THOM 7 | Fall / Winter 2016

Volume 4 | issue 2
FALL/WINTER 2016

Volume 4 | Issue 2
Fall/Winter 2016
Editor & Publisher
Michele Arwood
CREATIVE Director
Haile McCollum
Associate Editor
Callie Sewell
Production Manager
Margret Brinson
Development ManagerS
Jenny Dell
Mallory Jones
91
copy Editor
Jennifer Westfield
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Lindsey Strippoli
Photographers
Kelli Boyd
Paul Costello
Stephen Elliot
Abby Mims Faircloth
Gabe Hanway
Sangsouvanh Khounvichit
Alicia Osborne
Daniel Shippey
Lyn St. Clair
107
Writers
Alison Abbey
Scott Doyon
Sarah Gleim
Andrea Goto
Annie B. Jones
Susan Ray
Anne Royan
Todd Wilkinson
INTERNS
Catharine Fennell
Ronnie Stripling
thomasvillearts.org
600 E. Washington St.
Thomasville, GA
229.226.0588
Cover photo by: Sangsouvahn Khouncichit
5

contents
Fall/Winter 2016
VISIONARIES
5 The (Not-So) Bitter Southerner
Chuck Reece
The Bitter Southerner
21
MUSE
11 The Plains, The Parties
and The Pimento Cheese
Julia Reed
Author & Columnist
Placemaker
17 Gone But Not Forgetting
Christopher Coes
Smart Growth America & LOCUS
ARTIST
21 Woman of the West
Lyn St. Clair
Featured Painter
2016 Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival
29 THOM GUIDE
TASTEMAKERS
91 Fashioning a Love Story
Ann & Sid Mashburn
11
FOODIE
97 The Culinary Dance
Jonathan Jerusalemy
Executive Chef & Culinary Director
Sea Island Resort
THINKER
103 Upward and Onward
Katie Chastain
Scholars Academy, City of Thomasville
97
CREATORS
107 Boxwood Meets Driftwood
Bryce Vann Brock & Kelly Revels
The Vine
113 Featured Artists

Letter From
the Editor
“So, what’s your story?” It’s a guy this time.
He chuckles. He’s really nervous. And rightfully
so — a total stranger just plopped down across
the table from him, baiting him with her Southern
drawl.
She presses him. “No. Really!” What happens next
defies all probability for me. He actually starts to
form words.
There was a time when I dreaded dinner with this
particular friend because, well, you know, she just
shouldn’t do things like that. But, over time, I grew
curious. Envious, really. Their faces were always
intense with emotion, but she’d return to our table
to share captivating stories of crazy coincidences,
young lovers or tragedies of lives gone wrong. It was
always an interrupt to the expected and led to deep
and meaningful conversations between us.
Now that we are cities apart, I miss being a part
of the powerful connections she creates with total
strangers. And, sidebar, she is one of the most
fascinating people I know, mostly because of the
stories she carries with her.
One of my favorite story collectors, Ira Glass, says,
“Great stories happen to those who can tell them.” I
think that’s the reason we are so passionate about
the work we do through THOM. Every new story we
hear shapes us and adds a new layer of meaning
to our lives. As we continue to uncover the hidden,
creative life of Thomasville, we’re committed to
sharing stories to add meaning to the life of our
community.
way with life and words. Ann and Sid are practically
walking stories, as their fashion is woven into every
fiber of their life together.
Your thoughts about the impact you are having
on the children in your life will become far more
significant when you get to know Katie Chastain.
Christopher Coes? He’s the guy I want to spend
hours with, listening to his tales about great
communities.
As we move through 2016, we’re continuing to
celebrate Thomasville Center for the Arts’ 30th
anniversary. A highlight is the design of a new
strategic plan with a bold vision for the next decade.
To bring this vision to life, we’re crafting the story of
how we started, how we narrowly escaped disaster,
our triumph through reinvention and what we see
for the future of our city. Keep your eye out for it!
The partners who support THOM make our story
even richer. The people behind these businesses and
organizations are true partners – friends – working
with us to create a compelling, visual story of our
life in Thomasville. Powering our efforts together
is our presenting partner, Archbold Medical Center.
They are committed to strengthening the people
who live here and our story intersects with a shared
vision to connect people to one another.
So, what’s your story? We hope a part of our story is
part of yours. Come share your tale with us and be a
part of all that’s happening at the Center of it all in
Thomasville!
It’s been a bit of a “pinch me, I’m dreaming”
experience to get up close to the creatives in this
issue. Chuck Reece, our favorite bitter Southerner, is
a force to be reckoned with – determined to throw
dishonorable Southern traditions out the window by
sharing stories about the duality of the South. Julia
Reed, well, she has a simply fabulous, often amusing
3

Instagram Influencers
Nine Instagram feeds that keep us inspired and connected
@originalmakers
Original thinkers revealing Kentucky
one page and one event at a time.
@saintsofoldflorida
A photographic celebration of all
of our favorite panhandle spots.
We can hear the gulf calling.
@thomascohistory
Sometimes looking deeply into our
collective past inspires the future.
@thedaleyplate
We want to try making a new
recipe every day because she
keeps it real in the kitchen.
@botanicaetcetera
Stunning eye candy inspired by
botanical traditions and the gravity
of intense color.
@bigoakbrewing
Rumor has it that these guys
want to brew beer in Thomasville.
We’re in favor!
@thegoatfarm
This arts center is a collection of
exploratory and innovative works.
It’s way out there and we love it!
@sweetpeachblog
We can’t get enough of her editor’s
eye and southern inspiration.
@mrserikaward
A collection of great interiors
and color inspiration plus the
occasional cute kid photo.
4

The ( not so)
If you ask Chuck Reece what makes for a good story, chances are he will
answer you with a story. Chuck is a collector of stories. He is discovering
new voices and old tales and threading them together into a growing
compendium of culture to create an ever-expanding portrait of the
American South.
The Bitter Southerner, the online magazine Chuck helped found in 2013,
began as a project to promote the idea that stories can create a perception
of a place and they can also challenge and change that perception.
Chuck believes in the power of stories. He spends his time wading through
the tides of our modern culture, pondering answers to the questions: What
is the South now? What does it mean to be Southern today?
Written by
Anne Royan
All photo captions by
Chuck Reece
5

VISIONARIES
“The most difficult question we have
gotten, consistently, since we started is:
How do you define the South?” Chuck says.
“And, well, that’s not easy.”
Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama. Fernando DeCillis shot this photograph on the 50th
anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday’ when Alabama state patrolmen beat down the peaceful protestors
who were marching for civil and voting rights. To see that bridge, where one of the greatest evils in
the history of the South occurred, filled with people of all colors, was very inspiring to me.
6

