Posts Tagged ‘Susan Lenz’

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A Trip to Vista Lights 2011 in Columbia, SC

Sunday, November 20th, 2011

If it’s the Thursday before Thanksgiving, then it’s time for Vista Lights in the Congaree Vista area of Columbia, SC. That’s when the art galleries, restaurants, and various shops turn up the lights for an evening celebration of the coming holiday season. It’s not the same as the Artista Vista event which focuses only on the arts community of the Vista, but it is still an enjoyable event – one I always try to make. Unfortunately for Linda, she was on call at her 911 dispatch job and that call came for her to come into work at noon. So I made the trip solo.

If there is one thing I’ve learned in my 37 years of living in SC’s Lowcountry it is the fact that although I love where I live – it is good to get out from time to time to enjoy the offerings of other communities – just a few hours drive away. I wish more people in the Lowcountry would feel that way, but I guess when you are born with pluffmud between your toes you see things differently. I’m originally from Michigan.

So, within two hours of leaving the Carolina Arts headquarters in Bonneau, SC, I was pulling into a nice parking space at about 4:45pm right on Lady Street in the heart of this event which would close off Gervais Street from 5-8pm. I guess most folks in Columbia didn’t think they could get a parking space so close to the action.

I started my Vista Lights journey at Vista Studios, a group of artists’ studios and Gallery 80808, which was presenting the exhibit Legally Twenty-One, featuring works by the studio artists, on view through Nov. 29, 2011.

I took my first photo and pulled out my note pad and – where’s my pen? And, it hits me like a lead brick – I took it out to write down my beginning mileage and it’s sitting on the passenger car seat. Darn! I took a few more photos but not too many that I couldn’t remember the order and then went to call on Susan Lenz who has a studio at Vista Studios. She’s a highly organized individual and I just knew she would have a spare pen or pencil. And sure enough, she had a fishbowl full of pens and pencils on one of her work tables.


Talking Trash by Kirkland Smith


Talking Trash, the full image.

We had a good chat about various subjects ranging from upcoming shows, business deductions that don’t grow on trees, and the sad fact that she will be “forced” to attend an artist’s residency for the month of March 2012 in Key West, FL. Poor Susan. The things some artists are forced to go through to keep the creativity going is downright heartbreaking at times. This was not one of those times, but Lenz has had her fair share of struggles so I gave her a pass while I was thinking that I’ll still be cleaning up Winter’s mess left in our yard during the month of March.


Reliquary to All by Heidi Darr-Hope


White Trash by Kirkland Smith. Works by Stephen Chesley to the left, work by
Laura Spong to the right.


Bill and Nan in Their Prime by Pat Gilmartin

So with pen in hand, I returned to my photo path and recorded titles and took a few more photos. Once home reviewing my photos I realized I didn’t get any photos of Lenz’s works in the exhibit, but I’m sure I’ll make that up sometime in the future. After all, she saved me a trip back to the car.

I also has a chat with Laura Spong, which is a tradition going back to my first days of delivering Carolina Arts to Columbia – back in the days when it was a printed publication – so old hat. When I think about that I realize I’d still be on the road right now if I had to deliver the 77,000 plus papers people have downloaded so far this month. My back and feet would be killing me.

Spong will be having an exhibit opening at the Spartanburg Art Museum in Spartanburg, SC, next month. Her exhibition, Laura Spong: Early Works will open on Dec. 20 and continue through Feb. 18, 2012. Make sure you put that on your calendar.


Other folks meeting Bill and Nan

Vista Studios was beginning to fill up so I headed on to my next stop – City Art Gallery to see the exhibit, New Abstracts: Rodney Wimer, which will be on view through Dec. 23, 2011. The key word here is “abstracts”. I like abstracts – regular readers know that by now. I’d seen the photos that we presented in our Nov. issue of Wimer’s exhibit, but photos never do much for me when it comes to seeing abstracts up close, in person. Wimer had my attention and his works did not disappoint. Since red is a favorite of mine, it was a plus that the color red seems to show up in most of his works.

The photos I took of Wimer’s works at City Art have made the reds look too orange, but I’m including some of the images we received for the paper to show the true colors, but all computer screens show colors differently. Take my word – his reds are red.


People checking out Rodney Wimer’s works


St. George and the Dragon by Rodney Wimer. Photo from City Art


A detail of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints to show the texture of Rodney
Wimer’s work.

Randy Hanna, one of the owners at City Art and the art supply guru, matched up with me as we declared our favorites. That just shows me what an eye for art he has.

I found some not too tall women by Harriet Marshall Goode. These paintings
were only 45″ tall compared to the 7′ tall paintings Goode presented a few
months ago.

Of course Vista Lights is more about visuals than words, so I’ll let these meager photos tell just a little of the story you need to experience for yourself.


These folks were entertaining the crowd on Gervais Street


These children are waiting for their turn to preform


These folks were checking out the windows at Carol Sanders Gallery


Folks were flowing in and out of The Gallery at Nonnah’s


Here you can see some of the art on display at The Gallery at Nonnah’s


Here folks are roasting marshmellows

To illustrate how different the crowd is for Vista Lights compared to Artista Vista I stood on the Blue Marlin side of Lady Street looking across at if ART Gallery and the Lewis + Clark’s work studio. Streams of people were flowing past if ART with one in ten going in the door, but everyone was stopping to check out what they were seeing at Lewis + Clark, which was an odd collection of robot lamps – at least that’s what seemed to be drawing people in. During Artista Vista the crowd is there for the arts, during Vista Lights, more families are on the street. I would guess that during Artista Vista no one would be passing by if Arts.


Various lamps at Lewis + Clark


A closer look at one of the lamps


Body of the Robot Lamp/Stooges by Clark Ellefson


This was Lenin Bot by Clark Ellefson

My last stop of the evening was at One Eared Cow Glass. No trip to Columbia is complete without a stop to see the cowboys who were be demonstrating their magic for Vista Lights. Tommy Lockart, Mark Woodham and their sidekick Ryan Crabtree were doing the dance of glass making with an entranced audience on hand. Nowhere better does the concept behind Vista Lights works better than at One Eared Cow Glass where light sparkles off the surfaces of the colorful glass creations. If you squint your eyes it’s as if your looking at one big Christmas tree.


View inside the showroom at One Eared Cow Glass


This lamp is one of my new favorites


Mark Woodham talks to a very interested crowd


One parting shot – just another wonderful creation

I’m telling you – if you’ve never been before, put the Thursday before Thanksgiving on your calendar for a trip to Vista Lights in Columbia, SC. And then mark that weekend in for a trip to Seagrove, NC – my next blog entry.

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Susan Lenz Dies in Her First Performance Art Piece at Tapp’s Art Center During First Thursday on Main in Columbia, SC – June 2, 2011

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

This is NOT a critical review! I can just see the Internet alive with chatter about Susan Lenz’s death after a few people see this headline. In reality, Lenz will just die for two and a half hours in one of the window displays at Tapp’s.

In collaboration with “radical evolutionary” artist Michael Krajewski and fine art photographer Heather Bauer, installation artist Susan Lenz will create a tableaux in a Main Street window at the Tapps Center for the Arts. The curtain will open at 5:30pm on Thursday, June 2, 2011, and the curtain will close at approximately 8pm.

Update: Eric Parton will also take part in this performance.

Please come by to see the Pre-Raphaelite inspired Ophelia laying in a tub of artificial flowers collected from cemetery dumpsters with a graffiti-inspired suicide note, “I LOVE YOU, HAMLET”. After the one-evening performance, Heather Bauer’s photo will be suspended above the “scene of the crime”.

