Vanessa Albury | A. Bills-Levi | Gayle Brooker | Lisa Chou | Margaret Clarke | T. Davidson | Steven Davis | John Duckworth | Meghan Henley | Krist Mills | Sue Murray | Dorothy Netherlands | Rachel O’Neal | Larissa Patel | Lynn Patterson | Matt Smithson | Jonathan Walsh

To create an exhibit drawn from works by Studio Art graduates may seem to be a daunting task; faced with so many choices, the result could become merely arbitrary or too disparate to cohere as an exhibition. But in fact, my experience was quite the contrary. All artists have at least one thing in common—they all have influences. And for all of these artists, one of their most influential experiences was the time they spent as Studio Art students at the College of Charleston.

In this exhibit, I see the influences as well as the individual accomplishments of artists who studied here at the College. Whether faintly or pronounced, the impressions of their Studio Art professors resonate in these works. The goal, however, of myself and Dr. Marian Mazzone was to choose a select group of Studio Art alumni whose works have continued to develop, becoming their own unique creations and contributions. By limiting the selection to Studio Art graduates of the past ten years, we were able to look at the work of artists who are still developing their sense of “self” in the art world, while also still having some identity with the College.

John Duckworth’s artwork is characterized by an intense love of movement, color theory and a fascination with the “captured moment.”

As a professional photographer and graphic designer, he incorporates “commercial” skills into his artwork, “The camera and the computer are simply modern tools of the trade,” says Duckworth. “I use them just as early painters used the camera obscura and camera lucida – as tools for initial sketches.”

He uses the camera and computer as sketchpads and then carefully deconstructs the image to include only the most basic forms before painting. The resulting work straddles Realism, Abstraction and Impressionism – and reflects an appreciation of the natural beauty of landscape, cityscapes and human interaction within these environments.

This diversity of interests and styles isn’t surprising, considering the long list of artists who acted as both mentors and teachers… Having worked under David Baze in San Diego for several years as a teenager, he then studied with Wayne Thiebaud at U.C. Davis, with ceramic artist Les Lawrence at Grossmont College and later earned his BA in Studio Art studying under Cliff Peacock, Michael Tyzack and Michelle Van Parys at the College of Charleston.

John Duckworth is currently working as an artist in two industries – as part owner and art director of a communications agency in Charleston and as a painter working with
both acrylics and oils. Over the past five years, his paintings have been sold to collectors in New York, Charlotte, Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, Charleston, and Canada.

Click here to view artist’s website.