Jasper Talks with February Tiny Gallery Artist, Musician and Painter Adam Corbett

“There are several heroes, a ghost or two, a couple of villains, some victims, and comic relief characters in this show…in your version you might pick a different hero and shift all the roles, and I think that would be fantastic” — Adam Corbett

RED by Adam Corbett

Adam Corbett is no stranger to the Columbia art scene, having played concerts for years and now beginning to show his art at markets. For his first gallery show, he has curated ten pieces, ten characters, with unique stories to tell. 

Learn more about Corbett, his background, and his current show in our recent interview.

JASPER: Did you grow up around art, or is it something you came to as an adult? 

CORBETT: I grew up in Lexington. My mother is an artist, and my grandfather was as well. Mostly they would paint things for their own homes or gifts for someone, but it was for sure a part of my childhood. My family also ran an after-school art/activity program for most of my childhood.

JASPER: So, when did you begin to get into art, and where did you start? 

CORBETT: Middle school band was my way into music, honestly. I had tried some things before that—mom and dad both play piano—but something about fifth grade band (with Mr. Rhodes) and that saxophone section really got my brain at the right time. I think I took up guitar that summer, and the cool factor was enough of an incentive there; I was hooked. I started performing and teaching lessons for pocket money around fifteen.

JASPER: You’ve worked as a musician for some time since then—what drew you to visual art from there?  

CORBETT: Outside of greeting cards for my mom (family tradition), visual art was something I really just did for myself, to decompress or just pass time. That was until the pandemic happened. I absolutely escaped into carving, painting, cartoons, and little doodles during the most troubling times of 2020. Watercolor painting became a daily mental health thing very quickly. I’m always playing with different materials and art forms, but I don’t see myself giving up my watercolor practice anytime soon. 

Vultura - Adam Corbett

JASPER: If you were to reflect on your visual and aural work, what would you say about their relationship to one another or what is unique about each method of creating? 

CORBETT: To write and perform music is an exercise in vulnerability for me, even if the song is about something silly. I’ve been blessed to sing my songs to rooms full of people who knew the words and joined in. I’ve even had a couple of those moments at shows where I got to point the mic at a mass of people, and they took a chorus. With my paintings the rewarding part is different. With visual art, to me, a success happens when the creation is completed, and then there is a whole other accomplishment in the work being chosen, even if it’s just a “like” by someone. Then there is the big win of someone purchasing and displaying it in their space, wherever that is. The specific feeling of knowing a sad bat-clown man I painted is on display in a stranger’s home somewhere in Columbia is as strong a feeling as those singalong moments; it’s very different but just as strong.

JASPER: Do you find you pursue similar themes in your music and paintings, or does each hold an expression of different themes? 

CORBETT: I feel about my themes like a deer feels about headlights. Humor, fantasy, sci-fi, whimsy—all with a heavy helping of grossness, I guess—are some of general themes I’m working with right now. With songs and lyrics, I feel like I’m telling you how I feel, and we feel something together about it. Music taught me that the audience decides what you meant, whether you meant it or not.

JASPER: When you sit down to create, regardless of medium, do you go through a specific mental process? Do you have any creation rituals, so to speak? 

CORBETT: I have the most inconsistent creative process—calling it a process at all might be too much. I draw and paint in my kitchen at the counter. I write lyrics in my car a lot. There is something to those places typically being the messiest places in my day to day. Sometimes I'll make an awesome doodle at a social gathering or pull full verses and choruses out of the air. Sometimes a really great piece can go from nothing to done in 20 minutes (but we all know there was time invested prior to that). Other times, I work on a song or painting for months, and it might never see the light of day. The quality of the work doesn’t always go with how much time goes into it.

JASPER: How do you know when to walk away from a piece? When is it “done”? 

CORBETT: Emotionally, song lyrics are like mantras; if you write a song to sing over and over you will hear those words more often than anyone. With painting there is this moment when a painting is done. The idea of adding more paint to it is out of the question. Lyrics never feel that way to me.

JASPER: When piecing together this show, how did you go about selecting works? Are there any larger ideas or concepts tying it together? 

CORBETT: I painted “Red” to round out my show to ten pictures, and I selected the other nine from what work I had done over the last year. I picked out what images I thought told the most story individually while also telling a larger story as a group. There is a bit of a fantasy theme throughout. There are several heroes, a ghost or two, a couple of villains, some victims, and comic relief characters in this show. I think the story will be best if I let you (the audience) decide who is who. In your version you might pick a different hero and shift all the roles, and I think that would be fantastic. 

Horns - Adam Corbett

JASPER: Looking back at showings you’ve had of your art; do you have a favorite memory? 

CORBETT: At one of the first markets I did, there was this young kid, maybe like 11 years old. They thought all my art was cool and told me so. I haven’t received a better accolade yet.

Corbett’s show will be up until February 28th, and his work is available to peruse and purchase 24/7 via Jasper’s virtual gallery:

 If you want to follow Corbett, check out his music here: https://adamcorbett.bandcamp.com/ and his art on Instagram @s4d4mz

February's Tiny Gallery Features Adam Corbett

It’s always exciting to us at Jasper when we get to witness artists cross genre lines to dip their toes in disciplines other than what they are known for. This month, musician and music educator Adam Corbett is doing just that by participating in the Jasper Project’s Tiny Gallery Series. But this isn’t the first time Corbett has wandered from music to visual arts waters. Corbett has been participating in several of the pop up community arts festivals that have become so popular since Covid grounded most of our gallery showings. In fact, Corbett’s little Christmas gnomes, offered as part of Jasper’s Tiny Gallery Ornament Show were so popular that we sold out of his creations.

Corbett is back in the Tiny Gallery this month with a collection of watercolors and mixed media portraits with sizes ranging from 8 x 10 to 12 x 14 and price points from $30 to $125.

Visit Corbett in the Tiny Gallery and snap up one of his original pieces while they’re both accessible and affordable.

Red by Adam Corbett

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Adam Corbett is a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and visual artist from Lexington, South Carolina. After releasing numerous records, helping to produce a musical, and taking a break from his career as a music teacher, Adam branched out into visual art as a way to cope with the COVID-19 lockdown. Throughout this period, he has experimented with various mediums in a variety of formats focusing always on exploration, play, and following his muse.

The Other One by Adam Corbett

Check out the rest of Adam Corbett’s Show at

Jasper’s Tiny Gallery

Mark Your Calendars! Jasper Announces 2022 Tiny Gallery Lineup

In 2021, Tiny Gallery hosted 15 artists in a vast variety of styles and mediums. In 2022, we’re featuring an even greater array of mediums with a collection of wonderful local talent. Learn more about each artist below and be sure to mark your calendars for your favorite shows. All shows begin the first of the month and end on the final day of the month, accessible 24/7 to peruse and purchase via Jasper’s virtual gallery.

January: Gina Langston Brewer

Though unconventional in guise and approach, Brewer is a teacher first, having been formally educated at Winthrop University in Rock Hill and later securing a master’s in divergent learning from Columbia College. She has the requisite ‘book-learning’” but is much more interested in life-learning and sharing with others the lush explorations that beckon each and every day in libraries, forests, farmer’s markets, junk yards, and roadside poppy fields. All are creative spaces in her eyes.