For more information visit Lenz’s blog post at (http://artbysusanlenz.blogspot.com/2011/05/preparing-for-my-first-performance-art.html) or go to her Facebook page at (http://www.facebook.com/susan.lenz).

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A Trip to Columbia, SC, for the 20th Anniversary Artista Vista – April 28, 2011

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

OK, right off I want to make it clear that I take the power of Mother Nature seriously. Although, it may sound at times like I scoff at the predictions of weather experts – I spend a lot of time watching and listening to the folks at the Weather Channel, and on Thursday, April 28, 2011, that process lasted from 7:30am to 2pm. And by noon, they seemed to stop talking about South Carolina which gave me the sign that Linda and I were not taking that much of a risk traveling to Columbia, SC, for the 20th Anniversary of Artists Vista – the annual celebration of the visual arts in Columbia’s Vista area. The storm which had killed over 300 people had lost a lot of its punch by the time it got to the eastern coast. Believe me, after watching coverage of what the storm had done in Alabama, I wasn’t taking the weather lightly, but in the same breath – the weather can change in the blink of an eye.

On our two hour drive to Columbia, twice we were sprinkled on for a minute or two, but by the time we crossed the intersection of I-26 and I-95, it seems that we were on the other side of this fast moving storm, which was headed east and when we got to Columbia, the sun was shining, the winds were calm and there were few clouds in the sky. It was a perfect Spring evening in Columbia. A few hours this way or that way and things could have been a lot more challenging. We all lucked out.

So why were we going to Artista Vista anyway? First, it’s part of our job to get out and see some of the events we cover in the paper. Second, it was the 20th Anniversary and third, we like Columbia’s visual art community. We have a lot of good supporters there and we always enjoy the different kind of art scene Columbia presents – compared to Charleston, our own back yard.

Now what do I mean by that? Simply put, Charleston is a tourist destination and the art community is influenced by that, and Columbia is – not so much. Being the capital city, it is the business and political hub of South Carolina and the visual artists there hold on to their ties to university and college longer than if tourist were demanding images of the local scenes. Don’t get me wrong, you can find just as much tourist oriented art in Columbia and just as much non-tourist art in Charleston – if you look hard enough, but each city has a distinctively different approach to art making.

It’s not that unusual, all art communities are creatures of their environments. If you go to the mountains – you’ll find less images of beaches and more of mountains, waterfalls, and stands of forest. In the desert it’s coyotes and desert landscapes. Out west it’s cowboys and native Americans. The point is, Columbia’s art community is different than Charleston’s. A few more observations I can make in comparing the two cities is, Charleston has many more art galleries in a more compacted area and although over the years I have seen many folks from Columbia at art walks in Charleston, I have never seen anyone from Charleston in Columbia during one of their art walks, except for a few artists being featured in shows in Columbia, which is a shame.

Before we get into my observations on the 20th Anniversary of Artista Vista, I want to explain that most of my opinions are based from an insiders perspective. After all, I’m in the biz, and we’re part of the delivery system telling people about the different opportunities being presented to them and I have to say I didn’t get the feeling that this was a 20th Anniversary celebration at all. It was more the feeling of “We can’t believe we’ve made it to 20 years celebration”. Which is a sign of the times. The art community as a whole – both non-profit and commercial have been under siege during the last decade by a failing economy and social politics. In the words of former President Jimmy Carter – they’ve been suffering from a malaise. How else can you feel when your Governor says there is no value to the public in supporting the arts.

I’ve been to about a half dozen Artista Vista and Vista Lights events and I wouldn’t have been able to tell you the difference between the 10th, 13th, 15th or 20th. There were no signs that this Artista Vista was more special than the last. Funding, or lack of funding, could be the answer here but I wasn’t getting the impression that anything was different. The people promoting the event had little info to offer and it’s not my job to make up or fill in the blanks on what’s being offered. And, while covering events in two states I don’t have time to investigate it either. People are being paid to provide this information. And on the other hand, they can only pass on the info they are provide by presenters. And, Artista Vista has had a long history of being short and at the last minute on information. I am amazed these days at how little effort people are making to get people to attend their offerings – as if people don’t have any choices. There were a few exceptions I’ll mention later.

Linda had taken the afternoon off from her other job to go on this trip, so we were able to arrive a little early and we found a good central parking space on Lincoln Street in the heart of where most of the art galleries are located. The less walking we have to do for both of us the better. We were both taking a little time off from finishing the May 2011 issue of Carolina Arts – check it out at (www.carolinaarts.com).

Our first stop was Vista Studios, which had recently celebrated its own 20th anniversary last year during Vista Lights – the fall event in the Vista. The exhibit here was, Prima Vista: Fresh Art at Vista Studios, featuring works by all 13 studio artists, on view through May 10, 2011. There was a time during my delivery days when Columbia was one of the few cities where I arrived during the daylight, although very early in the morning – but not too early to catch a few artists already at work at Vista Studios. Laura Spong was one of those early birds. We used to have some good discussions about the Columbia visual art scene.


From L to R, work by Pat Gilmartin, Ethel Brody, 2 by Laurie McIntosh and 2 by David Yaghjian

About half of the artists who called Vista Studios home in those days have moved on to other studios, but the quality of artists has always stayed high and diverse. Their shows are always interesting. And, on this day, all the studios seemed to be open – not always the case over the years.

We actually arrived slightly before 5pm, the official starting time, but there were also a few other early birds there with us and soon the place was filling up. We made some of the usual stops. I’m always amazed at the bargains Ethel Brody presents for these occasions. I looked at a nice print which was priced at $10. We have a number of these bargains in our collection. We talked with Laura Spong about how long it’s been since those old days of my early morning visits. We had been at Artista Vista two years ago, but a lot of stuff has happened in those two years. Spong was apologizing for not being so computer savvy and that she hadn’t seen our new version of the paper. Linda showed it to her on her iPhone. Spong will be in Charleston on May 6, for a reception at Smith Killian Fine Arts, during one of Charleston’s major art walks. She’s included in a group exhibit of some of SC’s leading contemporary artists. That will be another posting.

I’m always interested in seeing Pat Gilmartin’s new sculptural creations – which didn’t disappoint me. I’m still remembering a piece she had two years ago titled, Blooming Arms.


Blooming Arms, by Pat Gilmartin

We checked out a few of the new studio residents since last time, Michel McNinch and Kirkland Smith. McNinch is ready for her 17-day marathon during the annual Piccolo Spoleto Outdoor Art Exhibit in Marion Square in downtown Charleston, SC, starting May 27, 2011. The artists who do that show are made of steel – in my opinion.


Work by Kirkland Smith


Detail of Kirkland Smith’s work. Objects make the color.

We had hoped to meet Kirkland Smith, who is now our publicity contact with Vista Studios, but she was outside her studio while we checked it out – her work is amazing and I hope my photos do it justice. I also liked the drawings I saw in her studio.


Wall of Keys, by Susan Lenz

We would have also talked with Susan Lenz, but she was doing duty at her installation, I DO / I DON’T, over at 927-929 Gervais Street. This was a busy week for her. She was involved in art events all over Columbia, Charleston, and North Charleston.


Weight Lifter, 3-D art by David Yaghjian

The crowd was picking up here so we moved on up the hill to City Art, which was presenting the exhibit, Layers and Passages: A  Tribute to Seven Women of Courage and Compassion, featuring works by Stephen Nevitt, head of the art department at Columbia College.

As we walked in the door we saw Randy Hanna of City Art and Mary Gilkerson, who we ran into at City Art two years ago. That was a little strange. Gilkerson teaches art at Columbia College and writes reviews for the FreeTimes newspaper in Columbia. She also once wrote reviews for Carolina Arts – which now seems like a long, long time ago.


