Local artists present varied views at Abstraction Art Show in Graniteville

To find out more about the event, and what people can expect we sat down with artist, Tiphiknee De Herrera.

What is this event all about?

“Abstraction Art Show is an extension of Abstraction Art Group, which is a local art group that gets together every six weeks. We get to share different art work that’s based on prompts that we chose from the previous six weeks. It’s really great because everyone’s interpretation of the words that we choose are all just vastly different. It’s for any age group, any level of artist, any medium, and we get to just come together and support one another and talk about the art work, and do some critiquing, and then at the end of the year we have this big show and this is our fourth annual. We have 31 artists this year and over a 120 pieces of artwork, so it’s going to be a big one.

How did this all get started?

“In 2021 I was being a professional artist and trying to create original artwork. I was struggling to finish, or to have inspiration to actually create something, and so I reached to my good friend, who is also an amazing local oil painter, we were both getting ready for this spooky show that was going on in the fall, and we were like ‘what if we just pick a couple of words, a couple of things we like to paint and we just meet up in a few weeks and share what we make. We did a few of them, that we did over the course of a couple of months and we had so much fun, and I was like ‘I want to share this with everyone’ and it evolved from there.”

What do you think people take away from being in this group?

“The biggest thing for me is inspiring artists to create more original artwork, whether you’re scribbling, or you’re creating an entire, huge painting or you’re sculpting something, think that creativity and creative expression is so crucial, and it crazy that there are so many people who haven’t even made art, for 10 or 20 years, coming in to this group, maybe never even made artwork at all. They come in to this group and they find inspiration in the community, and it’s just a wonderful, beautiful way to get to tap in to that creative part of our brain.”

So even if you aren’t an art fan, why should you come out to this?

“There are so many different stories and interpretations of what these different prompts are, and I think there’s just something for everyone. There’s stuff that’s very hyper realistic, and really in depth and fun to look at, and then there’s these really abstract things that are coming out of the group, that even though they don’t tell this specific story they just give you this visual journey. We’re also going to be having talks where each artist will stand by their favorite piece and talk about how they came up with it, their process and everything so, it’s going to give a really great opportunity for people to connect with the art work, and with the artist which is something that’s really important to me.”

How do people get tickets?

“It’s absolutely free to the community, we’ll have some free food, some beverages, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Better World Studios is located at 125 Marshall Street, Graniteville, S.C.