October 2011

Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, SC, Features Works by Glen Miller, John Fowler, and Clay Rice

The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, SC, is presenting two new exhibits including: Story, Song and Image: A Collaborative Project of Paintings and Music by Glen Miller and John Fowler, on view from Oct. 8 through Dec. 30, 2011; and The Lonely Shadow: Silhouette Art by Clay Rice, on view from Oct. 11 through Dec. 30, 2011. A reception will be held on Oct. 13, from 5:30-7:30pm. Several musicians featured in the exhibit will be performing. Admission is $10 for non-members.

Story, Song and Image: A Collaborative Project of Paintings and Music by Glen Miller and John Fowler, an exhibition designed by John Fowler and Glen Miller, focuses on 10 musicians and singing groups who represent different genres of roots music that are important to South Carolina’s regional musical traditions.

The musicians and singers represented in the exhibit are drawn from different geographical regions throughout the state. The exhibition aspect of the project encompasses the historical and cultural traditions of the genres of music as well as the musicians’ personal stories, which are the subject of the contemporary narrative paintings.

The paintings were derived from conversations with the musicians, the music, their stories and composed in the studio from sketches, notes and photographs taken in their home environments. The non-traditional paintings are intended to present the musicians as persons that, although representative of a historical tradition, are nonetheless living stories themselves.

A CD of the music represented in this exhibit will be playing in the galleries and will be available for sale in the Museum Shop.

Glen Miller, a native of northeast Tennessee, has taught art in South Carolina since 1979. He is currently teaching drawing at Converse College and Furman University. Miller has a BFA in drawing and painting from East Tennessee University, an MA in Art and Education from The University of South Florida.

John Fowler, a storyteller and old-time musician, has been touring professionally throughout the Southeast at festivals, theaters, schools and music camps for over 20 years. His talents stem from family ties to the Southern Appalachian Mountain region. Fowler has performed at venues on both coasts and has co-produced a number of specials for South Carolina ETV.

The art of the profile silhouette, typically created in black paper mounted on a white board but sometimes the reverse, dates back to 18th-century France and was widely popular in the United States during Colonial times. The art form was particularly popular in the Carolinas from the mid-19th century, when a group of artists called the Charleston Etchers Club were creating silhouettes for purposes from greeting cards to book illustrations.

Clay Rice credits his grandfather, Carew Rice (called “America’s greatest silhouettist” by poet Carl Sandburg), with teaching and inspiring him in the paper-cutting tradition. He began with simple barnyard animals and then moved on to more detailed human figures. Over summer vacations from school, he would make extra money cutting profiles at the Pawleys Island Hammock Shop. Ultimately, Rice took to the road to earn a living by his art, traveling to nearly all 50 states.

Using a pair of four-and-a-half-inch surgical scissors, Rice could eventually produce as many as 150 to 200 profiles a day, taking a mere 45 seconds per silhouette. Over time, however, his art has evolved to complex, detailed landscapes that have become his signature, some requiring more than 400 hours of work to create.

For further info check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call 843/238-2510 or visit(www.MyrtleBeachArtMuseum.org).

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