“Since March, it’s moved into more of a meditative, contemplative perspective on the universe.”
“Since March, it’s moved into more of a meditative, contemplative perspective on the universe.” Hilton Head artist Amos Hummell was in the midst of working on a collection of paintings for an exhibit when COVID-19 hit. Then everything changed. “By the end of March, the focus of the show had completely changed from comedic, cartooning, silly-style, to more painting of the cosmic, ghost trees, old trees down on the coast nighttime stuff. It’s the endurance that the tree captures, especially the driftwood trees, the ones that grow up in stressed areas. Their tenacity, the way they are frozen after living a whole life being bent and everything and how they are worn but they are still strong and frozen in their strength. I get real emotional thinking about it. Out in front of God Almighty himself, the naked sky.”
His wife, Lynn, recognized the change as it happened. “Everything took on a different tone, life took on a different tone. More of a pondering, what’s going to happen, reflective feeling. I saw it starting to happen with him. It started with the chalk drawing. He was asked by the Chamber of Commerce to participate in a community project with sidewalk chalk. Everybody’s home, if you’ve got kids, you’ve got sidewalk chalk. They asked him to do sidewalk chalk art in their parking lot. So he created this gorgeous piece of art that was 14 feet wide and 12 feet tall, huge, and it was this beautiful tree with gnarly reaching limbs and little stars and as colorful as you can get with six colors of sidewalk chalk and it was just amazing. A lot of people commented on that piece of art, so he started doing it with his paintings.”
“That tree over there, with the CDs hanging from it, was inspirational. Right beside that tree was his big, red easel. He would put a different piece of art on it every day, almost every day, for our neighbors. So many people were home and walking. Kids and bicycles. We met neighbors we’d never even seen because of his art.” -- Lynn
“You know, a clown won’t perform without an audience. So, for me, it was a great incentive. And it actually meant something to people. People were coming by just to see it. It was like living in an art community. We did it for almost two months. I finally just ran out of stuff. You know, I don’t paint *that* fast. It just became a thing. Everybody waves when they go by now.” -- Amos, Hummell Studios #SouthCarolina