VISIONARIES
“We are always looking
behind things and under
things,” Chuck says.
“The most difficult question we have gotten,
consistently, since we started is: How do you define
the South?” Chuck says. “And, well, that’s not easy.”
What defines a culture? Well, basically, it’s what
always defines a group of people: their stories.
Southern stories, like Southern culture, go beyond
a simple definition of geography and the boundary
of the Mason-Dixon line. The heartbeat of the story
must pulse as one with the collective heartbeat
of the South. As the editor of The Bitter Southerner,
Chuck is always seeking
to capture this elusive
thing, this pulse.
“People want to be
proud of where they
live and in a place like
the South, that requires
Photo by Whitney Ott
some acknowledgement
of some less-thansavory
parts of our past,” he explains. “We don’t
shy away from that, but we don’t wade into the
politics of things, either. We are just storytellers.
What makes a good story for us is if it’s told well
and is defined in a certain way by the negative space
between the stereotypes you see in the national
media about the South.”
It is not all just stories about grits and biscuits,
bluegrass, banjo and bourbon, low country and
backwater, hunting dogs and ghosts that linger,
oysters and hot summer nights, Sunday school and
segregation, front porches and lush gardens, fishing
stories and drinking stories. Not all race relations
and reconciliation, civility and hospitality, progress
and tradition. Although — sometimes it is, except,
turned inside out and from a new angle, a fresh
perspective. “We are always looking behind things
and under things,” Chuck says.
“There is no way that someone can read one story
published in The Bitter Southerner and get anywhere
close to a complete sense of what the South is
actually like, today, in 2016,” Chuck says. “But my
hope is that over time, a reader can read a collection
and get a more complete sense of what this place
is like… and really get a sense for how it doesn’t
always fit those stereotypes that most people have
about the American South.”
'This past July marked the anniversary of
three years’ worth of weekly features for The
Bitter Southerner. Which puts Chuck’s collection
somewhere in the neighborhood of 155 stories: an
impressive archive of memories, mythologies, voices,
textures, tones and traditions of what we invoke
when we talk about the South. Each story shines
the light on a different aspect of Southern life. It is a
living, breathing, growing archive.
“Our point of view from the very beginning was
that we are not going to feed you the stuff that you
are always fed about the South. We are going to
tell the stories about people who are doing cool or
interesting or innovative things in the South that
maybe the world doesn’t know about,” Chuck says.
The Bitter Southerner was originally created by four
founding partners and began as an idea for a
cocktail blog, for recounting stories about bars and
bartenders and Southern cocktail culture. Yet, it
quickly grew to embrace a much more expansive
portrayal of life in the South.
In the beginning, writers simply gave them stories
for free. Journalists kept approaching them with
stories about the South and a feeling like there was
no place to put them. “I used to joke that during our
first year, we had become the home of lost stories,”
says Chuck, with laughter.
“Every writer who has been at it for a while, has
tucked away in a notebook somewhere, a story that
7

VISIONARIES
Doug Seegers, Nashville, Tennessee. I dearly love the
work of Tamara Reynolds, who shot this photograph.
Tamara has this remarkable ability to make anyone
who is in front of her camera comfortable. I almost
feel like she can photograph people’s hearts and
souls. This photo is of Doug Seegers, a country singer
and songwriter who got a record deal after many
years of being homeless, and it shows Doug visiting
old friends at the homeless encampment where he
once had to live.
Sweetheart Skating Rink, Tampa, Florida, 1973. Bill
Yates, a Florida photographer, spent three months
photographing kids at the Sweetheart Skating Rink,
and the first time those photographs were published
was in The Bitter Southerner last year. It’s a remarkable
collection, and it’s touring museums. But this
photograph is my favorite. It shows the attitude that
Southern kids had in the years when all the cultural
changes brought on by the hippies in the 1960s were
finally filtering into the South.
“Cancer Alley” on the Mississippi River, Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. This photograph by David Hanson probably
shows the clash of nature and industry — which has been
part of the Southern condition for centuries now — right
on the banks of the Mississippi. His story focused on the
problems faced by people who live adjacent to all these
chemical plants and oil refineries, but who cannot afford to
move away.
City Market, Luling, Texas. This image is from a series
that writer and photographer Robert Jacob Lerma did for
us about the greatest barbecue places in Texas. Something
about this picture says a lot to me: about the gratitude
Southerners show at the table, about our region’s
reverence for its foodways and so much more.
8

VISIONARIES
André 3000 of Outkast, the back room at Wax ’n’ Facts record store, Atlanta, Georgia. Outkast was part of a wave of
young, African-American musicians and rappers who literally changed the world of music starting in the 1990s. He is a
much revered — and properly so — figure in Atlanta, and this picture shows him sitting happily surrounded by stacks of
records, and I love that Zach Wolfe, the photographer, caught him with an old country record by Merle Travis on top of
the stack behind him. This picture captures almost the entire sweep of Southern music over the last century.
9

VISIONARIES
they had always wanted to write in a certain way
and that no one else would publish,” he says. “And
those things all seemed to gravitate toward us in
the first year.”
The founders began with the platform of creating
a group of stories about the South and have been
trying to slowly build a business model under it
ever since.
“I am so well aware of, and so concerned about the
weight that the history of the South has on us and
of all of the reconciliation — not just between races,
but between all different cultures in the South —
that still remains to be done.” He pauses a long
moment to consider this and continues in his warm,
Southern drawl. “But I’m old enough now where I am
smart enough to know that nothing ever changes
that but time and the stories we tell each other.”
Today, The Bitter Southerner has a staff of two and
a half. They have recently added a fifth partner,
Eric NeSmith, a vice president of development at
Community Newspapers, Incorporated, who will
hold the title of publisher and help the brand to
navigate the next phase of business development.
Of the four original founding members, only Chuck
Reece is employed full time with the project.
At 55 and three years into The Bitter Southerner
project, Chuck says, “I feel like at age 52, I kind
of stumbled into, ‘Oh, this is what you were put
here to do.’” He is thoughtful, focused, passionate
and describes himself as “persistent as hell.” The
arc of his career has spanned from journalism to
politics to corporate communications and back to
journalism.
He began as a sports writer and photographer
for his hometown newspaper, the Times-Courier
in Ellijay, Georgia, when he was 15 years old. He
followed that path to the University of Georgia to
study journalism and served as the editor-in-chief
of the UGA newspaper, of which he is still on the
board today. He wrote about the media business
for AdWeek in Atlanta and then, in New York.
Impressive titles followed: political press secretary,
director of communications, freelance writer,
creative director and now, founder and editor.
Over time, he has come to believe that stories
told from a particular point of view can build a
community, a coming together of different voices, a
sharing of experiences. The success and continued
growth of The Bitter Southerner is proving him right.
Georgia State Sacred Harp Singing Convention,
Barnesville, Georgia. Johnathon Kelso shot this
picture for an audio-visual story we did about the
Sacred Harp musical tradition, which is intensely
primitive and powerful. So powerful, in fact, that if
you go to a convention like this in the South, you
will see people there literally from all over the world.
On the day this picture was shot, I met Germans,
Irishmen, Asians, all kinds of folks. A lot of Europeans
call Sacred Harp ‘a cappella heavy metal.’ I just love
how a Southern tradition like this one can attract
people from all over the world.
Chuck Reece
The Bitter Southerner
bittersoutherner.com
10

the plains,
the parties
Written by
Andrea Goto
Photographed by
Paul Costello
11

and the pimento
cheese
MUSE
12

MUSE
Julia Reed’s
Deviled Eggs
Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns,
and Other Southern Specialties (2008)
Yield: 24 deviled eggs
1 dozen eggs
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup Dijon mustard
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt & freshly ground white pepper
Finely snipped fresh chives for garnish
Place the eggs in a saucepan large enough to hold
them in a single layer and cover with tap water. Bring
to a boil, cover, turn off the heat and let sit for 15
minutes. Drain and run under cold water until the
eggs are completely cold. Peel eggs and cut in half
lengthwise. Remove the yolks and rub through a
fine-mesh strainer into a bowl. Add the mayonnaise,
mustard and butter; mix until smooth. Stir in the
lemon juice, cayenne, salt and white pepper to taste.
Place in a pastry bag or Ziploc bag with a cut-off
corner. Neatly pipe the mixture into the egg whites by
pressing on the bag. Sprinkle the eggs with the chives.
I want Julia Reed to talk about the
spirit of the South, but all she wants
to talk about is food.
I get it. Hot off a book tour of her
most recent collection of recipes and
stories, Julia Reed’s South, the former
New York Times food writer clearly
has cuisine on the brain. When
I press my editorial agenda, she
expertly presses back with her vastly
larger editorial experience.
“What we always have to explain
to the Yankees,” she begins, having
just learned I hail from the Pacific
Northwest, “is that the South in not
a monolithic place. Even in my home
state of Mississippi, if you go from
the Delta to the hills to the coast,
you’re in three different countries.
It’s like Bosnia. That’s the reason why
my book is called Julia Reed’s South,
because it’s my personal take on it.”
Food is Love
Outside of her Mississippi Deltan
accent and palpable authenticity,
Julia best reflects her regional
sensibilities as most Southerners
do, through story. The Greenville,
Mississippi, native recalls how she
was living in Manhattan when the
two planes crashed into the Twin
Towers. “I was in Midtown and I saw
the tower fall and I immediately
turned around and started walking
about as fast as I could back
uptown,” she explains. “I went to
my butcher because I was scared
he was going to close. My mother
taught me that every time something
bad happens, you’ve got to get a
tenderloin.”
13

