Lodge and Legend: Volume 2 • Issue 1

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Kim Granner thE imaginative world of KIM GRANNER ART IN REAL LIFE: THE IMAGINATIVE WORLD OF ARTIST KIM GRANNER When you enter Saskatoon, you are greeted by a variety of teases for the senses. All of the varied textures, colors, smells and sounds mingle to create an unforgettable experience for each and every customer. If you look carefully, you can pick out the individual pieces that separate Saskatoon from any other restaurant around. In the main dining room, you may notice the owl, painted among the trees, to the left of the entrance and far back, where a large stone fireplace welcomes you in with its warm glow. There are two owls, actually, placed in this large mural that transports you, the customer, into the woods of the Pacific Northwest. “That’s my favorite part,” says Kim Granner of the two tiny owls. In this, her words hold weight—Granner is the artist that actually painted the large mural of redwoods and hidden creatures. “Edmund had seen something like this in a very old restaurant in Downtown Los Angeles where Walt Disney reportedly had gotten his idea for Disneyland,” Granner said. “One of Edmund’s favorite mantras to everyone who helped in the design of the new restaurant was, ‘Is this what Walt would do?’ Edmund wanted me to create our own interpretation, but then he wanted to take it a step further and make it look like a mural that had been painted many years earlier. So I painted it and then make it look old and distressed.” And the owls that Kim added? Those represent his daughters. If you’ve been around Greenville for any length of time, chances are you’ve seen Granner’s work in other spaces. She also did the sunset-looking forest scene in the event space, too. Granner has been working as a freelance artist in the Upstate area for decades, and her work has touched local magazines, graphics, and even the local theaters. KIM GRANNER In the beginning, Kim wanted to be an illustrator. She had seen the small graphics in newspapers (before the wide advent of computers) and liked the idea of being able to draw those small visuals that showed up in print. But when she took a job working in the art department at a local printer, she soon discovered the truth. 6
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT Before After “I thought some artist was behind each one creating it, and that’s what I really wanted to do,” Kim says. But then, she was told about this new thing called clip art. “I was mortified when I heard about that,” she adds. “So I thought, “Well, I guess that’s not going to be my destiny after all.” And with that, she veered into the graphic art world. Beginning in 1988, Granner decided to freelance because it gave her freedom and flexibility when her son was born. Not wanting to put him in daycare, she began to take on work that she could do from home in many cases, or on her son’s schedule. “I realize looking back, that I do not know how I did that,” Kim says, laughing. “It would have been infinitely easier had he been in daycare, but when you’re in it you don’t realize. You just become Wonder Woman and push through it.” But it was through her son—and eventually, her daughter—that Kim found a creative niche that she would become known for. She took her son to the children’s theater to get involved there. “I was trying to figure out where to plug him in to take advantage of this energy, but then he got involved in that and then eventually, I got involved in it,” she says. But when she volunteered her creative skills, thinking she could help with marketing posters or the like, they instead asked her to paint scenery. So, she did. Over time, Kim branched out and began working with other local theaters. In addition to the large-scale scenery and murals you might see on stage, she began to help with graphic design of marketing materials, costumes, props and more. In fact, it was in the South Carolina Children’s Theater where the Woos met Kim. Both of the Woo daughters have acted extensively at the SCCT and at the Greenville Theatre. Edmund says, “Ms. Kim’s vision as both a scenic artist and a director are incredible and so creative, and when we decided to do this new Saskatoon space, we knew we had to get her involved. Ms. Kim would know how what to do in order to achieve our goal of transporting our guests to not only a place far away but also to a time long, long ago.” Today, were you to go into Kim’s house, you’d probably see something like the following: costume parts on the kitchen table; an Olaf puppet from Frozen in the living room; and design work in the office. Now the resident scenic artist for Greenville Theater and working on various shows with the South Carolina Children’s Theater, she keeps her hands in many different things and a number of different projects. “I do a lot of different things, which is what I really like,” she says. “I like that I’m not only doing one thing all the time; I like being able to stick my toe in a lot of different stuff. It keeps things fresh.” 7
Page 2 and 3: Welcome to the Summer issue of Lodg
Page 4 and 5: LIFE’S TOO SHORT TO SPEND HOURS O
Page 6 and 7: When we left off in our last issue,
Page 10 and 11: Anne Littlepage and Stephen Payne A
Page 12 and 13: Before After For AJ Harrison, addin
Page 14 and 15: TASTE OF THE LODGE Summer Sear: GRI
Page 16 and 17: FROM COAST TO COAST Anthony and Ter
Page 18 and 19: THE SASKATOON LODGE MENU APPETIZERS
Page 20: 681 Halton Road Greenville, SC 2960

Lodge and Legend: Volume 2 • Issue 1

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