After marrying her best friend, Kevin Brewer, in 2008, she assumed the nomadic life of a military wife, moving from post to post and home-schooling their son, George. During that time, she operated two art studios, one in Columbus and the other in Augusta. Brewer also has two grown sons by previous relationships, Nathan and Dylan. The Brewer family moved back to Columbia in 2018, and Gina recently opened a studio in downtown Columbia, away from the interruptions, distractions, and demands of family and household.

Though she works in many mediums, Brewer is best known locally for her lushly colored, abstract paintings that, to many people, are reminiscent of (to select well-known artists for reference) Picasso or Klimt. The subjects she paints are alternately curvy and geometric, simple and lavish. She has had solo exhibitions at multiple venues, including Tapp’s Art Center in Columbia and the University of South Carolina-Beaufort art space.

February: Adam Corbett

Adam is a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and visual artist from Lexington, South Carolina. After releasing numerous records, helping to produce a musical, and taking a break from his career as a music teacher, Adam branched out into visual art as a way to cope with the COVID-19 lockdown. Throughout this period, he has experimented with various mediums in a variety of formats focusing always on exploration, play, and following his muse.

March: Fairoozan Art

Ms. Fairoozan is a paper artist and illustrator. She has been interested in various forms of papercraft since her school years, it took her quite a while to find her own way of bringing together her love of paper with her experience in painting.

She has actually discovered a new way of using the basic paper technique as she is drawing with paper instead of on it, at that time point she has no idea it was called (Paper Quilling) and she made the quilling process interesting and modern.

These paper artworks can take from a few days to a few weeks or even longer – it all depends on the level of details, size and design, the largest paper artwork she ever made took her around 6 weeks.

A former art teacher with more than 15 years of experience, she finished a bachelor's degree from the College of Fine Arts at the University of Baghdad, in Bagdad, Iraq.

Her artworks have been shown in many exhibitions in various countries around the world and in different states all over the USA.

April: Valerie Lamott

Valerie Lamott is a Columbia, SC, based jewelry artisan, but can rarely be found there. She's more likely to be hiking or camping or kayaking in any one of America's state parks. She uses these places as inspiration for her artwork and hopes it inspires others to play outside too.

May: Lucy Bailey

Lucy Bailey’s ceramic sculpture centers around the figure, with liberal use of layered textures and mixed media elements. Additional work explores combinations of ceramics and wood or wire, and earthenware altar boxes that create narratives through assemblages of found objects.

In 2021 one of her sculptures was exhibited at ArtFields in Lake City, SC. Her work was awarded the Best in Show distinction in exhibitions by the Annual Artist’s Guild of Spartanburg (SC) Juried Show and the Arts Council of York County (SC) Annual Juried Competition. Bailey’s work has twice been selected for the 701 Center for Contemporary Art’s South Carolina Biennial show. Her work was published in Lark Books’ 500 Figures in Clay-2.

Follow Lucy Bailey’s work on Instagram @lucybaileyclay   

June: Cindy Saad

Cindy Saad considers herself to be a multimedia artist creating art in various mediums that include painting, photography and jewelry making with jewelry being her main form of artistic expression. Whether sculpting a necklace or painting on canvas, she likes to work spontaneously, creating pieces that evoke the senses.

A native of Sumter, SC, Saad has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of South Carolina and is mainly a self-taught artist. She has exhibited throughout the Carolinas in numerous juried art shows and exhibitions and is currently represented by the City Art Gallery in Columbia and the SC Visitor’s Center in Walterboro.

www.cindysaad.com  
Instagram @cindysaadart

July: Thomas Washington

Perhaps the most important pursuit of an artist is the facilitation of Escapism. Perhaps each project is the equivalent of a Narnian door…or that lamppost beyond, coaxing a wanderer into another realm.

Thomas Washington Jr. (thomas the younger) functions on that premise. Since his childhood, he has produced multitudinous works in this vein—from being hired (out of high school) to illustrate in a local graphic anthology, he has subsequently striven to bring stories in every medium; to breathe life into the fantastical by imbuing it with the familiar…and, of course, to find fun and fulfillment along the way.

As a result, it required the birth of his children to make him care about money. (He still struggles with this.) –For years, he was perfectly fine living as a Bohemian: he laid his head in strange places among strangers, eventually becoming a pleasant strain of strange in the process. He thus entertains all sorts of bizarre notions—the importance of world peace, an unshakeable belief in fundamental similarities that make Humanity one big family, intense opinions on interstellar travel, and so-forth.

Recently, he took the leap of emerging in his local scene. He has sat on panels, joined the instructor roster for community arts centers, partaken in various shows, (finally!) founded a website, and essentially joined the dialogue of Art’s Place in Society.

August: Chilly Waters

Chilly Waters has a high level of creativity and a passion for art. He channels his creativity into creating one of kind clay sculptures that often include reclaimed mixed media materials. These sculptures are 3D representations of his imagination in action and allow him to empty his mind of all the additives that collect in there. They are his imagination coming to life.

His goal is to make things that invoke feelings of joy or curiosity. Well, that and to become a space cowboy or a Marvel superhero - whichever comes first.  He sees “junk” or discarded items as components of art that have yet to reach their full potential.  

Chilly has been working as a clay artist for 5 years (after retiring from a long-term career) and is predominately self-taught, having molded his skills and style through various workshops and networking with other artists. He is a member of the Midlands Clay Art Society, and his work has been shown in galleries in Aiken and Columbia, SC as well as various arts festivals in South Carolina and Delaware.

He finds inspiration in listening to people, observing what they say or do. Often times when he hears a work or a phrase, he visualizes it in his mind and has to create a 3D image of it. He also sees discarded “junk" and wonders what it could be if it had a second chance. Once an idea is realized, he grabs a chunk of clay and starts to create.

September: Amber Machado

Amber Machado is a painter from Columbia, SC. She began painting as a teenager, hoping to emulate her sister and father who have always been her biggest artistic role models. It took nearly a decade of painting sporadically before her personal relationship with art began. At the onset of being diagnosed with Lupus, she began to paint more frequently, and what began as a welcome distraction, has now become her full-time job. More importantly though, she credits painting to being her primary means of coping with a chronic illness. 

Over the last three years her aim has been to develop new skills and grow as an artist. Her main area of focus is landscapes, primarily watercolor. She is greatly inspired by nature, natural light, and color. When she’s not painting, she is usually dancing with her cats or pestering her spouse.

**materials from https://www.ambermachado.com

October: Maya Smith

South Carolina based artist, Maya Smith, has been honing her skills as a freelance artist for the past fourteen years. She graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2006 with a BFA in Illustration. 

Her work celebrates people of color and women with shape. Using pencils and paint to create imagery that counters negative stereotypes and provokes conversation. 

Maya’s work has been commissioned by Oscar Award winning director, Steve McQueen for the film, Widows. Her work is part of the New York Public Library archives through the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, NY. 

