Saul Alexander Gallery in the Charleston County Public Library

2015 Exhibition Schedule

The Saul Alexander Foundation Gallery of the Charleston County Public Library provides space for juried art exhibitions, solo or group, at the Main Library, 68 Calhoun Street, Charleston, SC 29401. Preference is given to work reflecting experiences and viewpoints of South Carolina residents. Submissions to exhibit will only be accepted during September 2015. The works of each selected artist or group will be exhibited for one month, beginning in March 2016. Applications, which must be included with an artist’s submission, are available online at our website, www.ccpl.org, or by calling 843-805-6840.

Gallery Procedures The Charleston County Public Library offers an opportunity to South Carolina artists and craftsmen who have been selected by a jury of local art professionals to present their work to the public. With the exhibition space serving as an avenue for the respectful exchange of artistic and conceptual ideas within a diverse constituency, these exhibitions should reflect the varied experiences and viewpoints of the people of South Carolina. The Charleston County Public Library Gallery Committee selects artists and craftsmen for inclusion in the exhibition schedule on the basis of the quality of their work and suitability for the space.

Submission Guidelines

Artists must submit a current resume and eight to twelve examples of their work in the form of photographs, CDs, or other electronic media appropriate for display to the Charleston County Public Library Gallery Committee. We recommend visiting the space prior to submission to determine the suitability of the space for your work. Examples submitted must be representative of the work intended for display and appropriately labeled with the artist’s name, and the work’s title, medium, and size. Artists must be at least eighteen years old to be considered by the Gallery Committee. The work should not have been previously exhibited at the library. Preference will be given to newly created works. After the Charleston County Public Library Gallery Committee has met to select those artists who will display their work in the following year, those selected will be notified and assigned their exhibition month. The director of the library has final approval for all exhibitions.

Schedule of Exhibitions

- 2015 -

- 2016 -

February Vanessa Gonzalez Unstuffed

March Carol bass Throwing around Vibrations

April Kris Westerson Making Community: Street Pulp Artists’ Books

May Robert B. Reed Means of Travel

June Shirley J. Clarke Inspired Visions

July Andrew Gould Byzantium in Charleston: Liturgical Art in the Eastern Tradition

August Maria Martin Home Works

September Heather Thornton Matter of Perspective

October Melissa C. Levesque Lowcountry Lanscapes: Travels along Highway 17

November Ron Anton Rocz Off-Beat and Off the Beaten Path!: Images of Charleston Vernacular, Folk, Graffiti, and Hip Hop

December Richard Parker Life, Slightly Abstract

January Judy McSween Wash over Me

- February -

Vanessa Gonzalez

Unstuffed

I consider my artwork to be a collaboration between me and my dog, Mick. His

canine instinct to kill meets my desire to create, and an idea is born. I gift him

with a fluffy new stuffed animal (preferably one with a voice box or squeaker),

and he becomes uncontrollably excited, races through the house with it, and

then immediately sets to work. In a playfully destructive manner, he guts it

(littering the house with stuffing), tears off its limbs, chews off its eyes, and rips

out its voice box (or what I refer to as its soul), until it has been morphed into a

mangled, limp, and lifeless rag. When the toy has become fairly worn and

almost forgotten, I revive it by using it as a subject for one of my paintings.

Each finished piece commemorates the stuffed toy as a symbol of Mick’s

conquests and serves as a reflection of my environment and personal history.

- March -

Carol BasS

Throwing around Vibrations

Throwing around Vibrations is about making energy visible. I think about

improvisational jazz made visible, making collages or paintings that are snippets

of energy waves, moments of energy. Instead of painting a still life or

landscape, I paint the lines of energy from the snail’s wanderings across the

sidewalk, the sheep running across the field, a bird’s flight, the lady swimming

across the pond, or the deer running through the woods. My work is painting

the emotions I feel from looking at a gorgeous marsh or a cabbage field in

autumn. In the beginning of a work, I paint the lines of a live oak, or the

wanderings of a stream, or the energy I feel from a conversation. This gives me

a head start on the composition. For me, these vibrations are thrilling and the

basis of all ideas. This energy comes from the heart right through the

fingers. These ideas are immediate, not interfered with too much by “trying”

for some illusion of perfection. My work is all about playing. I think of a quote

by Picasso that goes something like this: “It took me four years to learn to paint

like Rembrandt, and forty years to learn to paint like a child.” Work for me is

improvisational, like dance, like music, like conversation.

