ARTS ALLIANCE BEGINS 2010-2011 SEASON
OF GALLERY 412 WITH
"LAST WORDS" FIBER ARTS SHOW
BY SUSAN LENZ
The Florence Regional Arts Alliance will open the 2010-2011 Season of its newly renamed Gallery 412 with "Last Words," a fiber arts show by Susan Lenz. Currently entering its 3th year of operation, the Gallery and Shoppe will annually feature shows that begin on the first Thursday of the each month and continue through the last Thursday of each month. Arts Alliance President Gregory Fry, indicates, "Our plan is to schedule a diverse array of artists each year, and we encourage our exhibiting artists to 'push the box' in terms of their artistic exploration. We hope the result will be many exciting show for gallerygoes over the next 12 months, and hopefully in the years to come as well."
Each show will begin with a Wine and Cheese Opening. The Opening for the Susan Lenz show is sheduled for Thurday, August 5 from 6 to 8 p.m., and the show will continue through Thursday, August 26. Gallery 412 is open Monday through Friday from 1:30 to 4:30 pm or by special arrangement. A special invitation is extended to Florence County art teachers and their students. A 2010-2011 Schedule will be available at the Lenz Opening on August 5.
Susan Lenz indicated that despite two terrible childhood experiences with needle and thread, she fell "head over heels in love" with embroidery as an adult and dreamed of a time when she should indulge her passion as a professional artist. Finding time to pursue her passion was a virtual impossibility because she already filled every waking hour managing a custom picture framing shop that had 13 employees. In 2001, she downsized her growing business, rented space in a cooperative studio setting, and started "making art" from bits of fabric and lengths of thread. Her years in operating a business served her well; her new career became an extension of the existing corporation.
Long hours devoted to production were already her normal work ethic. Association with local artists provided her with an excellent mentor who immediately advised her to build a resume, enter shows, submit for art opportunities, and create an inventory book documenting every creation. These advantages, combined with inspiration from travel, medieval and renaissance history, and modern technology, are the core of her textile work.
In the fall of 2008, she was awarded a MacNamara art residency on Westport Island, Maine. While there, she read a suggestion in Jeanne Williamson's The Uncommon Quilter about making grave rubbings on fabric. There are family plots and historic cemeteries all over Maine. She made a rubbing and then an art quilt. She has been quilting ever since. She comments, "The ability to communicate the passage of time, the human desire for remembrance, the issues of both personal and universal mortality are reasons that will make quilting with grave rubbings one my textile possions for a long, long time.
As her series developed, new ways of working the concepts came into being. Collected epitaphs became free motion machine embroidered words on sheer chiffon banners. Artificial flowers from the cemetery dumpsters brought color and actual tokens of remembrance into a physical space and transformed it into a spiritual oasis of tribute to human existence. Angelic digital images were transferred onto printmaking paper and combined with bits of lace, samples of antique handwriting, sepia photographs, buttons, keys, and other found objects. She herself admits, "A site specific intallation called 'Last Words' was born and continues to inspire new work."
ARTS ALLIANCE BEGINS 2010-2011 SEASON
OF THE HONDA OF SOUTH CAROLINA
CONCERTS IN THE PARK SERIES
WITH PERFORMANCE BY THE FLOWTOWN BAND
The Arts Alliance will begin its 2010-2011 Season of the Honda of South Carolina Concerts In The Park Series with performance by The Flowtown Band from 3:00 until 4:30 pm on Sunday, August 1 in the Amphitheatre of Timrod Park. Presented in collaboration with the City of Florence Parks and Beautification and the Florence Museum, the Honda of South Carolina Concerts In The Park Series is an Arts Alliance initiative designed to showcase the performing excellence of local and area musicians while also celebrating community and providing a great outing for families of the Florence area.