November: Sean Rayford

Sean Rayford is a freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer in Columbia, SC, where he works with Getty Images, The New York Times, The Associated Press and many others. He is a 2001 graduate of the University of South Carolina. His work was recently featured in the Hindsight 20/20 exhibition at the Columbia Museum of Art and as part of Time Magazine's Best Photos of 2021.

December: Ornament Show

Last year, we did our first ever Tiny Gallery Ornament show, which was a great success thanks to our ever-wonderful patrons. In 2022, we’ll be showcasing new artists for another ornament show. These artists have yet to be selected, so stay tuned for another announcement later on!

We are grateful to the artists and patrons who come together to make Tiny Gallery possible, and we look forward to our 2022 journey together. To ensure you don’t miss out on further gallery announcements, sign up for Sundays with Jasper!

This Month in the Jasper Project's Tiny Gallery -- Welcome Back GINA LANGSTON BREWER!

After a nearly sold-out show in 2019, Gina Langston Brewer returns to Tiny Gallery with a new, intimate show.

The Columbia-based artist has created nearly her whole life and has been painting in our city since returning in 2018. Though proficient in multiple mediums and styles, she is known for her abstract paintings.

This collection of 10 paintings homes in on Brewer’s belief system that inspiration and creativity can be found everywhere. From a stain-glassed face with eyed closed as they bathe in the light refracted on them to a white cat, curious and intent, as it prances across the canvas to a woman donned in blue, sitting tilted forward on a chair, beckoning, each piece is as mystical as it is real.

The pieces are all acrylic on either canvas or wooden board, save for one acrylic mixed media piece, and range from $30 - $75. 3 of 10 have already sold, and the show will remain up until the evening of January 31st. View the show at Jasper’s virtual gallery.

Lori Starnes Isom Explores Emotion Through Faces and Figures in New Tiny Gallery Show Sentimental Mood

Jazz Stylist

As we bundle up and get prepared to gather around tables and share thanks with ourselves and the ones we care for, consider expressing that love with an irreplaceable drawing or painting from Lori Starnes Isom, Jasper’s featured November Tiny Gallery artist, whose show Sentimental Mood is up now. 

Lori Starnes Isom is a New Yorker at her origins, born in Brooklyn and growing up in Queens, where she went to an arts high school and college. Her first interest in art came far before school, however, around age six.

 “I remember drawing lots of go-go dancers wearing white boots - probably inspired by the show ‘Laugh-In,’ which most likely inspired my desire to be a dancer as well!” Isom recalls. 

Though her schooling in art absolutely aided in Isom’s understanding of the genre, she roots most of her ability to “voraciously” consuming and studying other artists’ work as well as art content in print. This seed continued to grow not just as a student but a teacher, with Isom having taught children's art classes at the private level.

 As an artist, Isom is proficient in a plethora of mediums, though her favorite is charcoal due to her longstanding history with it and its “depth and richness.” When it comes to painting, specifically, she prefers watercolor due to its translucent texture and visuality. 

Visionary

“At first my work looked really stiff because I was trying to control the paint. But after a while, I learned that watercolor works best if you let it do its thing,” Isom explains, “I eventually switched over to acrylics because framing charcoals and watercolors got way too expensive!”  

Acrylic also provides a “versatility and ease of use” that allows Isom to repaint and alter art while already in-progress, which works in tandem with her personal style that she refers to as “loose [and] painterly.” In contrast to this is the detail she puts into faces, with figures and portraits often being the subject of her work. 

Isom credits artists such as Mary Cassatt, Johannes Vermeer, and John Singer Sargent as being inspiring forces for her. This compounds with her personal motivations in storytelling.  

“My driving force is always to tell a story or pursue an idea. I work from old photos a lot because I'm familiar with the people in them, and I deeply enjoy the challenge of bringing life to them,” Isom intimates, “I also really enjoy working in monotone and large, solid swathes of color because it causes the viewer to focus more on the story.”   

Isom’s process is one of balancing the freedom of ideas and maintaining simplicity, which allows for a striking expression of emotion and affect, finishing a piece when there is “nothing more that needs to be said.” 

For this Tiny Gallery show, Isom offers an intimate exploration of humanity, focusing on what she loves most: people. Sentimental Mood is a collection of 8 new and old pieces in multiple mediums.  

In one, a watercolored woman stands tall, gazing above her at something just off canvas. In another, a couple with soft, blurred faces yet stark emotion stand pressed against another, with an emerald green dress its center. Another zooms in close to a singing woman, mouth open in the ecstasy of song, fingers softly tendrilled around her microphone. 

“As far as a favorite,” Isom shares, “I think that would be "Close to My Heart", because it's a simple pencil drawing of my mom and her mother, Daisy, whom I never got to meet.”  

Close to my Heart

Within or outside the show, Isom has and continues to make a mark on our community with her expressive, pointed, and unique work. “I am acutely aware that it's a gift to be able to express myself in a creative way and know that I am in full control of how far I allow that creativity to grow,” she effuses. 

Isom’s show will be up until November 30th at Jasper’s online gallery, which is accessible 24/7: https://the-jasper-project.square.site/tiny-gallery.    

Concurrent to and after the show, Isom’s work can be viewed at the new Gallery 537 in Camden, South Carolina. You can also follow along her journey on Instagram and Facebook @loristarnesisom. 

—    Christina Xan

Renee Rouillier Explores Joy and Freedom Through Sculpture in New Tiny Gallery Show

October is a month of transition: first cool mornings of the year, beginning of turning leaves, and the first thoughts of holiday get-togethers. Renee Rouillier explores the larger transitions of freedom and confinement, loss and joy, in her Tiny Gallery show, Messages from Nature. Learn more about her and her show, which is in its final week, below!

Renee Rouillier grew up in rural Upstate New York as one of four siblings in a time where “the world felt like a safer place to live.”

Rejecting any safety nets, however, young Rouillier embarked on a brief journey to an Airline Academy before settling in Rochester and enrolling in its Institute of Technology’s evening art program. At this time, she mainly worked with two-dimensional art and received a Certificate of Fine Arts.  

A new path opened after Rouillier underwent major surgery in her early 40’s. At this time, she decided to quit her job and return to school, choosing the Arts Program at SUNY Brockport.

“This is where everything began to come together,” Rouillier recalls. “I found myself evolving into the person I was meant to be and realized what a difference it made when someone believed in your capabilities and provided unconditional support.”

Soon, this blanket of enlightenment spread wings when Rouillier became immersed in and inundated by sculpture and clay, which she felt unlocked a connection she had never been able to find in 2D art. She began exploring interests and ideas, finally settling in a pocket of inspiration around Surrealism and German Expressionism.

“I began winning awards and honors and more importantly,” Rouillier asserts, “I began to believe in myself…drawing from art with an edge, dark side, or unforeseen side of reality.”

Not long after, Rouillier graduated with a BFA and a BS in Interdisciplinary Arts for Children with Honors and was offered a fellowship at the University of South Carolina concentrating in Ceramics and Sculpture, both studying and acting as a Teaching Assistant and Instructor of Record in Ceramics and Three-Dimensional Study.

“This is also another time-period I will always treasure,” Rouillier intimates, “The total involvement and atmosphere created between undergraduates, graduate students, instructors, and professors to create a whole interactive community; I cherished teaching and my students.” 

