Medical University of South Carolina Blog / Storytelling Through Artwork / 2020
Not surprisingly, artwork and beautiful vistas can enhance the patient experience and have positive outcomes on patient and staff well-being and care. The new MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital and Pearl Tourville Women’s Pavilion, opening in [2020], will not disappoint, offering patients, their families and staff both spectacular views of the Lowcountry as well as artwork from a number of local and regional artists.
The new children’s hospital and women’s pavilion, with 11 floors, is situated on the banks of the Ashley River, providing pediatric patients and expectant mothers some of the most stunning views of the greater Charleston area. Many patient rooms will overlook the Ashley and Cooper rivers.
In addition to the spectacular setting, a dedicated group of volunteers and staff has been working for two years to define the scope of the interior decor that would befit each of the 11 floors and select the art and artists whose work will appear throughout the facility. The project was developed and guided by Carolyn BaRoss and Aiko Tanabe, interior designers with Perkins & Will. Locally, the program was coordinated by hospital art curators Roberta Sokolitz and Brittany Bates. Also, the hospital’s Youth Patient Advisory Council, a group of teenage patients, weighed in, giving a thumb’s up to selections made.
Each floor will tell a story through its art that reflects on the Lowcountry. Arriving at the children’s hospital, patients and visitors will see welcoming art, fun and creative murals and many images that will ignite smiles on some and for others provide a sense of peace and serenity.
Once they enter the public lobby on the main floor, they will see a massive and breathtaking image of the Lowcountry created by Charleston’s own John Duckworth. One large landscape, 26 wide by 23 tall, is along the main stairwell divided into 12 glass panels each at 12 ft tall. . A second piece will be found on the stairwell of the ground floor.
MUSC chief of the Children’s and Women’s Health Mark A. Scheurer, M.D., said, “Duckworth was the ideal artist to fill this important area. One of the most dramatic features in the hospital, his landscape abstract captures the essence of the Lowcountry while providing a tranquil, yet serene and calming influence to welcome individuals into the children’s hospital.”
Duckworth’s website might best describe his work. “Duckworth’s works transcend the line between realism and abstraction. His photographs are infused with an intimate knowledge of nature, a passion for pure color, and a rhythm drawn from life itself. His trademark style involves abstracting the photographic image to lend the work a much lauded painterly appearance. By providing the viewer a sense of place, yet obscuring the details, he allows each individual to step into the image and bring forth their own visual history.”
An interactive kayak sculpture, located in front of the Duckworth piece, will be especially fun for younger visitors, with seating built just for them. At the same time, the sculpture also reminds others about the importance of the water that fills the nearby ocean, rivers and marshes.
Committee member and volunteer family advisor Kelly Loyd said, “We’ve been challenged to find art that appeals to the broad patient base from very young children to teens who will be patients at the children’s hospital to expectant mothers who will give birth in the new Pearl Tourville Women’s Pavilion,” she said.
Artist Kristen Solecki is well known throughout Charleston for her illustrations and work that transcends a diverse range of ages and tastes. Her illustrations will appear as part of the wall protection in the patient care areas and capture the child friendly themes that will warm the hearts of patients and visitors alike.
Sisal Design, a well-known Charleston design firm, will help bring to life the Child Life discovery wall located on the seventh floor in the children’s Atrium playroom. This mural, which pops with color, becomes an interactive I Spy game for patients and families upon approach. The firm is also creating an artistic rendering of a treehouse that likewise will find a home in the Atrium.
Stitch Design Company of Charleston is creating the wall graphics that will appear near the elevators of each floor and feature special Lowcountry- related themes. The main lobby is titled “A Warm Welcome to the Lowcountry,” and subsequent floors offer equally charming Charleston themes such as “Heroes of the Lowcountry,” “The Beaches,” “The Marsh,” “Lowcountry Arts,” “Springtime in the Lowcountry,” “Lowcountry Architecture,” “Lowcountry Landscape,” “Cruising Around the Lowcountry,” “Adventures in the Lowcountry” and culminating with the top floor fittingly called “Rooftops Over the Lowcountry.”
