interest in encouraging the industry to expand and thrive locally.

Events such as this provide valuable opportunities and experience for industry hopefuls, and it is extremely interesting to see international fashion-trends filter into local Columbia culture. Instances of our local fashion-set, effortlessly moving from Motor Supply into the mosh-pit, further serve to illustrate the current fluidity of Columbia moving forward, very much in-line with the fashion world’s dictating that: in-order to be ‘fashion-forward’ you must continuously remake yourself.

To sum up, the finest aspect of this event was probably what it seemed to represent on a grander scale. I very much enjoyed being a part of the night’s events; however, sensing a change in Columbia’s motion is what enthuses me!

In this generation, trends in music and fashion have become the cultural manifestations that most accurately reflect modern societies in intimate detail, sometimes replacing the role that art has historically played in uncovering these profound levels of cultural understanding and truths.

Fashion, like a great painting, reflects things that are happening in the world. Both are able to evoke accurate impressions of a society in ways that books and other historical writings cannot convey. For this reason, a show like this can be very revealing!

If Botticelli were alive today he'd be working for Vogue.

–Peter Ustinov

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artist

jeremy carter

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s idealism dies, a thirtieth birthday approaches, “The thing in England was hardcore for sure.” Upon and the rent’s due - the time to take practical his return to the states, Carter’s academics continued action draws near. When self-taught musician at the College of Charleston and later the Art Institute and formally trained luthier Jeremy Carter’s dreams of a of Chicago, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle began to slip away, he saw his music Arts degree. career in a different light. “I thought I was going to Carter then relocated to Seattle with his brother Tim. make it as a rock star…didn’t happen,” he said. After In the Northwest he further pursued a career in instruleaving high school early to pursue a formal education in ment making - a craftsman at heart now forging a new guitar building, Carter saw an opportunity to remain methodology. Carter took a job at a local luthier factory, involved in music without chasing unrealistic aspira“Dusty Strings”, where he contributed to the production tions. of more than 45 harps a “The idea that I’m month; in the meantime gonna be famous constructing a guitar ‘because my songs rock solely out of the factory’s so hard’ is ridiculous. scrap material. “It was Go down to Art Bar and like following a recipe you’ll meet 45 people list,” Carter said. “I who say the same thing,” learned more there than Carter said.

Like I did in college.” In Michelangelo, whose addition to his unvarwet-nurse was from a nished training at the family of stone-cutters, factory, Carter furthered Carter, the son of an his unofficial artistic architect, was born to education at a local art create store. “I learned so A Columbia native, much more about art Jeremy Carter works on the finish of several of his pieces.

Carter spent five months working in an art supply at the Totnes School of store in Seattle,” Carter Guitar Making in Devon, England, where his brother said. “In art school they don’t teach you anything techJeff had previously trained in the art of instrument connical - they teach you how to conceptualize and bullshit struction. The Carters’ education was focused on a clasabout ‘Art’.” sical and organic approach to building instruments with After more than a year at the factory, Carter left with no power tools, which would prove integral to Jeremy’s a creative theory now based in classical and utilitarian matured artistic philosophy. “This is what it takes to be concepts, which he would bring home with him to a guitar builder,” holding an entirely handmade guitar, Columbia. “and it broke,” Carter said.

Carter’s workshop sits in the backyard of his bluetext: Jennifer Reese

photography: Kasi Koshollek

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brick house, which is surprisingly neat for two male instruments; awe-inspiring aesthetics and intricate occupants. The workshop is clean, orderly, and smells engineering blend to materialize intercessory works of fresh, like the air is cleaner inside. art that occupy the threshold of beauty and intellect – Here, Carter crafts his instruments (with power that of the Ideal and the Real. tools), including those he sent to American Chopper, the Although Carter’s instruments are first priority, he Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Cure. Instruments in finds time to return to his musical roots: the local band progress adorn the counters. Pieces fashioned from scene. Why Johnny Kills, formed in 1995 and since rosewood are stunning and, reorganized, remains a like all of Carter’s instruproject that captures ments, are handmade, limitCarter’s affections. “Five ed editions. The only (anaPoints taught me how to log) clock in the shop is neg‘rock’, back in the day,” lectful of daylight-saving’s Carter said. The band time, and classical music took its name from an courtesy of NPR fills the after-school-special-like silence between red-brick psychology class video walls. Like a perfect symabout schizophrenia, and is metrical equation, Carter’s releasing a new album, pieces are visibly inspired “SEX”, in 2008. As the and therefore visually band’s bassist, Carter said, inspiring.

“I love music. I’ll always He custom-builds play music,” but added that acoustic, electric, and he “get(s) really turned off hybrid instruments with a by the competition in the style and inherent philosoindustry, especially on the phy that keeps the wood local level.” center-stage.

Carter Locally, Carter also believes in, and depends on, manages a music studio. the natural beauty of the There, scratched-out song woods he uses to speak for titles garnish the doorway itself. Unlike some of the to organized chaos - a “flashier” guitars mass-profamiliar mark of the artist duced by larger manufacturat work. A crossed-out ers, Carter’s instruments “Sober is the New High” maintain an organic presmarks the threshold of ence. “I’m trying to show Carter dries his own wood for years before he can work it. what Jeremy describes as off the wood,” he said. With “the classic rock-and-rollhis perfectly-balanced Yin-and-Yang of classical educaboy’s clubhouse dream”: a reminder of the realism that tion and real-world training, Carter manages to craft is acquiescence. That which has been discarded is not pieces that command attention. “I ultimately want to forgotten - much like Carter’s rock ‘n’ roll dreams. The create people’s dream instruments,” Carter said. Both trash-can full of PBR cans and beer boxes is shadowed by style and substance meet harmoniously in Carter’s a looming dirty coffee-pot and a prominent “No

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white-boy dream of ‘I wanna be a rock star’,” Carter said.

The local luthier also feels strongly about music education. His girlfriend, who teaches at a local elementary school, is dedicated to the Save the Music Foundation, of which Carter is a proponent. “It’s sad. I think that’s just America. These kids don’t even know what a piano is,” he said. “Music kept me from becoming a drug addict or a dumb ass.”

Meanwhile, Carter confuses his neighbors by cutting down trees on his lunch break and building giant teepees in the backyard for wood-drying. “My neighbors all think I’m insane,” he said, laughing, and declared that the teepee “is the best piece of incidental art I’ve created all year.”

The painter, writer, luthier, musician, and artist in many other rights has shifted his focus to musical arts. A liaison to the organic and man-made realms of artistic creation, Carter’s talents are at times intangible and extend far beyond The CCI shop kitty. mechanics.

Each CCI piece demonstrates remarkable attention to detail.

Smoking” sign. Once used to pursue ideals of fame and fortune, the WJK Studio now manifests the pragmatics of adult life.

Carter’s disappointment with the music industry was a blessing in disguise. He eventually realized that the rock-star dream is virtually unattainable, and used this knowledge to build a business that would cater to the chosen-few who did attain it: “I’d still be falling for that

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a new home for our nick

T

The CFS recently embarked on a capital campaign, beginning with the purchase of another downtown building in which to take permanent residence. This major project is ready to start with the restoration of the circa 1939 Fox Theatre building.

Having lived in Columbia for over a year, it shamed me to have to admit that I had never physically been inside The Nickelodeon’s 937 Main Street residence.

Despite being repeatedly impressed by an unequivocal variety of cultural and artistic films and documentaries the theater consistently offers, and despite being persistently tempted by the exceptional schedule of classic, foreign, and independent films, I have yet to actually make it to a show!

I often hear the organization acclaimed in conversations, and pay attention to “The Nick’s” involvement with numerous and wide-ranging events and happenings around town. I have even been fortunate to meet

he sun was beating down on Main Street, on an abnormally hot December day, as I peered into the darkened storefront that has been the face of The Nickelodeon Theatre for nearly three decades. I was there to meet Bruce Bahr, Director of Marketing and Membership of “The Nick”, where we would begin our tour and the film house’s future home would be revealed to us.

The Nickelodeon Theater is South Carolina’s only non-profit Theatre, and a celebrated, integral part of the community’s liberal arts scene. The facility is managed and operated by the Columbia Film Society, under leadership of Executive Director Larry Hembree, and serves as a hub for this non-profit community arts organization, established in 1979 to “stimulate discussion and enhance appreciation of media arts in the community by presenting a wide variety of alternative films and sponsoring media arts events and educational programs.”

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text: Shayna Katzman

photography: Kasi Koshollek

project

Nickelodeon’s second Main Street address.

I was quite taken aback on arrival, when Bahr directed our attention to a filthy, dungeon-like wooden door wedged between Lourie’s Clothing store and Kings Jewelry Store, a block down from The Columbia Museum of Art. “I had wanted a sign out here to say: ‘The Future Home of The Nick”, but every time I have put one out, it gets stolen!” Bahr reported. I stared at the cracked white paint, peeling off the door at hand, while wondering if Bahr had honestly brought us to the entrance to their fêted new location and if in fact it was - why on earth you would want to publicize it.

“You know when we purchased this building there had been no power for the lighting in years,” Bahr further explained, forcing the horrid old door to creak open, revealing a tall, decaying staircase that was even more revolting. “We had only toured the interior with a flash-light before the decision was made to purchase the

the CFS’s charming and witty Larry Hembree, socially and at parties, which makes disclosing my lack of presence difficult to explain.

After hearing so many remarkable things relating to this South Carolina aberration, I suppose I had envisioned the building it occupies to be equally grand. As I stared into the tiny, shadowy store-front before me, I wondered if I had arrived at the wrong address. It wasn’t until Bruce Bahr’s image appeared in the darkened window glass, to warmly invite me inside, that I realized I had in-fact been waiting correctly outside the illustrious theatre’s front entrance Bruce Bahr was a delightful and engaging host; animatedly describing the capial project and the old State/Fox Theater restoration plans currently underway.