MUSE
And sure enough, for two or three days in a row,
friends camped out in her living room trying to
make sense of complete senselessness. “In a time of
great mourning, you want to be with people you feel
safe with and who you can break bread with,” Julia
notes. “It’s pretty basic stuff. Feeding people is the
most intimate and generous thing you can do.”
The central role food plays in both times of tragedy
and celebration is nothing new and certainly not
particular to the South, yet when you string together
Julia’s anecdotes and recipes from her seven books
and numerous columns, it’s hard to imagine that
other regions do it better.
Perhaps it’s because the South has been doing it
longer. “Food was always such an integral part
of Southern culture in a way I don’t think it was
anywhere else until now,” she suggests. “It was
always a way to connect diverse cultures.”
Life on the Plains
The Delta is the richest alluvial flood plain in the
world, but it’s also an unforgiving region, once
populated by rattlesnakes and alligators and
devastated by floods. To put it simply, you had to
be a little crazy to come to a place where there was
little to do and miles between neighbors. “When
you’re in the middle of no place, you learn early
on to make your own fun,” Julia says. “The art of
entertaining yourself is a fine art in the Delta.”
Even floodwaters don’t get in the way of a party. She
remembers a story where men had to carry a piano
up to the second floor just so the music wouldn’t
have to stop. Julia sees the remnants of those
spirited beginnings as informing the generations
that followed. Her mother threw parties nearly every
night and played hostess to many a distinguished
guest, including William F. Buckley Jr. and Ronald
Reagan.
The people of the Delta were not precious about
their celebrations. “There’s a certain generosity of
14

MUSE
spirit,” notes Julia, “but a generous
host doesn’t have to mean that
they’re buying champagne or lump
crab meat for everyone at the table.”
In fact, there was — and is still — an
effortless blend of high and low
culture (to borrow from the title of
Julia’s Garden & Gun column, “The
High & The Low”).
Southerners like Julia pair
champagne with store-bought fried
chicken, serve marinated shrimp
on Saltines and are unapologetic
about cooking up a box of Uncle
Ben’s rice for New York editors. The
point isn’t to impress; for every time
Julia serves roast lamb at a table set
with sterling, she’s just as likely to
fill a boat with her friends, a bucket
of KFC and a cooler of beer, to head
out for an impromptu picnic on the
“beach”— the biggest sandbar in the
middle of the Mississippi River.
“It’s pretty
basic stuff.
Feeding people
is the most
intimate and
generous thing
you can do.”
Such playful pliability is
characteristic of Julia’s South.
“There was a spontaneity,” she
recalls. “Everybody had little planes
on their farms and you’d say, ‘If
we leave right now we can land in
Memphis in time to go to Justine’s,
this great restaurant on the banks
of the river.’”
Adventure Time
That sense of adventure kept Julia
from ever feeling hemmed in by
her hometown. “People from the
Delta were always travelers,” she
enthuses. “There’s always a sense
of the world being a wide-open
place.” Perhaps this is why Julia
never considered her small-town
15

MUSE
Southern roots as a disadvantage, whether she was
attending the prestigious Madeira boarding school for
girls in Virginia, joining the ranks at Vogue and Elle or
breaking into the New York Times Magazine’s editorial
empire — an opportunity she was given after an editor
sampled her food at a party in New York City.
“These people were chasing the freaking trays
around,” she laughs. “It was like they’d never seen a
deviled egg or a pimento cheese sandwich or a ham
biscuit.” The next day she accepted the position as a
food writer for the Times. Subsequently, Julia has spent
nearly two decades scribing sharp and witty tales
from her South, casting the region as both a strange
and magical place laced with spirited ruggedness.
The day she and I talk, she’s driving home to New
Orleans from a brief stay in Greenville where in one
day she attended both a funeral and an outdoor
wedding — in the midst of a storm. During that same
stay, an attempt to quickly return something to a
friend turned into an impromptu adventure. “He said,
‘We’re out on the raft. Come to the dock and I’ll pick
you up,’” Julia says. “The next thing I know I’m on a
three-hour boat ride that I didn’t mean to go on. And
we’re eating hamburgers made of deer meat that this
guy had shot and drinking ourselves drunk.”
“Just another day on the Delta,” she laughs.
And that’s when it hits my Northern sensibilities like
a cast-iron skillet: When Julia talks about the Delta
soil, sandbar picnics and pimento cheese sandwiches,
she’s actually describing something much bigger.
The Southern identity, as diverse as it may be, is
collectively defined by the land, the adventurous spirit
of the people who inhabit it, and yes, even the food.
Especially the food.
Julia Reed
Garden & Gun magazine
gardenandgun.com/tags/julia-reed
16

PLACEMAKER
There’s one thing that small, rural communities, slowly fading from heydays
long past, seem to understand equally. Brain drain. That discomforting certainty
that their best and brightest are destined to leave and not come back.
It’s an inevitability felt so strongly that according to Patrick Carr and Maria
Kefalas in their book, Hollowing Out the Middle, we actually help it along. We
actively encourage our youth with the greatest potential to seek their fortunes
elsewhere.
There is perhaps no better argument for why place matters. And as Christopher
Coes has come to realize, that puts livability — those community attributes
that add up to an envious quality of life — at the center of importance for
placemaking.
Christopher himself was viewed as a foreseeable case of brain drain. Brought
up in a family with more than a century’s worth of history in the area, through
Harper Elementary, MacIntyre Park Middle and Thomasville High. He was a
student of government and international relations, active with Providence
17

Written by
Scott Doyon
Photographed by
Stephen Elliott
18

PLACEMAKER
Missionary Baptist
Church — and not
just biding time.
An enthusiastic
Young Democrat,
active in sports,
missions and
student council,
he was someone
you’d reasonably
characterize as
being among that
coveted cohort of
people who were
“going places.”
Thus, when
presented with
opportunities
beyond the borders
of Thomasville, he
left.
In the usual telling, this is where the story ends.
Fortunes are followed, lives get built and potential
hometown contributions disappear. A return visit is
made, but by a person valued by others, somewhere
else.
It didn’t quite happen that way with Christopher.
His journey led him to St. John’s University in New
York City, just days before the 9/11 attacks. That
experience, coupled with the context in which it
occurred, became the foundation for his emerging
awareness of the world.
What he began to discover was that increasing
connections, both physical and virtual, are
reordering global commerce and challenging
many long-held notions, for good and bad. The
customer service agent working a phone bank in
India; produce from South America; the shirt you’re
wearing, made in a Bangladeshi factory; and sadly,
the dispersed nature of terrorism all demonstrate a
broad but interconnected system of production and
distribution, presenting tremendous implications for
diaspora back into smaller cities like Thomasville.
“We’re in a smaller world now,” Christopher says.
“And we need to be better prepared for that.”
When geographical barriers crumble and business
is conducted with the rapidity of bits and bytes,
the playing field gets leveled. In a world of greatly
expanded potential markets, you need not be a big
player to enter the game. When fast and reliable
shipping routes can get your products out in
short order, where your goods originate becomes
considerably less critical.
As this happens, the larger players can no longer
monopolize markets or the fresh talent that they
typically lure into major metropolitan areas with
job opportunities. Today’s graduates can work from
anywhere and thus live where they choose.
For communities looking to prosper, the challenge
comes in turning themselves into appealing choices.
More and more, cities are looking to keep or call
back their talent by building places with the ability
to compete into the next century, where strong local
economies emerge from a deeply interconnected
sense of community.
Coming to this realization is what ultimately
led Christopher to the directorship at LOCUS, a
network of future-focused real estate developers
and investors, chasing the promise of more lasting,
livable, lovable places.
LOCUS — the Latin for “place” — works to remove
the bureaucratic barriers preventing the compact,
walkable development that people increasingly seem
to want, which supports strong, local economies — a
Herculean task of sorts, and one where Coes finds
himself driving change in places all around the
country.
Places like Thomasville.
Through his work, which includes Congressional
lobbying, he creates bridges to Federal resources —
19