Entering its 8th year of operation, the Honda of South Carolina Concerts In The Park Series schedules quality entertainment on the first Sunday of each month and provides programming from across the musical spectrum for the community at no admission charge. Arts Alliance Executive Director Frank H. Crow, Jr. indicated, "The Arts Alliance would not be able to provide many of its initiatives were it not for the generosity of good corporate citizens like Honda of South Carolina. They and the large number of other business and individual donors are the life blood of The Arts Alliance and its programming." Crow also added, "An investment in the arts means support for the arts industry, a industry built on innovation and creativity, economic development, and the revitalization of America's communities and downtowns. When people invest in the arts, people generate tax revenues, jobs, and a creativity-based 21st Century competitive economy."
The Flowtown Band performs classic rock adn R&B. The band steams straight ahead just like the trains that made its namesake famous. Begun as an acoustic duo featuring founding musicians Allen Johnson and Mark Humphries, the band has added members to create a fuller sound. Johnson sings lead and plays electric guitar, fiddle, and mandolin. Humphries also sings lead and plays acoustic guitar, keyboards, and trumpet. The first member added by Johnson and Humphries was Bobby Roberts, Sr., who brings soulful vocals to the equation and also plays trombone, trumpet, and keys. Eddie Glass was then added to keep the locomotive moving along with his tasteful drumming. The Flowtown Band was completed by the addition Kevin Singleton, who stokes the engine with his driving bass.
Copies of the 2010-2011 Schedule for the Honda of South Carolina Concerts In The Park Series will be available at the August 1 Concert, and The Arts Alliance hopes that members of the community--including the young as well as the young at heart alike--will make the Honda of South Carolina Concerts In The Park Series a regular entertainment event on their schedules of activities. Bring a chair or a blanket to spread across the ground. Sit back or lie back and enjoy the best talent the community has to offer. And don't forget the children and even the family pets. To stave off the munchies or the thirst, those attending can bring their own personal hamper, or they can partake of an array of goodies offered for sale by the Timrod Neighborhood Association. The Arts Alliance hopes that all in attendance will enjoy a wonderful afternoon with their fellow citizens from across the greater Florence community.
Additional information is available by calling 843-665-2787 or by emailing fraa@florencescarts.org.
ARTISTS RECEIVE PREMIER AND DISTINGUISHED
MERIT AWARDS FOR CAROLINAFEST 2010
On Tuesday, February 2, The Arts Alliance opened CarolinaFest 2010, a Juried Art Competition showcasing the quality and diversity of visual arts and fine crafts being produced by artists in North and South Carolina. From a field of 97 two-dimensional and three-dimensional works, Juror Kevin Grogan, Director of The Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia, selected a show of 40 works that were the featured exhibit in The Arts Alliance Gallery at 412 South Dargan Street. The work selected remained on display through Thursday, February 25.
During the Opening Reception for CarolinaFest 2010, Juror Kevin Grogan presented Premier Merit Awards of $500 each to N. B. Baroody for "Majesty," to Ernie English for "Buffalo Rock," and to Kim Ramey for "An Affair To Remember." In addition, he presented Distinguished Merit Awards of $250 each to Susan Lenz for "In Box LIX," to Kathleen Pompe for "Santa Fe Church," and to Jim Stratton for "Sam's Knoll."
Juror Grogan commended all artists who submitted work to be considered for CarolinaFest 2010. He noted, "There is no one braver than an artist. Any artist. Every artist. I admire them hugely and have for a long time. No one else in life submits themselves to public scrutiny in quite the same way, or invites ciritical reaction to very personal forms of expression." He indicated that the submissions for CarolinaFest 2010 were "a diverse, interesting, multi-dimensional, multi-media body of work," and he further commented that it was "gratifying and enjoyable to have the opportunity to review it." With respect to works selected for CarolinaFest 2010, Grogan observed, "In short, this is good stuff. Interesting work, often deftly handled in a technical sense, supported by interesting points of view. Everyone who found a place in the show earned it, and they are to be complimented on that achievement."
CarolinaFest is an annual juried competition. Submissions are accepted in all mediums. Like all exhbitions in The Arts Alliance Gallery, CarolinaFest 2010 was open to the public without admission charge. The Arts Alliance Gallery is open Monday through Friday from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Artists, whether amateur or professional, are invited to submit their information for inclusion on the database of visual arts artists in North and South Carolina by calling 843-665-2787 or my emailing fraa@florencescarts.org.
