Surprise, surprise

I really had no idea in 2023 when I started a series for a preservation show how far it would take me. The basket sisters in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, were stand-ins for an etching created in 1870 and that is where the adventure began. 

The text and images from the 1870 publication were created during reconstruction to unify a divided country after the Civil War, so whipping up nationalism and pride of the picturesque fit the bill perfectly. It was time to unify a nation with words and pictures and encourage folks to get out there and travel.

I wanted to know more about the artist and writers, their publisher, and how this project unfolded so I did some reading and decided to create more versions of the "Roadside Scene." Few people were depicted in the series and a this is perhaps the only woman of color. She fascinated me. Who was this woman? What was her story? What could I invent?  

Three Sisters Sewing Together / gouache

Sweet-Tater Woman - response to Harry Fenn
​and Oliver B. Bunce / painted paper collage

Harry Fenn's Roadside Scene, 1870 / oil


My blog post  a year ago clarifies the journal's goal and I'm surprised to see that in 2025, our government seeks to hide history and the truth. 
​
A June 25, 2025 headline in the Post & Courier states - "Visitors to Charleston historical sites are being asked to report 'negative' stories about America."

These feedback surveys come in the wake of a nationwide effort by the current administration to scrub what the president deemed a "distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth" from national historic sites.

"
​Visitors are asked to report any areas of the sites that need improvement or repair,
as well as any 'signs or other information that are negative
about either past or living Americans.'

​That includes messaging that fails to 'emphasize the beauty,
grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.'

"

And there we have it - 1870, meet 2025. Yikes. This was us, and this is us. The scrubbing continues as the art world and the Smithsonian are now under the same gaze. The director is gone at the National Portrait Gallery and Amy Sherald has pulled her show citing sensorship. 

I'm going to stick with this project and I have two more works in progress. One is focusing on the text of the original journal which details a fabulous reception in Charelston followed by a visit to a plantation on the Ashley. The day, filled with wonder and delight was described as a white-stone day... stay tuned.

​The author hoped Charleston could "attain a prosperity
​under the new dispensation as brilliant as that they enjoyed under the old...
(and) renew the social triumphs
​of the brilliant past."
from The Land We Live In - Charleston and Its Suburbs, 1873 edition

---