This experience culminated in an MFA, followed by an additional eight years of teaching at USC Columbia, USC Aiken, Columbia College, and South Carolina State University, before fully settling into the art community in Columbia, participating in events like The Supper Table, where she designed the place setting for Dr. Matilda Evans.

In preparation for her Tiny Gallery show, Rouillier turned to pieces sculpted before the pandemic but not completed. When the studio she sculpts at reopened, she began selecting pieces and adding surface treatments, which is “accomplished using oxides, underglazes, and glazes with multiple firings.”

Rouillier’s process for this show reflects both her baseline as an artist and her emerging feelings from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I find myself continuously observing my surroundings, interactions, and world events,” Rouillier shares, “This series focuses on the freedom and joy, or my so-called interpretation of it, that I felt animals and wildlife experienced during our confinement.” 

Messages from Nature is filled with ruminating animals, not revealing their thoughts, but staring straight ahead as if beckoning you into conversation. Monkeys and hippos float as avian and amphibian friends perch on their rounded heads. Leopards and rams sit in an excess of both their own patterns and patterns not inherent to them. All the while, these ruminating animals are punctuated by the occasional face of a girl or goblin.

Rouillier’s personal favorites from the show are “Unusual Friends” and “Mystical,” the former of which reflects a challenge she faces—adding that little additional touch that completes the piece.”

“When I built the hippo, I liked it by itself, but it needed an additional element: the hummingbird,” Rouillier reflects, “When I underglazed (matte) the hummingbird and initially fired it, something still wasn't quite right—I put that little touch of gloss glaze on the beak and that did the trick.”

Renee Rouillier’s Messages from Nature will be available to peruse and to purchase from 24/7 on the Jasper virtual gallery space until October 31st: https://the-jasper-project.square.site/tiny-gallery. If you are looking for a unique holiday gift, a handcrafted sculpture is irreplaceable.

As for the future, Rouillier “can’t wait to see what evolves,” and you can follow her journey in the community as she takes on new adventures with her three-dimensional creations.

- - Christina Xan

Bohumila Augustinova Carves Shapes and Stories into Clay in New Tiny Gallery Show Layers

As we enter the second half of September and inch closer to fall, so do we mark the halfway point of Jasper’s Tiny Gallery show with Bohumila Augustinova. The show, Layers, presents 20 pottery pieces that highlight, mainly, the Scraffito technique.   

Augustinova spent her childhood in Czechoslovakia, now known as the Czech Republic. She recalls that her younger years were spent always making something and that she could “never keep [her] hands still.” 

“My mom and dad were very supportive, so even as a small child they taught me how to knit, crochet, sew, cook, and use power tools,” Augustinova remembers. “My mom and I used to make all the costumes for me and my brothers, and I was making my own clothes by the time I was 9.” 

Augustinova used this experience and passion to pursue fashion design, which she received a degree in, but soon after, she desired a fresh artistic venture and has since worked with primarily wire art and pottery, being self-taught in both.  

Currently, clay is her preferred medium, but she insists that her and wire are simply on a “break” and that she hopes to integrate them in the future. When it comes to her current technique, Augustinova has been utilizing Scraffito, a “surface decoration technique where color (underglaze) is applied on leather-hard (raw) clay and designs are carved though the color, exposing the clay underneath.”

“When my work closed last year, I figured I needed to stay busy. I could throw a full bag of clay in one day, but then what?” Augustinova pondered, “I took a Scraffito workshop but never had time to explore the technique, so I figured I would just play, and I immediately fell in love with it.” 

Augustinova’s first experiments with Scraffito were doodles from her childhood, and soon, new designs began blossoming before her eyes. Sometimes she already has in mind how she desires a piece to look and pulls it into existence, while sometimes the clay takes shape and flows together into its own identity.  

“Last year I made a mug for my partner inspired by mid-century design, and it was a big hit, so I started messing around with different mid-century designs, which I still love,” Augustinova shares. “I was also working on piece where I was just free handing lines and patterns and then I realized it looks like water, so clearly sitting by the pond inspires me too.”  

Augustinova notes that beyond being inspired to make art, the process of making is inspiring and therapeutic all on its own. She insists that the mutable clay sliding under her hands and the constant hum of the wheel moving is meditative, and she often throws with her eyes closed. 

“After throwing, you apply the underglaze, which I like doing before the actual carving…the carving is where I get lost in my own world,” she says. “I can sit there for hours, listening to whatever I am listening to and work. There have been times when I worked till 2 am or just until I ran out of things to carve.”  

Scraffito is an extremely detailed and precise process that balances this space of being outside and fully within oneself. Even the coloring and glazing process is multilayered—literally—and requires great attention, focus, and a bit of luck with the kiln.  

“I am always looking for good balance of the color I applied and the exposed clay. With pottery and Scraffito, how the piece looks when you finish carving is very different from how it will look after both firings,” Augustinova explains. “After the first firing, the colors will be more vibrant but still a matte finish, and after glazing the colors will come out even deeper and shiny.” 

For this show, specifically, Augustinova has gathered a combination of new and old work, with the goal of offering a large range of sizes and prices for various audiences, but a few pieces were made specifically with this show’s goal in mind. 

“What I hope is that people will see my pottery as usable art. Almost all of my pottery is fully glazed and food safe. I love seeing flower arrangements in my vases, and I love people drinking out of my cups,” Augustinova effuses. “One of my favorite pottery moments was when a friend told me that he was visiting a friend and his tea was served in one of my mugs.” 

If you enter the virtual gallery space, you will see small vases with vibrant designs in pinks and greens, large bowls with detailed carvings in deep jeweled tones, and smooth geometric vases looped with wires that reach to the sky.  

While new to showing pottery, Augustinova is far from new to the Columbia art scene, having managed Anastasia and Friends gallery for several years, worked at the Columbia Art Center (her current occupation), helped lead the Yarnbombers, and won Runaway Runway twice. Her favorite memories as an artist surround this process of making and sharing art. 

“As I am sitting here and answering these questions, I am waiting for the kiln to cool down. I value the moment something comes out of the kiln, and you love it so much you may tear up,” she says. “But it’s also hearing from people how much they love my work. There are few of my friends that have serious collections of my stuff and I just feel so honored by it.”  

In the near future, Augustinova hopes to do new fall and winter shows, and though specific plans are not in place, she will post updates to her Instagram @art_by_bohumila 

To explore Bohumila Augustinova’s pottery, which is only available until the end of September, head over to Jasper’s virtual Tiny Gallery: https://the-jasper-project.square.site/tiny-gallery

Belly Dancer and Silversmith Ashley Bennett Creates Stories Through Jewelry in Her August Tiny Gallery Show

On August 1st, Jasper unveiled the newest Tiny Gallery featuring Ashley Bennett, the first solo jewelry show in the gallery’s history. Bennett, a dancer and silversmith who runs dance group Tiny Coven and smithing studio Covenite Silver, created 16 pieces throughout July for the show. The show has one week and two pieces left, so take a peek at them and Bennett’s life below. 

