Evelyn C. McDonald
Arts & Culture Reporter
February 2, 2017 10:12 a.m.
Last Saturday I took part in the 5th Annual Callahan Art Show at the old train station in Callahan. This year the show had grown both in terms of the number of artists participating and the variety of media displayed. The winners in each category are being exhibited at four venues in the county, and started last Monday at the Amelia Museum of History.
The show committee had been looking to expand the 3-dimensional work entered. Libby Weigel was there once again with her lovely gourds. This year she was joined by an incredible driftwood sculpture of a fish, with shark teeth, and a collection of pottery from Laura Kujawski. Laura is a fairly recent resident of Fernandina Beach, coming from North Carolina. Her pottery technique is to start a piece and find a bit of leaves or some other object to make an impression on it. She then colors in the impressions and fires the piece. The result is a lovely, light looking piece. Laura is hoping to get back into pottery now that she’s settled in here.
Another favorite of mine was the photography displayed by the Fernandina Beach High School students. Cole Carter did a great series of photographs of skeletal trees on the ocean shore. He took 1st place with one of them capturing a wave flung up under the tree trunk. Sasha Young took 2nd place with a piece on censorship and Katie Slaughter took 3rd place. The talent these students showed means we will have the photographic arts well represented in our town. I applaud the efforts of their teacher in encouraging them.
First place winner among the paintings was a piece using the negative imprint technique. A color is laid down and the subject is brought out by painting other colors around it. Deb Sholly, the artist, said she’s been exploring the technique and it does result in lovely work.
The photography exhibits included one of a ladle dipping into a pot of something. I asked the photographer, Hugh Graham, about the picture. He explained that it was sugar cane being processed. Southern Cross Farm, between Callahan and Hilliard, grows sugar cane. The farmer harvests and processes it once a year around November. Hugh went out to see the process and the result was the photograph. Another photo of his, a scene in Utah, took 1st place in photography.
The weather this year was somewhat warmer than last year when it snowed. Not a blizzard, mind you but definite flakes. The show is beginning to attract a larger audience. It is a juried show, with Allison Watson, from the Cummer Museum doing the judging.
Evelyn McDonald moved to Fernandina Beach from the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. in 2006. She is a chair of Arts & Culture Nassau, a city commission charged with support of the arts in Nassau County. She serves on FSCJ’s Curriculum Committee for the Center for Lifelong Learning. She is also the chair of the Dean’s Council for the Carpenter Library at the UNF. Ms. McDonald has MS in Technology Management from the University of Maryland’s University College and a BA in Spanish from the University of Michigan.