MUSC’s own Nancy Lemon, who is a freelance illustrator and author, found her passion and love of drawing fun characters and animals by reading the newspaper comics. Her playful designs will come to life in murals lining the hallways for patients as they are taken to surgery, providing a whimsical way to de-stress.
Charleston artist Jonathan Green creates highly collectible works of art. His depictions of Gullah life with the use of vibrant colors are sought after by art enthusiasts around the world. Three Jonathan Green pieces will be found in the Pearl Tourville Women’s Pavilion.
Stained glass artisan Robert Hines of Charleston is creating a fused-glass tree that replicates the Angel Oak tree on John’s Island, which will be displayed in the chapel located on the seventh floor.
The Art Committee’s work continues with additional artists being selected.
MUSC board-certified and registered art therapist and art committee member Katie Hinson said the use of art in hospitals has become increasingly more popular.
“Patients and families often think of health care environments as stark and uninviting,” she said. “MUSC is changing what’s possible as members of the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital and Pearl Tourville Women’s Pavilion Art Committee work to support a healing environment by implementing artwork as a tool to humanize hospital spaces and perhaps make them feel less medical and more engaging through mindful design themes, exhibitions and wayfinding using iconic artworks. Studies show that when a hospital is attentive to the aesthetics of the environment, it reduces stress and anxiety, promotes health and healing and improves patient and employee safety.”
Hinson leads a community effort called Arts in Healing Superhero Self Portrait Project, which will showcase the talents of young artists. In a variety of community settings, local children and teens are creating their own pieces of art depicting superheroes. Ultimately, these depictions will be framed and appear along the walls of the Emergency Department at the new children’s hospital.
In addition, patients in the hospital will have plenty of opportunities to create artwork in one of the Child Life playroom areas of the hospital or perhaps even in their own rooms. In various locations throughout the hospital, frames will open and offer a home to patients’ works of art.
No matter what floor is visited, the new MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital and Pearl Tourville Women’s Pavilion will display artwork to evoke the senses and calm the spirit.
Blog post by Kathy Cosgrove
EMPIRE STATE BUILDING HEDGE FUND / Office Furniture Heaven / November 12, 2019
When a successful hedge fund in the Empire State Building, decided to move into a prebuilt space in the same building, they reached out to OFH for help. Enthusiastic connoisseurs of art and design, it was important for their team to have an office that exemplified their own unique aesthetics. OFH was tasked with furnishing the space and to help design a highly efficient furniture plan that would accommodate the need for growth. OFH Account Executive and CEO Marc Schwartzberg led the project, working closely with the hedge fund to provide a flexible and productive layout that would encourage their team to thrive.
Carol Romanoff, an Art Consultant and Artist’s Representative at ROMANOFF ELEMENTS, was retained to help select beautiful artwork for their office. OFH worked with Romanoff Elements and the hedge fund’s team to select a color palette that worked in concert with the artwork selected. The result is a multidimensional, dynamic space that draws together energizing orange textiles with svelte modern designs, side by side with unique artwork. Using the same square footage as their previous office, the OFH design team was able to consolidate open work areas to fit more team members, while allowing for enhanced, fluid movement between aisles. The primarily neutral palette of the space, with bright orange pops of color, enables one’s full attention to focus on the wall-hangings: gilded patterns, deep sunsets, mandalas, loose brush strokes, and calming geometry.
The front reception opens to an elegant two-tone ELEMENT Reception Desk and decorative lounge area. Bright orange DESS chairs form a cabal around a white WYRE occasional table. Take a moment to look out the windows, and you will see a stunning view of the Midtown skyline. Next, in the conference room, an elegant ELEVEN CONFERENCE Table demands attention, framed by two sunset photographs and a matching credenza. Outside, the hallway opens to private offices subdivided by etched patterned glass. Each private office is furnished with Staks casegoods, ergonomic seating and neutral-toned visitors chairs. The Executive corner office suite reveals STAKS executive furnishings, an impromptu meeting area in a pow-wow formation, and a ROWEN Lounge sofa highlighted by numerical pop-art. Open areas are efficiently and ergonomically designed, each STAKS workstation furnished with comfortable Insync chairs and technology enhancing DUAL MONITOR ARMS. The corner meeting area features orange soft seating, conferencing technology and art. The pantry and quiet room feature hand-drawn murals in common areas illustrate a fun story of New York City iconography.
