Living Jackson Magazine :: Jackson County Artists

A Walk on the Wild Side

Jackson County is full of hidden gems. A treasure trove featuring musicians and writers, whom we have covered in previous issues, Jackson also is home to a number of artists. Many of them use the county in their works from illustrating the countryside in paintings to incorporating materials from the land in their creations. In this article, meet some of your neighbors who comprise this homegrown talent.

Marie Sagon, Painter

Eight years ago, Marie Sagon opened Critter Creek Studio in the lobby of the old motel in downtown Jefferson. She offers classes and private lessons in watercolor, oil, drawing and china painting, and currently works with 32 students, many of them children.

When asked where she came up with the name Critter Creek, Sagon answers with a laugh. “Because there’s liable to be anything running around in here.” She and her family share their Jefferson home and property with several dogs, cats, iguanas, geckos, rats, chickens and rabbits. It’s not unusual for one or more of the animals to make an appearance at the studio. “I just don’t bring the horses up here yet.”

Sagon, a Jackson County native, first developed her love of painting under the guidance of Jackson County High School art teacher Paul West. Sagon finds time for her own painting between teaching classes. She works primarily in oils and some of her best pieces are still-life compositions. Her work is on display and for sale at Critter Creek. She also works on commission and has done several murals for local churches and merchants.

Roy & Bea Grant, Wood Turners

Roy Grant’s home and workshop are half-a-mile off a country road in Nicholson. The retired University of Georgia professor has lived there with his wife Beatrice for almost 30 years.

Grant has worked in wood for most of his life, beginning when his grandfather taught him to carve and whittle when he was 4 or 5 years old. About 12 years ago, he started wood turning, the art of turning pieces of wood on lathes and fashioning them into various forms and shapes. Grant creates beautiful, one-of-a kind bowls, platters, desk sets and vases. After sculpting each piece with tools while he turns it on his lathe, Roy then spends hours sanding it. His resulting creations are highly polished and feel like satin to the touch. Grant is a walking advertisement for recycling. He finds his raw material in the woods.

Bea Grant also enjoys working on the lathe and has produced her own bowls and some intricate, spiraled Christmas decorations.

Grant sold his work through a North Carolina gallery for several years, but when the place closed he didn’t look for a replacement. He now sells pieces out of his home.

Christina Sullo, Sculptor/Potter

“My work has a southwest sort of feeling,” says Jefferson sculptor and potter Christina Sullo. “I really am interested in ethnic and primitive artwork.”

After taking classes at the Hudgens Center for the Arts in Gwinnett County, she got a kiln, a wheel and a slab press. Sullo now has a studio in the basement of her Jefferson home where, with special clay and glazes she mixes herself, she produces sculptures using an ancient Japanese firing technique called raku.

The pieces are first fired in a traditional kiln. When they reach about 1,700 degrees F, they are put in the raku kiln she built in her backyard. The sculptures are placed in a big metal can that has been filled with combustible material, such as shredded newspaper or dried leaves. As soon as the red-hot clay is put in the kiln, the combustible material bursts into flames, and the fire is extinguished. The resulting smoke gives a metallic luster to the glaze and turns unglazed clay black.

Sullo teaches pottery making at the Georgia Piedmont Arts Center in Winder. Her work is sold at the center and also can be found in galleries in Watkinsville and Seneca, S.C.

Russ Walker, Painter

William Russell Walker, who goes by Russ, attended the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio where he studied illustration and painting. After school, he settled in the Clearwater/Tampa area of Florida and worked in sales with a local gallery. But that job lasted only a short time. Once the gallery owner saw it, he and Walker switched roles and he was soon showing and selling Walker’s paintings. The work was well received and, within a few years, his paintings were carried in galleries as far away as Chicago. The artist also often sold his work to individuals.

Walker describes his paintings as “realism, in the broadest, most accurate definition.” Although he also produces portraits and confesses to a fondness for painting horses, he most often paints figures, usually people in some sort of conflict.

“I never painted angels or halos,” he says of his works with biblical themes. “People are so used to seeing those things that, if you had a message, no one is going to see it. I want to paint stuff that is relevant to people today.”

Faye Griffins, Painter

“I just paint things that I like,” Faye Griffins says, standing in front of two of her paintings of rural scenes. “I see things that would make a good subject for a painting and I paint them.”

Griffins has had a lifelong love of art. As a child she spent countless hours drawing, but it wasn’t until about 20 years ago that she began painting. She’s especially fond of landscapes and still life subjects.

“I don’t necessarily like faces,” she says, “but I’ll paint people with their heads turned and hats on so I don’t have to do faces.”

Her paintings are largely pastoral works that evoke memories of a simpler time and place. One of her paintings is currently on display at the Jackson County Area Chamber of Commerce office. She sells her work through Hometown Treasurers, a store owned by her daughter in Jefferson, and to individuals.

Born in Banks County, Griffins has lived in Jackson County for 40 years. She raised four children here and has 13 grandchildren. Griffins now volunteers and is the treasurer for Peace Place. But she always comes back to painting and the love of art she’s had since childhood.

Delores Garrison, Painter

The attractive brick house on Crestview Drive in Jefferson is similar to a bright, cozy art gallery. Oil paintings and watercolors adorn every wall. Hand-painted china and delicate, ornately attired porcelain dolls are arranged on tabletops, bookshelves and mantles. And in the midst of all these beautiful things is Delores Loggins Garrison, ready to welcome visitors to her home with a big smile and an enduring delight in all things artistic. She’s been involved in creative projects for more than 40 years.

In the months that followed a family tragedy in 1966, Garrison searched for something to distract herself from her grief. She discovered she enjoyed working with ceramics and eventually explored other creative outlets as well.

For two years, she studied painting with Athens artist Jack Parr and she was soon producing accomplished oil paintings. In time she also took up doll making and painting china. Over the years she continued painting and doll making, often displaying and selling her work at regional craft festivals.

These days Garrison works mostly in watercolors. It’s not unusual for her to complete a painting in one day.

Dave Wiley, Muralist

If you live, shop or attend school in Jackson County, chances are good that you’ve seen Dave Wiley’s work. He’s the man behind the elegant Crawford W. Long mural in downtown Jefferson at Marlow Park, the tribute to area history at Tanger Town Centre and the skylit panther mural in the Jackson County Comprehensive High School cafeteria.

His artistic ability was apparent early in his life and it wasn’t unusual to find the young Wiley sitting in church on Sunday mornings sketching the characters from his father’s sermons.

Over the years, Wiley’s 3D murals have attracted the most attention. He produced huge historical panoramas and his murals where team mascots took center stage were soon found in more than 240 school gyms and cafeterias across Michigan.

When he moved to Jackson County 13 years ago, Wiley brought his unique style with him. His work is found in more than 40 schools in this area. While nearly 90 percent of Wiley’s work is murals, he also paints commissioned portraits and even the occasional sign.

He does most of his painting in the shop he constructed behind his house, but one or two days a week he can be found in a smaller studio located in Real Deals Furniture.