A walk to the project site took approximately 5 minutes from The Nickelodeon’s current dwelling, where we arrived at 1637 Main Street – soon to be The

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gotten by most, had been building”. He continued run-down and left to smiling broadly, quite decay, it’s Marquee honestly leading me to removed, waiting to be requestion his sanity! How discovered on Columbia’s could a seemingly knowlMain Street. edgeable and intelligent The building (originalbusinessman encourage ly known as the State the use of public funding Theater) is a maze-like to purchase this ramconstruction - continualshackle building? ly shifting to present you The spirited heart of with new surprises, each Columbia’s downtown conjuring up different was, at this time, bustling eras past. Each of the with office-workers finbuilding’s rooms are ishing lunch-time sandsteeped in history, and wiches and executives could have been purposeleaving their expensefully planned by a museaccount lunches, many of um curator aiming to linthem breaking the flow of early trace the history of pedestrians to pause and Columbia’s Main Street, stare at our group as we parallel to the progresstood congregated and sion of movie-going culpeering into a Main ture. Images of the past Street abyss. Nervously are fervently conveyed following close behind through objects and decBahr as he ascended the oration dating back to unsightly staircase, I tried the theater’s 1939 opennot to imagine what ing. Although the buildawful surprises lurked ing foundation itself ahead until Larry dates back to the nineHembree appeared and teenth century, its first began descending incarnation as a theater towards street-level to was during Columbia’s greet us. “We are going to The new location of the Nick on Main Street.

Main Street heyday. In be living like rock stars in the 1930s and 40s, the State Theater blossomed as the here!” Hembree exclaimed with characteristic enthusionly independently owned theater in the area. Bahr asm and energy, sharing with us his animated delight for described the Main Street of this period as a “Downtown the hovel.

Theater District” of sorts. After the depression-era negI concluded that it must be common amongst CFS lect and damage, the theatre was renovated and reborn members to lose touch with reality from watching too in the 1970s as “The Fox Theater” before falling victim many films, since I could not muster a better explanato the 1980s when Main Street became a run-down and tion for all the merriment that this dump was causing, sleazy haunt. nor find other ways of understanding how this eyesore “We call them mystery spaces,” explained Bahr, had been purchased under the glow of a flashlight. pointing at a large cavity cut out of the building’s many My lungs grew heavy with a dark, dank, musty scent artificial, unexplainable walls. “We found full sized, that cast images in my mind from the depths of the original “Guys and Dolls” promotional posters here, pris1940s air-raid shelter I had visited when I was six. tine and rolled up inside.” These gems hidden under the However, the staircase did not lead to a bombsite, and by balcony provided a fitting introduction to all the other the time we reached the Mezzanine level I too was filled delights this construction had in-store. with excitement. Despite my brash initial judgment, C.F.S Members and friends of the Nickelodeon Columbia’s new acquisition turned out to be a 9000 Theater have been hard at work for the last year unpeelsquare-foot time capsule, in which the very essence of ing, as one might an onion, the layers upon layers of decGolden-Age Motion Pictures had been captured and orations and adornments which had built up inside the frozen in time. The old Main Street Movie Theater, for-

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upturned to reveal luxurious hardwood flooring begging for further restoration. All this gaudy decoration added during the 1970s has ironically aided current restoration. Instead of removing the original decoration, they had been covered over leaving the beauty of the original, delicate 1930s features protected and preserved, to be re-discovered and brought back to life in our generation.

Physical aspects of the theatre’s structure and interior are not the only attributes that the building has preserved. The entire theatre is sprinkled with fascinating relics left behind by past occupants and visitors that serve to reveal interesting tid-bits from the past. I was drawn to an empty, half-crushed retro-designed Coke can that had been discarded on the main auditorium floor.

The Projection Room was riddled with treasures.

Bahr directed our attention to a hole in the ceiling that continued upwards for over 9 feet. As we stared into this mysterious cavity, he redirected our attention to a huge stack of “DOG WORLD” Magazines, circa 1945,

theater over several stylistic eras and life-times for the theater - daily getting closer to their aim of restoring what would have been the State Theatre’s original 1930s charm, and its stylistic features designed at the height of the Art-Deco Design Period.

Inside the main-theater, the auditorium stretches upwards into impressive cathedral ceilings. While in ruins, rows of exhausted velvet chairs stretch as far as the eye can see. An enormous viewing screen framed by tattered drapes, still dimly lit by original 1930s frosted glass sconces.

The curved glass sconces and matching overheadlighting features original to The main upper theater. the 1936 theater.

Images of the Theatre’s glamorous past now shine through from the auditorium’s décor. Tacky leopardprint fabric is currently being removed from the auditorium walls that it had previously enveloped; revealing magnificent and virtually flawless silver leafed pilasters topped by gilded Sunburst Patterns. Similarly, in the mezzanine lobby the hideous patchwork of both 70s retro-printed and Faux-Persian carpet has been

The Capital Campaign to raise the funds for the renovation is underway and anyone interested in helping the Nick to "Move Up Main" can call Bruce Bahr at the Nickelodeon at 803-254-8234.

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society as a whole.

The Nickelodeon, as it currently exists, is a living incarnation John Sloan’s 1907 painting “Movies, 5 Cents”. Sloan, a member of the Ashcan School of Art, was known for painting realistic views of popular entertainment and public audiences in New York at the turn of the 20th Century, when early motion pictures were an exciting new form of mass communication and described as the “Theater of the working man”. By the time Sloan painted “Movie’s, 5 Cents” in 1907, nearly every American city had at least one “nickelodeon”, which was the name that was given to movie theatres where short silent films were shown and people sang along to projected slides-all for a nickel, the price at the time for a beer.

Bahr articulately summed up The Nickelodeon Theatre’s vision and purpose in Columbia, “getting people out of the habit of sitting at home alone in the dark to watch movies, and out to the Nick - where they can share the emotions involved in seeing a film with others.” He said, “It’s more what seeing movies is meant to be about.” The wish of The Nickelodeon - to invite audiences into the liberating public sphere of popular culture - is an aim that is profoundly in-tune with the message that artists such as John Sloan had wished to impress upon their art audience 100 years prior.

In “Movie’s, 5 Cents” Sloan visually displayed the power that came from exposing people to the freedom of a physical arena where mixed classes and genders could meet, mingle, and have a good time. It is interesting that the important role that cinema has historically played in encouraging people to open their eyes to new points of view, to experience real life and to broaden their cultural and social horizons - is still so relevant today.

Undated photograph of the Fox in its prime.

piled on the floor that had been uncovered from the hole in the false ceiling in which they had been absurdly buried. One metal cabinet in particular seemed set up like a curio, filled with a wealth of antiques including Western Electric Light Bulb packaging, discarded RCA Radio Tubes, and old film reels.

Small details like this discarded “junk” serve to provide unique insight into the recent past and help to retain records of trends in material and popular culture. The entire building has held onto many long-forgotten secrets and stories from past times. Through the restoration process, its wealth of knowledge can be uncovered, utilized, and teach us about the past.

Now, we move back - to revisit the current home of The Nickelodeon. The small 77 seat store-fronted Theater, with its tiny foyer hardly bigger than a New York studio apartment kitchen, welcomes 23,000 visitors a year – yet the minute projection room allows barely enough crawl space for a single person to squeeze through. This is the place that I had never been to before, but yet seemed so inviting and familiar. It was here that I was reminded of the overt importance the media arts, and the art form’s historical impact on culture and Bruce Bahr reveals one of the original design elements of the theater.

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A century after John Sloan’s painting and the era of renaissance in American art, Bahr describes “the intimate space of movie theatres” and how this space is so important to their audience as it creates a sort of club that everyone is welcome to join. This parallels 1900s theorizing that led cinema to be labeled as the first Democratic art - for the ways that these darkened spaces, created by films, allowed encounters between men and women and crossings of race and class lines that had been impossible a generation before.

The creation of Movies, and moviegoers, at the start of the 20th century embodied the more inclusive and integrative aspects involved in new art. The Nickelodeon is allowing our generation to understand and benefit from the importance of motion pictures, a century later, in Columbia.

The Nickelodeon’s move will get the Columbia Film Society closer to their goal: allowing them to screen their films to a much larger audience, attracting greater attention, therefore encouraging more people to attend shows – and in turn more people will gain benefits offered by the unique art form.

“Columbia is going from a good city to a GREAT city”, said Bahr, unafraid to get Construction notes from 1935. his hands dirty Original for The Nickelodeon Theater and the greater good of this city for which he is so hopeful for and so passionate about.

The Nickelodeon’s clean-up, restoration, expansion, and relocation project, and decision to renovate the old theatre in lieu of building new one, falls in line with citywide trends to preserve what remains of historical Columbia and a current widespread climate of hope for revitalizing the city’s downtown areas. The Nickelodeon project is playing a significant role in proving the capital’s historical and cultural value to the rest of the state, as well as contributing to spreading awareness for the importance of the arts in the community.

The Nickelodeon project has the potential to change the nature of Columbia’s entire downtown in revealing more of the city’s valuable history. This will hopefully continue to encourage other projects to follow and benefit our economy by attracting many more residents to move inside the old downtown. Here is added potential

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art deco fixtures and design will be restored.

to aid and increase cultural tourism in Columbia, attracting more visitors to the city that are interested in art and experiencing Southern history. Many outsiders believe Charleston is the only South Carolina city that displays tangible history, yet his project could dramatically upgrade Columbia’s profile as a tourist destination.

Bahr predicts that when this project is complete, the last of the architecturally untouched buildings on Main Street that have so far managed to escape modernization attempts could potentially transform this charming section of downtown. Restoration of the buildings surrounding the theatre’s new location could potentially reenrich the stretch of street from The Columbia Museum of Art and the cluster of already-established vibrant music and art’s venues into a salubrious cultural enclave.