People viewing Stephen Nevitt’s exhibit.


Randy Hanna – making a sale! Yes, it happens even in the middle of such events.

Nevitt’s exhibit was a great look at a family tree in photos as well as a great example of how a creative artist can turn family photos into works of art. While looking at them I overheard someone say how brave Wendy Wells, the owner of City Art, was to present such an exhibit during an important event. I guess this was a reference to sales – like who would buy artworks of Nevitt’s family? I disagree.

Wells has never been one to shy away from doing the brave thing, but since when is it brave to exhibit good art? And, have you ever noticed all the artwork which includes people as the subject matter. And, for all the people who buy those works of people they do not know – it doesn’t seem to bother them – people are interesting and they make interesting subjects for artists. I’m sure Wells would tell you as a gallery owner, she’s taking a risk with every art exhibit she presents no matter what the subject or medium is. There are no sure things.

When I first saw Wells she was mopping up a spill on the floor. I missed that photo by seconds. When we actually got to talk with her she was filling punch glasses. It’s such a glamorous life owning and running an art gallery. Her first question was if we knew how other locations were doing?

There was a good crowd at City Art, more than you would think as it is a big space, and we were happy to report they had a good crowd at Vista Studios. Little did we know that might have been the peak of the evening. Of course in my opinion these two venues were two of the most popular stops in the Vista.

Sidebar: There were a lot of people on the streets, but they didn’t seem to be flowing in and out of the galleries. The Vista is not the same Vista of a few years ago. There was a time when there was an art walk down there – most of the people were there for the galleries – there wasn’t that much else to do down there, but today it has a lively nightlife scene.


A work by Jo Dean Bauknight that I liked – a paint makers dream kind of artist.

While at City Art we also ran into an old friend, Claire (Suzie) Farrell, who used to be part of the Waterfront Gallery in Charleston, which has now closed. She was one of the Columbia artists who had moved into the Charleston art market. We had seen her at many a Charleston art walk. We shared more talk about the good old days, which may be old, but we’re still enjoying good days, but it’s hard to not think of the 1990′s as the golden days for the art community in South Carolina.

So it was time to move on to see the installation art. I’ll admit up front, I’m not big on installation art. Many times it falls short of the written or verbal hype it is given and I have to say I’ve been spoiled by some people who do it very well. I’ve seen the site-specific exhibits that the Spoleto Festival USA presented in its heyday when it presented visual arts. I’ve seen some great installations during Piccolo Spoleto Festivals including works by Herb Parker, Patrick Dougherty and Jonathan Brilliant. So, I’ve seen some really good installation pieces and I’ve seen some bad ones. It’s like all art – some good – some bad and what I don’t like probably thrills others. I was mainly drawn to this show to see what Susan Lenz had come up with. She is slowly but surely building up to one day being an A level installation artist. She’s not bad now, but one day someone is going to give her the money to really do something spectacular.

Now here is where a lack of information hurt this event. This might cost me some advertising, but so be it. The first press release we received offered very little details. I could write one just like it right now for next year. The next one, came after our deadline for our April issue, but it had more details about an installation art component for this year’s Artista Vista. I posted it on our blog, but it still didn’t have some vital info – like there was an active blog (http://artistavistainstallit.blogspot.com/), which was started on Mar. 31, covering the progress of the installation project headed up by Jeffrey Day, former arts writer and art critic for The State newspaper in Columbia.

Day didn’t send us any info about this project, which is understandable since we have been at odds and he doesn’t think much of our publication. I did hear him at least twice on ETV radio programs plugging the event the week of the event, but I also know he didn’t approach other media venues to get the word out either. It’s what happens when you have strong opinions – you burn some bridges, but I got the impression he was trying. The problem may have been with the people being paid to promote this event – I don’t know. Knowing about the blog would have helped spread the word ahead of time – on the installation project.

Anyway, I liked Susan Lenz’s piece, but didn’t care for much of the others that I saw at the location on Gervais Street. She was there taking an active part in getting people to participate in her piece – it was almost like a performance piece. She was so busy that when we went to say hi, she gave Linda one of the markers to post a statement about marriage on a board that would later be added to one of the veils. This gal was working. Nice leggings, Susan. (Anyone who was there knows what I’m talking about.) She wouldn’t stay still long enough to get a photo. She was busy so we moved on.


I DO / I DON’T by Susan Lenz


People giving their input on marriage and divorce.

Anyway, maybe I’m just too simple to grasp the magnitude of the other installations, but in paraphrasing a Supreme Court judge’s attempts to explain what’s pornographic – I don’t know how to explain what is good installation art, but I know it when I see it.


Sticks and Stones by Bill Guess


You Are Here, by Kara Gunter


We received this photo, after our posting, of Eileen Blyth’s installation on Park Street.
Again, I wish we could have seen everything, but there is never time and energy to do it all.

It’s just my opinion, Day will be able to tell these artists it doesn’t mean much and it doesn’t. I don’t expect everyone to like what I’m doing or saying either – nor should they.

I do have to wonder how Day feels these days standing on the other side of the fence. He spent years nit-picking other people’s efforts in presenting art and now he’s on the front lines. I heard a lot of praise for the Vista art galleries during those public radio programs. I hope he really feels that way now. It wasn’t too long ago that he helped several artists question if Columbia really had any “real” art galleries in an article in The State. In fact, he is now getting a lot of support – for this project and a publication he is involved with these days from these same galleries.

Frankly, I’m glad Day is part of the art community now. He’s articulate, experienced, and I guess passionate about the art community. Now he’s learning what it’s like to try and present things with limited resources. No one expects anyone to hit a home run their first time at bat.

We wanted to make sure we hit One Eared Cow Glass before we ran out of gas, so our next stop was headed in the direction of the car to The Gallery at DuPRE, a gallery I have never been in before. Linda had already worked a six hour day, spent two hours in the car and we were in the middle of putting the May issue of Carolina Arts together.  We were running on borrowed time. I wish we could have gotten to the Gallery at Nonnah’s, but on this day – it was a bridge too far for us, although just across the street (four lanes of traffic). We’ll start there next time.

The Gallery at DuPRE had some nice works in it, but not many people looking. Their entrance is down an alley or you could come through the store it’s in back of, but there were not many people coming in from there either. At least while we were there. We don’t get many notices from this gallery about exhibits and if you’re not as active as other galleries, it many be hard to compete during events like this – people make choices, hardly anyone tries to visit all the stops in an art walk. There were a few other locations listed as part of Artista Vista which only seem to be mentioned during these events which would tell regulars in the visual art community that they might be a risk in visiting. People like to go places they know – not everyone wants an adventure.

When we got to One Eared Cow Glass, usually my first stop to any art walk in Columbia, we could see the fall off of the crowd on the fringes. And the cowboys, Tommy Lockart and Mark Woodham, confirmed that they were not seeing many people. They just had a wine tasting event which was part of their 20th anniversary on Apr. 21, which was wall to wall with people, so they were scratching their heads as to why so few people were coming their way this evening. They also confirmed that there were also a lot of competing art events going on in Columbia that same evening. Oh the wish for master calendars in the arts, but that’s another blog – I won’t be making.


Tommy Lockart and Mark Woodham

We looked around at all the new glass goodies and some old ones I’d love to have. We watched the demonstrations for a while – they’re always amazing. There’s a wall of history about One Eared Cow Glass in the studio which shows a lot of newspaper and magazine coverage from over the last 20 years which I found very interesting. Oh how we’ve all grown older. There’s nothing like old pictures to show that. There are some vintage issues of Carolina Arts there too. Check it out.

