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October Issue
2008
Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County
in Camden, SC, Features Works by Jak Smyrl
The Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County in Camden, SC, will present an exhibit of illustrations by the late South Carolina artist Jak Smyrl, on view from Oct. 28 through Nov. 14 in the Bassett Gallery.
"Jak was truly a gifted artist full of enthusiasm for how the arts touch our lives daily. We are honored to be able to present his work here at the Center as a tribute to his wonderful life," said Kristin Cobb, executive director of the Fine Arts Center.
Oscar Jackson Smyrl, Jr., born in 1923 in Camden, SC, grew up in an active, loving family where laughter and storytelling helped to shape him into the artist Jak Smyrl. Following a career that took him to all parts of the world, he died in his hometown in 2007, leaving a lasting legacy throughout his native state.
In his childhood during the Great Depression, when rural youngsters learned to make their own fun, young Smyrl sketched funny pictures to amuse his siblings as they sat together evenings by the light of an oil lamp centered on the kitchen table. In his lifetime, he turned to all arts - including conversation, music, and writing - that bring people closer together and enlarge their world with pleasure.
The Southern outdoor world of his youth nurtured an enduring love for natural beauty and a genuine sympathy for Nature's creatures. Called by duty from his college classroom in World War II, he served in the US Marines during the Pacific island invasions and afterwards in the occupation army in North China. His pencil, brush, and camera went with him everywhere. During post-war college and studio studies, Smyrl landed a job on a daily newspaper and entered the working world of the commercial artist.
The staff artist at The State and The Columbia Record newspapers for 37 years, as well as a free-lance illustrator for dozens of books and hundreds of other projects, Smyrl made an indelible mark on South Carolina and beyond. He was a sustaining contributor to the long-time survival of The State Magazine, one of the defining publications of the Palmetto State. The state and local maps he illustrated with comic sketches recorded valuable details of historic and contemporary locales. His was the first logo of the University of South Carolina to depict the gamecock in fighting stance. His sketches of Smokey the Bear garnered national attention in a forest fire prevention campaign.
With his devoted wife, interior designer Betty Spires whom he married in 1958, Smyrl traveled the world and lived both simply and grandly, collecting friends everywhere. Their trips were frequently the basis for detailed travel articles and sketches published on return. The couple filled their comfortable homes in Camden and in Holden Beach, NC, with memorabilia, with objects of nature, with his artworks, and frequently with family and friends.
Just before his passing, Smyrl - artist of life - completed the publication of Random Rimes, a bemusing book of his poems which he illustrated with new and favorite sketches, and again welcomed the public to his world of smiles.
The Fine Arts Center is funded in part by the Frederick S. Upton Foundation and the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
For further information check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the Center at 803/425-7676 or visit (www.fineartscenter.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2008 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2008 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.