Bruce Bahr pondered one last thought before our parting: “Now if only Workshop could move in across the street from us…”

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artist

scotty peek

S

jects have a familiarity that is instantly recognizable.

The faces – often blurred by the charcoal and pastel media he uses – have a universality that anyone with a scrapbook of memories could identify.

“Many of the images are of people to whom I am now related but will never meet or know,” he wrote on his website, www.scottypeek.net. “Rendering the images is a way for me to familiarize myself with my new family and participate in my own personal way with Sally’s past.”

Though family is a reccurring theme, Scotty resists the idea that all of his work is about one specific idea. Pothos, Her/My Family, his other fine art concentrations, and his recent forays into portraiture are part of an ongoing discussion that often generates more questions than answers.

“Art as an everyday conversation is something I think about a lot,” he said in a recent interview. “Nothing too profound, just a way of discussing what a person is thinking about....kind of mundane actually. Imagine if every conversation we had was profound and each of us only talked about one thing. That would be both overwhelming and boring for everyone.”

The depth and breadth of this ongoing conversation is evident in the Forest Acres home he shares with Sally and their nineteen-month-old daughter, Sophie . He has sold or traded much of his work, but the few remnants speak volumes. Globes he collected at small Tennessee antique stores, wire sentences he made during his tenure in the Master of Fine Arts program at the USC, and even an orange and brown elementary school

cotty Peek is a local artist whose work has been shown all over the Southeast for the past ten years.

He is also my brother-in-law. Journalistic ethics dictate that writers aren’t supposed to interview their relatives. Perceived bias of a piece being too “fluffy” and overly-positive is the first caveat. Perhaps worse, there is also the risk of the interviewer and interviewee offending one another to the point that holiday gatherings become awkward dances where the two parties sit as far away from each other at the dinner table as humanly possible.

Certainly, these are fair enough reasons to leave the job of discussing family in print to total strangers.

So much of Scotty’s body of work, however, is focused on relatives that it only seems fair for a family member to turn the attention back on him. Before I married his wife’s brother, I spent two years studying education at the University of South Carolina. Scotty gave me an oversized pastel green image of generations past from his Pothos series as a housewarming gift, along with the graft of the pothos that inspired the exhibition. That original plant was a late 1960s wedding gift to his (and now my) in-laws. I placed that piece – and the ivy-like greenery that accompanied it – in my bedroom. Since I lived alone, the non-descript faces of a young couple holding a baby had a protective presence for me. I liked to think they kept me company.

Just as that hazy image connected me to my future family, his drawings of his wife, Sally’s, (and my husband’s) distant aunts, uncles and cousins in his Her/My Family series also tied him to his new relatives. The subundefined : book one

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text: Emily Boyle photography: Kasi Koshollek

to twist dendrites (such as “I don’t think it’s fair for anybody to define art”) Scotty leaves the thought hanging in the air. None of what he does has to be more complicated, because, for him, art is a form of communication: a statement that can return a response or end in silence. He does, however, always have a point.

“I’m a person who predetermines what (my work) is going to look like. If I don’t, I’m not motivated to go in and make those marks,” he said. “I always hated free writing in English classes. I guess there’s a point where it’s psychoanalytic but I like to think out the sentence in my head.”

In the past year, Scotty has shifted his focus from creating his fine art to painting oil portraits on commission – a change in course that did not happen on purpose.

“My first client was somebody who wanted an oil portrait and I told him that I would do a drawing,” he explained while standing in his understated home studio, displaying the works in progress of children’s faces. “They were having a hard time finding a painter that they liked. I had to get out my dried up oils and I did a portrait for them. In a way, it happened accidentally and it turned out to be something really good.”

Kinsey B., one of his first commissions, demonstrated what a little dry oil could do. Almost photographically clear, the smiling young girl in a soft, blue dress could easily walk off of the canvas. His other portraits – painted from photographs he takes himself – also echo the conventions of his fine art concentrations. Precise and deliberate, it is easy to imagine these immortalizations sparking familial conversations in the living rooms of the portrait subjects – not too distant from those inspired

by Pothos or Her/My Family.

Scotty argues that there is a definite difference between fine art and portraiture. This is a debatable realization considering that the world’s most famous piece of art, the Mona Lisa (which is incidentally on his bottle of odorless paint Her/My Family: blanket

Peeks’ work in progress at his new studio.

satchel full of fading colorings expose the varied and intense thought processes that often led to his full-scale exhibitions.

Myrtle #3985 is one such relic that still remains in his possession. This middle-aged woman with thoughtful, sullen eyes is one of twenty portraits done for the 2004 “A Garden of Myrtles for Myrtle” exhibition in Myrtle Beach.

Considering that Myrtle was a popular name in the 1920s and that his work would be installed in rooms built in 1924, Myrtle #3985 Scotty researched and reproduced these images of women named Myrtle to celebrate the name’s tradition and the tree common to South Carolina.

Myrtle #3985 – the number represents the possible count of Myrtles in the world at the time and the shade of pantone he used in creating the piece – was a schoolteacher whose husband had absconded with all of her money. Now hanging in Scotty’s living room, Myrtle #3985 sparks comments about state history, connections among strangers, and a debate about whether every piece of art needs a back story to be understood or valued. Again, Scotty does not want to place one, myopic label on anyone’s perception.

“I don’t think it’s fair to define art for anybody,” he said.

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thinner), is an enigmatic portrait.

Though historical commissions like daVinci’s are now displayed at in the finest art museums on the planet, Scotty says the lack of complete artistic control makes portraiture more of a collaborative effort than the product of one person's work. Not that one is better than the other. Perhaps that argument would play out more thoroughly at a dinner table.

Regardless, the challenge of a new medium – or of painstakingly perfecting a subject’s teeth (he says those are the hardest) – keeps him in his studio.

Working full-time as the curator and assistant director of the Sumter County Gallery of Art during the week, he spends week nights and weekends addressing whatever audience – in Scotty plays with his nineteen-month-old daughter, Sophie. museums or homes – he encounters. someone is going to see it. For me, there is some kind of “I don’t know if I would say anything if no one was responsibility not to speak a language that the person there,” he explained, considering the spaces he’s filled who sees it is not going to be able to understand; it’s just with his work. “I wouldn’t talk out loud to myself. how it works.”

Unless the artist is making art with no intentions to We’re listening. ever show it, it’s always in the back of your mind that

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profile

les hall

A

sk Les Hall to name one thing everyone should know about him, and he will tell you: “I beat Dan Marino at armwrestling!” This answer reveals much about his character and his attitude towards his career. Les Hall loves to win.

He is driven to excel at any task he undertakes, from arm-wrestling to Guitar Hero, but perhaps most importantly his mastery of multiple musical instruments, performing, recording, music production, film-scoring, computers, technology…

He tackles every aspect of his diverse interests with airtight determination and a ruthless drive to succeed. He described his perfectionist (often obsessive) attitude as having a profound impact on the music he generates. Despite many successes, he is refreshingly down-to-earth, not inclined to self-promote or acclaim. Our conversation was sprinkled with his characteristic, sarcastic sense of humor, self-deprecating wit, and highly infectious laugh.

It is just 6pm on a Saturday at Goatfeathers, an hour of the day in which Hall claims he does not usually exist. Between sips from a pint of Stella, he intelligently and articulately delivers insightful and thoughtful answers to each of my questions. The raspy-voiced musician’s chiseled features are set off by a pinstriped “top-hat device” resting on his head. He radiates rock star quality æ exuding authentic rock-and-roll appeal, but without the pomp. We discussed everything from Ambien to Zappa (his greatest musical influence). Every topic he discussed with acute self-awareness, realism, and honesty.

But what else should you know about Les Hall? He prefers to play “loud, obnoxious nonsense”, and is obsessed with striped socks and hates eating. He loves Apple computers and symmetry, and he would never own a restaurant, write jingles, or sell cars. He claims to cook great food while sleepwalking, but never remembers the recipes. Hall cannot leave the house without his iPhone, cigarettes, lighter, but will not carry a wallet in his back-pocket as it disturbs his feeling of symmetry. I asked Hall what he would rescue from his burning house or studio, to which he replied, “Second to any life-form, my vintage guitars.”

Les Hall is a Columbia, SC native, and after many years away he has recently returned home from what he described as “the endless party that is L.A.” to focus on creating new material in his downtown studio. Hall represents the wealth of local home-grown talent present in Columbia’s bourgeoning, ever-changing music scene. What sets him apart is that he has seemingly recorded and performed with all-manner of talent, but he has emerged from the local pool and landed in the mainstream.

Hall’s résumé reads like a who’s-who of hot local and national acts, working across wide-ranging musical genres with an impressive and diverse catalog of names including Crossfade, Trey Anastasio, Rob Zombie, and Howie Day, to name but a few. When asked his favorite artists to work with, Hall answered: “Too many to mention.”

Music has been a part of Hall’s life from an early age. “My parents were always very supportive of my ambition to become a musician, but they wanted me to have a back up-plan,” he explained. “Having a back up-plan seemed like admitting that I didn’t believe in myself enough to succeed - so I never made one”.

Luckily for us, for now he plans to continue realizing his dreams right here in Columbia.

text: Shayna Katzman photography: Vega Chastain

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gallery

City Art Gallery: Historical Columbia Meets Contemporary Art

C

ity Art Gallery is an evolution of the business Soft lighting and music throughout the building adds to begun by Wendy Wells and Heather Noe’s mother the charm created by the other elements in the space. By in 1969, and for the past 10 years it has been a opening the gallery to families and businesses, the ownhome to regional artists from all over South Carolina. ers have made it possible for those who attend the funcThe business began as an arts supply store, an aspect that tions to be exposed to the artwork on a personal level. remains unchanged. City Art sells top of the line art supWells believes that “viewing art during a wedding recepplies, houses and sells interesting and beautiful art, and tion is much less intimidating than visiting a gallery durhas a custom frame shop. ing normal hours because Located in the Congaree one can talk about what Vista, City Art is nestled in they like or don’t like a historic cotton warewithin a relaxed setting.” house that dates back to She believes that this the early 1900s. makes it easier for someThe patina of the buildone to approach art in a ing suggests a dense histogallery or museum later. ry and provides a stark Since Wendy and contrast to the contempoHeather assumed the busirary art that fills its walls. ness in 1997, City Art has The arts supply store is become a gallery filled located in the basement of with the charm of local the building, and City Art’s art. Some of the 50+ gallery space is split into artists represented three distinct sections: a include Alex Powers, Tim large main floor gallery Floyd, and Kathy Casey.

CityArt staff: Wendy Wells, Heather Noe, Evan Donevant, where select shows are The success that City Art Randy Hanna, Charles Whetzel featured, a second level has achieved is due, in gallery where works from part, to the artists. a variety of artists are set up in salon fashion, and a side More importantly though, the business savvy sisters gallery where a wall of stacked cubbies are home to potknow how to reinvent their gallery so that it remains tery, metal and glasswork, small paintings, photography, true to the ever-changing taste of their customers. and jewelry.

Every piece of art in the gallery is one-of-a-kind, The owners “are committed to providing the public something which has clearly proven important to the with original art,” and their lasting presence and plethopeople of Columbia. Travelers to Columbia make City ra of original works professes just that.

Art a must see destination and the gallery has had a loyal One way that City Art has brought original art to the following of collectors. But with a range of styles, sizes, public is through the renting out of its space. The main and prices City Art has something for everyone and is and side galleries make a unique and beautiful setting accessible to the everyday passersby that would like to for wedding receptions, rehearsal dinners, and business come in, see the space, and appreciate the art. functions. The gallery is unlike any other rental space, and not only because of the creative and interesting art that hangs there.

Check out City Art’s website at www.cityartonline.com Acting as a backdrop for the art are beautiful brick Or Come By! City Art is located at 1224 Lincoln St. walls, lovely wooden floors and beams, and one of the 803.252.1803 state’s oldest freight elevators draped in twinkle lights.

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Turning passion into profit

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erry Lancaster believes in and has a passion for helping young entrepreneurs. Many people associate Perry, as the Manager of Brittons on Devine Street , but Perry is so much more, and on closer inspection represents a dichotomy of definitions. The man possesses a sincere interest in all things related to his mastery of the retail industry and stops short of nothing when it comes to delivering excellent and beyond the normal customer service.

Approachable and a wealth of information Perry is and I was fortunate enough to meet Allen Stephenson that sought his expertise in the retail and marketing industry. Allen, is a prime example of determination in every sense of the word. His story has been told and retold around the world now and he is known as the polo shirt designer “upstart” that blends Southern tradition and comfort with Italian style and quality. Not bad for a 24 year old entrepreneur who just a year or so ago was a senior at USC. It was there that he was given an assignment to write a paper on a fictional retail enterprise and he came up with the concept for Southern Tide- a men’s line featuring a well made polo shirt.

But not just well made, exceptionally crafted in the best fabric and attention to every thread and placement. The professor was so impressed by Allen’s paper Perry Lancaster and Allen Stephenson and presentation that he encouraged him to “go do it” and Allen did. Allen came to Brittons after endless months perfecting his product and Perry bought 18 shirts. Brittons has sold over 800 Southern Tide shirts for one reason only; they are simply the best in overall construction, fit, fabric softness and durability and finishing details. His women’s line is debuting this March at Brittons.

Allen refers to Perry as a marketing genius yet Allen can take credit for his awesome logo the Skipper Jack fish complete with bobber that marks his line.

Allen’s creed “I do not want to just sell a label. I want to sell the best quality shirt I can.”

Allen is laid back and without pretense fora serious minded business man whose line is now carried in over 19 stores across the Southest and best of all he still likes to fish when he has time.

text: Lesley Hoskins

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{consumptional*} art

Nahuel Pinot Noir | Alto Valle de Uco, Argentina | Darker in color and less sweet than some U.S. West Coast pinots, but not as “earthy” as some French Burgundies, it is a melding of styles – a red wine drinker’s pinot. At 1300 meters above sea level, the vineyards embrace a wide range of temperatures, from the cool mountain nights to bright sunny days.

Oroya | Tierra de Castilla, Spain | Winemaker Yoko Sato decided there were no good wines to go with all of the flavors of sushi - so she made one. After experimenting with various grape blends, she settled on three Spanish varrietals – floral Airen, tart Macabeo and sweet Muscat (to offset the wasabi).

Plungerhead Old Vine Zinfandel | Lodi, California | Any wine with a picture of a plunger-capped man on the label has to have something special inside the bottle or it would quickly become a one joke wine. This wine delivers with cocoa, vanilla, clove and cherry pie aromas and flavors of boysenberry, cedar, raspberry and coconut spice.

Start the New Year with Plungerhead and Barbeque ribs. *We know, not a real word.... text : Robert Sox, WineStyles Wine and Gifts

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bob allison: sculptor

From conception to completion: Jonah and the Whale slowly take shape. First maquette, artist rendention, armatures and sculpt, the molds, cast pieces and weld, patina.

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“In each piece, it is very important for me to focus on the smallest of details. From the placement of a hand; strands of hair blowing in the wind; the eye contact between the subjects; to the tiniest fingernails. In my view, it makes the sculpture complete.”

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ob Allison has just recently completed and installed a world-class sculpture of “Jonah and the Whale” for Shandon Baptist Church on Forest Drive. The round, 15-foot fountain-sculpture has an enormous whale head-and-tail weighing over 1,000 pounds, and a 6-foot Jonah in mid-air as he is spewed out of the whale’s mouth. Seeing it in person is essential, and for those engaged in kinesthetic experiences the whale’s tail is hanging over the edge and accessible, as are the tips of Jonah’s toes.

Dr. Dick Lincoln, the pastor of Shandon Baptist, commissioned Bob to sculpt this idea for the church’s entrance. He wanted a life-like, old-world fountain and bronze sculpture that captured this famous Biblical story and created emotion and awe. Bob did just that.

What else can you feel when you see the look so convincingly sculpted on the face of Jonah; that expression of disbelief and relief as he flies out of the huge mouth?

Bob used a unique patina to cover the body of Jonah, and every feature – from the angular muscles of his chest, arms, and legs, to the waves of his cloak – conveys an expression of movement that will delight and amaze.

The exciting aspect of this commission is that Bob is a native of Columbia, a graduate of Dreher High School and USC. Bob worked for years at Blue Cross Blue Shield as a computer programmer, and then one day, at age 41, resigned and decided to sculpt full-time: fulfilling a lifelong passion to create astounding works such as this.

As a youth living in Columbia, his house was without text: Lesley Hoskins

air conditioning. But his grandmother had this luxury, and it was at her house, watching color television, that he designed and created with clay some of his earliest works of art.

He moved to Colorado a few years ago with his wife and two children, but returns to add new creations to Columbia’s culture-rich history. His “Leap of Faith” can be seen at Riverbanks Zoo and Garden – a huge bull frog leaping in mid-air just to the side of a walking bridge to the barn.

He has created unique sculpture for Palmetto Richland Hospital, Still Hopes Retirement Center, Hammond School, and many other locations in Orangeburg, Summerville, and North Carolina. Bob is truly a unique and diversely flexible artist who captures nature, the human body, animals, emotions, and movements in a 3 dimensional format that is loved and enjoyed by all ages. We are so fortunate to have the fruits of his world-class talent.

“Art is the window into the soul of the community” –Bob Allison www.robertallisonsculpture.com

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dance

caroline lewis

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n December 13 & 14, 2007, an artist of immense technical ability and national commercial success brought an intense and beautiful “experience” to the audience of Drayton Hall Theater. Not an eye was dry, or a heart unmoved.

“Finding My Way” – choreographed, produced, and performed by Caroline Lewis – breathes fresh life into the Columbia dance scene. The piece is set to original music written by Mary Lee Taylor of the South Carolina Philharmonic Symphony, and played by The Upton Trio featuring Taylor on violin, Billy Shepard on piano, and Dusan Vukajlovic on cello.

This one-woman contemporary dance piece is the result of a promise Caroline made to her mother, Joan Hightower Lewis. It expresses her love for her mother, and pays tribute to her mother’s courageous battle with breast cancer. Two years ago, after a 17-year fight, Joan Hightower Lewis passed from this earth. All proceeds from "Finding My Way" go to benefit the Joan

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Hightower Lewis Endowment for Lutheran Hospice.

One of the beautiful aspects of "Finding My Way" is that it not only allows the audience an opportunity to witness a human being in the throes of grief, but then brings the audience through the transformation into the reawakening. Caroline takes the audience with her through a volatile onstage journey, as she immerses herself in the anguish, the acceptance, and the growth following her mother’s death.

Her movements are intense and powerful; she holds nothing back. In fact, the opening dance sequence is so raw that the audience becomes almost uncomfortable. If art is meant to move people, then this is truly Art. In the telling of her story, Lewis incorporates items that belonged to her mother – providing a brief respite from the intensity of the emotional whirlwind, at the same time drawing the audience into the “real-ness” of the moment.

The tokens and pictures, which initially torture, become warm and loving memories. Caroline received her mother's gifts of kindness,

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graciousness, and strength. In turn, Caroline's audience is extended these as well, and invited to embrace them through the shared experience of this cathartic and beautiful piece. In Caroline's own words she is finding her way everyday, she has found hope and love, and she wishes the same for all those present. This comes through clearly in her work – there is no doubt that her audience is touched and altered by this intimate experience.

