I remain thoroughly committed to the hermit lifestyle. I know that sometimes people get the idea that I'm social and that I have a lot of friends but I assure you that's all Instagram sleight-of-hand. Many of the cool and wonderful people I know, I have never really met in person. Or at least, not yet. But for all it's evils, I do have to admit that I adore the way Instagram has allowed me to become friends with the most amazing people from the comfort of my own home. I guess this is a story about that and about the adventure it provided.
One of my Insta-friends scheduled their very first ever solo art exhibit in Charleston in January. I have followed along as they've made a lot of work over the last couple of years and I adore their sense of humor and their less serious approach to fine art. If you can make great art and not take yourself very seriously, we can probably hang out. My friend Creighton fits the description and so we've traded some likes and funny comments while supporting each other for a while now on Instagram. The first solo show is a big deal and I decided a 3 hour drive was definitely worth it to support a friend.
Violet admires Creighton too and she really wanted to go to the show. Blue had plans at home and G became the designated dogsitter as we planned a quick trip to Charleston. I had a morning appointment on a Friday and then I may or may not have sprung Violet from school early for our personal field trip. We ate lunch in the car and arrived on the waterfront just before sunset.
If you've never visited Charleston, it should be your next trip.
All winter I've asked Violet if she had a coat. She always says yes but what she really means is that she brought her flannel shirt. Not a jacket. Not a coat. That smile hides her instant regret. It was decently cold, especially on the waterfront.
Always looking for beauty. Even when it's on the butt of a minivan parked in front of me.
We arrived classically on time to Creighton's show. It was titled "Low Country For Old Men" and it was held at Hed Hi studios on King St. This was the entrance to the exhibit. I hesitate to call this an exhibit because I've never had an exhibit this fun. This was more like a party vibe. It was great.
The artwork was better. Creighton makes color paper cut outs when he travels and then when he returns home, he remakes those compositions larger and out of wood. He cuts out each shape and attaches it to a larger board and paints everything. The compositions are wild, free and fun and so are the colors. The layers create a shallow actual space for the compositions and most feature some sort of creative use of doors with hidden imagery.
Maybe the first thing that drew me to Creighton's work was his use of skulls (duh) but I also fell in love with his use of humor with dark narratives. In the work above there's a truck nose dived into the water. "Born To Loose" is written on the tailgate. That tailgate opens to reveal a body inside. Dark and hilarious. Perfect.
There are also snakes and butts. What's not to love here?
So, Creighton is extremely cool. He's also sorta famous. He's a drummer in a band you've probably heard of and the travel he does is also called touring. When Band of Horses released their latest album just after the world didn't die from the plague, they embarked on a world tour that provided the hotel room paper cut out compositions for this exhibit.
I knew that this would be a popular exhibit and that everyone and their mother would want to go and talk to Creighton. I wanted to support him and I really wanted to see the exhibit but I had no expectations that I would even get to talk to him.
Violet and I walked into the crowded gallery and we immediately smiled at the work. We were only on our second work of art when Creighton yelled my name and hugged me. I was floored that he even recognized me but that's what a great guy he is. A moment later the rest of the band was toasting Creighton and everyone cheered at his latest visual art success.
For years now, Creighton has made funny designs for tshirts and for kicks. He assembled some favorites into stickers and had packs for sale at the exhibit.
As an OG Space Ghost Coast To Coast fan, I wanted one of these Brak shirts as soon as I saw it. The shirts usually are limited runs and I had missed them in the past. I was thrilled to see them for sale and I snagged one.
Of course Violet and I both wanted to buy an actual work of art off the walls, but these were not in our budget. There were some very cool skate deck clocks and shelves that were in our budget range, but they were already sold out. We were glad for him. In fact, a lot of the work sold that night. A very successful show.
At this point Violet and I were about 15 minutes into the exhibit. This is normally where we would slide right on out and disappear into the night in search of quieter, less crowded spaces to be. Tonight, though, our friends Jana and Dan were also planning to come to the exhibit and we were hoping to see them and maybe even hang out afterwards. When we couldn't handle being in the crowd anymore, we took a break and walked outside. We found Jana and Dan and also talked with a few other people around the entrance. When we felt more relaxed, we ventured back inside.
Soon we had plans to eat dinner with Jana and Dan on Folly Island and we ducked out of the crowd and drove to the coast. It was so nice to sit and talk with them and to catch up on things. They are so cool. We love them. Oh, and I fell victim to Dan's "I'm going to find the bathroom" trick where he secretly pays for your dinner. Well played Daniel. I'll pay more attention next time. They invited us to walk on the beach and it was very tempting but it was also getting late and we had been up and moving all day so we opted to drive to our hotel instead.
My favorite trips to Charleston include a downtown run to the water or a run across the bridge. Yes, I choose my hotels accordingly, don't judge me. What a beautiful morning and a beautiful run.
After my run, Violet had chosen a breakfast spot and we drove there. I think it was called Big Bad Breakfast. There was a wait and we needed coffee so we walked a few blocks to Blum and drank our coffee while we waited on a table.
The nice lady at the coffee shop told us there was a farmer's market in Marion Square. We had planned to walk around downtown so we thought a farmer's market would be cool. She lied. No market. I assume she was just mistaken and with a beautiful Charleston sky like this, who even cares?
We did a little unsupervised shopping and found a few sales. We kind of wanted to get home around dinner time so we didn't spend too much time downtown. We discovered Cafe Cito a while back and we decided this would be our lunch and second coffee spot before another adventure.
The beach is one of our favorite places and even though it was cold, we knew we could stand it for an hour or so.
It's convenient to have art-transporting blankets in your car all the time.
When the coffee and empanadas were gone, it was time to go home.
Except...we didn't remember to get any photos with Jana and Dan the night before. It was only because of Jana's thoughtfulness that I had that photo with Creighton. And, Jana and Dan are just so nice and awesome, so we decided to go on another adventure in search of vegan cookies to deliver on our way home.
They were good sports about the sudden announcement that we were showing up on their doorstep with a delivery. We got our happy photo and now we could go home.
Except...
Violet has an addiction to Crumbl cookies. We were all full of Cuban food when we passed through Summerville so I was able to avoid Crumbl without protest. But as we neared Columbia, Violet's radar went off and she started tracking down the "nearest" Crumbl location. Nearest is in quotation marks there because that was what I was told but to a 13 year old with a digital map, everything looks close. We ended up trekking 30 minutes across Columbia to grab our overpriced cookies and then actually head home.
But we did get to see the Columbia skyline illuminated by the setting sun so I couldn't be too mad.
We were late, but we did make it home in time for dinner after all. An excellent little adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment