Jocelyn Châteauvert, raised and educated in Iowa City, is a paper artist – or as she calls herself, a “paper wrangler”, who creates jewelry, lighting, sculpture, and installations from the paper she makes by hand. After earning an MFA from the University of Iowa, she established her career in San Francisco. Since 1999, she has lived in Charleston, South Carolina, devoting herself to plant-based, handmade paper. She is the recipient of a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship and the Craft Fellowship award from the South Carolina Arts Commission. Her work is in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Mint Museum, South Carolina State Museum and the Medical University of South Carolina. Châteauvert exhibits extensively nationally and internationally. She was recently included in the prestigious Paper Biennial 2018 in Rijswijk, The Netherlands and also Paper Global 4 in Deggendorf, Germany. In 2016, she won the 3D People’s Choice prize at ArtFields, Lake City SC.

From an interview with Kyle Petersen in the May 2017 issue of Free-Times: “Châteauvert’s commissioned installations are threaded throughout South Carolina, with everything from her magical lily pad display at the Medical University of South Carolina at the Ashley River Tower to the colorful “The Space in Between” mobile installation commissioned by the South Carolina State Museum for its planetarium. Her work involves a distinct approach to sculpture. Informing her 30-year career, Châteauvert’s passion has been to create intricate, self-supporting structures from hand-made paper.”

Châteauvert observes – I build worlds from the most common and least known material: paper. The ritual of hand papermaking is ancient, scientific, and rhythmic. I merge this science with the unknown by air-drying my pieces: the paper shrinks, twists and cockles, forming three-dimensional shapes more subtle than I could design. My paper forms revert to their botanical origins; I make plants from plants. Oversized and immersive, diminutive and whimsical, my pieces dilate the natural world and bring it inside.

The exhibition in Sumter will include several installations that feature flowing kelp and diaphanous morning glories, lighted pieces and paper jewelry. Châteauvert will give an artist talk Thursday, January 10, 2019 at the closing reception.

Mary Ann Reames is a native of Sumter, South Carolina, and a fourth generation South Carolinian. She has been both a professional painter and an art instructor for over thirty years. She started drawing and painting in oils at age 14 under the instruction of Sumter artist, Mildred White, and still enjoys studying art. Reames majored in art at Coker College and received a Masters in Art Education from the University of South Carolina.
She taught elementary art for three years in Sumter School District and has been teaching high school art and photography at Wilson Hall for over thirty years. Reames Received Teacher of the Year Award at Wilson Hall in 2007, and runner up for State Teacher of the Year in 2007.
Reames is a member of the South Carolina Art Education Association, the National Art Education Association, The American Portrait Society, The Oil Painters of America, the Sumter County Gallery of Art and the Sumter Artists Guild.
Reames studied portraiture under Art Student League instructor, Gary Faigin and University of South Carolina instructor, Deanna Lemon. She also studied portrait painting under Michael del Priori and still life painting under Qaing Huang. Reames was chosen for the 2008 Summer Program at Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Italy with a focus on portrait painting, and studied classical realism at the Mims Studios in Southern Pines, NC. She shares a studio at the Confederate Home in Charleston, SC for summer and weekend painting. Her works may be found in both private and commercial collections throughout the Southeast.
Reames is a keen observer of nature as a point of departure to express mood through light and color in both plein air and studio oil painting. She is an adept landscape and figural/portrait painter. Inspiration comes from years of drawing and painting her surroundings, rural and urban, particularly in South Carolina.
About her practice and upcoming exhibition at the Sumter County Gallery of Art, Reames notes: This exhibition is a testament to the painting journey of my life – the times when I have been able to put aside the busy-ness of life and be an artist. I have many roles – teacher, mother, grandmother, sister, cousin, friend, neighbor, and artist. These many facets of who I am drive me to prove and earn my own worth, and they have allowed and defined exchanges of joy, truth and love with people who help ground me and give my life meaning and depth. These relationships are woven though out the landscape of my life and have enriched my life and painting in every possible way.
Many of the paintings are inspired by places I have seen and experienced. Painting allows me the experience of simply being present with my thoughts, images, and ideas whether I am in the studio or outdoors. And it is during these moments of silence and focus that my painting expresses the idea of connectedness. When I paint, I am sharing this connectedness through years of observational drawing and painting along with my interpretation of the magnificence of light and color in landscape, or the wonder of a child’s curiosity.
Reames will give an informal artist talk the night of the opening reception.
As with all that we do at the Sumter County Gallery of Art, these exhibitions would not be possible with the support of our community partners. Thanks to: Hill Plumbing and Electric Company, Sub Station II, Carolina Diabetes & Kidney Center, Creech Roddey Watson Insurance, and the Sumter County Cultural Commission which receives support from the John and Susan Bennett Arts Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation of SC, the SC Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.