Metro Spirit - 09.07.17

V28|NO36
“Thirty-something years ago, we didn’t have computers
to do artwork,” she said. “We used to do it all by hand, and
I missed it. So that’s why I got into jewelry. I just enjoy doing
things by hand.”
Pearce sells jewelry under the name UnderWraps
Jewelry. Visit underwrapsjewelry.com or facebook.com/
underwrapsjewelry.
Some longstanding favorites from the CSRA will be at the
festival, including the Grunge Goddess (Juliet King), who
does live demonstrations on the pottery wheel throughout
the festival. Local artist Sergio Ruano’s Spoke-n-For jewelry
is created from bicycle spokes, and he custom creates it for
people on site. Jennifer Ellison, creator of by Jen Ell clothing
line, has a new line of clothing this year. And Kendra Runnels,
owner of Kendra’s Studios Inc. and an Arts in the Heart
award winner from 2016, will be back with her paintings. Nora
Cooks is rejoining the festival after some years away, with
her handmade dolls. And Chris Goodman, a highly skilled
woodworker specializing in musical instruments, will be there.
The festival draws artists from beyond the CSRA, as well.
Hallie Bertling of Greenville, South Carolina, pours her talents
into illustrative paintings depicting the feet of fairy tale
characters — she calls her collection Faerie Tale Feet.
“It’s all inspired by favorite books, plays and fairy tales,” she
said. “And I take the original telling — whether it’s hundreds
of years old or a more recent book — and I hide details from
the original story in the background pattern, and then I paint
the characters’ feet and their shoes to kind of give you an idea
of the character, based on their posture or their action to let
people step into the story for themselves.”
Bertling, who studied at the Savannah College of Art and
Design, has been to Augusta before, but it will be her first
time experiencing the Arts in the Heart festival. She draws her
inspiration from traveling and from reading plenty of books
(she read 13 just last month). Visit facebook.com/halthegal or
find her shop on Etsy by searching Halthegal.
Artists and married couple Amy and Mark Thompson will be
coming down from Englewood, Ohio. The two work together
to create unique, cut stained-glass pieces that are set in wood
and meant to be hung up as wall art — not in front of a window.
Amy designs, cuts and lays all of the stained glass, and Mark
does the woodworking aspect of it.
Amy said if someone had told her six or seven years ago
she’d be doing the art for a living, she would have thought
they were crazy.
“I trained as an executive chef; I have no formal training in
7SEPTEMBER2017
the arts, although I’ve dabbled in just about every medium
since childhood, so I’ve always been very creative, but I never
thought that I could do this for a living,” Amy Thompson said.
“And I lost my job, and my husband said, ‘While you’ve got
some free time, why don’t you try stained glass?’ I hadn’t tried
stained glass, and I knew nothing about it. And I thought ‘You
know what, I’ll do that.’ So I went out and I just bought some
supplies — never read a book, never saw a video, and I get
home and I just started learning. And I just honestly just doing
it, so everything I’ve learned up to this point has truly been
self taught. A lot of trial and error in there, the first things we
made were hideous. … My strength as a sketch artist really
helps me in what I do. And Mark had worked in wood already,
he had made furniture and other things through the years, so
he had a depth of knowledge in woodworking.”
Amy’s pieces are heavily inspired by nature. Though the
Thompsons have been to Georgia before, this will be their first
time visiting Augusta. They’ll be offering new pieces, original
wine racks, a decorative wall shelf and larger-scale pieces that
they don’t carry a lot of. See their work at glassandwoodworks.
com.
Robin Rodgers, who lives in Tallahassee, Florida, will bring
his nature-themed pottery to Arts in the Heart for the first
time. Growing up near a river in Florida, he would find pieces
of American Indian pottery there, which influenced him to
become interested in the art form and archaeology. He’s been
doing pottery himself since he took a pottery class in 1981,
and has a Master’s degree in ceramics and now teaches.
“My work is wheel-thrown, which means it’s turned on a
potter’s wheel from a lump of clay. I decorate the pottery by
carving into it or etching patterns into it, and sometimes I
sculpt freehand various kinds of little animals, like frogs, birds
and turtles,” Rodgers said. “It’s kind of nature-related art. And
it’s more decorative pottery than cups and bowls and mugs
and things like that.”
He said his work is “raku-fired,” which is “an ancient
Japanese technique of firing that involves pulling the pottery
out of the kiln while the glass (glaze) is still hot, and that
makes the crackled patterns form in the glass.” Find him on
Facebook by searching Robin Rodgers Pottery.
MUSIC
The ExploreGeorgia.org Songwriter Series is taking place
in six cities across the state from August to November. Its
stop in Augusta is part of Arts in the Heart, on the Community
Stage starting at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17 (admission is
included with Arts in the Heart badge). Performers include
Keith Jenkins and Greg Hester, Lola Gulley and Otis Redding
III.
Keith Jenkins is an Augusta native who joined James
Brown’s band, The Soul Generals, as a guitarist when he
was barely 18 years old. He spent 12 years touring with the
Godfather of Soul until Brown passed away in 2006. Jenkins,
who serves as music director at the James Brown Academy
of Musik Pupils in Augusta, collaborated with another soulful
Georgia singer, Greg Hester, to release the tribute album “Soul
Brother, Where Art Thou?” in 2015. Hester has released solo
albums that reflect his love of soul, funk and country-rock and
showcases his powerful voice in Street Choir, a tribute to the
great Northern Irish musician Van Morrison.
Every week at Northside Tavern, the legendary Atlanta
blues club, Lola Gulley leads the Monday Night Jam. A
dynamic singer, Gulley has been compared to Candi Staton
and Mavis Staples and earned “Best Vocal Performance —
Female” honors by the Blues Critics’ poll in 2014. Two of her
albums, “Give Her What She Wants” and “Cleanin’ House,”
were produced by soul legend William Bell and released on his
Wilbe Records label.
It’s a heavy burden to carry the name of one of the world’s
most beloved artists, but Otis Redding III has carved his own
path in music over the past three decades. He had several
charting hits in the ’80s with R&B, soul and disco group The
Reddings, which included his brother, Dexter, and singer Mark
Lockett. Since then, Otis III, a singer, songwriter, guitarist and
producer, has recorded and toured extensively in America
and Europe and continues to write and release bluesy, soulful
music while honoring and paying tribute to his father, Otis
Redding, by always performing some of his songs in his sets.
Other artists to appear on the Community Stage include
Augusta hip-hop/pop artist and DJ Moses; Augusta-based
female-fronted alternative rock group BullMoose; Augustabased
heavy rock band A Future Now Past; North Augustabased
alternative/indie guitar pop group Hound of Goshen;
North Augusta-based power pop duo Brighter Light; Augustabased
Vicky Grady Band; and Augusta-based hip-hop artist
Selah Jetlound Guru.
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