I am thrilled to be sharing the walls of the Pickens County Museum with my good friend of many years (notice I didn’t say “old friend”) Bruce Schlein. How a guy from New Jersey and a gal from New York came to spend most of their adult life in the south is a story for another day.

We are joining forces to present an exhibit called Surfaces and Spaces: Photography of Cecelia Feld and Bruce Schlein, which shows the interest we share in documenting particular aspects of our environment. Both of us like surfaces. I like city streets (horizontal planes). Bruce goes more for walls and fences (verticals). He also has an uncanny knack and a well-honed eye for finding hidden and often forgotten spaces.

Bruce’s photos of graffiti on walls explode with color and drama. His interiors are transformed by the quality of light hitting them.

Here are a few from Bruce that will be in the show.

People and places, near and far, are my subjects. My “Underfoot” series of photos came about when I started to notice how much of our environment had signage or other markings on streets and sidewalks. Every city in every country I’ve traveled to shows this kind of human presence.

Like these.

Many of the marks have an abstract quality to them. Colorful lines, shapes and squiggles are drawn or painted on neutral backgrounds. They make me stop. What do they say about who was here?

The Opening Reception is Saturday, June 27, 1-4pm

Pickens Museum of Art & History

307 Johnson St.

Pickens, SC 29671

(864) 898-5963

The exhibit runs through August 20

Y’all come!