- APRIL -

Kris Westerson

Making Community: Street Pulp Artists’ Books

The Street Pulp project is a community art-making opportunity for the people of Charleston. In September and October 2014, assisted by volunteers from the community, the artist presented four individual Street Pulp events, each at a different location in the Upper Peninsula. Working outside, in parking lots and playgrounds, participants pulled sheets of fresh paper containing recycled clothing and paper from homes and businesses, and painted them with pigmented pulp. This exhibition showcases three artists’ books created from the individual sheets of community-made paper produced during the Street Pulp project. Information panels explain the Street Pulp project and document the community papermaking with photographs of participants and the process. Installed in a central location, the books can be viewed as a reminder of learning, creativity, and transformation. The Street Pulp project was created by Kris Westerson and partially funded by Enough Pie and the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs through a Lowcountry Quarterly Artist Grant.

- MAY -

Robert B. Reed

Means of Travel

When I find time to consider, it seems at times I’m looking for a mutual meeting place between “subject” and “signified”—something tangible that involves me with aesthetics, the concept of space, the open window. Painting has proven to be the broadest horizon that gives me the occasion to be spontaneous and automatic—seducing me to render something tangible and to give it significance and vividness, facilitating a credible and gratifying participation with whatever I come in contact with. I sense an immense pleasure in creating—not only because it’s when I’m totally free, but also because it allows me to measure, evaluate, and appraise my surroundings.

- JUNE -

Shirley j. Clarke

Inspired Visions

Shirley J. Clarke is a realistic portrait painter living in Charleston, South Carolina. She also paints/draws landscapes, still lifes, and figures in various media. Although there are many challenging subjects, “painting life’s visions” is her passion and joy. Shirley was born in New York City and has been drawing since she was a child.

She won awards as a teenager and was encouraged by family, friends, and

teachers to pursue a career in art. She has furthered her education in art by

taking correspondence courses, attending Savannah College of Art & Design

and the Art Institute of Charleston, and presently pursuing an Associate in Arts

degree at Trident Technical College.

- JULY -

Andrew Gould

Byzantium in Charleston: Liturgical Art in the Eastern Tradition

As a liturgical artist, my vocation is to create beauty within the framework of ecclesiastical tradition. I am a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which teaches that art has objective meaning and theological significance. Therefore, the Church requires that liturgical art adhere to the cannon of traditional expression, for to do otherwise would risk heresy—a departure from the faith.

Nevertheless, the history of traditional Christian art is very broad indeed, and there is tremendous room for creativity within the cannon. Since I am an American working in the twenty-first century, there is no reason for me to copy the artwork of any specific nation or historic period. Rather, I look at the whole of Christian history—the early Roman church, ancient Britain, the Byzantine Empire, medieval Italy, seventeenth-century Russia. I must decide what guidance to take from these precedents, which will speak to people here, today.

I work chiefly as a designer of Orthodox churches, and several of my designs are included in this exhibition. Each one represents traditional Orthodox architecture expressed in a way that fits the cultural context of its place. Thus, a church in Texas may include elements of Spanish Mission style, while a church in the Lowcountry (such as Holy Ascension in Mt. Pleasant, which I designed) makes use of salvaged Charleston bricks and heart pine for a familiar, local character.

-AUGUST-

Maria Martin

Home Works

The paintings in this collection all begin from my home. They are portraits of people I love and places I know. I am interested in how memory and affection influence the visual description of a subject. My paintings deal with the gap between what I see when I think of a subject in my head and my ability to recall the whole visual subject at once. I use a looser style and thick planes of light and color. In life, form gives color, but in painting, color gives form. I am especially interested in how reflections of colors create interesting shadows and neutrals, and in the difference between indoor and outdoor light.

-SEPTEMBER-

Heather Thornton

Matter of Perspective

I explore the innate curiosity about what exists beyond everyday life. The figures within my work achieve a deeper connection with the macrocosm that conceived us. They meld into the fabric of time and space in order to understand their purpose among the stellar vastness that lies beyond our planet. Their inner reflection resonates from their hearts and minds, exposing a star-dappled light from within. These beings, small against the expanse of the cosmos, seek to comprehend the universe that cradles them. Born and raised in Myrtle Beach, Heather Thornton moved to Charleston in 2013 to study studio art at the College of Charleston. Influenced by her grandmother, a former art teacher, Heather’s work is inspired by astronomy, aesthetic, and personal spirituality.