Bennett is not a stranger to beautiful art, seeing as she was raised by a “natural singer”—her mother—who was in turn raised by a pianist. A young woman raising a child on her own meant the pair moved quite often, living in Georgia, Ohio, and Michigan. Throughout times of change, though, one thing remained certain.

 “My mom wanted me to have more art in my life, and I always had a wild imagination,” Bennett recalls. “In the 6th grade, my English teacher recommended that I be placed in a magnet school for fine arts, based on my creative writing. I ended up being accepted for music, drama, and dance.”  

While Bennett enjoyed her courses, she found herself struggling to organize her work, time, and thoughts. Unfortunately, due to time and circumstance, she would not have an answer to understanding this part of her identity for years. 

“Thanks to social media and the fact that people understand a lot more about learning and neurodivergence, I'm currently working on getting a diagnosis for adult ADHD and dyslexia,” Bennett divulges, “It's not that I'm excited to have a learning disability—I'm just excited to know that I don't have to feel ashamed of myself for failing at some things.”  

Towards the beginning of this journey of self-understanding, Bennett took a couple of different dance classes, including Appalachian style clogging and belly dancing, the latter of which would become a defining part of her identity. While she did not immediately dedicate herself to belly dancing, Bennett did fall in love with yoga, and serendipitously, with a yoga class taught by belly dancer, Rachel Brice. 

“My yoga practice was never the same after that,” Bennett shares. “It's now been 16 years since I took my first intensive with Rachel…and only 6 months since we spoke on Zoom about a final project that I completed for her during quarantine.” 

This seeking of the self and interweaving of aspects of life continues to leak through Bennett’s art. Belly dancing and jewelry making are her two passions, and as she has explored each, she has found they speak to one another. Belly dancers, for instance, often partake in their own costume and jewelry design. 

“One time, when I was brand new and had made my very first ‘bra’ style top, a woman walked up and exclaimed that she owned the exact same embroidered trim that I had used (from JoAnn Fabrics),” Bennett remembers, “After that, I would only buy costume components from vintage and ethnic shops online. I want my audience to be transported to another world, not to the craft store. Keeping everything thing one-of-a-kind, handmade, and rugged is what drew me to smithing.” 

Even today, Bennett emphasizes that any jewelry she creates she would also wear as a costume piece. A balance of dedication and spontaneity are present in both smithing and performing. Individually, they function like a yin and yang with dance focusing on community and smithing focusing on solidarity, coming together to inform one another’s storytelling. 

“Both disciplines involve a hardy dose of improvisation, which I find deeply gratifying,” Bennett says. “And they both bring me so much joy.” 

Whether dance or jewelry, past work or present, Bennett is inspired by the less tangible aspects of the world around her, claiming that she never stopped believing that magic exists naturally within all of us. She hopes to offer a tangible version of that to others, often with pendants inspired by mythical creatures. 

“My approach to costuming is that I want the audience to believe we may have been born wearing our costumes. While I am still mastering the basics of silversmithing, my aim is to create pieces that look like the wearer came into this world wearing them,” Bennett says. “It would hang naturally, and the closures would be difficult to spot. I love when you can look at a piece close-up and still not really be able to tell how it was made.”  

When it comes to this specific Tiny Gallery show, Bennett was motivated by a desire to make one piece of jewelry every day through the month of July and present a fresh, inspired collection. While 2020 provided much free time to smith, 2021 sucked much that time away, and whatever time remained typically went to custom designs. 

“I wanted to challenge myself not to overthink every piece, to just make something from start to finish in one day, and then build the collection one day at a time and see what happens,” Bennett reveals, “July is also my birthday month, so I saw it as an indulgent treat for myself. No customs—just a few hours of improvisation a day and a fistful of pendants made from my favorite stone.”  

Unfortunately, at the end of June, Bennett’s mother fell ill, and she found out she had to vacate her home in 30 days, moving not only her studio but her family and life. July brought not only these shifts but a hernia and broken tooth. Despite these curveballs directly thrown her way, Bennett still made 16 pieces of jewelry throughout the month of July.  

“I hope that those who see my work get a sense of dauntless optimism. Things will work out, and if they don't, something else will happen,” Bennett says. “I am not a Buddhist, but I am comfortably detached from outcomes—and I think that is the secret to happiness.”

Attached to an outcome or not, the results of her show so far are nothing short of wonderful, though not surprising. 14 of 16 pendants have sold, pendants proving that a handmade piece of jewelry holds just as much soul and story as a painting or photograph. The varied tones of the center stones on each piece, shining in emerald and cerulean, hold and project individual tales. 

As a storyteller and artist, Bennett has two opportunities she considers distinctly special. One is interacting with her dance students—who she calls her closest friends and support system—and the other is being a working artist and a mom: “It is a huge privilege to me that I get to raise my daughter in a community of diverse and talented people, like those from our years at Tapp's Arts Center and presently at Sage Studios.”

 If you’d like to support Bennett as an artist, teacher, mother, and human, visit her gallery by the end of the month. Currently, only two of her effervescent pendants remain with only a week left to bring their stories home with you. The gallery is available 24/7 at the Jasper website:

https://the-jasper-project.square.site/tiny-gallery  

After the show, Bennett’s dance company, Tiny Coven, will be working towards ensemble performances this coming fall and spring. She hopes to schedule more collection releases with Covenite Silver in the coming months as well, which you can follow on her Instagram @covenitesilver. Finally, she’d love the chance to show old and new friends alike around her new space at Sage Studios.

-Christina Xan

Ron Hagell Weaves Personal and Collective Pasts into a Common Future with “Acrylidemic”

“As artists, it's our duty to do things like this—to use our voices to point out mistreatment and wrongdoing.”

— Ron Hagell

As we turn the corner on July and its sweltering days, consider exploring Ron Hagell’s Tiny Gallery show, “Acrylidemic,” from the cool four walls of your home. To learn more about the show, which runs until the end of this month, and about Hagell’s life, keep reading! 

Hagell’s father and grandfather were both artistic creators who inspired him, and the stories of his grandfather’s work linger still today. Hagell’s grandfather was a Canadian cowboy and artist, born in Alberta in the late 19th century, who painted adventures inspired by the natural landscape of the West.  

While Hagell always loved art, drawing throughout his childhood and school-age years, he didn’t go to school for it. The first official art classes he took were electives in college after he joined the army who sent him to school in the late 60s. 

After the army, and with a family to support, Hagell sought a career in film and television. His creative work bloomed in this realm of digital media, directing and creating films and taking and editing photographs. Hagell was a producer and director with PBS for several years before moving onto more hands-on work, making art for films and his own short films.  

“I did a lot of different kinds of artwork in this period, mainly making short films, various kind of experimental films related to time,” Hagell imparts, “I did a lot related to how you tell a story that is constantly jumping around in time.”  

Moving away from the administrative work at PBS, Hagell taught in universities in London before returning to South Carolina where he pursued an MFA in Film at the University of South Carolina. Being in the digital industry for so long means Hagell has grown along the timeline of film, from developing in darkrooms to digital manipulations, all while reveling in the expansion of creative limitations.  