It was 8:30pm and we were about to head home when I remembered there was supposed to be a photography exhibit around the back at Lewis + Clark’s space at the rear of the building One Eared Cow Glass is in. So we went back to check it out.

This exhibit was, Instant Vista, featuring Polaroid images by Barry Wheeler and Heather Bauer recently taken in the Vista – of disappearing places. There’s nothing like looking at 3″ x 3″ images on outdated Polaroid film of areas of the Vista that very few will or would miss – beyond a few winos. Smart phone links or not, this wasn’t much of an art offering. Here’s the description of this event in the last press release we received: “Barry Wheeler and Heather Bauer will present a photography piece at Lewis + Clark, which will share the history of the Vista through photos.”

You can’t show the history of the Vista when you just spent two weeks taking the photos. Why would you promote such hype during a 20 year anniversary event? Again, the fault of having people write press release about events they knew little about.

At that point I was glad home was just two hours away.

Now we just saw about a four hour slice of a three-day event. For locals who maybe had the time to spend three days taking this all in – it may have been a whole other experience – if they knew about it to begin with.

I had a good time. I think Linda did too, and I can’t wait for the 21st anniversary and to see how it is promoted. Perhaps one day we’ll make it a weekend and party all night long in the Vista.

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Columbia, SC’s Spring Arts Festival – Artista Vista – Celebrates 20 Years – Apr. 28-30, 2011

Saturday, April 9th, 2011

Artista Vista, the Columbia, SC’s, Congaree Vista’s annual gallery crawl, will once again usher in spring in the Midlands from Thursday, Apr. 28 through Saturday, Apr. 30, 2011. The event features special exhibits at each of the participating galleries from 5-9pm on Thursday night and from 11am-5pm on Friday and Saturday.

In celebration of Artista Vista’s 20th anniversary this year, well-known arts writer and critic Jeffrey Day will curate a variety of installation art exhibits, original poetry readings, music performances and more in the streets of the Congaree Vista Thursday evening.

“Artista Vista’s founding grew out of the rise of installation art in the 1990s, so we wanted to embrace art outside the gallery to honor the 20th anniversary while recognizing that many of Artista Vista’s founding galleries are still thriving twenty years later,” said Day.

The three-day event will encompass all forms of art from visual to performing arts.

Thursday, Apr. 28, (5-9pm): Installation pieces by an assortment of artists will be on display at 927 to 929 Gervais Street and the fire-training tower on Park Street.

Fiber artist, Susan Lenz will unveil her public art project, Looking for a Mate. Lenz collected mate-less socks from the public during Vista Lights, last Fall, and used them to create an art quilt.

Barry Wheeler and Heather Bauer will present a photography piece at Lewis + Clark, which will share the history of the Vista through photos. Dr. Sketchy’s anti-art group will perform at Ellen Taylor Interiors and Design’s storefront window from 7:15-8:30pm.

Friday, Apr. 29 (11am-7pm): Installations will be on display at 927-929 Gervais Street.

Saturday, Apr. 30 (11am-7pm): Installations will be on display at 927-929 Gervais Street.

There will be a special performance by the USC percussion ensemble at 1pm at City Art Gallery.

From noon to 1:30pm, One-Eared Cow Glass artists will be collaborating with artists from the About Face art group at One-Eared Cow (1001 Huger Street).

USC’s art department painting studios (located in the Vista at the corner of Devine Street and Gadsden Street) will have an open house and the department’s new wood-fired kiln will be up and running from 11am to 4pm. Participants include: Kara Gunter, Susan Lenz, Amanda Ladymon, George Fenter, Billy Guess, Marius Valdes, Eileen Blyth, Barry Wheeler, and Heather Bauer.

As a special part of its 20th anniversary, Artista Vista is offering a social media contest at this year’s event with the chance to win a limited-edition, silk screened, signed 2011 Artista Vista poster and a $50 gift certificate to Motor Supply Company Bistro. All you have to do is search “Artista Vista” as the venue on Foursquare and check in as you come to each gallery during the event. Whoever becomes the mayor of Artista Vista by checking in at the most galleries the most often over the course of the three-day event wins the poster and gift certificate.

Artista Vista 2011 participating galleries include: Carol Saunders Gallery, 300 Senate, Vista Studios/Gallery 80808, The Gallery at Nonnah’s, Paul D. Sloan Interiors, if ART Gallery, Lewis + Clark, Gallery at DuPre, SC State Museum, SC Contemporary Dance Company, City Art Gallery, and One Eared Cow Glass.

Free parking will be available in the Vista’s parking decks located on Lincoln Street near Lady, Park Street near Pendleton, and Lady Street near Wayne Street. Many galleries will offer complimentary hors d’oeuvres and wine.

To learn more about the Congaree Vista, Columbia’s arts and entertainment district, visit (www.vistacolumbia.com) or follow the Vista on Twitter: (@vistaguild).

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A Trip to Columbia, SC’s First Thursday on Main – Feb. 3, 2011

Saturday, February 5th, 2011

On a cold Thursday afternoon when the weather people were calling for 80% rain, Linda and I headed to Columbia, SC, to visit One Eared Cow Glass and the First Thursday on Main event.

One Eared Cow Glass was having one of their 20th Anniversary celebration events introducing a new line of glass jewelry – just in time for Valentines’ day. That’s when Linda signed on for the trip to Columbia. I can’t say too much more about the One Eared Cow Glass anniversary events – all I can say is you need to go there and sign up to be on their e-mail list.

I’ve been wanting to go to one of the First Thursday on Main events for some time as it seemed like it was becoming quite an art event. I also wanted to see the inside of the Tapp’s Center for the Arts project and hopefully meet up with Susan Lenz, who had another window display there.

Activities on Main Street in downtown Columbia started a few years ago when Mark Plessinger of Frame of Mind started displaying area artists’ work in his shop on Main Street across from the Columbia Museum of Art. Info about those events kind of came and then fizzled. During that time other art related groups moved to Main Street and then by last fall we began to receive info about the First Thursday on Main events which seemed to be organized by the City Center Partnership, Inc., but we’re not hearing from them on a regular basis either. The only person I’m hearing from on a regular basis is Brenda Schwarz Miller who is spearheading up the effort to turn the old Tapp’s on Main department store at 1644 Main Street, at the corner of Main and Blanding, into the Tapp’s Center for the Arts.

I guess the City Center Partnership is interested more in having all parties on Main participate in trying to get folks in the Columbia area to come back to Main Street during the evening hours with the First Thursday events, but I’m more interested in the visual art groups there which now include Frame of Mind, S&S Art Supply, FreeTimes, Anastasia & Friends, Columbia Museum of Art, the Arcade Artists, and Tapp’s Center for the Arts.

From our front door at the headquarters of Shoestring Publishing in Bonneau, SC, we can be in downtown Columbia in two hours. It takes an hour to drive to Charleston, SC, so it’s not much of an effort to go to Columbia, but the two hour return trip does determine how long you can stay.

We spent almost two hours at One Eared Cow Glass, and again, all I’ll say besides I love watching the cowboys work, is that Linda and I got our 20th Anniversary T-Shirts while there, which will pay off throughout the year’s celebrations. My lips are sealed.

Once we weaved our way over to Main Street during Columbia’s rush hour traffic, we arrived at the Tapp’s building just about 5pm. We looked at a few of the outside window displays, but it didn’t take long for the damp 40 degree temps to rush us inside. No real rain yet.

As we entered a side door on Blanding, right off we see a little window display of jewelry by Susan Shrader, which stops Linda in her tracks. We’ve dealt with Shrader throughout the years as she was helping to promote a Columbia gem show. She’s one of the hundreds of people we have talked to over the years but never met.