Ultimately, Caroline provides an uplifting evening of phenomenal expression through movement. Caroline, originally from South Carolina, has been dancing for over 20 years. At the age of 18 she moved to New York City. She spent the next six years performing in music videos, theatrical productions, commercials, fashion shows, and award programs.

Some notable highlights include the VMAs with ‘N Sync, Latin Grammy Awards, WNBA National commercial, French Energy commercial, Disney Industrials, Britney Spears’ “Me Against the Music” video, and MTV’s Body Rock Fitness Video.

Though successful as a commercial dancer, her true passion lies in contemporary dance. She has had the opportunity to work for Mia Michael’s R.A.W., Dee Caspary's IV Dance Company, Notario Dance Company, Rhapsody and Company, A.S.H Contemporary, and Justin Giles “Soul Escape”. In 2001 she traveled to Seoul, Korea to perform for Jason Parsons and POZ Dance Theatre.Following her mothers death, it took time for Caroline to regain her footing, to find her center, to find her sense of self again.

Now – stronger than ever – Caroline teaches dance at Southern Strutt, a nationally awarded competition school, and at USC Summer Conservatory. Although Caroline has returned to her home state, she continues teaching and choreographing competition and pageant pieces for schools around the country. She also tours the country as a teacher and choreographer with “Shock the Intensive”, a multi-style dance convention which holds daylong events in various cities throughout the country. In addition: she is a personal trainer, a certified nutritionist, and a contributing author to the book “The Care and Feeding of a Dancer – What You Need to Know On and Off the Stage”, by Toni Branner and Jenna Lee Branner.Caroline has choreographed numerous competition pieces for studios around the country, many of which have received awards and recognition; however, she considers “Finding My Way” to be her "first true creation".

Her love of creating brings her to transcend the bounds of any single, pre-existing concept or definition of dance. This is what makes her work so powerful. While she considers contemporary and jazz to be her strong points, she enjoys the challenges of any genre or style. Caroline's greatest asset is her ability to move within and, at the same time, beyond the defined movements and styles of the wide-range of forms from which she draws. She considers Braham Logan Crane, of ASH Contemporary Dance, a major influence on her work.Although Caroline’s loss has been great, it has been a catalyst for something beautiful and strong in its vulnerability, truth, and honesty. Hopefully this artist will continue to exalt Columbia – and the world – with such inspirational, enjoyable, and meaningful Art. Check her website for upcoming events: www.carolinelewis.net

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jerrystover@yahoo.com

artist

jerry stover

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simplest kitchen cabinet, a lasting piece of sculpture for its new owner. Without hand tools though, the excellence I hope to achieve would be impossible to reach.

Hand tools, specifically hand planes, offer more then just a way to connect the woodworker to the wood.

While heavily into construction, I had the good fortune to work with different types of people with different work habits and skills. I learned something from all of them, but the most influential person of all was a carpenter named Ricardo. Several years ago I was renovating a historic house in Columbia and had hired a friend’s construction company to help finish the job. Ricardo, a self taught master carpenter with the odd habit of humming Alabama song’s while he worked, was the head carpenter for my friend’s crew.

At that time I was still a professional remodeler and owned every jobsite carpentry tool imaginable. On the first day that we worked together, Ricardo arrived before the rest of his crew and their equipment and began to work. Immediately he asked me for my hand plane. I stared at him blankly and said I didn’t own a plane and

hen I began my career, I started out in construction management, and one of my first bosses would often say to the crew, “we have the benefit of 2000 years of progress and electricity, put down the hand tools and use the power tools!” At the time I really thought he knew something I didn’t know and I admired his stance on work. I was young and my own “tool” skills were just starting to develop so that phrase seemed like real wisdom to me. Since then, I have forgotten my early interest in management, and instead have dedicated my life to woodworking and woodworking knowledge.

As my skills and knowledge have grown I have come to realize how terribly wrong my old boss really was about hand tools. I can’t fault him, he was a business man, not a craftsman, and time is money.

These days I work alone in my studio/shop and build one of kind pieces of furniture or occasional cabinets for my clients. Like everyone I have to make a living, but the work, not the money, is the motivation behind what I do. I strive to make each piece of furniture, or even the text: Jerry Stover photography: Kasi Koshollek

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create amazing door thresholds just to start. When he focused his skills to custom tables and raised panel doors I was amazed at the speed and purpose with which he put tool to wood. He could use the plane and nothing more then his hand as a guide and get perfect results. At that time I had already fallen in love with making furniture and I knew my work would not progress until I mastered the plane.

It took a couple more weeks to work up the nerve but eventually I put aside my embarrassment and asked Ricardo to teach me how to use the tool. My life has not been the same since. I can highlight the major moments of my life in the following order: the day my daughter was born, the day I married my wife, the day I graduated from college, and the day I learned to use a hand plane. Seriously.

Today, a hand plane is never far from my side.

Ricardo returned home several years back, but I owe him deeply for the lasting gift he has given me. Learning to use hand planes did several things for me. It opened my eyes to hand tools in general. The more I learned about them, the more I scoured flea markets and EBay in search of them.

With each new tool came a new skill and improved work.

As my knowledge in woodworking grew, so did my commitment to the craft and my inevitable switch from construction to furniture. But the most surprising benefit of hand planes was a chance rediscovering of my own family roots.

Recently I returned home from a trip to my family's farm. A place that has been in my family far longer than anyone still living can

pointed towards all the other tools. And then I said it, “I have two thousands years worth of carpentry progress over there, can’t you use one of the power tools?” These days I remember that moment the way my mother remembers the Kennedy assassination. Ashamed of that comment, it would be the last time I ever said it and meant it. Ricardo, who was considerably older then me, gave me a look that I now recognize as the same one I give my teen age nieces and nephews when they are showing their age, but he said nothing, shrugged his shoulders, and went to the power tools to work. I spent the afternoon impressed by his work, but noticing he was constantly frustrated and fuddling with the tools.

He had also stopped humming.

The next day, my friend and Ricardo’s boss arrived and brought Ricardo a beat up Stanley number 4 hand plane. When you think “hand plane” in your head, this is that plane. Millions of them have been made and used for well over a hundred years. I noticed two things immediately.

First Ricardo started humming again and secondly his production doubled and looked better then any work I could perform. I was intrigued. I spent the next few weeks watching him work. At first I was still hesitant about hand planes, but the more I watched the more I knew it was a skill I needed. Ricardo could do anything with a plane.

I watched him trim laminate for a counter top, fix broken windows and doors, correct a humped floor and undefined : book one

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remember. The farm is sadly no longer functioning and visiting it is like stepping back in time 150 years. While investigating a collapsed barn I stumbled upon a half dozen wooden hand planes. The planes had not been touched in thirty years. They probably have not been used in fifty. Upon showing them to my father, the last generation to grow up on the farm, he could remember watching my great grandfather and grandfather use them.

Eventually when he and his brothers became old enough, they used them.

I have furniture in my home built by three generations of men with the very planes I now possess. It is something of a wonder to me how woodworking, in all its function and purpose, can have the added side effect of turning woodworkers into part time historians. With the discovery of these hand planes though, I am especially moved because their history is my history. I can see the wear on the handles from where they have been gripped and used and couldn’t help but notice how well my own hands fit those marks of wear. These planes are a tangible connection to my past and my ancestry.

As I work in my shop, I often find my hands drifting to those old planes and I instantly think of the furniture made with them in my home. It is not uncommon for me to turn off the machine I am working with and pick up one my working hand planes instead. I wonder if my grand children will one day hold the planes I use in the same awe that I hold my great grandfather’s.

The very tangible connection I have discovered to my family has only served to push me even harder to better understand the methods of woodworking used by my great-grandfather’s generation in order to improve my current work. I study joints and techniques and try to master them if they are new to me. I enjoy seeing the way craftsmen from his era understood wood and used that knowledge to help them work it. I buy texts from the era and read them with the thought that I am reconnected to men in my family. Men I never met, but now in this one small way, feel that I know.

I am restoring my great grandfather’s hand planes and plan to return them to their intended work. These will not be display pieces in my hand tool collection, but will instead be tools used by a fourth generation of my family. It connects me to them and hopefully will one day connect another generation to me.

No power tool could ever do what a simple piece of straight wood with a blade in it has done for me. I also teach woodworking classes and I commonly ask my students, “Who here believes that 2000 years of progress combined with electricity has made hand tools obsolete?”

Someone always raises their hand.

That’s when I pull out my Stanley number 4 and the class starts with, “let me tell you about a craftsman named Ricardo…”

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wood you?

Claude Dozorme’s “Woods of the World” (pictured above) knife collection features a box of six laguloe steak knives made of mixed woods from around the globe. You can find them at non(e)such, $375. Claude Dozorme’s pocket knife (pictured below) is also available at non(e)such.

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how we live

Part One: Can We Actually Listen to Our Hearts?

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is letter came unexpectedly a few months after we had ended the relationship. He wanted to meet for lunch so that we could have “closure.” Closure…it sounded like guilt to me. Anyway, we did and it was weird.

As we left the restaurant and walked to our cars I prepared for a chilly-hug-and-back-pat. Instead, he looked me square in the eyes and asked, “are you in - I want you to commit.” “Huh?” My brain went flat. I tried to organize it all but nothing fit; his words and actions did not match. I was confused but my heart was desperately trying to help me out. It was giving me the familiar cues that I thought I had finally learned to trust as parts of my decision making process. But instead, I ignored my pounding heart and sweaty hands and shoved out an answer: “okay, yes, I’ll give it another try.” What… what did I just hear myself say?

I hadn’t trusted my emotions. After our split I had moved from Atlanta to Charleston. I was grieving the recent death of my father, taking care of family business, gathering my research and trying to write the final chapter of my doctoral dissertation. I needed something that resembled normal because my life at that time felt chaotic. I justified that a reconciliation would at least feel normal. It didn’t.