This desire to push the boundaries of creativity was what led Hagell back to painting, exploring watercolor, oil, and acrylic–the latter being what he sits within the most these days. He also pursued many interests, inspirations, and subject matters, seeing the ways his hands could create stories refracted within and away from the films he spent years on.  

Some of Hagell’s art stems directly from his film adventures. His Dancer on Glass Series, specifically, was inspired by short films he made involving choreography and dance design in tandem with the female body. This tension between how fluid the body’s movements are and how individual movements appear when frozen in one moment is featured in several pieces in “Acrylidemic.”

In addition to 7 of these dancers, Hagell’s show features a mix of portraits, still lifes, and socially perceptive creations, altogether presenting a culmination of Hagell’s past experience and present experimentation.  

Portraiture is not an unfamiliar genre to Hagell, but he has been exploring new avenues of it in the past year, especially since he started as a non-degree seeking graduate student in the art department at the University of South Carolina. Specifically, these portraits use tones and colors that are “unnatural” like the blue skin in his MLK portrait.  

“I had that photograph of him stuck on my bulletin board and, and when George Floyd happened, I decided to paint it,” he shares, “I've changed it a bit, of course—he’s on high looking down, and he’s blue, which I feel is a representative wash of today.” 

Along the same lines, some of the still lifes emerge as a photographer’s take on capturing a moment no longer present yet still relevant. His pieces “Carolina 1950” and “Colored” are inspired by the era of Jim Crow and segregation that he lived through. While a photograph of this exchange can no longer be taken today, its effects are still felt, and images like this collapse past and present.  

Hagell is not a stranger to including sociopolitical messages in his work. “Bite the Bullet,” his large-scale American flag detailed by bullets, is one of his best-known pieces. For him, pieces with these messages are distinctly important as artists are the only ones who can tell stories with the power of their medium. 

“When I first was living in the South, I was really quite turned off to here, but when I came back, I witnessed change and started commenting on it” he asserts, “As artists, it's our duty to do things like this—to use our voices to point out mistreatment and wrongdoing.” 

While Columbia still has growing to do, Hagell is proud to be here and proud of the ways our city has grown over the years, intimating that “Columbia has come a long way, both in the city’s interest in art and in a social sense—I hope this is just the beginning of things getting better.” 

Hagell’s show can be viewed anytime between now and July 31st via Jasper’s virtual Tiny Gallery site: https://the-jasper-project.square.site/tiny-gallery 

To follow Hagell’s future work, which includes a burgeoning collaborative effort where he is weaving an AR-15 into elements of a church, follow his Facebook @artbyronhagell.

— Christina Xan

B.A. Hohman Shares the Life and Art Experiences That Led to Eccentric Tiny Gallery Show “WILLY NILLY”

 “Sometimes you don’t know what you’re capable of until you just do it.” — B.A. Hohman

DREAMSCAPE

Today is the summer solstice, a new breath of transition, and this turning point, both reliable and spontaneous, sets the stage of our Tiny Gallery show of the month. “WILLY NILLY” by B.A. Hohman is a show rife with verve.   

Tiny Gallery Manager Christina Xan sat down to talk with Hohman about her life, as a human and artist, and what led up to this show. 

Jasper: We’ve known each other for a couple years now, but we’ve never talked much about your past—will you tell me a bit about your childhood? 

Hohman: I grew up in the era following the end of WWII. My paternal grandparents and my maternal great grandparents were German Lutheran immigrants who settled in northeastern Ohio. My parents were hard-working middle-class people who wanted the best for their three children. I was third in line and a bit of an anomaly, being the decidedly right brained one in the mix. I explored imaginary worlds, loved to read and draw, play with neighborhood friends, and was the consummate tom boy. We grew up in a time when we had the run of the neighborhood with no immediate parental supervision. We were one of the last generations to experience the freedom that comes with no internet, no cell phones—the fifties were a time of hope and new horizons.

Jasper: Hope and new horizons—I love that! Was art one of the things on the horizon? Did it exist around you growing up?

Hohman: Art was not a prevalent theme in our home. Basic needs outweighed luxuries, yet I must applaud my father for his exemplary carpentry skills, becoming a volunteer fireman and eventually working in the Emergency Room at our local hospital in addition to his full-time work at General Electric. Kudos to my mother for always encouraging my creative endeavors while teaching nursery school for 40 years. She recognized my artistic nature, enrolled me in summer art classes, urged me to join the youth choir, took me on weekly visits to the library, and introduced me to museums. I also had wonderful art instructors as well as some amazing English teachers throughout my middle and secondary level schooling.

 Teaching Art was instrumental in my own art education. It forced me to break down all the components inherent in the creative process and thereby expanded my own abilities.

Jasper: And did you pursue art in college as well?

Hohman: Yes. My parents worked hard to provide us every opportunity to succeed. We were expected to excel and eventually get a college degree despite the financial burden, and all three of us did. My decision to pursue a degree in Art, I am sure was met with some skepticism. Studio Art at Ohio University became my college concentration from the very start, although English Literature classes nearly outweighed my time in the studio.

MAGNOLIA

Jasper: And at some point after graduation, you started teaching, right?

Hohman: My art took a back seat during the years of raising two girls, but my husband and I constantly found collaborative creative outlets. We had moved from Ohio to West Columbia and then to LeRoy, NY in 1981. The girls were still in elementary when I returned to school at Roberts Wesleyan College and completed my teaching certification. I did my student teaching at my girls’ Wolcott St. School and at Churchville Chilli High School, continuing for a long-term substitute position. I then taught at a local Catholic school. After moving back to West Columbia, I taught art at Pine Ridge Middle School and Airport High School. Teaching Art was instrumental in my own art education. It forced me to break down all the components inherent in the creative process and thereby expanded my own abilities.

Jasper: Oh, I’m all about the breaking down of boundaries. Tell me about how you moved full force into art.

Hohman: In 1999, I made the decision to leave teaching and embark on a career as a muralist and trompe l’oeil artist. A local designer gave me my first opportunity to showcase my work, and business took off! I have painted more murals in more houses than I can count. Although daunting to go from a canvas to painting entire walls and rooms as well as the exterior of a few businesses, I dove in and found it so liberating. I also discovered that I had the ability to paint just about anything my clients wanted. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re capable of until you just do it. I painted everything from whimsical and realistic animals in children’s’ rooms to huge 360-degree historical panoramas in varying styles, and faux windows, doorways and panels that fool the eye into thinking a flat surface is three dimensional. I often surprised myself.

THE SOUP

Jasper: Within those different projects, and today, what types of mediums did, and do, you explore?

Hohman: Over the years, I have explored many mediums, styles, and subject matter, but acrylic painting remains my staple. It was my concentration in college, and it has remained my comfort zone. I found I do not have the patience necessary to work in oil, but all other mediums interest me from pencil and charcoal to marker and colored pencil to clay. My style varies with each project. I look forward to again working in clay and creating 3D pieces as soon as I give myself a refresher course and get my kiln running.

Jasper: Well, on that note, tell me about this show specifically. What went into “WILLY NILLY?”