Jewelry and fused glass works by Susan Shrader

We got to scratch her off our never met list once we set foot inside the massive Tapp’s building. Right away I was reminded of my recent visit to the Art Trail Gallery in Florence, SC, which was another massive building in a city which is now used to show off art – helping to revise a once thriving downtown shopping district.

Linda said she used to come to Tapp’s when she was visiting her older sister who attended USC – a long time ago, back when her family would travel from small Myrtle Beach to SC’s capital city.

While Linda talked with Shrader and looked at jewelry, I looked around the building’s maze of rooms on two levels. Downstairs I saw John Sharpe giving a demonstration on a pottery wheel. The building has a lot of potential for many things.

Once upstairs again, Linda and I enjoyed a bit of food and drink, I took a few photos and then we asked someone to point out Brenda Schwarz Miller. She is another person we have talked on the phone with and exchanged many e-mails with over activities and events of the Artist Round Table group in Columbia and now Tapp’s.


Listening by Sandra Carr


Inside Out by Sandra Carr


Detail of Inside Out by Sandra Carr

It is my experience that projects like this are usually the dream of one dynamic individual with the help of a few others. Tapp’s is definitely Miller’s baby. Again, I was reminded of the Art Trail Gallery in Florence where Jane Madden has made the project happen by sheer will and persistence in dealing with red tape – in both cases, business and city leaders.

Columbia has already had some experience with similar projects like Vista Studios and 701 Center for the Arts, but it has also had experience with fellows like Jack Gerstner – who first had a strangle hold on the 701 building and used it for personal gain. Miller is 180 degrees on the opposite end of Gerstner. So, I hope city leaders in Columbia soon help her make her dream and that of many artists in Columbia – come true. It will be good for Main Street in the long run.

Miller told us she has received lots of help from the building’s owner who also hopes for success of the Tapp’s project as he owns other buildings in downtown Columbia. There’s no problem in working in your own self interest while benefiting others. Too bad the SC Arts Commission doesn’t see that – unless they are dealing with folks shopping for Verner Awards through donations to the SC Arts Foundation. Otherwise we’re all greedy commercial enterprises – unworthy of a seat at the big arts table. They prefer creating a system of art welfare where arts groups become dependent on them for continued existence. How’s that working?


Burnt Offerings by Kara M. Gunter


Detail of Burnt Offerings by Kara M. Gunter


A real close detail of Burnt Offerings by Kara M. Gunter

I was hoping to run into Susan Lenz at Tapp’s but she never showed while we were there so we decided to go explore some of the other locations.

Outside we got a look at the window displays at the front of the building – which are very interesting, but hard to photograph as there was still some daylight lingering causing reflections.

One complaint or suggestion I have for First Thursday on Main organizers – whoever they are or will be is – they need a map of participating locations on Main Street available at all locations. If you’re hoping to attract people back to a downtown area they haven’t been to in years – don’t expect them to know where everything is – especially if they’re coming from out of town. I know the area pretty well, but not everything.

We went up Main toward the Capital building looking for a parking space – apparently the event was working. We saw where a few of the participating places were (except the Arcade), but no parking spaces were opening up – so we did the Charleston shuffle – driving around and around hoping someone would leave their space. On one of the rounds I spotted Susan Lenz in the window talking with folks at FreeTimes. And as luck would have it after a few trips around the block a space opened up.

Once we squeezed into the building and got close to Lenz we had managed to scratch another person off our never-met list. The place was packed with the who’s who of Columbia’s art community, very noisy, but there wasn’t really that many people there compared to the folks at the Tapp’s building. The illusion of a small packed room can throw you off, but it was a case of who was there. And as in many situations like this I saw folks I would have liked to say hey to, but never got the chance. Toni Elkins was working the room like a humming bird, and Jeffrey Day was there – not sure what that conversation would have been like. But, I did have a few friendly words with Ken May – head of the SC Arts Commission.

May called me his nemesis – which I thought was a little over-blown. He might have meant it as a compliment, but I later thought it didn’t really fit. It would be like calling Cuba America’s nemesis. A nemesis is usually an unbeatable rival or a source of harm or destruction. I don’t think I’m having that effect and his label gives me too much credit. I fit the description of a gadfly – which I was called once by an Arts Commission supporter. As May asked – “what would I write about without the Arts Commission?” I flashed back to a scene from Richard Nixon stating that we (the media) wouldn’t have him to kick around anymore. But then there was George W. Bush, Sarah Palin and Fox News. There’s always someone being unfair or doing and saying silly things. So I’m not worried about losing the Arts Commission – one way or another. It may be a case of the last man standing in both our cases.


Ding on a Dong by Diane Gilbert – shot from the hip at FreeTimes

But, all in all, I was happy to talk with Susan Lenz, a human dynamo of the art world about a few of her current projects and past issues. But before long she needed to move on to Tapp’s  and said she still had work to do that night. We made a slow circle of the room – not able to see much of the art and headed for the door. It was now raining. (It hasn’t stopped raining since.)

Back at Tapp’s Linda had heard a few folks talking about sleet and not knowing what the temps were going down to we decided to get out of Columbia while the getting was good. Besides, this is an event which is taking place every month and is just picking up steam. We can always come back.

I highly recommend the trip, especially for folks from the Lowcountry. Columbia’s visual art community is much different from that of Charleston’s. I’ve always enjoyed going to Columbia to visit Artista Vista or Vista Lights to get a different view of what artists are creating in South Carolina.

But, I think Columbia planners have a basic problem in attracting out of town visitors to come on Thursday evenings. It asks travelers to take a day off of work or make extended return travel plans. A four hour round trip is nothing for me, but others don’t see that as attractive. If these events were moved to a Friday or even a Saturday – they might attract more out of town visitors even though it would compete with other cities which present first Friday art walks, but what’s wrong with a little competition?

But, if the plan is to just attract locals to the downtown on a weekday – this just might work and before long it could include the Vista and Five Points area too. Why not have all of the city’s artists putting on a show. That’s what happened in Charleston.

As far as the Tapp’s Center for the Arts goes – here’s some of the plans. The space could supply 16 juried studios on the main level and 20 non-juried single and shared studios in the lower level. There are plans for three galleries, including a Cafe Gallery in the lower level. The facility would also include a frame shop, photography studio, print shop, wood workshop and clay studio. And, the good  part of the plan is that it is planned to be self-supporting. All they need is some start-up support to get the project going. If you would like more info about this project contact Brenda Schwarz Miller at 803/609-3479 or e-mail her at (brenda@realworldartisans.com).

After looking at the photos I took – at least those usable – I seemed to be interested in sculptural works at the First Thursday event.

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Big Art Events Taking Place in the Carolinas – Nov. 18 – 21, 2010

Monday, November 15th, 2010

Starting this Thursday evening with Columbia, SC’s 25th Annual Vista Lights celebration and ending with Seagrove, NC’s 3rd Annual Celebration of Seagrove Potters – this week offers some great visual art events – for both viewing and buying. Make your plans now.

Columbia, SC’s 25th Annual Vista Lights celebration, sponsored by the Vista Guild, will take place on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010, from 5-10pm in Columbia’s Congaree Vista area along the Congaree River. Click on the name of the event to read an article from Carolina Arts newspaper).

