BOOKS AND THEIR AUTHORS
If you like to read books—and book reviews—you should pick up Art & Craft, Thirty Years on the Literary Beat, a collection of reviews and writer interviews by Bill Thompson, former book review editor at Charleston’s Post and Courier. From 1980 to 2012, Thompson conversed with some of the most distinguished writers of our times.
BRINGING A MEASURE OF CALM TO LIFE’S TURBULENT WATERS
Art is not a thing; it is a way. For Becky O’Toole, it’s a way of giving back. The Fates smiled on the gifted acrylic painter after two crushing medical diagnoses separated by a mere two years—one was breast cancer, the other leukemia. That she is in remission from both owes much to her fortitude, her […]
CAPTURING THE MUSIC OF ABSTRACT ART
While landscapes and organic forms are the principal subjects of Madeline Dukes’ art, manifesting in abstracts, florals, landscapes and waterscapes, abstracts are closest to the heart of her vision. “I will always lean to abstraction,” says the Charleston-based painter. “It is extremely challenging and satisfying to respond with your senses to a subject and its environment while […]
ART RESTORATION
Katharine Flanders and her husband, Thomas, used to vacation in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, when their two sons were teens. Decades later, when the couple decided she would sell her B&B and he his dental practice, trading Upstate New York for the balmy South Carolina coastal town was a no-brainer. That’s the linchpin of the story […]
CONTEMPORARY DESIGN
Contemporary kitchen cabinets provide homeowners with an attractive, up-to-date aesthetic that lends style and sophistication to a new kitchen or remodel. Marked by simplified shapes and sleek lines, today’s fresh designs help create just the right atmosphere to complement modern décor. But selecting the most appropriate style can make all the difference. That’s where Classic […]
CAPTURING THE MOOD OF THE MOMENT
If the artist’s task is not so much to reflect the visible as to make visible, then impressionist painter Helli Luck achieves precisely that, revealing every nuance of what she sees and feels when immersed in a landscape, features that may be hidden from the casual eye. Born in London, the Pawleys Island resident works […]
WHEN BUILDINGS SPEAK, SULLY LISTENS
Susan sully sold her first book at age 8. Her neighboring sidewalk vendor, a lemonade stand, did better. “She made a lot more money than I did, and I should have paid attention!” Happily, she didn’t. Charleston’s resident design maven hasn’t done too shabbily in the large-format publishing world. With 18 books on architecture and interiors […]
THE LANGUAGE OF THEATRICAL DESIGN
IF ACTORS ARE ALL ABOUT ENTRANCES AND PLAYWRIGHTS ABOUT EXITS, designers in the theater are about complementary frameworks, physical and emotional. From elaborate to humble, with sets and props it’s everything with a purpose and everything in its place—the unsung narratives of the theater. After all, it’s not just the writer and actor who tell […]
STORIES, LIKE PLANES ON A RUNWAY
MARY ALICE MONROE penned her first story, Willy the Wishful Whale, when she was 8 years old. Not surprisingly, it was about an animal, and it was a foretaste of what was to come. A childhood passion for nature and its most vulnerable inhabitants has never waned. Today, the Isle of Palms resident awaits the […]
VISIONS OF LIGHT: ITALIAN STYLE
GIOVANNA DE LUCA has achieved something art house cinemas have struggled to do in recent years: complement loyal older patrons with young filmgoers. As founding director of the annual Nuovo Cinema Italiano Film Festival, Dr. De Luca, an associate professor of Italian at the College of Charleston, has poured heart, soul and showmanship into making […]
