Road Trip: Creative Therapy

We returned home from Charleston, South Carolina late Sunday afternoon, following a long weekend of gardens, art, music, and good food. (Arty Girlz challenge: Inspiration). I was reminded of these words, "It is never too late to be what you might have been." Before I became a special education teacher, I wanted to follow two other career paths: dance and art. On my trip this past weekend, I met so many artists and learned so much, and I realize that I can still be exactly what I wanted to be. I will certainly never dance professionally, and I may never sell a painting, but that's not what it means to be an artist. This past weekend was my fiftieth birthday present from my main muse: Mr. Al. We've visited Charleston before, and it's our favorite city in the South because it reminds us so much of New Orleans, where we lived the first four years we were married. I thought I would share some of the beauty of the city with you until you have a chance to go for a visit yourself.











We went to openings at Coleman Fine Art Gallery and talked to Marc Hanson, a Minnesota painter who met and painted with four other artists in New Orleans last spring. You can see the the results of that month at Coleman's website above. Marc described the process he used to paint a rainy afternoon on Bourbon Street and said that he took over 300 photographs in the composition of this piece. You can see more of his work on his blog here.


The next morning we went to Washington Park to watch the plein air painters at the 10th Annual Arts Weekend.







Later we stopped in at Eva Carter's gallery on East Bay Street. Eva, who owns the Charleston's only gallery for abstract art, was in the store and spent a great deal of time describing the process for making a monotype and telling us about her roots in the southwest and its influence on her art. Truthfully, I would have loved to have spent more time with Eva. You can check her gallery out here.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city peeking over the iron gates into walled gardens.





Here's where we stayed, the Two Meeting Street Inn:


And here's where we had breakfast every morning:



In the spirit of the inspiration from our weekend in historic Charleston, I made the journal page above in a color scheme I rarely use for the(Crazy Amigo Red and Blue Challenge

Charleston is a city eager to share her story, rooted in the rich history of the South. The cobblestone streets, church bells, and gnarled oaks trees provide a lowcountry tapestry of sight and sound to rival any art hanging in the city's finest museums. The clip-clop of horses in the alleyways, the wind across the canons on the battery, the patois of the basketweavers sitting on Meeting Street, the lonely sound of a midnight saxophone on South Market Street... these things call me back to the Charleston again and again.