Homecoming

Part of the charm of the Lowcountry is her trees, and the protective arms of the live oak, dripping with spanish moss. On the natural beaches of the (1000 acre) State Park on Edisto Island, and at the delightfully preserved (4000+ acre) Botany Bay Plantation, to the north of the park, one gets a sense of the natural landscape. It is a jewel we are fortunate to have in South Carolina. Edisto Island is south of Charleston, off Highway 17, and is the last undeveloped barrier island in South Carolina. The drive itself, out Highway 174, is long and winding, over creeks and bridges, through long tree tunnels.

©charlotte hutson-wrenn

There is an osprey nest, and eagles, and fishermen and women with buckets by the road. There must be twenty country churches along her 24 miles (that are packed on Sundays!) and tucked in on either side of the road are funky little homesteads with blue painted houses and outside living rooms. There is the evidence of homegrown here, of a natural evolution, an acceptance of the labyrinthine nature of the human condition, symbolized by this road. It is one of those sacred places in the world. This little painting, which is a 9″ x 12″ oil on masonite, is about coming home, about returning to the land of plenty.

The Dancing Women

“In sacred space everything is done so that the environment creates a metaphor.”- Joseph Campbell

Charleston simply oozes story and history. So does nearby Edisto Island, the last undeveloped sea island in South Carolina. The Gullah elders called the island ‘Paradise’, and even now, she is known as the Sacred Eden Isle. The trees in the lowcountry, and the respect for the natural world, particularly these great live oaks, protected by law, and native to the Southern states, are a large part of what makes this part of the world so unique, and so evocative.

Good art takes me somewhere else. It either reflects for me my own story, or requires of me. It asks questions, it notices. The great live oaks stand as grandmother trees for me; this one grows in the Magnolia Cemetery. She feels like a dancing, strong old woman. She has survived hurricanes and drought, all the while twisting and curving in her growth toward heaven. Art inspires us and it exists all around us, like the sacred spaces these graceful dancing trees create.