The finished office harmoniously unites unique aesthetics with human-focused design, to create a highly efficient office that will promote productivity and happiness.
Location: New York, NY
OFH Account Exec: MARC SCHWARTZBERG
WIDE AWAKE: JOHN DUCKWORTH CREATES TO HELP OTHERS OPEN THEIR EYES / Charleston Magazine / December 2018
For a mellow, introspective guy, John Duckworth is more than bold in his work. Take, for example, transforming City Gallery into a Zen den of sorts, as he did in his 2014 show “Awake.” Or the wildly ambitious “Wade in the Water” in 2016, in which Duckworth corralled photographers, gospel singers, composers, and artists to turn the abandoned roller rink above the new Redux into a multimedia meditation on climate change. In his John’s Island studio, the artist creates photographic landscapes and paintings that speak to an intrinsic connection between the inner self and the world around us, one that Duckworth, a father, adventurer, and advocate, feels strongly.
Creative juices: I’m motivated to inspire others to be curious about who they are and why, with the eyes of a student learning something new. I make little distinction among business, family, and art; it’s all a creative process. My challenge is rarely a lack of inspiration—it’s choosing among the things I’m fascinated by on a regular basis.
Article by Stephanie Hunt of Charleston Magazine / Photos by Sarah Alsati
THE ART OF FATHERHOOD: 3 CHARLESTON ARTISTS REFLECT ON INFLUENCES OF THEIR CHILDREN / Post and Courier / June 16 2018
Artists will tell you they draw inspiration from a variety of sources. Often, those sources include their kids.
For Father’s Day, three local dads — two visual artists, one musician — shared with The Post and Courier the various ways their children have influenced their approach to life and to the creative process.
John Duckworth
Baze Duckworth is 13, athletic and already nearly 5-foot 8-inches tall. Apparently, he’s got his father’s height gene. Visual artist John Duckworth is 6-foot-4. Lately, Baze also has inherited his dad’s interest in photography.
Not long ago, they were taking pictures at dawn at Breach Inlet, attentive to the play of early light on the surface of the water, when Baze turned to his father and said, “Hey dad, I think this may be my thing.” So John Duckworth upgraded his son’s camera equipment.
Article by Adam Parker of The Post and Courier
THIS OLD HOUSE / PBS / Spring 2018
Charleston Single House: Built to Last
This Old House lends a hand on the renovation of an 1840's “single house” in Charleston, South Carolina, with the goal of preserving its unique character while creating a comfortable family home.
The second project of the upcoming 39th This Old House season will take place in Charleston, South Carolina, a town rich in history, with many architectural gems in need of saving. The crew—along with apprentices from the American College of the Building Arts, the only school in the U.S. that offers a bachelor’s degree in traditional building trades—will help restore two of Charleston’s quintessential historic homes, both of which require extensive renovations to restore their original beauty while making them functional for modern families.
Article by Jefferson Kolle of This Old House magazine / Photos by Kate Thornton
10 ARTISTS SHAPING THE ARTS IN CHARLESTON / Art Mag / 10.23.2017
Over the past decade, Charleston has become a hot spot for contemporary culture. The growth of our city continues to foster new ideas and attract creatives who bring a fresh perspective to a charming city rich in history. In celebration of our 10th year, we take a look at 10 artists from the past decade who have helped shape Charleston into the art destination it is today.
Duckworth is a dynamic artist who’s best known for his iconic, abstracted landscape photography. His artistry includes work in video, sound, light, and installation.
Bringing experiential art to the masses, Duckworth’s 2014 AWAKE exhibition at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park turned heads at a time when technology had begun altering the way we look at art. His position on environmental and social change has given way to education being a main component of his exhibitions. Duckworth continues to surprise and delight through his multi-layered productions and unique ideas.
