Get up and get going - this is a busy weekend

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Phil Moody, a long-time professor at Winthrop University, has been the third artist in residence at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art this summer creating work for a show that opens Thursday, Aug. 6.
Although he is a photographer, Moody has long pushed the boundaries of the media, using dyes, text and doing extensive research about his long-time subject matter - the textile industry and the people who worked in it.
"As Bees Practise Geometry: Recent Experiments with Photography" consists of 10 large pieces for the exhibition at the center, which is the former community center for the Olympia Mill Village.
The works incorporate images of former mill workers, pages from a mill supervisor's log and sections of stories he gathered from textile workers. He has also created an experimental DVD for the installation.
A native of England, Moody has spent much of his career exploring the demise of the textile industry in the Carolinas first in documentary images which have evolved into more experimental work with text and blocks of color.
The show opens with a reception Thursday from 7 to 9. It's free for members of the center; $5 for others. Moody will give lectures about his work Sept. 3 and 15.
For information go to http://www.701cca.org


Drawing on the edge

"Recall Patterns,” also opening Thursday, Aug. 6 at City Art Gallery, consists of 60 new small drawings by Sara Schneckloth. An assistant art professor at the University of South Carolina Schneckloth often does huge drawings and for her last show here she made sorts of drawings using air hockey tables.
"Memories exist somewhere between heart and mind, where they evolve, spin, break down, multiply, explode, or quietly hum in the dark," the artist writes. " I draw as a way to understand this phenomenon within myself. "
Schneckloth holds a master of fine arts degree from the University of Wisconsin. She has lived and worked in Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco and Cape Town, South Africa.
The show will remain on display through Sept. 4.
A reception will take place Aug. 27.
The artist also recently started an excellent, attractive blog. It is at http://saraschneckloth.blogspot.com/



Small shows in alternative spaces

Two slightly less formal galleries, right next door to one another, open shows and hold receptions Thursday as well.
A reception for a show by Abstract Alexandra, Mike Krajewski (that's his wacky work at left) and Jarid Lyfe Brown are showing at the new music and art spot The White Mule. The artists will be there as will wine for a tasting. (The White Mule in the former Jamming Java coffee house, located underneath Main Street.)
That will happen from 6 to 9. Then a band starts playing.
Come upstairs, turn around and look to your right. You’ll see clothing and jewelry by Bohumila Owensby are at the Frame of Mind eyeglass and art gallery. Owensby runs the Columbia Museum of Art shop and she won the top prize in the Runaway Runway fashion show earlier this year for her beautiful trash bag wedding dress. That runs from 5:30 to 8.
If you have read this far and it's not yet noon on Thursday run down to Frame of Mind - someone will be making art outside the shop.
(It's now 2:27 and the artist, Bill Guess, above, is probably finished making his imitation Piet Mondrian. Three artists will be doing public art Friday, Aug. 7.
Both places are located on Main Street, just across the street from the Columbia Museum of Art.

Greenville gallery crawl

I’ve always wondered why Columbia art galleries don’t do more frequent crawls. Too much work, I’ve been told. It’s hard enough to do it twice a year, I’ve been told.
Maybe there just aren’t enough galleries.
If you want enough, head to Greenville Friday, Aug. 7. The Pendleton Arts District crawl which has a couple dozen galleries, studio/galleries and studios open for the First Friday event – yep almost every month.
Among the places that are taking part are the Light and Art Gallery, Village Studios and Gallery, Upstate Visual Arts, Gallery 1279 and many others showing just about every kind of art you might imagine although I can’t vouch for the quality of all of it. (A look through various images on line shows some good looking and not so good looking art.)
The crawl runs from 6 to 9. As part of its celebration of its a new home at 4 Smith St. Upstate Visual Arts is also throwing a party from 4 to 9 p.m. with food, art and games
Directions: take Interstate 26 and Interstate 385 until the highway ends in downtown Greenville. It dumps you right onto North Street. After about a half a mile you will come to Academy Street. Go left or south there. Academy curves around and crosses the Reedy River. After a dozen or so hard to count blocks you’ll hit Pendleton Street. Another five or oddly-shaped blocks and you’ll be in the arts district.
For details and more information try www.upstatevisualarts.org

Get your art tools

If all this has got you thinking about making art, a new art supply shop opens Saturday. S & S Art Supply, 1928-B Rosewood Drive, opens with a little party Saturday, Aug. 8 from 4 to 8. Like many art supply stores they’ll offer discounts for students and teachers.

The art of cartooning

“Southern Satire: The Illustrated World of Jak Smyrl” by the late Palmetto State cartoonist goes on display at the University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum Saturday, Aug. 8.
Smyrl, who died in 2007 at 83, was staff artist and illustrator for The State and the Columbia Record newspapers from 1949 to 19 86
A special reception and talk about the exhibition will be held Aug. 27 from 5:30 – 7 p.m.
“Southern Satire” has about 50 works and a series of whimsical maps highlighting some of South Carolina’s historical locations.

Crooked Creek art in Chapin

“August Arts,” a show by the Crooked Creek Art League, runs this Thursday through Saturday, Aug. 6 – 8 at Palmetto Fine Arts in Chapin.
The show is composed of works by 18 artists including Jennie Branham, Julie Brown, J. J. Casey, Jean Kirkley and Donna Reid.
The gallery is at 107 Virginia St. and open 10 to 6 for the show. Call (803)932-0265.

Opera at the Colonial Center – well, an opera singer anyway

And get this: opera singer Deborah Voigt will give the commencement address at USC. She’ll be at the 10:30 a.m. graduation Saturday, Aug. 8. It’s at the Colonial Center. The soprano noted for her mastery of music by Strauss and Wagner, made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1991.
She has performed at all the major opera house around the works and is well known for her performances of “Aridadne Auf Naxos” and “Tristan und Isolde,’ as well as being dismissed in 2004 by one opera company because she was too big to fit into the little black dress they wanted her to wear. The opera company got a lot of grief and Voigt got gastric bypass surgery. She’s said to be singing better than ever.