Situations like mine can make us feel that we don’t recognize ourselves. We analyze and figure and sometimes, as a last resort, we pull out a sheet of paper and begin making the proverbal list of positives and negatives. Sure, there are times when we must opt for a choice that overrides our heart’s desire, especially when it comes to children, and a choice between the kid’s camping trip and the big game.

Even when love is a factor, sometimes we go with what we think because we are afraid to trust the validity of our emotions. After all, we’re smart and we believe our emotions are just a touchy-feely reaction to life’s events, and certainly not as reliable as our brain and all our analyzing.

Actually, research in areas such as heart-brain communication, stress responses and consciousness reveal that this is far from the truth. Our emotions can be reliable indicators of our brain’s ability to sense danger and stressful situations. Although my situation wasn’t dangerous, it certainly was stressful and my body must have remembered the old stress, as it prepared me to run away.

text: Lisa Holland

The thing is, if we try… eventually we get it. We come to know without a doubt that we can justify a decision, but if our heart’s not in it, it’s not a match. It’s time to give our emotions as much credit as our thoughts. They work in concert. We can tell ourselves that everything is okay, but when our heart races or we begin to sweat, something is wrong. Psychologists call this mismatch incongruence.

The Congruence Principle suggests that our brains search for matches in memory in an effort to calm and protect us.

When we are clear and on target in our lives, our thoughts, emotions and behaviors should match or at least feel similar to us. If not, our heart will remind us that something’s not right. I knew something wasn’t right that day, three years ago. I felt incongruent and I didn’t listen to my heart - until several months later. I finally got it.

Here’s what I've learned about listening to our heart: • Know the Difference Between Feelings of Excitement and Fear: Feelings of love and fear resemble each other in physiological responses.. These responses are produced by your Autonomic Nervous System which links your heart and brain and automatically directs parts of your body that do not require conscious control like your heart rate and digestion. Your heart responds to your conscious thinking and unconscious appraisal of situations.

• Remember the Consequences: Not listening to your heart and making the noble choice to win temporary favor is usually not a win.

• Look for Congruence: Are your thoughts, feelings and behaviors similar? Are you thinking ‘it’s no problem’ but you’re feeing anxious? Do you agree to something that you know is wrong for you, and then feel your heart race?

Check for harmony in words, emotions and behavior.

• Change the Order of Your Thinking: FIRST, feel your emotion, THEN, make your decision. Know what it feels like to listen to your heart.

Lisa Holland is a doctor of psychology and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist practicing in Columbia.

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the arts

William Starrett : Executive & Artistic Director : Columbia City Ballet

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Egypt – who by beauty and wit seduced two of Rome’s finest generals: Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. The mystique, so entranced in this story, is the display of all the famous themes of human nature; from captivatinglove and devious-murder to intriguing-betrayal and dramatic-death. And that is why, once heard, no one can forget this ancient tale.

After being introduced to the dancers, I realized they were selected not only for their talent but also for their ability to bring out the essence of these historic characters. For the part of Cleopatra, William selected the lovely and talented Regina Willoughby, who is beautifully-cast for this role – as is Mark Krieger as Marc Antony.

The role of Julius Caesar will be performed by Robert Michalski, who, with his strong almost-Roman physique and features will be quite believable, along with Jose Serrano as the evil and jealous Brutus. And so is the magic of performance: William weaves his tale. His dancers perform. And we, the audience, will simply believe.

What a fantastic opportunity for Columbia to culturally embrace and support both of these unique presentations, as the Ballet celebrates 20 years, and the Museum of Art celebrates 10 years in their new location.

Call today and order your tickets for the ballet.

Also, plan on experiencing the exciting journey through Egyptian history via the Museum of Art’s special exhibit.

his February heralds a world premier as the Columbia City Ballet presents Cleopatra in all its splendor and pageantry. This production will be a huge milestone for the arts community as the Columbia Museum of Art, in tandem, presents “Excavating Egypt: Great Discoveries from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology”, which opens January 24th and runs through June 8th, 2008. This exhibit offers a fascinating view into the lives of both royal and everyday Egyptians, with ancient objects and artwork from early-Egyptian to the late-Roman period.

Columbia residents will have the unique opportunity to visit and observe the Egyptian cultural artifacts on loan at the museum, and be transported through time via the colorful re-creation of both mighty Rome and exotic Egypt as these cultures come alive on stage.

The man who brings this rendering of Cleopatra is William Starret, a passionate director and award-winning performer who has spent endless hours perfecting the score, the choreography, and the overall composition. I was fortunate to meet with William, and witness his enthusiasm – and the evidence of his historical research – as he laid out his vision for this unique performance which will be presented in two exciting acts.

The music, the costumes, the sets, and the choreography are all under his personal direction and will be locallycreated. Whether one is a history lover or not, we all know the tale of the mighty Queen of Upper-and-Lower undefined : book one

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text: Lesley Hoskins

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Tuesday January 1 - Sunday, March 30 The Mark B. Coplan Collection of Art SC State Museum | 803.898.4952 A large collection of SC art assembled by one of the Palmetto State’s most passionate collectors will be displayed for the first time. Admission is free with museum admission. | www.museum.state.sc.us

Tuesday, January 1-Thursday, January 31 From Here to Timbuktu EdVenture Children’s Museum | 803.779.3100 Journey through West Africa’s spectacular and diverse geographic regions. Admission is free with museum admission. | www.edventure.org

Tuesday, January 1- Saturday, January 19 A Sense of Wonder: Works by Pam Bowers-Voros McKissick Museum | 803.777.7251 Through her dream-like imagery, the paintings and cyanotypes of Pam Bowers-Voros explore nature through a unique blending of mythology and scientific study. Admission is free. | ww.cas.sc.edu/MCKS/

Tuesday, January 1- Friday, March 14 A Call To All: The Great War Summons the Palmetto State McKissick Museum | 803.777.7251 Explores the propaganda employed by the U.S. and South Carolina State Governments to encourage soldiers and their families to support the war effort.

Admission is free. | www.cas.sc.edu/MCKS/

January 2008

An Evening With Trumpet Palyer Peter Evans Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 Join American trumpet player Peter Evans as he presents a solo concert at the Nick. www.nickelodeon.org

Thursday, January 17 The Artie Shaw Orchestra Newberry Opera House | 803.279.5179 www.newberryoperahouse.com

Creole Jazz Serenades with Dan Vappie Newberry Opera House | 803.276.5179 www.newberryoperahouse.com

Wednesday, January 16 Doug Graham & Friends, clarinet Trinity Episcopal Cathedral | 803.771.7300 Each half-hour concert takes place in the Cathedral and begins at 12:30 p.m. Lunch is available in Satterlee Hall from 12:00 – 12:30 and from 1 – 1:30.

Lunch is $5. Admission is free. www.trinityepiscopalcathedral.org

Tuesday, January 15-Thursday, January 17 Lake of Fire Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 Documentary about one of the most controversial issues is America: abortion. | www.nickelodeon.org

Friday, January 11-Monday, January 14 What Would Jesus Buy Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 In this hilarious documentary produced by "Super Size Me's" Morgan Spurlock, Reverend Billy takes on American corporate giants such as Wal-Mart and Disney and the commercialization of Christmas and life itself. | www.nickelodeon.org

Saturday, January 12 A Tribute to Lewis Grizzard starring Bill Oberst Wood Auditorium, Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County | 803.425.7676 Bill Oberst brings Lewis Grizzard back into our hearts as he performs this special one-man show with must-see Grizzard humor and candor. Show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 for adults; $20 for students. | www.fineartscenter.org

Wednesday, January 9 The “Coffee Cantata” of J.S. Bach Trinity Episcopal Cathedral | 803.771.7300 Each half-hour concert takes place in the Cathedral and begins at 12:30 p.m. Lunch is available in Satterlee Hall from 12:00 – 12:30 and from 1 – 1:30.

Lunch is $5. Admission is free. www.trinityepiscopalcathedral.org

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Saturday, January 19 Salzburg Ensemble Newberry Opera House | 803.276.5179 www.newberryoperahouse.com

Saturday, January 5 Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver Newberry Opera House | 803.276.6264 Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver’s career of brilliant recordings and entertaining live performances has made them one of the best-loved acts in bluegrass and the perfect personification of bluegrass gospel.

Tickets are $35. | www.newberryoperahouse.com

Tuesday, January 8 - Thursday, January 10 CONTROL Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 A profile of Ian Curtis, the enigmatic singer of Joy Division whose personal, professional, and romantic troubles led him to commit suicide at 23. www.nickelodeon.org

Tuesday, January 8 - Friday, January 25 Gallery Exhibit: Lee A. Breuer Bassett Gallery, Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County 803.425.7676 | Lee is a Columbia artist whose work has appeared in juried exhibitions across the state.

His paintings with broad layers of vibrant color evoke a sense of movement, time, and place.

Admission is free. | www.fineartscenter.org

Monday, January 7 - Monday, January 28 Breaking Ground: The Art of Willie Evans McCrory Galleri | 803.400.1205 Come view the painting exhibition of Willie Evans.