Written by Sarah Miller
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Brevard + Bikes + Beer / Charleston Mag / 10.2017
Full disclosure, my husband and I are novice mountain bikers, so a day and a half navigating between trees and over stumps was plenty fun but just right. The rest of our weekend we spent exploring on our road bikes—our default mode. And for the road cyclist, the region’s options are equally robust and awesome, both in and around Pisgah and on rural roads throughout Transylvania and neighboring Hendersonville and Polk counties.
We gladly let our friend John Duckworth, a Charleston artist and avid cyclist who knows the area’s highways and byways well, lead the way. I serve on a board with John and have worked on a few projects with him; I know to trust his judgment, so when he insists, “You’ve got to ride 276. It’s a classic, an absolute must,” we oblige. Despite being well aware that Highway 276—a Forest Heritage Scenic Byway beginning at The Hub bike shop and leading to the Blue Ridge Parkway—is a long, winding climb and that John’s long, lean legs are stronger than ours, up we go, and we’re not disappointed.
Written by Stephanie Hunt
Photographs by Chris M. Rogers
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Artist John Duckworth Addresses Climate Change with Innovative Installation / The Post and Courier / 5.18.2017
Artist John Duckworth is an interesting combination of meditative calm and frenetic creativity. A serious yoga practitioner, he has decided “to move in harmony with what is”: to embrace opportunity, to welcome collaboration and to accept what he cannot change.
But that doesn’t mean he isn’t steaming mad about certain things. Like the dangers posed by the city of Charleston to bicyclists. Like consumerism and inertia and a strange resignation in the face of climate change.
Written by Adam Parker
Case Study 01: Wade in the Water / Echoes / 4.2017
Wade in the Water is a unique and innovative app combining Echoes’ location-triggered content with advanced indoor location technology. Artist John Duckworth (Charleston, USA) commissioned Echoes to fulfil a challenging design brief for an interactive indoor sound installation in a massive warehouse space.
The app utilises cutting-edge indoor location technology to sense the listener’s exact position within the space and trigger sound ‘placed’ in that location. For the listener, no extra equipment is needed apart from a standard smartphone.
As listeners walk around the space, a gospel choir sings a piece in which each singer’s voice is placed at a specific position, and you can walk through the performance as it’s happening, with each singer getting louder or quieter as you approach their location. Another part features testimonials which you can ‘discover’ by standing in the right position.
Echoes.xyz combined their existing location-based audio platform with brand new indoor location sensing technology to bring outdoor audio tours and experiences indoors.
Wade in the Water by John Duckworth / Art Mag / 5.18.2017
Known for creating art shows that spark conversation and push the envelope of artistic possibilities, artist John Duckworth took on leading edge smartphone activated locative audio technology to create an art installation titled “Wade in the Water.” This large-scale, site-specific art installation is presented by Enough Pie and housed in the 2nd floor of the new home of Redux, a 16,000 warehouse at 1056 King Street.
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Working with 4-time Grammy nominated jazz musician/producer Quentin Baxter and composer Lee Barbour, the empty space will come alive with the sound of a gospel choir singing “Wade in the Water.” Visitors will be able to ‘walk within and around the sounds,’ as if walking directly into the choir. A central diamond-shaped room with dual projections of glaciers and flooded Charleston streets provides an inner sanctum for contemplation and bearing witness. In an effort to spark conversation, visitors are then able to directly participate by ‘leaving their voice’ in the final section of the room, lending commentary and feedback to create an ever-evolving space representing the pulse of the community.
Awakening V: King Tide / Enough Pie / 4.29.2017 - 5.26.2017
Charleston is at a crossroads. Flooded streets and rising waters affect us more and more. By 2045, Charleston will experience sunny day tidal flooding 180 days out of the year — averaging every other day.* The decisions and actions we take NOW as residents of the Lowcountry are critical to our future.
Enough Pie has assembled a team of artists, scientists, organizations and thought leaders to shine a light on rising waters through public art, parades, lectures, and events from April 29-May 26 across the Upper Peninsula. All are welcome as our programming is free. Do not miss this moment to make a difference.
WADE IN THE WATER / MAY 18 – JUNE 10 / John Duckworth
Lowcountry artist John Duckworth presents a large-scale, multi-media immersive art installation linking the melting glaciers to Charleston’s flooded streets.