PLACEMAKER
he has lobbied for $28 billion thus far for bike
lanes and walkable neighborhoods throughout the
region.
That funding fuels the implementation of broader
national policies that Coes also works to create,
policies that help communities like Thomasville
foster the kind of mobility choices and accessibility
options that keep people safely on the move.
Or, as he puts it, “that take into account
grandmothers and children who have to cross the
street.”
Taken collectively, these types of efforts add up to
the kind of human-centric environments that allow
folks to do the things they need to do — or want to
do — in the easiest, most enjoyable and productive
ways. These things are increasingly in demand and
necessary for communities like Thomasville to
thrive and compete in the future.
Not only is such demand evidenced by Coes’
working network of over 300 mayors and city
council officials seeking assistance, it’s one
presently being answered by his other network:
250 developers looking for the next great place to
invest.
“I have the ability to pick up the phone and bring
millions of dollars to a community,” he says.
For Thomasville, where bountiful vision remains
subject to the constraints of limited resources,
friends in high places such as Coes represent a
valuable resource indeed.
Perhaps it is inevitable that our youth will continue
to leave, with the allure of new experiences too
strong to temper. But maybe our increasingly
connected and mobile world means their departure
will no longer equal the loss of ideas, contributions
and skills they’d otherwise have to offer.
Perhaps instead, they’ll remain tethered to their
roots, bound by their affection for the special
places from which they’ve emerged and, like Coes,
pursue agendas that ultimately trickle back down in
support of the communities they’ve physically left
behind.
Once they’ve made their mark on the bigger picture,
maybe that affection will lure them back home
for good, to once again walk familiar streets with
neighbors old and new, united in a mutual love for
what they share and what they’ve built.
For Christopher Coes, that’s not too much of a
stretch for a place like Thomasville.
“As southerners,” he reminds me, “we’re a loving
breed.”
CHRISTOPHER COES
Smart Growth America & LOCUS
smartgrowthamerica.org/locus
20

Written by
Todd Wilkinson
Photographed by
Alicia Osborne
& Lyn St. Clair
A near life-sized black bear, maybe 500 pounds, rises from her easel on its hinds.
Nearby, the vision of a red fox, peering through a wild bouquet of Carolina
Jasmine, appears to hold the light of Old World masters. Soon, the bruin will be
bound for a collector’s wall and the vixen headed to Thomasville, where painter
Lyn St. Clair is the featured painter at the 2016 Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival.
I ask Lyn where the inspiration for her animal paintings comes from.
“Get in,” she says. “Let’s go for a ride.”
As I climb into the cab of Lyn’s pickup, I take note of the special Montana license
plate on the bumper, with the letters “T-R-U-E” perched above “Women of the
West.” Lyn has on pointy cowboy boots, blue jeans and a flannel shirt. She has a
pile of saddle tack in the truck bed and her painting hands are firm and slightly
21

ARTIST
22

ARTIST
calloused from holding ropes and reins.
A native daughter of Tennessee, she is a
consummate horse and dog person — a naturalist
never far from her sketchpad, camera and
binoculars. Hundreds of intricate ink drawings of
riding horses and dog breeds fill her file drawers.
These drawings are the ones that first brought her
acclaim — way back, when it wasn’t clear yet that
Lyn St. Clair would, in a few decades, become one of
the quiet rising stars of contemporary wildlife art.
Before the truck reaches a distant timbered
ridgeline, she points to game trails where she’s
seen black bears and mountain lions feeding on
elk and deer carcasses, hills where she’s heard
wolves howl. Along the way, she calls my attention
to soaring golden eagles, red-tailed hawks and
harriers dive-bombing prey. I am a Montanan and
it quickly becomes clear that one of the reasons
Lyn’s work exudes such vitality is the years of direct
observation infused into her brushstrokes.
Born in 1963, to artist parents Betty and Dean St.
Clair, Lyn grew up on a farm outside of Nashville.
“I truly wanted to be an artist from the time I
could hold a crayon,” she says, standing beneath a
wonderfully contemporary horse painting completed
by her father, who was a successful commercial
illustrator.
“I live what I paint,” she says, noting that she doesn’t
buy photographs to use as reference or take pictures
of animals at game farms and zoos. “I want to be
authentic. I believe in painting what I know and if
I’m going to paint it, I better know it.” Her fans say
that conveying the spirit of her subjects, based upon
firsthand contact, is what gives her work integrity.
Debbie Gaskins of Thomasville owns several original
works by St. Clair. Her daughter has a grizzly bear
painting that she received as a wedding present,
hanging above her mantel. The work emerged after
Lyn staked out a venue and hunched at water level
in order to observe the Great Bear fording a river.
23

ARTIST
“The thing I love most about art is that you never get
‘there.’ No matter how hard you work, there is always
more to learn, a different direction to explore, another
edge to push your envelope toward and something new
to discover about what you are capable of."
“Lyn’s work is a combination of real life with just a
hint of impressionism,” Gaskins says, noting that it
serves as a counterpoint to hyper photorealism.
“She’s an inspiration — and it’s not just her painting.
She’s inspiring in terms of the battles she’s fought
and has come out the other side with an upbeat,
cherishing-of-life attitude,” Gaskins says.
A cancer survivor, Lyn has overcome tragedy and
adversity. The zest of her painting, which has
served as her lifeline, is an expression of pure
gratitude — and fearlessness. She credits a move
to the Greater Yellowstone region decades ago as a
pivotal step in the evolution of her work. She landed
near Yellowstone’s wildlife-rich Lamar and Hayden
valleys, little American Serengetis, where grizzly
bears and wolves intermix with elk, bison, moose
and deer in a dynamic interaction of predators and
prey.
Lyn wears her conservation ethic on her sleeve. She’s
donated works to raise money for a wide variety of
wildlife protection programs. Among the diehard
24

ARTIST
25

ARTIST
“It helps keep my sense of
wonder intact and, to me,
that is essential to art.”
cast of professional photographers and wildlife
watchers in Greater Yellowstone, she is embraced as
a devoted member of the tribe. Such comradeship
has its perks, for the group is a hub of intelligence,
gathering on the whereabouts of bears, lobos and
other animals throughout different seasons of the
year.
Most of the time, Lyn hikes or hoofs her way on
horseback to spots vehicles cannot go. “I constantly
see animal behavior that is new to me. There are
countless little discoveries and amazing things that I
have seen while spending time in the wild,” she says.
Lyn immerses herself in the landscape, traveling
rhythmically and softly, studying the way wild
things — including grass, trees and rocks — interact
with their environment. “It constantly reminds
me that the world is full of mystery, that there are
infinite things yet to be learned,” she explains. “It
helps keep my sense of wonder intact and, to me,
that is essential to art.”
They swoon at the big, expansive vistas of the
West because they’re thinking about spaces where
imagination and creativity can wander, just as she
does.
“The thing I love most about art is that you never
get ‘there.’ No matter how hard you work, there
is always more to learn, a different direction to
explore, another edge to push your envelope toward
and something new to discover about what you are
capable of. Each painting inspires the next one,” Lyn
says.
That may be — that it’s really about the journey
and not the destination. But one thing is certain:
Lyn’s work transports us. She takes us to the wildest
outbacks in the Lower 48, to the understories of
tall timberlands, across rivers and tarns, to haunts
where real wildlife dwells.
After our interview, I received a note from Lyn. It
read, “Was up on top of the ranch today. Noticed
a lot of recently flipped-over rocks, then saw a
cinnamon sow with two coy [cubs of the year] that I
hadn’t seen yet this year. They headed up over a hill
that has the old Indian fire circle on top. There’s a
painting in there.”
My reply: “Can’t wait.”
It isn’t just about watching wildlife, but also
humans. “These new works, which I plan to premiere
in Thomasville, are about the different types of
connections between wild things and people.”
She loves the Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival, she
says, because at a time when the art world is in
flux, the atmosphere in Thomasville represents a
centrifugal force of community. The show is a yearly
affirmation of the value of having nature in our lives
and celebrating its magic. She has an affinity for the
region and feels like she’s coming home to her roots
when she’s there.
Southerners, she says, have a way of relating to
nature that is an extension of regional identity.
Lyn St. Clair
Featured Painter
2016 Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival
followyourart.blogspot.com
26

