Sometime before Thanksgiving I received an e-mail from Madeline Dukes about the Park Circle Studio and House Tour in North Charleston, SC, sponsored by the North Charleston Artist Guild. My first question was – since when has there been a North Charleston Artist Guild? I was glad to find out that the group was newly formed and this was one of their first events.
I posted a blog about it that same day at Carolina Arts News, but as usual for us, by the time that date would have come around – tons of other events would have come across our radar and have been posted on our various blogs and catalogued into our system for future publishing. Luckily, we received a timely e-mail from Peter Scala’s wife Patricia Buckley, a great supporter of Carolina Arts, about the event and we decided to go.
The only problem was that we had already scheduled to have a yard sale that day (Dec. 11, 2010) and in the evening, dinner with a neighbor, so we had a short window of opportunity to run down to North Charleston and get back home before 6pm. The yard sale ended at 2pm. The Tour took place from 2-6pm. It was a good thing that North Charleston is not that far away from us.
So like with all tours or art walks we had to make a decision of where we would try to go – knowing that I would probably end up talking too much at someplace – or everywhere – blowing our plan up in our faces.
Peter Scala
I had never met Peter Scala, so that was number one on the list. I’ve met his wife, Pat, once at the SC Arts Commission Canvas of the People held at North Charleston City Hall – almost a year ago. She’s very active in the North Charleston arts community.
Meeting Pat was about all I can say attending that meeting was worth. Anybody see or hear any results of the great Canvas of the People?
Amelia “Mimi” Whaley
We also wanted to make sure we dropped in on Amelia “Mimi” Whaley, a fellow blogger and artist we have known for years. She keeps people informed about daily activities at the Outdoor Art Show in Marion Square each Piccolo Spoleto Festival.
So on a day that was supposed to be 60 degrees and partly sunny, we did our yard sale in the middle of a constant rain and a bone chilling 40-50 degree weather, packed it in around 1:30pm, and then cleaned up and headed to North Charleston for a cultural event. Not Charleston. As far as I know there wasn’t much going on – as far as the visual arts goes – in Charleston.
You see, North Charleston, Mt. Pleasant, Summerville, Berkeley County – they are all ugly step-children in most people’s eyes in the Charleston area. Not mine. For most others in this area, their first thought is that nothing good could ever be going on there. And, that’s too bad, as with that attitude – they often miss out by never leaving the boundaries of Charleston – unless they are going to New York City.
Don’t get me wrong – Charleston is a great cultural city. More goes on there than in most cities twice its size, but it’s not the end-all to culture. Other good events are being offered by its neighbors. People just need to venture out of their cultural safety zones to see.
OK – stepping off the soap box. We downloaded the map offered on the North Charleston Artist Guild’s website (www.northcharlestonartistguild.org) and headed to Park Circle, an area I drive through at least a couple times a month. And I can tell you – the area they called Old North Charleston isn’t your parents version of old North Charleston. The Navy Base has been gone for many a year now and the joints the sailors and shipyard workers used to hang out in are gone. The area is now known as Olde North Charleston Village and it offers neighborhood pubs and bistros, a film society, a theatre group and much more. East Montague Avenue is the focal point of Park Circle.
First stop, Peter Scala’s home and studio, just off East Montague Ave., near the shopping and dining district. We were greeted by Pat Buckley (who is not the artist – a little joke), and everyone visiting got to take home a free drawing by Peter Scala, who starts out every day with a drawing session. In fact, when Peter Scala pays his bill each month (for his ad in Carolina Arts) he sends it wrapped in a drawing, instead of a plain sheet of paper like most people do. So every month we get a little art and money in the mail from him.
Scala’s work is not typical to the Charleston area. Back in June of 2009 in a blog posting I did about an exhibit he had at the Charleston County Public Library I referenced his work as – a taste of old world modern art. You can read that posting at this link.
We finally got to meet Peter and a few other nice folks doing the tour and see his workspace. There was a steady flow of people coming and going – not like the hoards that do the art walks in Charleston, but during this event you could actually talk to an artist, look at their work, see the space that they work in and not joust for food with the hoard. But like always, the clock was ticking and we had to move on.
“Where To?” by Peter Scala
We said good-bye to Pat on the way out as she was greeting more visitors. I wish we had more time to talk about numerous subjects.
Next stop was the Mixson project, just off of East Montague Ave., on the other side of Park Circle. The folks at Mixson provided several artists, who didn’t have studios in the Park Circle area, including Amelia Whaley, space to show off works in a few of their model homes. This was a good partnership deal for Mixson and the North Charleston Artist Guild. It showed off the Mixson project and individual homes and the participating artists’ work at the same time. Here, you had the feeling of a neighborhood block party – music and the smell of good food was in the air.
We soon found Amelia Whaley’s location and that of J. Carol Gardener, who was partnered up with her. I made the mistake of asking Mimi if she was going to blog about this event and the conversation turned quickly to talk of computers and problems with computers. She had recently left the Dark Side and come over to the Force when she purchased her first Apple computer. Apple computers don’t have many problems.
Apple computers is one of our favorite subjects. We’ve had one since 1983. Of course we also touched on the recent problems we’re having with the robots at Facebook. I made a mistake and apparently Facebook has no humans you can send an e-mail to or talk to. But that’s another blog I hope I never have to write.
“Landscape Dream” by Amelia Whaley
We did eventually view the art, but before you know it that darn clock was calling. On the way out we had a short chat with David Springer who had a great display of metal sculpture outside. The way his works looked outside the complex, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Mixson folks purchased one before he packed them away after the event.
Work by David Springer
I also want to mention that there was a group of nice young – I don’t know if you would call them docents or tour guides who had volunteered to help the North Charleston Artist Guild during this event. That’s something the folks in Charleston could learn from – some of those galleries could use some help when it comes to crowd control.
If we had more time we would have loved to visit the studios of Arianne King-Comer and Madeline Dukes, or visited the Mixson sites where Pedro Rodriguez and Keller Lee were located. Or for that matter, discover the other artists who we did not know of, but I’m betting this Studio and House Tour will become an annual event if not more often. And, it’s a good reason to look forward to the next offering of the North Charleston Artist Guild.
The North Charleston Artist Guild is an arts organization hosted by The Olde North Charleston Merchants Association operating out of the Old Village of Park Circle North Charleston.
The purposes of the guild are to 1.) network local artists, 2.) promote their works through alliance with Park Circle area businesses, 3.) advance artist communities in the area, 4.) organize and promote events in all art disciplines, 5.) educate the public about the arts.
If you’d like to join them visit (www.northcharlestonartistguild.org).