Admission is free, but suggested contributions are $5 per adult, $3 per child. | www.mccrorygalleri.com

The Arts At Shandon “Big Band Dance and Social” Shandon Presbyterian Church | 803.771.4408 The Cleve Edwards Band plays all styles of dance music. Great listening and great dancing. Show begins at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. www.shandonpres.org

Tuesday, January 1 “Snowville” EdVenture Children’s Museum | 803.779.3100 Come see how much bigger and better it is this winter! Free with museum admission. www.edventure.org

Tuesday, January 22 - Thursday January 24 Darfur Now Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 A gripping insight into the tragic genocide in Darfur, this documentary highlights the work of six individuals who have taken a role in trying to stop the killings and help the millions of suffering residents of the region. | www.nickelodeon.org

Monday, January 21 Cabaret Evening with Del Rae Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 Singer/keyboardist Del Rae presents her one woman cabaret show where you will hear her sing and play jazz and blues. Tickets are $15. www.nickelodeon.org

Sunday, January 20 Preservation Hall Jazz Band Newberry Opera House | 803.276.5179 www.newberryoperahouse.com

Master Series 4 Koger Center for the Arts | 803.254.7445 The SCP’s music director search season continues as finalist Sarah Hatsuko Hicks takes her turn on the podium. Tickets are $13-$40. www.SCPHilharmonic.com

Friday, January 18 Dance Theater of Columbia Presents: Alice in Wonderland The Koger Center | 803.788.7517 Healthy Learners to benefit from a portion of the proceeds. Reserved seating. Tickets are $25; children are $20. | www.koger.sc.edu

Friday, January 18 - Sunday, January 20 Lars and the Real Girl Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 Ryan Gosling plays the title character in this oddball comedy about a delusional young man who buys a life-size sex doll over the Internet -- and then falls in love with her. | www.nickelodeon.org

Wednesday, January 2-Monday, January 7 Before The Devil Knows Your Dead Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 Needing extra cash, two brothers conspire to pull off the perfect, victimless crime. www.nickelodeon.org

Tuesday, January 1 - Sunday, April 13 Paper Pleasures: Highlights from the Collection Columbia Museum of Art | 803.799.2810 Highlights old masters - 19th century prints, featuring artists such as Albrecht Durer, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Odilon Redon. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $2 for students. | www.columbiamuseum.org

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James Gregory, The Funniest Man in America Newberry Opera House | 803.276.6264 Leave your worries behind and sink into the hilarious, whimsical reflections on ordinary life from comedian, James Gregory. Showing at 5 & 7 p.m.

Tickets are $29.50 in advance and $31.50 day of. www.newberryoperahouse.com The Pitchforks of Duke University Wood Auditorium, of Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County | 803.425.7676 This award-winning male a cappella group of Duke University students is well known for their highspirited performances that boast a repertoire of

Saturday, January 26 “International Gala of the Starts” Silent Auction, LifeChance 2008 Koger Center for the Arts | 803.252.9112 After the electrifying gala of 2007, Radenko Pavlovich continues to raise the bar on dance.

Saturday, February 2 Baker & Baker Concert Series Columbia Museum of Art | 803.799.2810 Flutist Wendy Cohen and Cynthia Hopkins. Seating is limited. Tickets are free with museum admission or membership. | www.columbiamusuem.org

Friday, February 1 Ronnie McDowell Newberry Opera House | 803.276.6264 Ronnie McDowell has an amazing string of hit songs that he has amassed over the years, but it is his riveting stage presence and genuine warmth that fills the seats again and again. See it at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $30. | www.newberryoperahouse.com

Friday, February 1 - Thursday, February 7 I’m Not There Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 Six actors portray six personas of music legend Bob Dylan in scenes depicting various stages in the musician's life. | www.nickelodeon.org

Friday, February 1 - Saturday, February 2 Cleopatra – WORLD PREMIERE Koger Center for the Arts | 803.799.7605 William Starret’s original ballet, Cleopatra, follows the mighty legend of the Egyptian Queen. www.columbiacityballet.com

February 2008

Apparition of the Eternal Church by Paul Festa Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 Thirty-one artists describe what they hear while listening on headphones to Olivier Messiaen's monumental organ work of the same name. www.nickelodeon.org

the ages of 17 and 25 who perform a repertoire of works by some of the nation’s most promising young choreographers. Show is at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 for adults and $15 for students. www.newberryoperahouse.com

Saturday, January 26 - Saturday, April 26 “Grandeur Saved: Photographs of the Aiken-Rhett House” by Michael Eastman.

McKissick Museum | 803.777.7251 “Grandeur Saved” features 16-large-scale, color photographs of Charleston’s historic Aiken-Rhett House, built in 1818 by renowned contemporary photographer Michael Eastman. Admission is free. www.cas.sc.edu/MCKS/

Friday, January 25 - Monday January 28 The Darjeeling Limited Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 Following the death of their father, three brothers (Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman) embark on a journey on the crossIndia train the Darjeeling Limited and attempt to reconnect after years of physical and emotional distance. | www.nickelodeon.org

Friday, January 25 - Tuesday, February 5 Chesley, Williams, Wimberly, Yaghjian Annual Exhibition Gallery 80808/Vista Studios | 803.254.0842 www.gallery80808.com

Thursday, January 24 “How to Help the ADHD Child” Sandhills School | 803.695.1400 Comes hear Dr. Joel Sussman’s discussion of “How to Help the ADHD Child.” Admission is free. www.sandhillsschol.org

Thursday, January 24 - Sunday, January 27 Daddy’s Dyin, Who’s Got the Will?

Wood Auditorium Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County | 803.425.7676 Camden Community Theatre presents this southern comedy about a dysfunctional family gathering around their dying patriarch in a small Texas town.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. | www.fineartscenter.org

Wednesday, January 23 USC Cello Choir Trinity Episcopal Cathedral | 803.771.7300 Each half-hour concert takes place in the Cathedral and begins at 12:30 p.m. Lunch is available in Satterlee Hall from 12:00 – 12:30 and from 1 – 1:30.

Lunch is $5. Admission is free. www.trinityepiscopalcathedral.org

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211 Gervais Street | Columbia, SC Visit our website: www.edventure.org Book your next party: 803-400-1161

A party location for all ages.

A place where adults can play like children.

Hubbard Street 2 Newberry Opera House | 803.276.6264 The company is composed of six dancers between

Thursday, January 31 Hartsville Concert Palmetto Mastersingers | 803.765.0777 www.palmettomastersingers.org

Wednesday, January 30 Marina Lomazov, piano Trinity Episcopal Cathedral | 803.771.7300 An half-hour concert in the Cathedra. Begins at 12:30 p.m. Lunch is available in Satterlee Hall from 12:00 – 12:30 and from 1 – 1:30. Lunch is $5.

Admission is free.|www.trinityepiscopalcathedral.org

Tuesday, January 29 - Wednesday January 30 The Rape of Europa Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 On the short list for Best Documentary for this year's Oscar, Joan Allen narrates this documentary that chronicles 12 years of the Nazis' pillaging works of art throughout Europe and the international effort to locate, protect and return millions of valuable treasures. | www.nickelodeon.org

“The Best of Broadway,” A Gershwin Celebration!

Newberry Opera House | 803.276.6264 Features Gershwin’s unique blend of jazz, blues and classical music. Show is at 3 p.m. Tickets are $25. www.newberryoperahouse.com

Sunday, January 27 Baker & Baker Concert Series Columbia Museum of Art | 803.799.2810 Carolina Pro Musica (Edward Ferrell on recorder and flauto traverse, soprano Rebecca Miller Saunders, Holly Maurer on viola da gamba, continuo and flauto traverso/recorder and harpsichordist Karen Hite Jacob). Seating is limited. Show is at 3 p.m.

Tickets are free with museum admission or membership. | www.columbiamuseum.org

Sunday, January 27 - Sunday, June 8 Excavating Egypt: Great Discoveries from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology Columbia Museum of Art | 803.799.2810 This exhibition offers a view into the lives of both royal and average Egyptians with ancient objects and artwork from the earliest periods of Egyptian history to the late Roman period. Admission is free with museum admission. www.columbiamuseum.org

World medalist return from abroad as Rick McCullough choreographs a world premiere. The Ronald McDonald House will be the beneficiary for LifeChance 2008. | www.columbiaclassicalballet.org

Friday, February 8 Junior Brown Newberry Opera House | 803.276.6264 Four-time Grammy country rocker nominee Junior Brown is an expert at the instrument he invented called the “guit-steel” a combination of electric & steel guitar. See him at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30. www.newberryoperahouse.com

Thursday, February 7 Wendy Chen, piano; CheeYun, violin: Edward Arron, cello; Charles Wadsworth, host DuBose Poston Reception Hall, Columbia Museum of Art | 803.343.0482 Charles Wadsworth of Spoleto Festival fame and renowned young musicians present memorable concerts throughout the year. Show begins at 7 p.m. Non-Member Single Tickets are $33, Member Single Tickets are $28. www.columbiamuseum.org

Thursday, February 7 - Sunday, March 23 Unforgettable: The Photography of Cecil J. Williams McCrory Galleri | 803.400.1205 View the photography exhibition of Cecil J. Williams.

Admission is free. | www.mccrorygalleri.com

Tuesday, February 5 - Friday, February 29 Gallery Exhibit: Robert Urban Bassett Gallery, Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County 803.425.7676 | A non-traditional landscape painter, Urban’s work reflects the ongoing struggle to coexist between nature and humankind. Admission is free. | www.fineartscenter.org

Tuesday, February 5 Charles Wadsworth & Friends Chamber Music Series Wood Auditorium, Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County | 803.425.7676 Famed pianist Charles Wadsworth returns with pianist Wendy Chen, violinist Chee-Yun, and cellist Edward Arron, performing Stravinsky, Villa-Lobos, Schoenfield, and Mendelssohn. Advance tickets $30; Day of tickets $35; Students $15. www.fineartscenter.org

Sunday, February 3 Classic Cinema Sundays: 3rd Annual Sidney Poitier Marathon McCrory Galleri | 803.400.1205 McCrory Galleri presents Classic Cinema Sundays.

