WALK Artists
The following artists were a part of WALK Gallery’s inaugural exhibition:
Christina Bailey — a photographer, painter and graphic artist. She is originally from Spartanburg, SC where she watched her father carve and sculpt wood into incredible flying creatures. She attended College of Charleston, and received BAs in Studio Art and Arts Management; and then later attended Trident Technical College for photography and the graphic arts. Christina began her own business, 120 Design: Photography, Web, Print LLC, in 2008. Currently, she is busy balancing her passions; art, business, and people.
Building: 479 King Street
Cherna Bednarsh — a mixed media artist, printmaker and designer. Cherna B’s Design Studio is located just outside of Charleston, SC. For more information please visit her web site: www.chernab.com
Building: 45 John Street
Contact: Email, Web, www.pickpaint.com
Sally Benedict — Loose lines, layered color, and spontaneity have taken precedence in creating my most recent works. Recollections of simplistic thoughts, scribbles, and feelings have begun to dictate the palettes’ intensity or perhaps the lack there of. The lines are varied, intersecting, and contrasting with great influences ranging from organic forms from nature and found objects to the collection of text from the old letterpress in my studio. I rarely start a piece with a plan because having the liberty to be free and to experiment makes the process that much more meaningful and unexpected. With this latest approach, I hope to portray energetic compositions that are approachable and relevant.
Building: 372 King Street
Contact: Email, Web
Christine Bush — I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and graduated from the University of Georgia in 2006 with a BFA in Drawing and Painting. I remained in Athens for a few years and was active in the art community until I made the decision to move to Charleston. When I arrived in Charleston I joined the Charleston Arts Coalition and the Charleston Artist Guild. I currently work for an animal welfare organization on James Island and strive to be involved in the arts here as much as possible. I have exhibited paintings in Atlanta and Athens, in Cortona, Italy, and now in Charleston. I also like to donate paintings to charitable organizations for auction or sale, such as The Charleston Animal Society, Pet Helpers, Project OKURASE, and The Georgia Cancer Foundation.
My paintings and drawings are most recognizable for the vibrant, intricate, and almost chaotic scenes depicted. I use color, line, symbols, geometry, and animal-like characters to explore ideas about human instinct. My intention is to create a world where the primal tendencies of humans are considered. I am very interested in how people react to and treat one another, as well as other living beings on the planet. I have observed that we often demonstrate enormous kindness and compassion, yet at the same time can be capable of both careless and deliberate cruelty. In my paintings I strive to illustrate the alarming dichotomy of our “good” and “evil” actions. The creatures and symbols that fill my paintings are representations of our struggles to balance what we want versus what we think to be right. I try to examine how people find a way to justify actions to themselves and others. I am fascinated by the idea that humans seem to be able to house both brutality and kindness in our bodies at once, and I use my paintings to explore how much of this internal contradiction is primordial, and how much is a product of our current society.
Building: 372 King Street
Jody Christian —
Building: 372 King Street
Contact: Email, Web
Stephanie Drawdy — After years of exploration with various subjects and techniques, I have settled into the classical study of the figure. My studies of master realists such as Velasquez, Sorolla and Sargent have been integral to the growing technical strength of my paintings. I use the alla prima method whereby the first brush stroke made should be able to stand alone as the last. Just as authors are taught to write what they know, I have come to realize I should paint what I know and what most moves me. The figurative studies shown here are part of a series I am working on based on my family with a current focus on my father. Just as Velasquez portrayed scenes of ordinary life in the same way he portrayed the royal court, I am attempting in this series to portray everyday tasks in a noble way while hoping to make the man or woman in each painting seem to breathe.
Building: 517 King Street
Contact: Email, Web
Nathan Durfee — I have an unhealthy urge to paint honesty. That moment when your mind begins to drift, revealing what it truely wants. You have only a few moments of this, so I try to make the most of the time. They contain ideas, characters, and stories, all roaming around in a world free of time, location, and agendas. I pull them out, and find a home for them on the canvas. This needs to be done quickly. Eventually I realize I’m daydreaming, and the conscience barges in and meddles with the world.