EVENT
Save the Date!
21st Plantation Wildlife Artists Festival
November 10 – 20, 2016
Written by:
Callie Sewell
Photography by:
Abby Mims Faircloth & Alicia Osborne
It started as an idea, sparked at a dinner party
conversation between Margo Bindhardt and Bob
Crozer. The two, along with Louise Humphrey
and the Thomasville Center for the Arts board,
were inspired by the rich history of Thomasville’s
sporting plantations and had a vision of bringing
great wildlife artists to the Red Hills region. Their
idea is what we now call the Plantation Wildlife
Arts Festival, and it represents what Thomasville
does best, both then and now: jumping onboard,
collaborating with one another and creating a
cultural and economic success that we celebrate
today, 21 years later.
PWAF is a week-long celebration that brings over
sixty wildlife artists to the Thomasville community...
and so much more. This year, meet some of the men
and women woven in the pages of this issue. Learn
painting techniques from Lyn St. Clair at the Women
of Wildlife Painting Workshop, get inspired for Fall by
Julia Reed, Ann & Sid Mashburn and James Farmer
at Out of the Woods Cocktails & Conversations and
create a seasonal arrangement with expert floral
designers Bryce Vann Brock and Kelly Revels from
The Vine. Expect to see woodland creatures in the
trees of West Jackson Street, all designed by local
fiber artists participating in the Wildlife Yarn Bomb.
Back by demand, JJ Grey & Mofro will be jamming on
Pebble Hill’s grounds after Afternoon in the Field.
There is truly something for everyone and it all
comes together with a giving spirit. All Plantation
Wildlife Arts Festival proceeds benefit Thomasville
Center for the Arts, which is dedicated to enriching
the creative life of the Red Hills Region through
visual, performing, literary and applied arts.
We can’t wait to celebrate with you!
27

EVENT
events
not to miss!
November 10:
Art in the Open Public Art
Walk: Furry and Feathered
Wildlife Yarn Bomb, “Uncaged”
Installation and The Little Bird
Project Unveilings, Linda Hall
Exhibition Opening and Fiber
Art Demonstrations, all on West
Jackson Street. Powered by Hurst
Boiler.
November 11:
The Longleaf Affair Dinner with
Master French Chefs Jonathan
Jerusalmy of Sea Island & Nico
Romo of Charleston. A black tie evening in Pebble
Hill’s exclusive main dining room, capped off with
a Game of Chance. Presented by Wellington Shields
& Co.
November 13:
Afternoon in the Field & Concert with wildlife shows
and live demonstrations, followed by an outdoor
concert featuring JJ Grey & Mofro, all on the
grounds at Pebble Hill Plantation. Presented by
Thomas County Federal.
Red Hills Rover Rally, a backroad driving experience
through historic plantations and rally at Afternoon
in the Field. Presented by The Wright Group.
November 16:
Dedication of a bronze sculpture created by
Sandy Proctor in memory of PWAF founders
Margo Bindhardt and Bob Crozer in downtown
Thomasville.
November 17:
Women of Wildlife Painting Workshop with 2016
Featured Painter Lyn St. Clair and South African
artist Michelle Decker at Studio 209.
On the Hunt Floral Composition
Workshop with St. Simons Island’s
The Vine event designers Bryce
Vann Brock and Kelly Revels at
Studio 209.
Out of the Woods Cocktails &
Conversations with Julia Reed,
James Farmer and Ann and Sid
Mashburn at Ten Oaks, home of
Dr. and Mrs. Charles Hancock.
Presented by Arcus Capital
Partners.
November 18:
Book signings in downtown
Thomasville, with James Farmer
at Relish and Julia Reed at Firefly.
Opening Night Fine Art Show Party at Thomasville
Center for the Arts. Get a first glance at the show
with catering by Southern Jubilee and libations by J’s
Wine & Spirits. Presented by Commercial Bank.
November 19:
Shotgun Supper Club with a PWAF Twist! Nan Myers
and Carol Whitney are partnering with Southern
culinary genius Lee Epting for a fall dinner at a
secret location. Presented by Schermer Pecans.
Bird Dog Bash at Pebble Hill Plantation’s Sugar
Hill Barn. Live music with the Groove Merchants,
Southern fare by Southern Bleu Catering and
libations by Bird Dog Bottle Co. Presented by
Commercial Bank.
November 19 & 20:
Sporting & Wildlife Fine Art Show & Sale at Thomasville
Center for the Arts.
PLANTATION WILDLIFE ARTS FESTIVAL
November 10-20, 2016
For tickets and more info, head to pwaf.org
or call 229.226.0588
28

“There is nothing like looking,
if you want to find something.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

TASTEMAKERS
FASH~
IONING
a Love
Story
Written by
Alison Abbey
Photographed by
Sangsouvanh
Khounvichit
91

TASTEMAKERS
92

TASTEMAKERS
Ann and Sid Mashburn are the sartorial spouses you need in your
life.
Sitting across from Ann and Sid Mashburn, proprietors of the
uber-successful men’s and women’s stores of the same names, it’s
easy to find yourself wishing they were the best friends you had at
your dinner party—complete with the ability to tell a great story,
punctuated with the light-hearted corrections and shared sentencefinishing
that can only come from a long and loving union. Like the
story of their first meeting.
“We met on the beach in Long Island. On Long Beach,” Ann says.
“It’s not even Jones Beach. It’s certainly not the Hamptons,” Sid says.
“I said, 'They offered me the job —
can I take it?' She said, ‘I already
said yes,’ and I said, ‘When was
that?’ She said, ‘The day I said I
do.’ It was like a Hallmark card.”
“We’d both been in New York just a little over a year,” Ann continues.
“I got there in January of 1984,” Sid offers. “You got there in February
or March of ‘84. We met on June 2, 1985.”
The following week, Ann, then assistant to Vogue fashion editor
Polly Mellen, waited anxiously for Sid, a wannabe fashion designer
working for British Khaki, to call. She was so anxious, in fact,
that she begged the receptionist to answer the phone of a lowly
assistant.
“I said, 'The man I’m going to marry is going to call me this week,
you’ve got to answer my phone,'” she laughs.
He did (and she did) and the two began their courtship as their high
fashion careers kicked into high gear.
Ann worked her way through the ranks at Vogue and later, Glamour,
while Sid was hired as the first men’s designer at J.Crew (known
then as a “nameless catalog in New Jersey”) before going on to head
accessories design for Ralph Lauren. A lengthy stint at Lands’ End
followed for Mr. Mashburn, much to the chagrin of his wife.
93

TASTEMAKERS
“I asked her if she wanted to go out to Wisconsin [for the
interview] with me and she said, ‘I don’t have to see it to know I
don’t want to move there.’”
When that interview turned into a job offer, Sid again asked his
wife’s permission.
“I said, ‘They offered me the job—can I take it?’ She said, ‘I
already said yes,’ and I said, ‘When was that?’ She said, ‘The day
I said I do.’ It was like a Hallmark card.”
“You need to hear the resentment in my voice,” Ann says,
laughing.
After several years in Wisconsin, the couple and their five
daughters were ready to make a big move. And take a big leap.
No strangers to setting their own course, the Mashburns decided
it was time to start a long-envisioned business: a retail store that
would sell Sid’s designs.
“Ever since I met him, he’s wanted to make his own clothing, but
he’s also wanted a cool place to show it. He really is very retailcentric,”
says Ann. “Sid is the definition of an entrepreneur—he’s
no fear, he’s creative and he always has something he’s working
on in the future. I’m more cautious, but we’d been together for
20 years by this time and I knew I had to let him do this. We had
to try.”
True to his pioneering ways, Sid hit the ground running to find
the perfect location. That’s when Ann suggested Atlanta.
“She’s a Yankee,” says the Mississippi-born Sid. “She said, ‘How
about Atlanta?’ and I was like, praise God, a chance to go back to
the South!”
After a week in the city, he picked a surprising location—in the
burgeoning West Side Provisions District.
“I drove from Underground Atlanta to Lenox for a week,” he
says. “I was discouraged and decided to get a taco [at future
neighboring Taqueria del Sol] and the parking lot was full.”
“I looked at the space and I went into Star Provisions [next door]
which looked like Dean & DeLuca, and I thought, ‘okay, I can
make this look cool.’ It was a very design-oriented decision,” says
Ann. “It just felt right.”
94