Some of the highlights include:

Fabric artist Susan Lenz will be collecting socks for her art project called, Looking For a Mate, a community based art quilt. The public is invited to bring their “mate less” socks to River Runner, at 905 Gervais Street, as donations to the project. Lenz will be hand stitching these “found objects” onto recycled acrylic felt in order to create a unique art quilt. The felt was formerly packaging material for canoes and kayaks being shipped by distributors to retail shops like River Runner. If you bring a sock – children or adult; serious or comic – you may discover it in the final quilt, which will be unveiled at Artista Vista in Apr. 2011. Here’s a link to a blog entry I wrote about this project.


Poster image by Jeff Donovan

Vista Studios, one of the first art venues to locate in Columbia’s Vista area is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year with a special 20th Anniversary Show which will be on display from Nov. 16-30, 2010. The show will open on Nov. 18 in connection with this year’s Vista Lights celebration. At Vista Studios, more than 30 artists (current and past members) will be exhibiting paintings, drawings, mixed media, and sculpture in Gallery 80808. For further info call the gallery at 803/252-6143 or visit (www.vistastudios80808.com). Here’s a link to a blog entry I wrote about this exhibit.


Work by Bruce Nellsmith

Homeland, a collection of new paintings by Bruce Nellsmith, is another highlight of the Vista Lights celebration in the main gallery at City Art Gallery. This exhibition will be on view from Nov. 18 through Dec. 30, 2010. Various other types of art including textiles and jewelry will be featured at City Art Gallery during the celebration. For further info contact Wendyth Wells at 803/252-3613 or visit (www.cityartonline.com). Here’s a link to an article we presented in Carolina Arts. A collection of handmade jewelry by Cindy Saad will also be featured during the Vista Lights celebration.

And, no Vista event is complete without stopping by One Eared Cow Glass where Tommy Lockart, Mark Woodham, and their assistant, Ryan Crabtree will be doing the dance of glass blowing for everyone to see. They’ll have plenty of wonderful glass objects – just right for holiday gift giving and some pretty spectacular fine art objects for collectors. Here’s a link to a blog entry I’ve done in the past showing you just a peek at what you’ll be able to witness during Vista Lights.

To learn more about the Vista Guild, call 803/269-5946, e-mail to (staff@vistacolumbia.com) or visit (www.vistacolumbia.com).

The 3rd Annual Celebration of Seagrove Potters will open on Friday evening, Nov. 19, 2010, at 6pm with a Gala Preview Party at the historic Luck’s Cannery in Seagrove, NC. Meet the artists and enjoy the opening night festivities of this fabulous event as visitors have the first opportunity to browse and purchase from the thousands of pieces, sip a favorite beverage and enjoy hors d’oeuvres, while listening to the jazz band of Joe Robinson. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to preview a select collection of unique collaborative pieces to be auctioned. This highly successful venture, teaming Seagrove artists, to produce highly collectable one-of-a-kind pieces was very popular in prior years. This artwork will be auctioned at 8pm on Friday evening.


Ben Owen III holds a pot created by himself and Will McCanless

Tickets are limited and must be purchased in advance. They may be purchased on-line at (www.CelebrationOfSeagrovePotters.com). Gala ticket price includes admission to the event on Saturday and Sunday as well. Here’s a link to an article we offered in Carolina Arts newspaper.

Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010, the show is open from 9am to 6pm and from 10am to 4pm on Sunday, Nov. 21, 2010. For further information visit their website at (www.celebrationofseagrovepotters.com).


Jug made by Sid & Matt Luck

But here’s a link to a blog entry we posted at Carolina Arts Unleashed.

And, finally, this is the last weekend to see the South Carolina Watermedia Society’s 33rd Annual Exhibition, on view at the Center for the Arts in Rock Hill, SC, through Nov. 21, 2010. Here’s an article we offered at Carolina Arts newspaper (http://www.carolinaarts.com/1110centerforthearts.html) and a link to a blog entry we posted on this exhibit, with more images.


Work by Steve Garner

The gallery at the Center for the Arts is open Fridays, 9am-5pm; Saturdays, 10am-2pm; and Sundays, 2-4pm. For further info call 803/328-2787 or visit (www.rockhillarts.org).

There, that’s three good possibilities to fill your weekend.

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Vista Studios/Gallery 80808 in Columbia, SC, Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary During This Year’s Vista Lights – Nov. 18, 2010

Saturday, November 6th, 2010

We offered an article about this anniversary in our Nov. 2010 issue of Carolina Arts, but as usual, we didn’t have space to give the event its proper notice. Vista Studios has been a longtime supporter of Carolina Arts and we surely want to give them all the support we can in return.

Surviving 20 years in any venture is an accomplishment, and in the art world it’s a major feat, but Vista Studios is doing much more than surviving – it is thriving. This wasn’t always the case but Gallery 80808 probably now hosts and presents more exhibitions than any other facility in South Carolina – about 25 each year.


Image by Jeff Donovan

Besides providing studio spaces Gallery 80808 has featured exhibits by many other regional artists, art groups, and even International shows like CYBER FYBER in Jan. 2009, featuring fiber works by artists from around the world, organized by Susan Lenz, one of the current studio residents.


Fiber postcards from CYBER FYBER


some of the fiber postcards

To celebrate this milestone a 20th Anniversary Exhibition, featuring works by current residents and former residents will be on view from Nov. 16 – 29, 2010. A reception is planned for Nov. 18, 2010, from 5-10pm during the annual Vista Lights celebration.

We’re also offering some images from past shows from the last couple of years.

Here’s a little history offered on their blog found at (http://gallery80808.blogspot.com/)

It was a hot, early fall afternoon in the late 1980s when a group of artists, arts administrators and city leaders stood in an overgrown lot next to the Confederate Printing Plant on Gervais and Huger in downtown Columbia. They were there to walk through the more than one hundred-year-old building to look at the possibility of turning it into a much needed facility – artists’ studios. Structural problems with the building and funding issues prevented plans for that space from maturing and the project languished. It would be 1990, almost two years later, before Vista Studios, a joint venture of Columbia Development Corporation and the South Carolina Arts Commission, would finally open at 808 Lady Street.


Work by Nikolai Oskolkov

The history of Vista Studios is closely tied to the redevelopment of the old warehouse district of Columbia, the Congaree Vista, and its rebirth as an arts district that began more than twenty-five years ago. Much has changed in the twenty years since the opening of Vista Studios and Gallery 80808. The Columbia art scene in the late 1980s and early 90s was very different. The Columbia Museum of Art was still on Senate Street in a space that severely limited its ability to feature significant contemporary art and there was no 701 Center for Contemporary Art. City Art was still Dutch Door and doing business in St. Andrews. The only commercial galleries downtown that regularly exhibited contemporary art were Carol Saunders, Lewis & Clark and Havens.

Like most urban areas across the United States, Main Street and the downtown area had been in a decline for at least ten years as many shoppers and merchants moved to the suburbs. Using the arts as an anchor for revitalization was a growing practice, and one that the late mayor, Kirkman Finlay, advocated in pushing for the designation of the Vista as an arts district. One of the keys to the growth of a thriving art community is affordable studio space. A vital step in the redevelopment of waning downtown areas has been the creation of publicly backed, multipurpose studio/exhibition spaces for artists. One of the most well known of these spaces developed across the country during the 1970s and early 80s is the Torpedo Factory outside of Washington, DC.


Work by Patrick Parise

There were already a few artists working in renovated warehouse spaces in the Vista area – Clark Ellefson, Eleanor Byrne, and Rosie and Mike Craig – as well as arts organizations like the Columbia Music Festival Association. Despite this, visual artists were still virtually invisible in the city due to a lack of professional workspace, exhibition space and the visible presence of a concentrated, critical mass.

