Southernness is often best defined through storytellers. In our annual issue devoted to Southern culture, we include artists and authors, musicians and makers, who reflect its soul through their work.
A lifelong pursuit of basketry pushed Nancy Basket from the Pacific Northwest to the South in search of the perfect pine needles for her craft. Born of Cherokee heritage, the sage Basket weaved her way to the Upstate, where she discovered our pervasive kudzu plant. For more than 30 years, along with her work in pine needles, Nancy has transformed the vine into breathtaking baskets, sculptures, and paper art, honoring our landscape and the natural world.
Greenville-based photographer and multimedia artist Pat Owens captures the essence of rural backroads in his native Alabama. Dilapidated churches, abandoned gas stations, and decaying furniture weave together a poetic tapestry both beautiful and forlorn. By documenting these broken-down places and lonesome landscapes, Owens exalts the overlooked, forgotten, and discarded parts of our region, suggesting that they are significant pieces of our cultural puzzle.
John Walker wanted a better flip-flop. The Travelers Rest resident couldn’t find one that paired comfort with durability, so he decided to create a pair himself. This effort blossomed into his ultra-popular Cooks Flips shoes and accessories business. To his sustainable ’flops line, Walker has added leather backpacks and cowhide totes for the field and farm that transfer to urban adventures, too.
Spartanburg native Adia Victoria is tracking to become a music legend. Now in Nashville, the former Fine Arts Center student is channeling the blues and her relationship to her Carolina roots through her new album, A Southern Gothic. Already an industry darling, Adia toured last month with famed singer-songwriter Jason Isbell and credits much of her success to early mentors, like the former director of the Fine Arts Center Dr. Roy Fluhrer, for encouraging her to pursue her dreams.
These artists present our Southern home in ways that both inspire and challenge us. Their stories, among others in this issue, remind us of our cultural riches.
Photograph by Chelsey Ashford White
