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January Issue 2004
Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, SC, Offers Three New Exhibits for New Year
The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, SC, greets 2004 with new exhibitions featuring the works of three regional artists. The exhibitions, Inspired by Nature: The Art Quilts of Dottie Moore, In the Spirit of Sankofa: The Art Quilts of Marlene O'Bryant-Seabrook and In Praise of Our Mothers: The Carved and Painted Gourds of Michele Tejuola Turner. open on Jan. 8 and will continue through Feb. 29, 2004, with a docent tour at 2pm on Feb. 7.
Dottie Moore
Since 1980 Dottie Moore has created over 500 quilts. Inspired by Nature brings together 29 of these made since 1997. Moore was born in Decatur, GA, and raised and educated in Tennessee. In 1980 she produced her first art quilt, primarily using self-taught traditional techniques and some innovative methods that just came naturally. Moore's daily walks in the rolling hills and forests provided inspiration and subject matter. By 1987 she was quilting full time. Moore notes, "I stitch layers of cloth and images into visual conversations about the mystery of earth and sky. Nature speaks the soul's symbolic language and I discover layers of meaning in each tree and mountain that I built."
Today, Moore lives in Rock Hill, SC. Her work has appeared in many publications including American Quilter and Art Quilt Magazine. Moore's quilts have been displayed in many private and corporate collections in the United States and abroad. Moore is the founder of "Piecing a Quilt of Life," a national project dedicated to documenting the creation process among women quilt artists over the age of 50.
Michele Tejuola
Turner
In the Spirit of Sankofa: The Art Quilts of Marlene O'Bryant-Seabrook and In Praise of Our Mothers: The Carved and Painted Gourds of Michele Tejuola Turner focus on the visual medium of storytelling.
Sankofa is the African bird known for looking backwards as it moves forward. To the Akan people of Ghanan, West Africa, the Sankofa symbolizes learning from the past in order to understand the present. O'Bryant-Seabrook's retrospective exhibit is one artist's reflection on her personal and creative journey. And that journey has been two-fold. O'Bryant-Seabrook learned the rules of hand quilting, hand appliqué, and counting the number of stitches per inch. However, she also lives fully in the present where she embraces available technology such as computers and printers in creating her quilts.
Marlene O'Bryant-Seabrook
O'Bryant-Seabrook is a Charleston, SC, native and a third generation educator. An ardent student, she holds BS, MAT and PhD degrees and has over 30 years experience in education. Her life-long quest to create eventually led to a 1982 eight-week quilting class. O'Bryant-Seabrook approaches quilting from the dual focus of educator/artist. Within each quilt, there is a subtle or overt life "lesson'. Within each of O'Bryant-Seabrook's quilts the viewer senses her love of God, family, children and heritage. This 13-piece retrospective exhibit serves as testimony to one woman's continual quest to learn from the past in order to create a lasting legacy for the future.
Born in Detroit, MI, Michele Tejuola Turner spent her childhood nurtured in family, church and community life. Her fascination with art began when she enrolled in the visual arts program at Cass Technical School. She continued her art education at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, OH.
A visit to a community center in her new hometown of Atlanta introduced Turner to traditional African performances, crafts, storytelling, music and dance and her future husband. After her husband's initiation into the Yoruba priesthood in 1986, she began to carve images on gourds as a way of remembering and understanding African myths and folktales. In 1991 Turner received a Folklife Grant from the North Carolina Arts Council to complete a series of gourds documenting Yoruba "power myths". In 1993 she had her first one-person exhibition and was awarded an Arts International Travel (AIT) Grant to study calabash carving in Nigeria and Ghana. Her subsequent studies with native African master carvers expanded her visual vocabulary bringing her work into sharper thematic focus. In Praise of Our Mothers: The Carved and Painted Gourds of Michele Tejuola Turner is the culmination of Turner's discovery of the nine-day Gelede Festival held annually by the Yoruba people of Nigeria and Benin.
For more information
check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Museum at
843/238-2510 or on the web at (www.MyrtleBeachArtMuseum.org).
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