TASTEMAKER
“We offer you a cold or a hot drink, we’re playing
music, you can play ping pong — none of that’s for
show, this is who we are.”
As for setting up shop (literally) in a neighborhood
that had yet to establish itself, Ann says it made the
adventure even more exciting: “There’s an element
of being a pioneer.”
It’s a mindset that Sid likens to that of his
Thomasville-based customers. “In Thomasville, it’s a
little bit of a self-sufficiency thing,” he explains. “We
can go anywhere in the world and accomplish what
we need to do, but we like being here. I think it’s a
little bit like us.”
In 2007, Sid Mashburn opened its doors and the
store's success has been constant ever since.
Three years later, opportunity came knocking when
West Side Provisions co-developer Michael Phillips
approached Ann to open her own eponymous
boutique.
“He said, ‘I need you to do a women’s store and he
really pushed me to do it,’” she says, adding that her
daughters were also a driving force. “My girls were so
sweet. They said we would love to work for a woman
and we like women’s clothes more. Sid was smart
enough to say there’s an opportunity here, let’s take
it. I just wanted to make sure that it didn’t detract
from the brand that we’d already built, but business
was fantastic straight out of the gate for my brand.”
“She did more dollars per square foot in her first
year than we were doing in year three or four in
men’s,” Sid says proudly. “It was incredible.”
Even more incredible is the growth of the Mashburn
fashion empire. With locations in Atlanta, Houston,
D.C. and Dallas (and more in the works), the
designing duo are careful to curate their fashion
footprint step by step.
“We’re trying to grow at a thoughtful pace,” explains
Ann.
“It’s a very sophisticated growth strategy: Wherever
there’s a professional sports team, we’ll probably go
there,” adds Sid. “And I’m only half kidding.”
95

The Mashburns, who pride themselves not only
on the clothing they sell, but also on the space in
which they sell it, put a point on finding just the
right locations. They recently walked away from an
opportunity in a new city because the space didn’t
fit their needs.
“Ann’s forte in putting design touches on the shop
makes it feel like our house, and really makes people
feel welcome,” says Sid. “We offer you a cold or a hot
drink, we’re playing music, you can play ping pong—
none of that’s for show, this is who we are.” We have
the open air tailor shop, which is meant to foster
this sense that we’re not just a clothing store, we
actually know how to build stuff. There’s a makers’
mentality, which kind of permeates the place.”
“Our stores are a history of who we are,” adds Ann.
“Sid is the proudest Mississippian you’d ever want to
meet, but we also want people to understand that
fashion is global. We take a lot of pride knowing we
are equally comfortable in Mississippi, Manhattan or
Milan.”
They believe that brand of understated luxury suits
their Thomasville-based clientele.
“The people are sophisticated, but accessible,” says
Sid. “They’ve seen it all, they’ve tasted it all, they’ve
done it all, but they also are very grounded and
rooted.”
Ann points to a common thread in the desire to
discover and create—both traits the Mashburns
bring to the design table in different ways. For
better or worse. “Working with a spouse is incredibly
difficult,” she says. “It helps that we are good at
different things: Sid is very detail-oriented whereas
I’m more 80/20. I like to do more that’s not perfect.
Sid sees things that I don’t see, and as a designer you
have to be like that.”
“But she can make something out of nothing,” he
says. “Which is me. I needed somebody to make me
something out of nothing!”
“I don’t think you’ve ever said that before,” says Ann,
“but it’s an excellent analogy.”
Sid Mashburn
sidmashburn.com
Ann Mashburn
annmashburn.com
96

Written by
Sarah Written Gleim by
Sarah Gleim
Photographer:
Photographed Kelli Boyd by
Kelli Boyd
97

FOODIE
“Cooking comes very easily if
you’re passionate about it,” Jonathan says,
“but travel makes you a better chef.”
98

FOODIE
“In France it’s about yelling; in the United States, it
doesn’t work that way,” Jonathan says. “I have had to
look at my leadership style and figure out what works
and that has been the most fascinating thing.”
It doesn’t take me long to realize that French Master
Chef Jonathan Jerusalmy isn’t like other French
chefs I’ve interviewed. He’s not reserved or aloof
or arrogant. Nor is his view on cuisine, that it’s the
French way or the highway.
Jonathan is energetic, funny and proud. Proud of
his French heritage, definitely proud of his culinary
prowess (as he should be) and proud of his hard
work and where it’s landed him. The 42-years-young
chef is now culinary director at Sea Island off the
coast of Georgia. From his humble origins in small
town France, Jonathan spent many valuable years
crisscrossing the United States, where he learned
much on the long road that led to coastal Georgia.
took him to St. Louis and San Francisco; then to
Hershey, Pennsylvania; Atlanta and Miami — eight
cities in 12 years.
“Cooking comes very easily if you’re passionate
about it,” Jonathan says, “but travel makes you a
better chef.”
And a better chef he became, learning different
techniques and styles from chefs around the
country and being named a French Master Chef
along the way. In 2011, at the age of 37, Jonathan
was honored by the prestigious Maîtres Cuisiniers de
France organization when he was distinguished as
one of 350 French Master Chefs in the world.
Jonathan remembers working at his grandfather’s
restaurant as a server when he was only 14.
“That lasted just two weeks because I wasn’t
being challenged creatively,” he says. “I was very
introverted and had a hard time expressing myself.”
So he turned his attention to the kitchen, instead,
and began to blossom. “I was able to express myself
and be creative with the food. That’s when I knew I
wanted to be a chef.”
The Lure of Travel
Jonathan earned his Bachelor of Arts in food service,
wine technology and hospitality management
from the Institute Technique des Métiers de
L’Alimentation in Tournai, Belgium, where he
interned under famed French Master Chefs Paul
Bocuse and Gerard Boyer.
But something else burned inside of him — travel.
And it was the lure of the United States that finally
Jonathan picked up cooking tips and techniques
while traveling the United States, but something
else he attributes to his travels is his newfound style
of leadership. “In France it’s about yelling; in the
United States, it doesn’t work that way,” Jonathan
says. “I have had to look at my leadership style and
figure out what works and that has been the most
fascinating thing.”
He has clearly figured out how to lead a kitchen.
Currently, as the culinary director at Sea Island, he’s
in charge of 900 people, and regularly represents the
resort at culinary events in Georgia and across the
country.
The French Dance
Jonathan has been asked to prepare the six-course
dinner at this year’s Longleaf Affair at the Plantation
Wildlife Arts Festival in Thomasville. This will
actually be his third year returning to the intimate
99

FOODIE
Longleaf Affair dinner.
This year, though, he’s
coming with a secret
weapon: his friend,
French Master Chef Nico
Romo, executive chef
at FISH restaurant in
Charleston.
Nico, who is just 37 and
the youngest French
Master Chef in the world,
also says that travel and
events like the Longleaf
Affair have helped make
him a better chef.
“Every time you do
an event like this, you
get to see what other
chefs do,” he says. “It’s
not just working with
chefs like Jonathan or
on new equipment; you
go out afterward and
eat at other restaurants
and learn from those
experiences. I always try
to take something back
with me when I visit
other cities.”
This isn’t Nico and
Jonathan’s first dance
together. Even though
Jonathan is on Sea
Island and Nico is in
Charleston, they share
similar philosophies —
they focus on Southern
cuisine that utilizes
fresh, local ingredients.
In 2013, along with
chefs Didier Lailheuge
100

