Posted by Charlotte Hutson-Wrenn on April 7, 2009
Solvitur Ambulando. It is solved by walking. – St. Augustine
Charleston is a walking city. As an artist, one of the first tasks we learn is to see, to really pay attention. I truly believe that any one can learn to draw. It only requires careful looking. Daniel Pink in his new book,
A Whole New Mind, talks about taking a drawing class so he could learn just that, a skill he estimates is critical for we Americans now. How much do we miss in our lives by not noticing? There is so much beauty to see, so many stories to hear, particularly in this city, about those who have walked before us in this place. In my own painting life, sometimes I will be working on a painting and I just need a break from it. So I take a walk. Often it is the walk that solves or resolves the next place for me to go in the work, or, as St. Augustine implies, in most anything. Things are solved by walking. Henry David Thoreau said a thing or two as I recall about ‘Walking’ in what is said to be a lyrical, meandering essay on the value of sauntering and on the preservation of what is wild in the world. That’ll work.
Posted in Charleston South Carolina | Tagged: artist, beauty, Charleston South Carolina, Daniel Pink, Henry David Thoreau, painting, walking | 2 Comments »
Posted by Charlotte Hutson-Wrenn on April 6, 2009
Welcome to my blog about Charleston, South Carolina. A place proud with history, beauty, 
and art. Sometimes we feel a call, to be, to go, to do. I felt that about Charleston many years ago upon the discovery of a large trunk of letters and photographs about the Carolina Lowcountry, written by my grandmothers, cousins and aunts. I also felt the call to be an artist, even when I was in my teens, when my favorite haunt was a tiny bookstore on an old street in Asheville, where I was living and attending an all girls boarding school. I can remember being deeply moved by poems, by art, even then. Our ancestors are a part of who we are today. The African American culture has understood that I believe more than my own, and have recognized the presence of the ancestors in the everyday, perhaps a practice brought from the traditions from Ghana and Angola. I have been called to this task, to tell some of the stories of this place, not only so I can remember, but so that we will continue to make and tell our own stories. Today I will begin with some that surround these weathered cobbled streets in the French Quarter of this glittering holy city.
Posted in Charleston South Carolina | Tagged: African American, ancestors, art, beauty, carolina lowcountry, Charleston, history, South Carolina | Leave a Comment »
Charleston is a walking city. As an artist, one of the first tasks we learn is to see, to really pay attention. I truly believe that any one can learn to draw. It only requires careful looking. Daniel Pink in his new book, A Whole New Mind, talks about taking a drawing class so he could learn just that, a skill he estimates is critical for we Americans now. How much do we miss in our lives by not noticing? There is so much beauty to see, so many stories to hear, particularly in this city, about those who have walked before us in this place. In my own painting life, sometimes I will be working on a painting and I just need a break from it. So I take a walk. Often it is the walk that solves or resolves the next place for me to go in the work, or, as St. Augustine implies, in most anything. Things are solved by walking. Henry David Thoreau said a thing or two as I recall about ‘Walking’ in what is said to be a lyrical, meandering essay on the value of sauntering and on the preservation of what is wild in the world. That’ll work.