99 Problems: Exhibiting Artists / The Southern Gallery / 10.19.2016
The Southern presents 99 Problems (but a print ain’t one), a HUGE print exhibition with 90+ artists and over 100 prints! We have set the opening of the exhibit on “Black Friday” in a deliberate effort to promote collecting original art during this holiday season. Each print will be available in an edition of five to ten and will be priced from the affordable to the investable. 99 Problems (but a print ain’t one) will exhibit artwork in the following disciplines: Woodcut, Linocut, Etching, Engraving, Monotype & Monoprint, Lithography, Screen Print, Digital Print, Transfer, or any combination thereof.
The exhibit concept is straightforward: we have some serious problems happening in our country. Art has always acted as a beacon for raising awareness, directing change, and to enlighten our daily lives. All these problems, but a print ain’t one.
Wedge Gallery Hangs on to Pop-up Duckworth Exhibit / Citizen Times / 9.28.2016
The pop-up gallery includes works from "Awake," Duckworth’s most recent show in the City Gallery at Waterfront Park in Charleston. Far from the typical gallery exhibit, "Awake" was an immersive art experience that aimed to engage visitors in ways they might not expect – ways that he hoped would make viewing the art work more meaningful and thought provoking.
He plans to bring some of that same energy to his show at the Wedge, including his photographic landscape abstractions, which people often mistake for paintings.
“I like that they present as paintings,” said the artist. “That’s part of my intention. I got my first camera in second grade. At this point I think of myself as painting with the camera.”
read full article here [+]
"Balance" Phil Durst and John Duckworth at Mitchell Hill / Charleston Gallery Association / 5.15.2016
Phil Durst and John Duckworth exhibit: BALANCE May 15 - August 2016 Austin assemblage artist, Phil Durst, was first featured as Mitchell Hill’s 2014 Spoleto Artist. Durst is a civil rights attorney based in Austin, Texas and creates his highly detailed mixed-media creations in his free time. This year his quilt-themed works behind glass are going to be paired up with local photographer, John Duckworth. Many know Duckworth’s work from AWAKE at the City Gallery in 2015 and his photographic installation at FIG. No formal opening reception will take place for BALANCE but patrons are welcome to celebrate daily at Mitchell Hill throughout the duration of the show.
Charleston's 40 Most Influential Visual Artists (1670-2015) / Charleston Mag / 5.2015
Artists have made an indelible impact on the culture of the Holy City, from European-born portraitists who brought their skills to the fledgling colony to painters documenting epic battles of the Civil War; from the etchers and sculptors who led the Charleston Renaissance to creatives defining the present scene. Here, we list 30 important artists throughout the city’s history and ask you to help select the final 10 from among the diverse talent witnessed today
And The Winners Are... In May, we presented “Charleston’s 40 Most Influential Artists (1670-2015)” and asked readers to help select the final 10 via an online vote. Nearly 2,300 people weighed in with their picks, and the results are in! Because we gave a list of 29 artists to vote on, plus a write-in option—we offer two top-10 lists, those suggested in our sidebar and those written in.
Top 10 Write-In Artists : John Duckworth
Om at the Waterfront / Charleston Grit / 11.10.2014
Duckworth has created much more than an exhibit with AWAKE, which opened Friday at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park. He's presented us with a journey, an interactive, immersive invitation into another realm, where we step out of the mundane, out of the habitual motions of our daily routines, and into a contemplative space, where the mind (your mind, my mind, all fuzzy and chaotic) is the true art object, and Duckworth's creations—serene digitized landscape abstractions, glaring and intense Buddha's layered and tattooed with graphics and images—become a mirror for consciousness. Sound heady and ambitious? It is. Sound cool and appealing? You bet.
Painting Buddha / The Post and Courier / 11.7.2014
A few years ago, John Duckworth attended the Art Basel-Miami Beach show, a potpourri of modern and contemporary artworks that attracts attention from critics and patrons around the world, but he wasn't impressed.
"It was disheartening," he said. Everyone was trying too hard to be different. The work lacked authenticity, he thought. "It was disingenuous. But I looked at what I liked and made a list."
