The 2020 Juried Art Show opened at the Belton Center for the Arts with a reception on Sept. 26 and runs through Nov. 6. Nineteen Anderson Artists Guild (AAG) members were among the 47 artists in the show. A total of 70 works were presented. Six AAG members won awards, including the top two prizes. Kathy Moore won the $750 first place award for her assemblage She Had Holes in Her Memory. Carolyn Gibson won the $500 second place award for her photograph Outside In. Evelyn Beck

Chet Johnson, a new member of the Anderson Artists Guild, always wanted to paint like his mom, a watercolor and acrylic artist and high school art teacher. But other interests led him in different directions. With degrees in pre-engineering and business from Anderson University, he embarked on what has so far been a 37-year career with Duke Energy. He started as an engineer, designing commercial projects in Anderson including the Harpers Ridge subdivision, the North Hills sho

Anderson Artists Guild member Debbie Bzdyl is part of a two-person show called Earth Elements at the Blue Ridge Arts Center (BRAC) in Seneca. The show, which also features clay artist Wendy Converse, opens on Sept. 18 and will run through Oct. 22. Many of Bzdyl’s 20 or so pieces are from her “Early Earth” and “Earth Elements” series, which she started earlier this year. Both have an earth theme, and many are heavily textured. Her latest series, “Sculptural Abstracts,” takes t

Growing up in the Florida Panhandle, Anderson Artists Guild member Brenda McLean was torn between drawing and singing. She eventually devoted herself to music, drawn by her school’s excellent chorus. She attended the University of Florida, where she majored in elementary education. She really wanted to study law, but that was not a viable option in those days. “Law school students, all male, were very unkind to women who ventured into the field,” she said. “It was difficult f

Melody Davis, who recently joined the Anderson Artists Guild, is painting the town of Westminster red—and lots of other colors. She first painted an exterior wall of the Gateway Arts Center, which she owns. Then she went around town asking others if she could decorate their buildings, too. The designs range from replicated classics like Mona Lisa and Starry Night to an altered take on the famous picture of dogs playing poker to an original design featuring a rippling South Ca