Written by Kristyn Chapman and Media by Taylor Neal.
The Greenville community gathered this Saturday, September 21, for its annual celebration of local artists. Artisans from the town of Greenville extending out to the greater St. Louis area spent the evening sharing their craft with the community. Main events included the Piety Choi Art Exhibition, Our Common Ground Artists Guild, as well as “Glitch Art” displayed in the College’s Digital Media Center.
The evening’s main gallery was displayed in Mave’s Art Center, and featured portrait artist, abstract painter, and photographer, Piety Choi. Piety comes to Greenville College as the spouse of Dr. Hyung Choi, the new professor and Department Chair of Physics. Piety has studied around the world, is a recognized portrait artist, and now works primarily in abstract painting derived from biblical themes. She explores “the roots of her existence” using sand as a medium in her paintings, for our primal extinct is to create “crude etchings in the sand”. Piety’s art exhibition was a moving and thoughtful reflection on biblical themes, as well as an insight into the beauty of the often overlooked.
For those whose taste buds called them to visit the Art Walk, Greenville’s very own Chef Kevin Willmann returned to the festival, bringing with him delightful dishes from his St. Louis restaurant, Farmhaus. Kevin learned the culinary arts in the Florida panhandle, and his restaurant features a blend of Midwestern and Southern tastes artfully crafted into small plates and tasting menus. Kevin supports locally grown, seasonal produce, organic food production, and sustainable agriculture, even incorporating the local dairy farm, Marcoot Jersey Creamery, into his dishes.
The “Glitch Art” gallery was a quirky addition to the typical Art Walk scene. It featured artwork from students, faculty, and community members inspired by the Glitch Aesthetics colloquium held earlier this month by Greenville College graduate and guest speaker, Matt
Bernico. “Glitch Art” is a new medium of art using “bugs” or errors in a program to physically manipulate and alter a photo, often resulting in an eerie translation of the original. Students were encouraged to experiment with “glitching” and submit their pieces for the gallery.
Other facets of the event included booths of pottery, sculpture, jewelry, and decorative pieces brought in by Our Common Ground Artists Guild. The Set Free Movement had a booth with volunteers from the community selling scarves to raise awareness about the social justice issue of human trafficking. Food trucks, and many local shops also joined the fun. To end the night, the town rocked to some groovy tunes brought to us by a Beatles cover band.