Matching the subject matter, I’ve been working on ways to paint honestly: brushstokes that do not try to hide in the canvas, but stand proud for who they are. The challenge is getting them to work together but keep their identity. Their cooperation create forms: faces, trees, dogs, clouds. Their individuality makes the forms interesting.
Building: 45 John Street
Contact: Email, Web
Gwylene Gallimard & Jean-Marie Mauclet — The opportunity to present a work about urban renewal in the show window of a vacant store, most likely fallen victim to economic crisis, is too great to pass since most of our work is concerned with the role of the arts in building a progressive and sustainable sense of what communities are.
Ever since they have become commodities bought and sold for profit and individual pleasure, artworks have lost their role as unifiers of beauty and function. Dead or dying, cultures are remembered for their monuments, their artifacts, their art objects, traces of what kept them together. We are in awe before the charm of an eighteen-century Charleston wood framed – even shotgun – house with its piazza and manicured garden. But will the Longborough mansions, which replaced the 1950’s Shoreview housing development, last long enough to be part of a history other than an economic one? Is the quality of their architecture high enough to grant them passage into history and forgiveness for what they have destroyed? Is the intent of such a development rooted enough?
In the particular artwork we are proposing to install in an empty King Street storefront, the small units that made Shoreview are literary absorbed, swallowed by the modern buildings of Longborough, a true-to-form contemporary development for the privileged. The art, in this piece, stems not only from the vivid representation of the act of the big eating up the small, not only from the chosen materials, which make it mysterious, haunting and nostalgic, but also from the introduction of memory as a builder of history. Art is history. And gentrification is the issue.
Building: 479 King Street
Sarah Kalani —
Building: 589 King Street
Contact: Email, Web
Karen Ann Myers — I was born and raised in Grand Rapids, MI. I graduated from Michigan State University with a BFA in Art Education, Graphic Design and Painting. I received an MFA in painting from Boston University. During my time in Boston, I focused primarily on my painting, but I also expended a great deal of energy striving to become an active member of the local art community. I am a co-founder of the first Boston Young Contemporaries Exhibition which took place the summer of 6/07-7/07, and has continued to be an annual exhibition at the 808 Commonwealth Gallery. The exhibition included work from twelve MFA programs in New England.
Now, as the Executive Director at Redux Contemporary Art Center I am responsible for maintaining, overseeing and developing the following Redux Programs: Exhibitions/Curating, Public Relations, Artist in Residence Program, Facility Maintenance, General Office, Website and Internet presence, Accounting/Fundraising, Redux Non-Profit Status, Gallery, Film Screenings/Lectures and Education. My paintings and prints exist nationally in private collections and have most recently been exhibited at the Robert Steele Gallery in NY, NY, at the Commonwealth Gallery in Boston, MA and at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC.
The core of my work is rooted in the concept of self-portraiture. I paint for documentation; capturing not just the world around me, but also within me. My paintings are motivated by what it is like to be a specific gender and a specific age in contemporary culture, juxtaposed with experiences from the past.
I think of my paintings as short stories, mini-narratives influenced by my intimate experiences with friends, family, and lovers. I am interested in executing paintings that sincerely embrace glamour and how beauty can be used to camouflage feelings of isolation, addiction and fear. I am interested in how sex, desire and intimacy can be misleading and destructive. Whether my images evoke a narrative, explore a relationship dynamic or focus on a solitary girl, I try to generate a sense of neglect.
I strive to create a world in which the viewer is invited to question the continuing struggle of women to be taken seriously. Simply stated, each of my paintings is an opportunity to better understand myself through my past, present and future experiences and relationships.