Hohman: This past year catapulted me into near isolation. My reaction to the outbreak of the pandemic was unexpectedly fierce. The state of our country and the world became an incredible challenge to face. I’ve been around for quite a while, but nothing prepared me for the physical and mental shut down I experienced. On the positive side, I intensified my explorations into the past, into the latest discoveries in physics and the connectivity of all things and read many books. As the world reemerges, my hope is that we all have a better understanding of who we are and why we are here. “WILLY NILLY” is an amalgam of various mediums and styles that reflect this period of my life. What began with a creative spurt, slowly fizzled to small doodles and experiments that steered my mind away from the chaotic state of our country and the world.

CONNECTIONS

Hohman’s show will be up until June 30th on Jasper’s Tiny Gallery site. When you go to the site, plan to see impressions of the natural world that quietly beckon visitation, geometric colors that seem to move like organisms under a slide, black and white illusions in which time seems to shift, and worlds clearly not our own and yet somehow strangely familiar. 

These works can be perused and purchased 24/7 here: https://the-jasper-project.square.site/tiny-gallery  

Hohman is unsure where she will go next but knows “the creative community in Columbia is always there to inspire.” While she embraces this inspiration, you can follow her work on Facebook @bahohman / Art & Murals by B.A.

Olga Yukhno Featured in December's Tiny Gallery Series

Thursday Night December 6th

6 - 9 pm

Jasper Studio #7 at Tapp’s Arts Center

The Jasper Project’s Tiny Gallery Series returns this Thursday night —always for First Thursdays — with an installation of 3D art from Olga Yukhno, who Hallie Hayes profiled earlier this fall. Yukhno is bringing a collection of both jewelry and objet d’art purposefully selected for exhibition based on their unique and innovative designs but also on the exciting holiday presents they will make for those on the discerning givers’ lists.