-OCTOBER-

Melissa C. Levesque

Lowcountry Landscapes: Travels along Highway 17

Melissa Levesque is a Charleston photographer specializing in fine-art and documentary photography. Her primary photographic inspiration is the rich history and everyday beauty of the Georgia/South Carolina coast, especially the communities bordering US Highway 17 between Mt. Pleasant and Savannah. This passion is rooted in a personal history that includes nine generations of family members living in a community along this highway. Photographing this area combines her artistic passion to create fine-art images with centuries of family connections and an appreciation for the unique sense of place of this region.

Ms. Levesque participates in multiple photography blogs, including Cherish This Day, The Monochromatic Lens, By the Light, Express Yourself—Shooting with Intent, and The Inspired Frame. Each of these collaborative blogs is unique in subject matter, brings together a talented and diverse group of photographers from around the globe, and provides an opportunity to share her photography with an audience beyond the Southeastern United States. In addition to these online photography forums, three of her photographs were featured in the Charleston Center for Photography’s Space exhibition, a juried competition held concurrently with the 2014 Spoleto/Piccolo Spoleto festivities. She will also have her work featured in an upcoming web exhibition gallery by Photo Review.

-NOVEMBER-

Ron Anton Rocz

Off-Beat and Off the Beaten Path!: Images of Charleston Vernacular, Folk, Graffiti,

and Hip Hop

This eclectic exhibition of color photography focuses on scenes of unique elements of Charleston culture, atypical from what is commonly seen on the standard bus tours or in the photography books and commercial representations of Charleston. Beyond the edifices of antebellum homes, churches, and governmental structures, off the beaten path, are expressions of the other elements of Charleston culture—the working class, the African American, the youth culture, the juke joint life, the “other” Charleston. Some of the scenes are now bygone; some are deteriorating, some are emerging, all are relatively hidden but nonetheless significant and telling of the story of Charleston’s people. These photographic images are drawn from Ron Anton Rocz’s accumulated “historical” files from over the years, as well as from recent shootings on the streets.

Rocz has been photographing Charleston since the 1970s, along with extended forays into Iceland, Ireland, Eastern Europe, the Mississippi Delta, and—most recently—Cuba. In this exhibition, he is focusing on his local “backyard” and having fun doing it.

-DECEMBER-

Richard Parker

Life, Slightly Abstract

Following a career filled with details of engineering plans, projects, and programs, this exhibition seeks rather to stay slightly free of realism. Each work is an effort to pull away, unburdened by exacting details. The focus is on the color, composition, thought, and/or mood of life. The majority of these works suggest themes that are so … Carolina, yet I manage even to pull away from native soil and include a work inspired by a street walk in Hungary.

Exhibiting in the library is an honor extraordinaire, as I am endeavoring to be a successful author/illustrator. A quarterly grant from the Lowcountry Arts Grants Program helped me complete an art book, This is So … Carolina (Reflection Series).* And, as an illustrator, I have collaborated on a children’s book Fossil Cookies: An Extinct Delicacy, written by my sister (a thirty-year career middle school teacher now living in Charleston).

*The project was funded in part by the City of Charleston, City of North Charleston, and the South Carolina Arts Commission (which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts).

-JANUARY 2016-

Judy McSween Wash over Me

Painting is an act of curiosity and delight for me. I invite the unexpected into my work and embrace the results. In my paintings for this series, Wash over Me, I use line, color, and texture to create visual expressions of human emotion and shared experiences. Using repurposed materials such as netting and tissue paper, I create tactile surfaces that set the course for each painting’s journey. Sorrow and loss, acceptance and release, hope and joy—these sentiments emerge as I brush over and across ridges and patterns. I trust the flow of colors and lines to release the emotion hidden in each piece and lead me (and the viewer) through the painting to its destination. Wash over Me expresses the depth of raw emotions that words cannot. I hope viewers connect through our shared human experiences and delight in the ability of art to convey these sentiments in my paintings.

Charleston County Public Library Service Hours

Main: 68 Calhoun St. 29401 · (843) 805-6930 Mon.–Thurs. 9–8; Fri.–Sat. 9–6; Sun. 2–5

Cooper River: 3503 Rivers Ave. 29405 · (843) 744-2489

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