Building: 372 King Street
Katy Perrin — Working in her father’s gallery as a child in Augusta, GA and influenced by her mother’s passion for the arts, Katy grew up with a strong appreciation for art and a desire to express herself through a mixed media of installation and photography. At the age of eighteen, Katy traveled to Australia for what she thought was a last ditch effort to “figure out her purpose in life” and what ended up a three month photography excursion from Brisbane to the Whitsunday Islands. Once grounded back in “the real world” Katy commenced to enhance her knowledge of the arts at Augusta State University. At age twenty, the call of the ocean summoned her, and Perrin moved to Charleston to teach sailing, quickly falling in love with the beauty and wander of the low country.
Today, Katy resides on James Island with her husband Dan, where they operate their cabinet business, Perrin Woodworking. Primarily self taught, Katy draws inspiration from her love of nature, bringing awareness of the natural world and environmental issues to the viewer making everyday objects extraordinary. “I love the outdoors and I enjoy stumbling upon the treasures left behind by others and capturing them in a way that surprises people.” Through her images Katy hopes to share her passion for the water and the low country with others.
Building: 152 King Street
Paul Reetz — Grannies began in 2005 with the goal of bridging generational family relationships and to a lesser extent bridging American culture gaps, by considering the theological ideas of ressourcement and aggiornamento – looking backward in order to progress forward. My focus is on the traditional archetype of grandmother, her strong friendships, and personal eccentricities, expressed through contemporary pop pastel colors and an accessible, hand-drawn style. I hope to engender a spirit of filial piety and a return to tradition with sentiments of joy, light-heartedness, and intentional purity. I consider this style of art to be ‘Pop Genteel’.
Building: 372 King Street
Contact: Email, Web, thegrannies.net
Karen Silvestro — Karen Silvestro received a BFA from Pratt Institute in New York. She has continued her education with classes and workshops at the Art Students League, Woodstock School of Art, Hofstra University, The Woodstock Art Association and Museum (WAAM), The Art League of Long Island (ALLI), Charleston Artist Guild (CAG), and the atelier Connie Olson Studios in Summerville, SC. Her concepts come from delving into human frailties and her invitation to contemplate our insecurities, all in an effort to grow. Her choices are reflective in more ways than one.
Her present focus is to combine the Classical Drawing skills she is currently studying, with the ideas that fill her many sketchbooks. Delving and Reflecting always expose the Secrets, and for Karen, it is not enough to paint what she sees, she must paint what she conceives as well.
When it comes to awards, Karen has always been the bridesmaid, never the bride. She has received 2nd Place at the Woodstock Art Association and Museum’s What Is, As Opposed To What Everyone Knows Exhibit, 2nd Place at the Piccolo Spoleto Juried Exhibition Vanishing Landscapes, and again 2nd Place at the Charleston Artist Guild Holiday Show at the Charleston Visitors Center.
Building: 501 King Street
The following are artists that participated with WALK in July and August of 2009.
Jordan Elizabeth Beiter — is an amateur painter with strong thumbs. As a girl she loved to draw intricate designs and dance. Now 22, the Charleston native still loves to dance, but she lets her thumbs drive her movements. As a reflection of her stature, she tends to keep her feet planted while letting the small movements of her hands feel the beat. Her gestures, flowing and meaningful, rarely expand beyond her shoulders and remain above her waist – all the while her thumbs are telling us things are going to be okay if not spectacular. And aren’t we all looking for a little reassurance in these times?
On a more serious note — Jordan has had no formal education in either of the subjects discussed above and plans on writing a more impressive bio when she does.
Building: 589 King Street
James Burkette — I am an aspiring artist living and working up and down the East coast. I’m self-taught except for the year and a half I spent in the art department of a local college earning a degree in illustration. All my images are meticulously rendered by hand. My favored mediums are inks, acrylics, spray paint, chalk, charcoal and watercolor. I love to do great work for those who can appreciate art and I want to give a big thanks for all the support I have received from the beautiful City of Charleston.