Several different options were discussed and later abandoned in addition to the Confederate Printing Plant before the warehouse behind Molten/Lamar Architects on Lady Street was selected for the studios. Several factors (and people) were key to moving the project forward at this point. Kirkman Finlay, who as mayor and later board chair of the Columbia Development Corporation (CDC), was a driving force behind the project. He had the vision to see the advantages of including the arts in his plans for the city’s revitalization. After going without a director for almost a year the CDC hired Robbie McClam to lead this initiative. He quickly identified the studios project as one that would provide focus for the Vista as an arts district, and worked closely with David Houston and Harriett Green of the South Carolina Arts Commission to bring the necessary constituencies together. Richard Molten and Dick Lamar of Molten/Lamar Architects, both with a strong interest in the arts community, were particularly appropriate as developers and future landlords for the space.


Work by Tyrone Geter

Almost twenty artists gathered with Molten and McClam for the walk-through of the raw warehouse space in the summer of 1989. Several months later, thirteen studios, a gallery and common area had been carved out of the area behind Molten/Lamar’s offices. The architectural firm took on most of the renovation costs – around $100,000 to install heat and air, plumbing, and dividing walls – with the CDC contributing $30,000. The state arts commission supported the project for several years with a renewable $10,000 grant. Eventually Vista Studios became self-sustaining with funding being covered by the rents for the studios and community rental of the gallery space. The CDC with its current director, Fred Delk, continues to support the art space. The Cultural Council of Richland & Lexington Counties has also provided funding for specific projects throughout the years.


Work by Todd Oelze

Fourteen artists/pioneers moved in initially: Heidi Darr-Hope, Robert Kennedy, Tom Brewer, Barbara Bydalek, Lyn Bell Rose, Mark Bourlakas, Mike Williams, Frances Perkins, Judy Nankin, Arline Murphy, Deborah Sherer, Yvonne Ruff, Margerie Ross and Anne Bjork. The artists were selected by a panel that included USC art history professor Brad Collins, artist Eleanor Byrne along with McClam and several others. A similar internal jurying process for new resident artists continues today. The artists’ first group exhibit in the 1990 spring Artista Vista event was the symbolic culmination of the project.

Since that first exhibit, Vista Studios has continued to play an important role in the ongoing development of the arts community in Columbia. A number of other cooperative artists’ spaces have since been created, scattered across the central part of the city from Rosewood and Five Points to the most recent one in the old Arcade Building on Main Street. A thriving, active visual art community has grown out of what was a relatively small public investment twenty years ago.

Out of the original 14 studio residents, Heidi Darr-Hope and Robert Kennedy are still there. Throughout the 20 years, 28 other artists have come and gone including: Bob Allison, James C. Bassett, Carol Barks, Tyler Ann Blanton, Dana Shenkar, Paul Bright, Pat Callahan, Brent Davenport, Charles Dillingham, Reuben Gambrell, Cindy Giddings, Peggy Gordon, Jeannette Grassi, Tonya Gregg, Susan Hogue, Bill Jackson, Christina James, Robin Jones, Deanna Leamon,, Rob Lowe, Brooks Meyers, John D. Monteith, Richard Morgan, Gene Speer, Chris Thee, Brent Wahl, Amey Warder, and Don Zurlo.

The current 13 residents include: Ethel Brody, Stephen Chesley, Heidi Darr-Hope, Jeff Donovan, Pat Gilmartin, Robert Kennedy, Susan Lenz, Sharon Licata, Laurie McIntosh, Michel McNinch, Kirkland Smith, Laura Spong, and David H. Yaghjian.

For further info about Vista Studios or Gallery 80808 visit (http://www.vistastudios80808.com).

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You Can Participate in Looking For a Mate: A Public Art Project by Susan Lenz

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Who of us doesn’t have a “mate less” sock or two in their dresser drawers? I know I’ve got several, but they’re kind of plain socks. I mostly wear white socks with my tennis shoes, but I might have some more interesting socks I haven’t worn in years that are shoved way in the back of another drawer. How about you?

Susan Lenz, a Columbia, SC, based fiber artists is working on a public art project entitled, “Looking For a Mate”, which will be a community based art quilt made up of “mate less” socks. She’s asking people to donate their “mate less” socks to her project.

Here’s the details:

“Looking For a Mate”, a community based art quilt*, will take place during the 25th annual fall Vista Lights art crawl on the evening of Thursday, Nov. 18 and the afternoon of Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010, in the Congaree Vista arts district of Columbia, SC.  The public is invited to bring their “mate less” socks to River Runner, 905 Gervais Street, as donations to the project.

Fiber artist Susan Lenz will be hand stitching these “found objects” onto recycled acrylic felt in order to create a unique art quilt. The felt was formerly packaging material for canoes and kayaks being shipped by distributors to retail shops like River Runner. This humorous project was developed as a fun way to inform the public about art quilts. Participation in the construction and stitching will be encouraged.

Lenz created a “prototype” art quilt that will be on view as a finished example. It includes lots of simple straight stitches, cross stitches, and blanket stitches in bright, colorful threads. She will complete the public assisted “Looking for a Mate” art quilt over the winter. This new art quilt will be on display during Artista Vista, April 28 – 30, 2011, and will become the property of the Congaree Vista Guild, sponsors of the project.

Lenz will also accept any donated “mate less” socks in her studio at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, 808 Lady Street in Columbia. Both Susan Lenz and River Runner owner Guy Jones encourage others to use post consumer materials in artistic ways.

*art quilt…must be predominantly fabric or fabric-like material and must be composed of at least two full and distinct layers – a face layer and a backing layer. The face and backing layers must be held together by hand- or machine-made functional quilting stitches or other elements that pierce all layers and are distributed throughout the surface of the work.

For further details visit Lenz’s blog, Art in Stitches, at this link (http://www.artbysusanlenz.blogspot.com/).

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I Went to See PERSONAL GROUNDS by Susan Lenz at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park in Charleston, SC

Sunday, October 3rd, 2010

On a rainy day when they were talking about the streets of Charleston flooding from the tropical storm passing up the eastern coast of the US – I decided to go see Susan Lenz’s exhibit, PERSONAL GROUNDS, at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park in downtown Charleston – a place right next to the water, but one of the highest points in Charleston. I know this because I shared a space a half block away when Hurricane Hugo came a calling to Charleston in 1989. I thought I was going to lose everything, but when I finally was able to go check it out, the place was high and dry. That area is actually built on the foundations of the old wall that once surrounded Charles Towne. Comparing elevations in downtown Charleston – that was like being on a mountain top. So I wasn’t worried about flooding – except when I tried to leave Charleston, but no flood came while I was there.

Lenz is a business owner and artist from Columbia, SC. This was quite an honor for her to be the lead visual art exhibition to be offered during Charleston’s annual MOJA Arts Festival. The Festival is a celebration of African-American and Caribbean arts. Why her show was being offered at that time – I don’t have a clue, but I’m glad it was.

I’ve known Lenz for some time now, she is a supporter of Carolina Arts and one of the hardest working visual artists in South Carolina. It’s hard to imagine where she finds all the time to do what she does, but that hard work is beginning to pay off for her in big ways. Her works are being featured throughout South Carolina and across the country.

The exhibition is comprised of portraits of people as they are today or at least when Lenz photographed them, with stitched lettering stating a decision they made in their life that had an impact on their lives. Some might seem like normal decisions, some are the kind none of us want to make, and some are just personal choices made at the crossroads of life. The idea is that all through life we have to make decisions and most of us live with them – I know some people who don’t or never will. That’s the way some people are.

The portraits are not identified except for the self portrait of Lenz, but I knew who some of the people are and that added something different to those portraits as it told me something I might not have known about that person. It didn’t take anything away from the portraits of the people I didn’t know – it just added a different twist.

