MYSTERY PHOTO: Tunnel of trees

This tunnel may look familiar, but where is it?  Send your guess to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.

Our previous Mystery Photo

Our Dec. 23 mystery, “Different perspective,” proved to be pretty recognizable by readers of Charleston Currents.  It showed Waterfront Park from a perch on the second floor of the City Gallery. At left was a watercolor that was part of Mary Whyte’s stunning “We the People” exhibit of veterans’ portraits that recently closed. 

A bunch of Charleston area people got the location correct and most knew a little about the exhibit, but it took two out-of-towners to give a whole bunch more info.

So first, hats off to the Charleston-area sleuths:  Stephen Yetman, Joe Mendelsohn, Ross Lenhart, Stewart Weinberg, Kit Matthew, Chris Books, Carol Fishman, Jim McMahon and Carol Ann Smalley.  

And special snaps to George Graf of Palmyra, Va., and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas, who provided a lot more info.

Graf identified the watercolor as a painting in the exhibit called, “Face.”  

“According to wooarts.com, Mary Whyte was born in Cleveland in 1953. She studied at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and later married and settled nearby, operating a gallery with her husband, Smith Coleman. In 1991, as she recovered from surgery and a yearlong regimen of chemotherapy, Whyte moved to the Lowcountry in search of a deeper meaning for life. She found it at the Hebron Zion St. Francis Senior Center on Johns Island, S.C., where she discovered the women she portrays in Alfreda’s World. 

“These women, most descendants of slaves, gather at the Center each Wednesday for prayer, song, cornbread, and fellowship. They also make quilts, a longstanding tradition brought from Africa, which they sell to raise money for the church. Erected from timbers washed up after a shipwreck, the building dates to the years following the Civil War. Johns Island, like many other sea islands, preserves traces of the Gullah culture that are still evident in the group’s language, music, cuisine, dress, basketry, and quilt making. 

“Initially, Whyte was a passive observer: she had discovered the women while searching for people who would model for her paintings, and some of them were shy about allowing her to paint them. Now, however, Whyte has become a participant-threading needles, serving coffee, and sharing in their joys and sorrows. Whyte has succeeded in preserving their likenesses and their communal activities for posterity in her paintings.”

Peel added that the gallery overlooks Charleston’s famous PIneapple Fountain in Joe Riley Waterfront Park.  

“The exhibit (which ran from Oct 25 to Dec 22, 2019) featured internationally renowned artist Mary Whyte and her collection of fifty large scale watercolor portraits of current day American veterans that she painted over a seven-year period to honor our veterans from around all fifty states.

“Mary Whyte is an American watercolor artist who was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1953 and now lives in Charleston. Her works have been featured in numerous exhibits and publications both nationally, and internationally (in France, Germany, Russia, Canada, China, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan). She is the author of several books, including her most recent publication “We The People: Portraits of Veterans in America”, the works of which were the feature of the special exhibit at the City Gallery. 

“As part of that exhibit, Mary Whyte held a book signing ceremony where about half of the veterans featured in the exhibit were actually present to sign copies of the photos of the paintings in the book. Whyte is the recipient of several international awards, including the Portrait Society of America’s Gold Medal and the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award, South Carolina’s highest honor in the arts.”

Thanks all!

• Send us a mystery:  If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!)   Send it along to editor@charlestoncurrents.com.