Building: 501 King Street
Lese Corrigan — Charleston native Lese Corrigan’s work is representational but more expressionistic than realistic. The paintings are full of color and the joyful playfulness of life; surfaces imbued with light – color and texture being the defining structure. Corrigan fully immersed herself in the visual arts in the late 1980s, working her way through the different opportunities in the art community. An oil painter, whose portraits and landscapes pull together in a vibrant expressionistic manner the play of light and the resulting changes in hue and shade that delight the eye in the course of the day, Corrigan also works in other media – linocuts, photography and clay sculpture.
Coca Cola commissioned a painting that was presented to Barbara Bush in 1995. She was poster artist for the Charleston Cup Steeplechase 2003 and featured in the Fall 2003 issue of the international Orient Express Magazine. Corrigan and her painting debuted on Turner South Network’s 3 Day Weekend Charleston’s episode that premiered in 2005 and she was the Gibbes Museum Poets’ and Painters’ program artist in residence for 2005. She painted the image for the poster for the Queen City Classic Horse Show in Charlotte, North Carolina for 2006. Corrigan’s paintings are in collections in the United States, France, Great Britain and Japan. In 2006 Ros Smith created a five minute film documentary entitled “Curlesque” on Corrigan’s painting process.
Corrigan’s work was selected for the Medical University of South Carolina’s contemporary collection for the new 2008 Ashley River Tower. She is the president for 2009 of the CFADA – Charleston Fine Art Dealers’ Association.
Building: 372 King Street
Casey Cohoon — I was born and raised in Augusta, Georgia. The roots of my creativity derive from drawing and I’ve been drawing ever since I was able to hold a pencil. It wasn’t until a high school art class that I found my ideal medium. I discovered the honesty and freedom of clay and instantly got hooked. From that point on, clay has helped me express visually what I struggle to express verbally. Through out my life creating has filled a void in that would otherwise remain empty. Art replaces a feeling of existential passivity with purpose and satisfaction.
Upon completing high school in 2003 I began attending the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts where I found my muse, the human figure. I had the privilege of studying under accomplished sculptors such as, Don Gale, Dan Edwards, and, Pablo Eduardo. I extensively studied human form and anatomy from life and my imagination. I learned to notice and cherish the moments when sculpture became a metaphysical search through an innate understanding of medium and technique. I am influenced by the “un-pretty”, but unique and individual nuances that make us distinct from each other. Beyond the obvious physical attributes of a subject there exists an essence or spirit that must be ruthlessly acknowledged. Without this, a sculpture or drawing would be merely a shell or model of a body and lifeless.
Building: 401 King Street
Contact: Email, Web
Alice Keeney and Leah Suárez
Alice Keeney — Since returning to the United States in 2005 after attending Speos Photographic Institute, in Paris, Alice has been busy photographing a variety of events throughout the Charleston, South Carolina area, as well as abroad.
Keeney has been working for the Associated Press since 2005 covering news events in the coastal region of South Carolina. Recently, Keeney’s images of the tragic fire that claimed the lives of nine Charleston Fire Fighters landed on the front page of the New York Times and USA Today, along with many other newspapers across the nation. She also shoots portraits, weddings, and teaches photography classes at the Charleston Center for Photography.
Keeney has continued her involvement with Grassroot Soccer, an NGO based in Sub-Saharan Africa which provides African youth with the life-skills to live HIV free. She has worked with, and photographed, the organization three separate times, visiting Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa. Most recently, Keeney traveled to South Africa with Goals for Girls, a cultural exchange which brought a DC area girl’s soccer team to South Africa to teach young girls soccer, participate in a Grassroot Soccer HIV education camp, and learn more about South Africa. Keeney covered this trip for the Washington Post. Locally, Alice enjoys volunteering with Charleston Kids with Cameras.
Alice, a native of Rhode Island, graduated from the College of Charleston in 2004, where she
balanced her time playing Division I Soccer, while earning a B.A. in English.