FOODIE
101

FOODIE
and Olivier Gaupin, Nico and Jonathan prepared a
six-course dinner at Lowndes Grove Plantation in
Charleston for more than 100 French Master Chefs.
Talk about pressure. And, just this June, they hosted
a private dinner at Sea Island for Garden & Gun
magazine’s second annual Southern Grown Festival.
But don’t expect the Longleaf dinner to be a
Southern-fried affair. Jonathan says he asked Nico
to partner with him because he wants to make this
year’s dinner “very French.”
“Nico and I have very different styles. Not that one
is better, but we come together very well,” he says.
“Nico will bring fresh ideas to the menu.”
Fresh and French, indeed. A menu sneak peek shows
bites like foie gras, braised sweet breads in Périgord
truffle essence, Sunburst trout with roasted grapes
and bordelaise winter mushrooms and a chocolate
mousse that I am actively daydreaming about.
Collaborating on and creating a menu of this caliber
takes several weeks. Everyone involved, including
the host, agrees on the direction of the dinner, but
Jonathan takes the lead.
The good news for Jonathan and Nico is that they
come into this third dinner together with a proven
track record. “No matter where you are and what
you do, at the end of the day you want to cook
good food,” Nico says. “It’s not about you. It’s about
satisfying your guests. And you can always cook
food, no matter where you are, no matter what you
have, as long as you’re prepared and organized.”
Jonathan couldn’t agree more. “We want to make
this a very French dinner, but we aren’t going to go
too outside of the box,” he says. “That’s always the
challenge. You want to create a menu that is fresh,
but also one where every dish can be enjoyed by
every guest. This will be like a dance, and Nico and I
will take the first step.”
Jonathan Jerusalmy
Sea Island
seaisland.com
Nico Romo
FISH
fishrestaurantcharleston.com
102

THINKER
Onward
and
Upward
Written by
Annie B. Jones
Photographed by
Abby Mims Faircloth
Five-year-old Reece Chastain is bouncing around on
her tiptoes, looking for her shoes, when I open the
screen door.
“Did you hide them somewhere?” I hear her mom ask.
A mischievous grin gives Katie Chastain the answer
she’s looking for, and a few minutes later, Reece
and her little sister Perry are both in cowboy boots,
headed across the street for an afternoon with their
grandmother.
It’s just the introduction I would have needed,
had I not already known Katie, an educator and
entrepreneur here in Thomasville.
Katie and I have been friends and business partners
at The Bookshelf for going on four years, and every
time I enter her home, it always feels like the best
kind of creative chaos. It’s a house where little ones’
imaginations grow. That’s not surprising, since
Katie spends her days surrounded by the innovative
students at Thomasville’s Scholars Academy, an
accelerated college prep magnet program, attracting
students from across the community. There, Katie
teaches both Design Thinking and Odyssey of the
103

THINKER
Mind, classes dedicated
to helping students solve
real-world problems with
creativity. The classes are
a natural fit for Katie, who
owned The Bookshelf,
Thomasville’s local
bookstore, for seven years
before selling it in 2013.
“An independent bookstore
can be the mind of a town,”
says Katie, “and it’s been
a hard gap for me to fill. It
felt like my own personal
“Education
is huge and
impacts all
parts of our
town.”
playground. Where else
could I play with all of these
ideas I have?”
The answer, it turns out,
was right down the street
at Scholars. Katie’s years
running The Bookshelf made
her an expert in creative
problem solving, and her
passion for Thomasville
meant she already had the
perfect project for her new
students to tackle.
Enter MacIntyre Park, a
12-acre green space in the
heart of town, which already
boasts a creek, a children’s
playground and a disc golf
course. But Katie insists
there’s more undiscovered
potential there.
“It’s next to all of these
Thomasville institutions—
MacIntyre Park Middle
School, the Center for the
Arts, Scott Elementary—and
104

THINKER
walkways. They took their
ideas and presented a
Park Improvement Plan to
Thomasville’s city council.
Fast forward a few weeks, and
city planner Brian Herrmann
adapted the students’ plans
into a grant proposal for the
Citizens’ Institute on Rural
Design (CIRD), and earlier
this spring, Thomasville was
selected as one of six cities to
host a rural design workshop.
Thanks to the work of Brian,
that creates so much synergy. I just kind of dream
about the space a lot.”
Katie took those dreams and encouraged fifth
grade students from area schools to tackle the
project. The students met with the city planner, city
engineers, landscape architects and artists; they
led community surveys and brainstormed ways to
make the park better and more accessible for area
residents. They learned about native plants and
storm water management, and all the while, Katie
eased her way back into education, trying to balance
what she had learned as a small business owner
with her new role as a teacher.
“I think education is huge and impacts all parts
of our town,” says Katie. “So this was my way of
stepping in slowly.”
Katie and an inspired group
of fifth graders, Thomasville received a $10,000
grant to support the CIRD-sponsored workshop and
follow-up planning sessions.
The workshop, set for October, will bring together
local leaders, non-profits, community organizations
and citizens with a team of rural planning and
creative placemaking professionals. Together, they’ll
develop actionable solutions to make MacIntyre Park
a more vibrant public space. Basically, they’ll do for
MacIntyre Park what Scholars Academy has already
started to do.
For Katie, the grant and the work of her students
are reminders of the role education can play in a
city’s success, and she’s already brainstorming ways
Katie’s methods worked. Her students divided
their findings into seven components: park
entrances, amphitheater, art and sculpture,
pavilions and restrooms, creek, playground and
“Your good ideas feed my
good ideas, and they make
a better place for all of us.”
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THINKER
for this fall’s workshop to
make the biggest long-term
impact. She’s partnering with
Thomasville Entertainment
Foundation (TEF) and the
Center for the Arts to start
The Family Series, with free
admission for all children.
“I love how things line up in
this town,” says Katie. “Any
time we’ve had an idea,
there’s always been somebody
who’s been willing to say, ‘Yes,
let’s work on that,’ or, ‘Let me
help you with that.’
“That’s always been the
case. Sometimes it takes
persistence to find that
person, but I do think there
are networks of people in
Thomasville wanting to do
cool stuff. Every city has these
pipe dreams, but Thomasville
is uniquely resourced to get
them done.”
And although Scholars
Academy is where Katie has
allotted a big chunk of her
time and resources, she’s also been busy integrating
entrepreneurship and education in her work at
the Thomasville Center for the Arts. As a member
of the Center’s Youth Arts Education committee,
Katie is helping to bring new programming to Scott
Elementary School, where her daughter Reece
started first grade this fall. The school is the site of
a new arts-integrated education program, designed
to teach general curriculum using the visual arts,
music, theatre and dance.
Each teacher at Scott Elementary has undergone
ArtsNow training, helping them to develop
innovative practices that reach students and get
them actively involved in the
learning process.
“It’s just a cool model of
education, and it’s been neat
to see the city schools take
some leaps and be willing
to try something different,”
Katie says.
As an entrepreneur and as
an educator, Katie knows
making things happen in a
town or in a classroom is
all about prioritizing great
ideas. She and her husband
Scott spend a lot of time
with other entrepreneurs
and artists, talking
about ways to make this
community a better place to
live and work.
This past summer, Scott and
Katie spent two weeks with
their children in Montreal,
soaking up inspiration in
different neighborhoods
and innovation districts,
all in the hopes of bringing
some of those ideas back
to Thomasville. It’s Katie’s vision for her city to be
in the business of attracting new faces, constantly
growing and offering families a uniquely Southern,
small town experience.
“Great businesses, great parks, great schools,” she
says, “all of those systems feed off one another. Your
good ideas feed my good ideas, and they make a
better place for all of us.”
Katie Chastain
Scholars Academy
sa.tcitys.org
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CREATORS
BOXWOOD
meets DRIFTWOOD
Written by
Susan Ray
Photographed by
Kelli Boyd
When I envision Bryce Vann Brock at eight years old, answering the age-old
question of what she wants to be when she grows up, I see her answering
casually — but with forethought, and giving what must have been a surprising
answer, coming from a third grader.
"A landscape architect."
Bryce hasn’t lost that casual spirit about her. Now, she’s all blue jeans and white
and black tops. What she does with these simple closet staples seems to embody
her designs, from her wardrobe to her architectural landscapes — always with a
pop of surprise, a slice of something unexpected. Studded cuff bracelets mixed
with a statement, chunky necklace. Agave mixed with boxwoods.
“I decided I wanted to be a landscape architect when my parents hired one for
the house we were building,” says Bryce. “I loved it and started to notice things
like arrival sequences.”
“We feel like we’re leaving our mark all
over the island,” says Bryce.
Bryce and her business partner Kelly Revels are owners of the landscape,
flower market and event design company in Saint Simons Island, Georgia,
called The Vine. When I talk to them, I am quickly taken by their passion and
determination — but there’s something else. I’m always a bit of a sucker for
the power of serendipity, how sharp minds can twist happenstance to their
advantage. That’s there, too.
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CREATORS
Planting Seeds
Bryce, who grew up in Thomasville, first came to the island as a
graduate of the University of Georgia. She took a job with the Sea
Island Company as the director of landscape. She reflects on this
as if landing such a position with one of Georgia’s most beautiful
outdoor spaces, right out of college, was no big deal.
“While I was at Sea Island, I did a lot of residential projects and
worked on the Cloister and the spa,” she explains. “When the hotel
opened in 2006, Sea Island also put the container gardening and
flower shop under me.”
Like any strong creative, Bryce knew her limits. To continue doing
good work, she’d need some major help. One night at a party she
happened to have a conversation about it with Kelly, who had grown
weary of her longtime corporate job. As a child growing up in small
town South Georgia, Kelly’s creativity had been sparked by the 25
to 30 hours she spent in the dance studio and from watching her
family work in their garden.
It sounded like a dream to actually get paid to work with Bryce at
Sea Island.
“After a while, Bryce and I started to notice that the Sea Island
residents were bringing in designers from other markets to pull the
flowers, landscapes and events together in their homes,” says Kelly.
“We saw them struggle with having to outsource all these different
elements.”
That’s when Bryce and Kelly went around the South, searching
for a nursery or garden market to serve as a one-stop-shop. When
they couldn’t find one, they knew that they were on to a big idea
“People will see a project or a
wedding and say that they can tell
The Vine did it. Not because it’s
overly extravagant, but because
it’s simple and attainable. That’s
our identity, which came about
more naturally than intentionally.”
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CREATORS
110