Each portrait was also decorated with objects, often related in some way or another to the decision these folks made.

While viewing each portrait and reading the decisions, I kept thinking – glad I haven’t had to make that decision or it was – been there, made that one.

There is a group of hanging banners in the center of the gallery space that go from the ceiling to the floor which contain what I felt were the kinds of daily decisions we make which determine what kind of person we’re going to be – are we going to be lured to the dark side or will we be strong with the force kind of stuff.

Lenz just doesn’t point out the obvious on decision making, she also offers visitors to the exhibit a chance at hope or to change your luck, fate, destiny, etc. For $15 you can buy a key. On one wall there are hundreds of keys with a word or phrase attached to the key like – Happiness, Health, Wealth, as in key to happiness, key to health and key to wealth. So, for $15 you can buy a key to what you want in life. Not a bad deal.

If you know Lenz’s work, you know she is a collector of objects – objects which end up in her works or objects that become her works, but one thing is true, Lenz doesn’t often offer a view of one object when she can offer that same object in a hundred different views as shown in two displays of doors with items usually associated with doors and some not attached to the doors. In fact, during the upcoming Vista Lights event taking place in Columbia, SC, on Nov. 18, 2010, from 5-10pm, Lenz is asking people to bring her “mateless” socks for a public art project she is working on called Looking For A Mate that will be finished later and be presented during Columbia’s Artista Vista event in the Spring of 2011.

On this rainy Wednesday morning I was the only person visiting the exhibit while I was there, but I felt like I was sharing life with all these people in the portraits – at least they were sharing with me. I don’t know most of them and most of them don’t know me, but we share the decision making process and the results of those decisions. There is no decision we make that doesn’t affect someone else – we are not alone on this big blue ball. The question we live with most of the time is did we make the right decision and who’s to know? Like I said before – most of us live with our decisions – some don’t.

The exhibition ends at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park on Oct. 10, 2010, but I’m sure this exhibit will be showing around the Carolinas and beyond for some time. I know it’s scheduled to be on view at the Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, NC, from Feb. 19 through May 14, 2011.

I didn’t bother taking photos as I knew Lenz had posted many images of the exhibit after she installed it on her blog and you can see them at this link. The ones we do offer here are what we received when we got the press release about this exhibit.

Go see this exhibit and see how many decision you’ve made in common with these folks. If you can’t see it in Charleston keep an eye and an ear out for it in a gallery space near you.

While I was in Charleston I also went over to Nina Liu and Friends Gallery, at 24 State Street, to see some other works Lenz has in a group exhibit, The Angel Show, featuring works by artists who use angels as subject matter in their work on a regular basis. The exhibition which includes works by Phillip Chan, Jeff Kopish, Janet Kozachek, Susie Miller Simon, Eric Longo, Susan Lenz, Aggie Zed, and Michael Farrar, will be on view through Nov. 30, 2010.

These works are also multi-media works, but are mainly images of angels from cemeteries. The two shows worked well together.

Make a decision to go see PERSONAL GROUNDS.

Susan Lenz is also part of Vista Studios at 808 Lady Street, in Columbia, SC, where you can see more of her work and perhaps sometime catch her working in her studio. Vista Studios will be celebrating their 20 year anniversary during this year’s Vista Lights by offering a historical exhibit  in Gallery 80808 at the studios featuring works by current and former studio members. The exhibit kicks off on Nov. 18, 2010, at 5pm.

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Gallery 412 in Florence, SC, Features an Exhibit of Fiber Works by Susan Lenz

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

Yes, this is another press release which came late – after deadlines for our August issue of Carolina Arts, but it’s no reason the artist should suffer, so here it is.

The Florence Regional Arts Alliance in Florence, SC, will open its 2010-2011 Season of its newly renamed Gallery 412 with Last Words, a fiber arts show by Susan Lenz. Currently entering its 3rd year of operation, the Gallery and Shoppe will annually feature shows that open on the first Thursday of each month and continue through the last Thursday of each month. Arts Alliance President Greg Fry indicates, “Our plan is to schedule a diverse array of artists each year, and we encourage our exhibiting artists to ‘push the box’ in terms of their artistic exploration. We hope the result will be many exciting shows for gallery goers over the next 12 months and hopefully in the years to come as well.”

Last Words will be on view from Aug. 5 – 26, 2010.

Susan Lenz indicates that despite two terrible childhood experiences with needle and thread, she fell “head over heels in love” with embroidery as an adult and dreamed of a time when she could indulge her passion as a professional artist. Finding time to pursue her passion was a virtual impossibility because she already filled every waking hour managing a custom picture framing shop that had 13 employees. In 2001, she downsized her growing business, rented space in a cooperative studio setting, and started “making art’ from bits of fabric and lengths of thread. Her years in operating a business served her well. Her new career became an extension of the existing corporation.

Long hours devoted to production were already Lenz’s normal work ethnic. Association with local artists provided her with an excellent mentor who immediately advised her to build a resume, enter shows, submit for art opportunities, and create an inventory book documenting every creation. These advantages, combined with inspiration from travel, medieval and renaissance history, and modern technology, are the core of her textile work.

In the fall of 2008, Lenz was awarded a MacNamara art residency on Westport Island, ME.  While there, she read a suggestion in Jeanne Williamson’s The Uncommon Quilter about making grave rubbings on fabric. There are family plots and historic cemeteries all over Maine. She made a rubbing and then an art quilt. She has been quilting ever since. She comments, “The ability to communicate the passage of time, the human desire for remembrance, the issues of both personal and universal mortality are reasons that will make quilting with grave rubbings one of my textile passions for a long, long time.”

As Lenz’s series developed, new ways of working the concepts came into being. Collected epitaphs became free motion machine embroidered words on sheer chiffon banners. Artificial flowers from the cemetery dumpsters brought color and actual tokens of remembrance into a physical space and transformed it into a spiritual oasis of tribute to human existence. Angelic digital images were transferred onto printmaking paper and combined with bits of lace, samples of antique handwriting, sepia photographs, buttons, keys, and other found objects. Lenz herself admits, “A site specific installation called Last Words was born and continues to inspire new work.”

Operating at 412 South Dargan Street in the emerging Arts and Cultural District in Downtown Florence, the Florence Regional Arts Alliance is the “chamber of commerce” for the artists, arts organizations, school arts teachers, and school arts programs of the City of Florence and Florence County. The Arts Alliance is committed to preserving, supporting, and promoting a vibrant arts community by providing grants to artists, organizations, teachers, and schools; by recognizing students, individuals, and businesses through a comprehensive program of awards and scholarships; by offering community programming that showcases the performing arts, the visual arts, and the literary arts; and by serving as an advocate for the arts to business, civic, and governmental leaders. All initiatives of The Arts Alliance are premised on the basic organizational core value that recognizes the arts are fundamental to quality of life, education, and economic development in today’s knowledge-based economy, an economy that will require innovative, imaginative, and creativity to address the critical issues of the 21st Century.

For further information call the Alliance at 843/665-278, e-mail to (fraa@florencescarts.org) or visit (http://www.florencescarts.org/).

Editor’s Note: Susan Lenz is also having a solo exhibition at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park in Charleston, SC, from Sept. 10 through Oct. 10, entitled, Personal Grounds. The exhibit is part of the annual MOJA Arts Festival which takes place from Sept. 23 – Oct. 3, 2010, in Charleston. The mixed media installation will feature 48 free-motion machine embroidered chiffon banners in the soaring two-story central space and a series of over 100 portraits depicting every day people and the decisions they’ve made. For further info about this exhibit contact Erin Glaze at 843/958-6484 or visit (www.charlestonarts.sc).

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