We caught up with Olga and asked her a few questions about this upcoming show.

~~~~

Jasper: From an earlier conversation with you we know that you are from Russia and have been in the states about 10 years. Can you specifically reflect on your time in Columbia and tell us how you've grown as an artist and who has influenced you the most in terms of your growth?

Olga: My time in Columbia has been challenging at times- it’s very hard to change countries, cultures and even art media. However, I’m tremendously grateful that I faced and was able to overcome such challenges as this process made me a better artist and, I hope, a better human being.

In the 10 years since I moved to Columbia, it has changed a lot. I feel that the last few years especially have been particularly good for the local art scene. I’m excited to not only witness this change but be an active part of it developing my work, helping other artists, connecting people and creating new opportunities!

I’ve been lucky to have quite a few people in my life who have influenced and supported me. Until this year I did all my work in community studios. Over the years I received so much encouragement from fellow artists who were working next to me! It has been a very humbling experience and I’m very grateful for all the friendships I made along the way.

Sheri Hood, the former owner of Our Hands Together Studio, has been one of the biggest supporters I’ve ever had and a wonderful friend through many trying and happy moments in my life. Her incredible kindness and wisdom have changed my life in many ways and served as a personal example for me.

My first Solo Exhibition and consequent gallery representation also happened in Columbia. Donna Green of Southern Pottery believed in me and gave me this opportunity that served as a powerful push in the development of my work. Since then I have been working with many other galleries throughout the Southeast but the first person who took a chance with my work will always have a special place in my heart.

I’ve been working at USC as the Gallery Director of McMaster Gallery since this summer and it has been an absolutely amazing experience of professional and personal growth. It’s been such a joy working alongside so many talented and dedicated people and being able to bring incredible art to Columbia.

And, of course, probably the most wonderful thing that I owe Columbia for is meeting my wonderful husband who is my biggest fan and supporter.

Jasper: What have you been up to since we last spoke earlier this year?

Olga: Life is getting more exciting every day! As I mentioned above, I’ve been enjoying curating exhibitions at McMaster Gallery. But I also work with other groups in Columbia to bring more opportunities to our city.

I have been working with Flavia Lovatelli to organize a series of EcoFab art exhibitions and fashion shows in Columbia and other parts of South Carolina. Just last week we celebrated the closing of EcoFab 2.0 at Anderson Arts Center and now we are getting ready for our biggest event yet - Charleston Fashion Week.

I also serve as a Gallery Coordinator for the Crooked Creek Art League and a Workshop Coordinator for Midlands Clay Arts Society. I’m a big believer in promoting and connecting people and creating new opportunities for artists. So I try to find ways to express this passion! My dream is for a bigger, more vibrant art community working together to help all the local talent really flourish!

Jasper: We're looking forward to hosting you as the third artist in our Tiny Gallery Series on Thursday, December 6th at the Jasper Studio (#7) in Tapp's Arts center. Can you talk a bit about what you'll be showing at this event? (would love to have some photos -- for the blog so no worries about hi res or anything)

Olga: First of all, I would like to thank the Jasper Project for this opportunity! I’m honored to have been selected and I know I’m in great company.

I will be showing some of my pieces from the Meditations Series. They are ceramic and mixed media Mandalas that symbolize peace, happiness and balance. They have brought a lot of joy and mindfulness in my life and I think these are the things we can all benefit from in the Holiday Season and the New Year. I will also have some jewelry. Personally, I love all jewelry related things- wearing, making, collecting- and I’m excited to share some of my favorite designs with the Jasper patrons!

Jasper: How does the Tiny Gallery Series work for you as an artist -- is it beneficial to you at all, and how so?

Olga: The Tiny Gallery Series is a wonderful idea! I love the opportunity to have a mini Solo Show as a part of a larger event. What I’m mostly excited about is meeting new people who have never seen my work. I think Jasper is a perfect “cultural bridge” to connect supporters of visual art, literary work and a richer cultural life in Columbia. I’m very glad this project has been started and look forward to many more successful events!

Jasper: After the Tiny Gallery Series, what's next for you and your art?

Olga: My 2019 is shaping up to be very exciting! The Tiny Gallery Series is a perfect introduction for me into the TAPP’S community as I will be a Resident Artist there for 5 months with a Solo Show in May.

I’m also working on a collaborative project with the amazing Columbia based artists Susan Lenz and Flavia Lovatelli to create a joint exhibition in conjunction with the Deckle Edge Literary Festival. Our show Alternative Storytellers will focus on literary stories with unexpected, thought-provoking new endings.

I’m very honored to have been selected as a featured artist for the Southern Exposure Series in March. This will be a very unique experience for me of creating a body of work based on the music performed at the closing concert of the Series.

In addition to Columbia based events, I will have a Solo Show Beneath the Surface at the Francis Marion Gallery in Florence, SC from February 18 till March 18.

Jasper’s Tiny Gallery Series Returns with Columbia’s Own, Thomas the Younger

 by: Christina Xan

Last month, The Jasper Project presented the first installment of its new Tiny Gallery series. With the help of the Columbia community, the inaugural event was a success. Continuing on this series will be local artist, writer, and creator, Thomas the Younger, aka Thomas Washington.

I was fortunate enough to meet with Washington this past Tuesday and experience his person as he shared with me details about his art and life and all the ways those two overlap.

Washington grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts where he says everything creatively sparked in him at the age of four. “Before four I had those foundational memories, like my first memory of my grandmother’s spiral staircase or my younger brother who peed on everyone,” he paused, and we laughed, “But after four my mind just woke up.”

Washington shared with me how after four he started consuming all the art and literature he could find, whether it was the Bible, stories, or the dictionary. As for how he started his art, specifically, he began by copying his father.

“I watched my father drawing one day while he was on the phone, and I saw this image come out of his pen, and I thought that was crazy,” Washington said, “When he was done, I took it and began to copy it over and over again until I felt I was closest to what he had done. That’s why I call myself Thomas the Younger.”

This experience didn’t just affect how he started his art, but it has influenced how he approaches creating every time he nears a canvas. “When I started copying my father’s art, I never thought that I could draw with something else, so I just drew with the same pen until it ran out, and even when it ran out, I drew with that same make and model,” Washington continued. “Through that, I learned something: even mistakes can be employed. If I made a mistake, I’d turn the painting right and turn it into something else.”

Approaching his art and literature in that way allows Washington to never be boxed in by specific conventions or genres. “I don’t limit myself to a genre because I just want to tell the story of people, whatever that means or needs,” he explains. “I believe there’s a story that all my art and literature is part of. It spans many worlds and contains all the genres you can imagine, because I love them all.”

Exploring a plethora of methods and genres not only allows Washington to create with limitless possibilities but to reach people in unique ways. “Yesterday someone came up to me while I was painting outside to ask for a cigarette, but after walking away, he came back and started talking to me,” Washington recounts. “After a bit, I went in the house, and, when I came back out, he was staring at my painting with an entirely new energy. He had walked around it, moved it, looked at all the angles.”

Washington proceeded to tell me how this young man shared with him how his painting made him feel something he couldn’t explain, and then he began opening up to Washington about the details of his childhood. Seeing this piece of art gave the young man an opportunity to connect with himself in a way he may not have otherwise been able to, a testament to the power of art itself. Washington says he “felt honored with how much he shared with me. He shared with me the core material of what makes him him.”

Humbly, he continued to say that when he finally came back to the house, he was visibly shaken. “My girl asked me what was wrong, and when I told her, she said that’s why they call you Shaman, because you can pull this out of people; you make their doors open, and their stories begin to flow.”

It’s all but impossible for a human being who feels the passion of all forms of creating so deeply to pinpoint what specifically their art is like. To do so would be to box it inside language. However, Washington knows what is important about it. “Every time we create, we are really expressing a part of ourselves, even if we think we’re hiding it behind someone or something nothing like ourselves,” he asserts. “It’s that way when I paint – I’m really painting me or some aspect of me or something I’m trying to express.”

His passion for creating parallels what he is passionate about in his life, both as a human and a humanitarian. “I consider myself an Afro-futurist, by default, really. My favorite subject is African-American women. Stoicism manifests itself so heavily in the African American community in general, through toughing it out or being tough, and women are as tough inside as others may project on the outside,” Washington elaborates. “It’s infinite. I try to not idealize it when I paint them; I just try to show their truth.”

Of course, this is not the only subject Washington paints or writes about. It is simply one of the many. His art can be colorful or black and white, can show people or monsters, can be chaotic or simple. In a more honest analysis: it is all of these at once. Regardless of what he will paint for this event, it’s of great importance to him as “This is part of my emergence.”

So, as for what to expect, really, it’s anything. It’s a convergence of the above, a reflection of the self, a reflection of the world. It is none of this, yet it is also all.

Confused? Good. That means you’re thinking. It means you’re curious.

To find some answers or better yet, more questions, come see Washington’s exhibit this Thursday at 6:00 p.m. at Tapp’s Art Center, Studio 7.

If you want to check out some of Washington’s past and current work, pop over to his website at: www.thomastheyounger.com

Follow The Jasper Project on Facebook and on Instagram @the_jasper_project

for more updates on local artists and events!

Keith Tolen Opens Jasper's First Tiny Gallery Series this First Thursday at Tapp's

Artist Keith Tolen - photo by Michael Dantzler

The Jasper Project is bringing a brand new project to light during First Thursday this month: The Tiny Gallery Series.

Jasper’s goal with this project is twofold – to support artists in our community and to encourage budding art collectors to start their collections. During upcoming First Thursdays, Jasper will be teaming up with local artists to display their work for sale at affordable prices in their studio at Tapp’s Art Center.

Kicking off the first series is local artist and South Carolina native, Keith Tolen. “I’m honored that I’m kicking this off; it’s hard to believe,” Tolen said with a chuckle as we chatted over coffee, “But I’m nervous too. I want to do this event justice.”

Tolen has been studying and working on his craft for decades now. An art education major in college, he worked in both retail and real estate before landing the job as an art teacher at Camden Middle School – a job he cared for and worked at for 30 years.

Beyond teaching, Tolen has been creating art since a young boy. He and his brothers used to draw together, and Tolen’s first love was film and photography. When he focused on painting in college, he became heavily influenced by the abstract expressionist styles of the 1970s, the art style that still influences him today. In his recent years, Tolen has tried to challenge himself by taking classes in different art styles, such as still life. All of these influences come together for his Tiny Gallery Series where there is one thing in particular to expect: eggs.

Tolen said that the form of the egg is key for painting. It is between shapes, not circle or oval, pointed at the top, and plays with light and shadow in simple yet complex ways. He is using eggs in these paintings as a “balance of the simplicity of the egg and the chaos of abstract expressionism.”  

“I hope these eggs take on a personality and travel from canvas to canvas, taking on the identity of its surroundings while still maintaining its own integrity,” Tolen says, “I love color, and the challenge with these paintings was to have backgrounds rich with color but for the eggs to be the draw, to be very neutral.”

This will be the third time Tolen has shown his egg paintings this year, the first two times both to a positive critical reception. When asked about past accolades in his career, however, Tolen told a powerful story about a young girl in his first 6th grade class who took her passion for origami and taught an entire class of 50 students her art, holding their attention on a Friday far after the bell had rang.

“I could sell a painting for a million dollars,” Tolen said, “But it wouldn’t compare to the moment that girl stood in front of her peers and captivated them with her art.”

From this comes the importance of an event like the Tiny Gallery Series. Like what that girl did for her class, “Art inspires us; it educates us.” Tolen said.

When asked about his goal for his paintings in particular Tolen said, “There’s two things I want people to say. Either ‘I can do that’ or ‘I appreciate that.’ I want people to see my paintings and be inspired to go use their creativity and make something of their own, and if not to at least look at them and know they mean something special.”

This event is, again, not just a chance to see art from local artists but to help the community of Columbia start their own art collections. “It’s important to have art in the home beyond just for exposure,” Tolen says, “Having original art on your walls builds bonds, connections, and it demystifies the idea that only certain people can experience art. Art is for everyone.”

Future artists participating in the Tiny Gallery Series include Olga Yukhno, Bonnie Goldberg, Dave Robbins, and more.

To see Tolen’s work, stop by Tapp’s Art Center in Studio #7 starting at 6:00 p.m. this Thursday, October 4th, and be sure take a piece of his passion home for yourself.

—Christina Xan

Follow The Jasper Project on Facebook and on Instagram @the_jasper_project

for more updates on local artists and events!