Written by Adam Parker
John Duckworth AWAKE / Charleston Visitors Bureau
“These six pieces, currently on display at Fritz Porter, represent the latest release in my Landscape Abstracts series, a body of work that I have had the great fortune to produce since 2003. I never grow tired of it, as one of my greatest joys is to stand in the river, the marsh, or the pluff mud in my hip-waders with my camera creating artwork. This is my meditation and communion with nature, and thankfully the calming and meditative essence of my experience is translated through the art - the work tends to lower your blood pressure,” says Duckworth.
In the Studio with John Duckworth / HK Power Studio
HKPS:: What age did you suspect or know you were an artist?
JD:: I was always drawing and coloring as a child. My folks had us doing ‘shrinky dinks’, pumpkin carving, ornaments, handmade cards, and our coloring designs printed to kitchen plates! But this was all just FUN. My first memory of being really proud of a drawing I was in the 6th grade. I drew in pencil a very realistic medieval knight on a horse. I think I still have that drawing somewhere.
City Gallery at Waterfront Park Exhibition Features Alumnus John Duckworth ’99 / The College Today / 11.7.2014
Much of Duckworth’s art has an underlying meditative quality, embedded in works such as his Buddhist-inspired paintings and his most-recognizable photographs of nature. AWAKE will feature over forty art works in this exhibition that also highlights Duckworth’s creative and meditation practices.
“My meditation practice is fundamental to my creative process. It is through witnessing the results of a deeper inner awareness of habitual thoughts, words, and actions that I become more adept to finding balance in these uncertain times,” says Duckworth.
Boundless / The College Today / 11.3.2014
The future, what does it hold? With BOUNDLESS, the College of Charleston has a pretty clear picture: It’s a wide-open sea of opportunity (something like the artwork of John Duckworth ’99 seen here). For more than two centuries, we’ve navigated some pretty tough waters – storms, earthquakes, wars, financial downturns and, at times, our own stubbornness to change. But we always persevere. Because we believe, to our core, that a College of Charleston education is different. It’s the place, it’s the people – and together, they create a learning environment like no other in this world.
Written by Mark Berry
read full article here [+]
AWAKE by John Duckworth at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park / Arts Daily / 11.2014
“Balance, awareness and perception” are the three words contemporary artist John Duckworth uses to describe the unique nature of his upcoming multi-sensory exhibition, AWAKE. On view at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park, November 7 through December 21, 2014. The opening day reception is 5:00-8:00 p.m. The gallery will be transformed into an immersive space within a guided exhibition layout, displaying Duckworth’s photography, sketches, paintings, video, and audio installation in his most comprehensive show yet. The exhibition will include a Video installation; The Buddha Chapel with 15 large format Buddha paintings; a series of sketches on paper and canvas which were preparatory works for the Buddha paintings; and Landscape Abstract Photographs.
read article here [+]
John Duckworth Hosts Open Studio: Art in a Barn / Charleston City Paper / 7.8.2013
Throughout the month of July, well-known photographer and painter John Duckworth will be opening his state-of-the-art studio to the masses. Duckworth’s studio manager Ashton Chandler tells us that guests will be able to see the artist’s Landscape Abstract photography series, a sequence of photographs that “provide the viewer with a sense of place, while allowing each individual to embrace the image and channel their own visual history.”
The photographs are a mixture of surrealism and realism, characterized by focused horizons and saturated colors.
Written by Becca Schuler
read full article here [+]
Top 50 Progressives / Charlie Magazine / 2012
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Unfortunately the article is no longer available online.
Photographs are by Sully Sullivan
Bring Your Canary: Studio Visit with John Duckworth / Art Mag / 7.25.2011
Just a few bridges away on Johns Island, John Duckworth quietly works away in his studio, known by friends as The Ranch, where he spends his time cycling, photographing, painting and being a devoted father to his son and partner to the incredible Kelly Jean. On Friday I headed out to spend some time with Duckworth, where chatted about his newest series of mixed media images–see the Buddha below, future plans and how much the art scene in Charleston has changed over the years.
Don’t miss his documentary !