CREATORS
and started to write the story of their business.
Originally, they took their plan to Sea Island to
put it all under one roof. But in a twist of fate,
the economy crashed, making Sea Island unable
to support the venture. Thus, The Vine in St.
Simons was born.
Listening to them tell the tale of how they
started out on their own, without any hesitation,
I can see how well their business and creative
sides connect. While The Vine began as a
landscape company and garden market, they
knew they wanted to add events. They didn’t
let the fact that neither had any experience in
events or floral arranging stop them.
“I’ll never forget our first wedding event, when
the mom kept asking us to see photos of our
work,” Kelly says. “Of course, we didn’t have any
so we kept referencing photos we liked from
all the big magazines.” Thanks to that simple
strategy, they snagged their first event client and
surpassed their original goal of planning one
wedding a month within six months.
Growing Roots
Bryce and Kelly’s instinct to enhance the natural
surroundings of their landscapes and events
is just one trait that adds to the charm of their
designs. They effortlessly mix the Southern:
boxwoods, ferns and hydrangeas, with the
tropical: palm trees, paradise plants and banana
trees, that their area provides. You might find
them on the shore, shelling or foraging for
driftwood, to provide just the right elements for
an arrangement.
“We feel like we’re leaving our mark all over the
island,” says Bryce. “People will see a project or
a wedding and say that they can tell The Vine
did it. Not because it’s overly extravagant, but
because it’s simple and attainable. That’s our
identity, which came about more naturally than
intentionally.”
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CREATORS
Bryce traces that design sense back to her
hometown. “I grew up around a lot of beauty,” she
says. “The Thomasville community has done such
a good job of embracing the arts and architecture.”
Kelly and Bryce always joke that oxygen must’ve
been developed in Thomasville because wherever
they go, they meet someone with ties to the
community.
Kelly adds, “As someone who did not grow up in
Thomasville, I’m in awe, walking into Thomasville
Center for the Arts. At a time when many schools
aren’t getting funding for creative arts, it’s
inspiring to see all of the kids painting and taking
ballet. If I hadn’t had that type of arts support in
my childhood, I would never have had the courage
to do what Bryce and I are doing now.”
What strikes me the most about Bryce and Kelly
is that their compatibility appears to be as rich as
their designs. Such ease is no doubt another part
of their charm. Not only do they work together, but
they also travel together on family vacations.
When I ask them about this, Kelly replies, “We
get asked that a lot and the answer is always so
simple to us. Respect. She and I truly believe that
individually, we are the best in our field. Not in a
sense that we are better than others, but more so
that I absolutely know that beyond Bryce’s extreme
talent in landscape design, she is a hard worker,
people respect her decision-making and employees
working for her do too. And without a doubt, she
would say the same about me.”
Bryce Vann Brock
AND Kelly Revels
The Vine
vinegardenmarket.com
112

FEATURED Artists
Kelli Boyd Capturing
moments and memories for
more than a decade, Kelli is a
skilled photographer preserving
a variety of wedding, food,
lifestyle and commercial
moments. Kelli’s work has
been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Knot and
Southern Living. Brands like Pottery Barn, West Elm,
Godiva, Wayfair, Draper James and World Market
partner with her to bring their visions to life. Kelli
is the photographer behind lifestyle blogger and
tastemaker Lavin Label. kelliboydphotography.com
Annie B. Jones After five
years as a corporate writer
and editor, Annie began living
her very own You’ve Got Mailinspired
dream, becoming
owner and managing partner
of The Bookshelf in 2013. Annie
loves chatting with fellow readers about what book
currently resides on their nightstands and gives
reading recommendations in a weekly newsletter
and on the store’s podcast, From the Front Porch. She
and her husband Jordan and their dog Junie B. call
downtown Thomasville home. anniebjones.com
Stephen Elliot Stephen
is a professional high-fiver with
a knack for shooting photos.
After moving from Texas, he
attended the University of
Barnes and Noble, studying
filmmaking and visual art
before launching his production company. He’s had
the good fortune of traveling to places like South
Africa, the Cayman Islands, Egypt and Yosemite to
capture memories of fellow adventurers. His love
for Chipotle is matched only by that of his La-Z-Boy
rocking chair. mudproductions.com
Sarah Gleim An Atlanta
native (yes, they do exist), Sarah
has spent almost half of her
life writing about what makes
the heartbeat of her hometown
tick. She’s a diehard foodie and
even went to culinary school
to further explore her love of food. When she’s not
writing about the latest culinary trends and hottest
restaurants, she’s probably chilling out in Decatur,
where she lives with her two hound dogs, Redford
and Daisy. sarahgleim.com
TO BECOME A FEATURED ARTIST
Please contact Thomasville Center for the Arts
(229) 226-0588 | thom@thomasvillearts.org
Anne Royan Anne
studied at Brown University,
attended the publishing
program at Columbia
University, worked in the
fashion department at
Harper’s Bazaar and then as a
PR Director for various fashion brands. She spent
months traveling solo through the Himalayas,
teaching English to monks in the Dalai Lama’s
temple and Tibetan refugee children. She is
completing a memoir and is working towards an
MFA in writing at Savannah College of Art & Design.
She concurs with writer Tom Robbins on Julia
Child’s advice: “Learn how to handle hot things.
Keep your knives sharp. Above all, have a good
time.” anne.royan@gmail.com
Todd Wilkinson Todd
has been writing about art
and nature for 30 years and
is a Western correspondent
for National Geographic.
Among his several books
is Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek,
which explores the life of Greater Yellowstone
Grizzly Bear 399 and features remarkable images
by American photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen.
Todd also wrote Last Stand: Ted Turner’s Quest to Save
a Troubled Planet, which includes a chapter about
Turner’s Avalon Plantation in Lamont, Florida.
toddwilkinsonwriter.com
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