Leah Suárez — is emerging as one of the Southeast’s most authentic talents. A confident artist, with a luminous voice and an alluring stage presence, she has cultivated strong roots in jazz and Latin music into a deliberate, emotionally mature sound, combining the best of both traditions with glorious results. Born August 12, 1981 to a Mexican father and an American mother, and growing up on Sullivan’s Island, Leah’s artistic perspective owes much to the creativity and inventiveness that comes from the mixing of cultures. While she performs a range of music that includes American jazz standards, Brazilian bossa nova, and folk music from all over the world, she is equally passionate about creating original music.
A graduate of the College of Charleston with a degree in Music Performance, Leah has performed extensively in the Charleston, South Carolina area and at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, as the bandleader of the group Toca Toca. She was featured in the May 2007 edition of Charleston Magazine as one of Charleston’s “Women Who Rock.” The article praised her “fresh and nuanced vocal style” and “considerable improvisational liberties,” which are a hallmark of her performances, making even the most familiar standard unique and refreshing. She released her first solo EP, Found Freedom, in November of 2007. Leah also serves as the President of Jazz Artists of Charleston, a non-profit organization.
From Charleston to Brevard, and to Denmark and back, it is this musical journey that has brought her where she is now. With a strong focus on her art and a renewed sense of balance, Leah Suárez is confidently showing the musical community who she is: a singer, writer, risk-taker, and above all someone who believes, without question, in the power of music.
Building: 372 King Street
Contact: Email, Web, leahsuarez.com, alicekeeneyphotography.com
Lauren Moore — Relishing in all things creative, Lauren Frances Moore has always had an appreciation for the beautiful, the unique, and the absurd. Though she entered the College of Charleston just two years ago as a student of business, it wasn’t long before she began to seek a creative outlet within the college’s well equipped and ever-inspiring sculpture studio. Of course, the urge to create was simply too strong to resist, and she soon chose to split her studies into two distinct, yet surprisingly complementary, majors, Business Administration and Studio Art. Lauren has since had the opportunity to exhibit her sculptures in various locations around campus, including the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art’s annual juried student show, The Young Contemporaries, during which, in April of 2009, she was awarded the prize for sculpture for her first massive carpet padding installation.
Lauren is thrilled to have the opportunity to work large-scale again with her favorite material of late, recycled carpet padding. She is drawn to this material for its power to stimulate all of the senses… its marvelous array of colors and textures, its interaction with and interruption of sound, its remarkably stale stench… and as for taste, she can only assume it would be stimulating in some foul way or an other. With this abstract installation she aspires to inspire viewers to contemplate the impact of influence within the realms of time, sound, and space.
Building: 501 King Street
Stephen Ramos — is an artist and architect living in Charleston, South Carolina. Born and raised in La Plata Maryland, Stephen developed a passion for art from his mother Lucy Richmond, a talented portrait artist. He studied art and architecture at the University of Maryland, where he received a Bachelors and Masters of Architecture in 2004 and 2006 respectively. It is at the University where he began experimenting with pop art portraiture. Although Stephen has studied under many teachers throughout his life, he is a self-taught painter.
Following graduation Stephen, spent two years as a designer for the world-renowned architecture firm Michael Graves and Associates in Princeton, New Jersey. He currently practices architecture with LS3P Associates as well as continuing his artistic explorations. His current work is a collection of iconic figures that have been rendered with an infusion of color and contrast that add new energy to the already recognizable figures.
Why see things in black and white, when you can see them in blue and yellow? The blank canvas offers an opportunity that shouldn’t be limited by the constraints of reality. When I paint, the only constant is the subject matter itself, while the main variables, color, contrast and scale, are allowed to run wild. At the end of the day, I hope this freedom results in an image that is infused with a new energy.
Building: 372 King Street
April Robbins — was born in the mountains of eastern North Carolina where she was raised in the seclusion of the woods. Her childhood was bare feet, animals, & art. With no formal art education behind her, Robbins developed her own style through boundless experimentation & observation. She moved to Charleston in 2000 & has recently began exhibiting her art throughout the city under M23 Art.
Building: 501 King Street
Contact: Email, Web (website is currently down, but will be back soon.)