This Sunday features a marathon of Mr. Sidney Poitier’s most poignant and brilliant films during his long and successful career. Admission is free. www.mccrorygalleri.com

modern and classic hits. Show starts at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. | www.fineartscenter.org

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Friday, February 22 - Sunday February 24 South Carolina Book Festival Nearly 60 nationally-known authors for readings and signings; booksellers and exhibitors; Free admission. | www.scbookfestival.org

Thursday, February 21 “Growing Up Dyslexic” Sandhills School | 803.695.1400 Hear Craig Crawford’s discussion of Growing Up Dyslexic. Free admission. | www.sasndhillsschol.org

Friday, February 15 - Thursday, February 21 Jimmy Carter Man from Plains Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 'Jimmy Carter Man From Plains" is an intimate, surprising encounter with President Jimmy Carter. www.nickelodeon.org

Friday, February 15 Columbia Community Concert Band Union United Methodist Church | 803.781.3013 Show begins at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. www.cccb.banklink.org

Friday, February 8 - Sunday, February 10 Margot At the Wedding Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 Margot and her son Claude decide to visit her sister Pauline after she announces that she is getting married to less-than-impressive Malcolm. The storm the sisters create leaves behind a a mess of thrashed relationships and exposed family secrets. www.nickelodeon.org

Saturday, February 9 Gospel Fest Phelps Auditorium, Camden Middle School 803.425.7676 | An event of the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County’s Multi-Cultural. A special evening of community unity, with local gospel choirs sharing their glorious voices in song. Show begins at 7 p.m. Admission is $5. | www.fineartscenter.org

Saturday, February 9 Master Series 5 Koger Center for the Arts | 803.254.7445 The SCP’s music director search continues as finalist David Commanday takes his turn on the podium. Tickets are $13-$40. | www.SCPHilharmonic.com

Saturday, February 9-Sunday February 10 “Hansel & Gretel” The Township Auditorium | 803.771.6303 Showing at 10 a.m. on Saturday and 3 p.m. & 7 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students. | www.carolinaballet.net

Springer on Tour presents The Taffetas Wood Auditorium, Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County | 803.425.7676 It’s 1950-something and four singing sisters from Muncie, Indiana are making their national television debut. Tickets are $30 for adults and $20 for students and seniors. | www.fineartscenter.org

Friday, March 14 Robin Hood Koger Center for the Arts, Columbia Classical Ballet | 803.252.9112 | Come see Radenko Pavlovich’s world premiere of Robin Hood, choreographed by award winning Simone Cuttino. Show beings at 7:30 p.m. www.columbiaclassicalballet.org

Tuesday, March 11 “A Salute to Ella Fitzgerald,” Freda Payne Newberry Opera House | 803.276.5179 www.newberryoperahouse.com

Tuesday, March 11 & Friday, March 28 Gallery Exhibit: You Gotta Have Art, Youth Arts Month Exhibit Bassett Gallery, Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County 803.425.7676 | Represents the best student artwork from schools throughout Kershaw County.

Admission is free. | www.fineartscenter.org

Friday, March 7 & Saturday March, 8 “Sumptuous Swing” Sandlapper Singers | 803.3815481 www.sandlappersingers.org

Erika Nickrenz, piano; Jesse Mills, violin; Kenji Bunch, viola; Edward Arron, cell; Charles Wadsworth, piano and host DuBose Poston Reception Hall, Columbia Museum of Art | 803.343.0482 Admission: Non-Member Single Ticket: $33 Member Single Ticket: $28 | www.columbiamuseum.org

Thursday, March 6 “Executive Functioning” Sandhills School | 803.695.1400 Comes hear Dr. Betsy Grier’s discussion of Executive Functioning. Free admission. www.sandhillsschool.org

Thursday, March 6 - Sunday, March 9 Peter Pan Wood Auditorium, Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County | 803.425.7676 Cast of young thespians from throughout Kershaw County, ranging in age from elementary to high school. Directed by Jerry Stevenson of Columbia Children’s Theatre. Show is 7 p.m. each night with a 3 p.m. matinee on Sunday. Admission is $6. www.fineartscenter.org

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Sunday, March 2 Camden Community Concert Band Winter Concert Wood Auditorium Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County | 803.425.7676 Under the direction of W. Patrick Wylie, the Concert Band performs their Winter concert. Begins at 3 p.m.

Admission is free. | www.fineartscenter.org

March 2008

Monday, February 25 Myung Sook Stoudenmire, piano Concert Hall, Spears Music/Art Center, Columbia College | 786-3810 Performance begins at 7:30 p.m. www.columbiacollegesc.edu

Monday, February 25 - Sunday March 2 The Walker Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 Openly gay Carter Page III (Woody Harrelson) often escorts middle-aged Washington, D.C., wives to high-society events their husbands can't attend. But when the lover of one of his women friends is killed, Page is drawn into a tangled murder investigation. | www.nickelodeon.org

Sunday, February 24 Nick’s Annual Oscar Party Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 Back by popular demand, Columbia's party girl Patti O'Furniture hosts the Nick's Annual Oscar Party.

Beer, Wine and Food. Red carpet commentary starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25.00. 77 seats available. www.nickelodeon.org

Sleeping Beauty Wood Auditorium, Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County | 803.425.7676 Columbia Children’s Theatre presentation.

Admission is $6. | www.fineartscenter.org

Saturday, February 23 Harambee Festival Antisdel Chapel, Benedict Gospel Choir 803.705.4409 | An event for the entire family with food, music, fun and art. Live stage performances are scheduled throughout the day. Admission is free. | www.benedict.edu

Friday, February 22 - Sunday, February 24 Daughters of the Dust Nickelodeon Theater | 803.254.8234 Julie Dash's film follows a large African-American family moving north in the early 20th century, bringing to life the conflicts and struggles that confront families leaving their homeland for the hope of a better future. | www.nickelodeon.org

Monday, March 31 “Gofer in the Hole” Golf Tournament Hidden Valley Country Club | 803.791.9729 The 3rd annual fundraiser for the Dickerson Center for Children. | www.dickersoncenter.org

Glenn Miller Orchestra Newberry Opera House | 803.276.5179 www.newberryoperahouse.com

Finally Friday Free Concert Series Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County The popular outdoor concert series continues with local musician Kevin Taylor. Come out for an evening of fun family entertainment. Food and drinks will be available. Concert from 6 – 8:30 p.m.

Free admission. | www.fineartscenter.org

Friday, March 28 “Spring for Art!” McKissick Museum | 803.777.7251 McKissick Museum’s annual gala event and art sale.

This annual event features art for sale, music, festive food and drink. Sponsored by the Museum Advisory Council, proceeds benefit the museum’s collection and exhibition programs. Tickets are $55 per person or $100 a couple. www.cas.sc.edu/MCKS/

Friday, March 28 - Saturday, May 3 “Spring for Art!” McKissick Museum | 803.777.7251 An invitational exhibit and sale of works by artists on themes reflecting the South Carolina Midlands. It is sponsored by the McKissick Museum Advisory Council. Admission is free. | www.cas.sc.edu/MCKS/

Saturday March 15 Master Series 6 Koger Center for the Arts | 803.254.7445 The SCP’s music director search season continues as finalist Adam Flatt takes his turn on the podium.

Tickets: $13-$40. | www.SCPHilharmonic.com

24 Hour Crisis Line: 803.765.9428

If interested in sponsoring this event, contact Sabrina at 803.926.0505

Columbia Conference Center

Reception is May 13, 2008 from 5 - 8 p.m.

Save the Date

15th annual silent auction and reception Benefiting Sistercare of the Midlands

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opinion

mundane or extraordinary?

C

olumbia is home to two worlds, coexisting and intermingling on a daily basis. One world consists of the mundane and the other comprises the extraordinary.

One world offers the predictability of the humdrum, while the other provides thought-provoking and exciting uncertainty. One world rewards you with the comfort of the ordinary and the other challenges you with the unknown.

We make the decision to stick to the well-trodden path or veer off for some adventure several times throughout any given day. While wasting away the years, mindlessly adrift in the routine of 9 to 5, safe in your familiar has its advantages, taking an occasional left turn into uncharted territory helps put things in a fresh perspective. Think of this magazine as your guide to the unfamiliar, a place where you can go for advice from eyes, ears and minds that you can trust.

For those of you that are usually disappointed, you are going to be challenged by what you find on these pages.

Columbia has long since ceased to be a boring town. Art and industry are taking hold here. Growth is undeniable.

Do you want to be an active participant? If so, then take heed. If you’ve been to some of the bigger cities in the southeast or even in the northeast, you’ll note similarities in the quality of music offered in several of our venues.

Check out the Columbia Jazz Orchestra at Delaney’s Speakeasy on a Monday night. The experience of topnotch big band music in such a cozy setting will affect you for days to come.

Those of you that are eternally optimistic will be challenged as well. You will be asked what you are doing to contribute to our community, either by directly involving undefined : book one

yourself or supporting those that are the lifeblood of the Columbia scene. For instance, have you taken the steps down to The Whig, a destination for the more curious among you? Not that any should avoid it, but this club is like any quality beverage: it’s not for everyone. You are just as likely to see free-form exploratory space/jazz-rock directly from the New York underground psych movement as you are to hear a DJ spinning the soundtrack to your evening. Either way, it’s in your face, inescapable and subterranean. Oh, and don’t forget the killer jukebox!

Jazz, bluegrass, rock, folk, blues and various combinations thereof are living and breathing in this area. The places that host these living, breathing art forms employ great staffs and deserve not only your support but also the recognition of being on par with some of the best venues/clubs in the country…that’s right…the country. I will make it my business to share all of my discoveries with you. Feel free to enlighten me as well, or take me to task if that’s more appropriate.

Much like this magazine will hope to shed much deserved light on the art and culture thriving in this city, you can tap into this “quiet revolution” by visiting either the mainstream venues or the more cutting edge places where people meet.

Be your own judge, but don’t just sit there. Look at the world from a different perspective. Be a part of what’s happening. Don’t wait for people to tell you about it. Look for the extraordinary. I’ll see you out there.

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text: Tony Lee

www.robertocoin.com

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