Reflections of Nature

The Beaufort Art Association’s first 2023 featured artist Sharon Cooper was born and raised in the Philadelphia, PA, area. She graduated from Penn State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and later completed her

Master’s Degree in Anesthesia. After working many years in the operating room at a large University hospital, her career led her to the homecare field, where she worked clinically in the area of specialty infusion pharmacy work. As a child growing up, she was always fascinated with stained glass windows in the church she attended and, after retirement, pursued the beauty, detail and colors of stained glass.

Stained/Mosaic glass as an art form dates back to the early 17th century. The history, colors and luminous quality of glass are the reasons Sharon was drawn to this art form. As with all mediums, there has been an evolution in style, techniques and material that makes it possible to create new looks for stained glass.

Sharon’s initial endeavors in stained glass involved more simple, traditional versions. But new techniques today provide the ability to transform images into new expressions of mosaic glass art. Sharon’s study of images of natural beauty has been reinterpreted into glass mosaic form.

The mosaic versions abandon the traditional leaded outlines, transitioning away from the more ecclesiastic feelings typically associated with stained glass. Her process relies on the artist’s technical skills to individually cut each piece of glass, using a brush stroke form or small geometric shapes to create an image. Although many of the tools of the trade remain historically the same, new versions of glass cutters, nippers, as well as specialty glass grinders and tweezers, cover Sharon’s work table. The resulting materials are referred to as tessera.

Shading and three-dimensional quality is achieved by combining similar tones and textures of glass. The process is labor intensive and requires time and patience.

Sharon loves the flora and fauna of her new home in South Carolina and the birds, flowers and grasses of are the inspiration for her work. She can be found in her studio, working on existing projects or experimenting with new methods of glass as an art form.

Come meet the artist at a reception on Friday, January 6 from 5-8pm at the Gallery of the Beaufort Art Association, 913 Bay Street, downtown Beaufort, under the black awning. www.beaufortartassociation.com

Artist Sharon Cooper

To children, the holiday season may seem to take eons to return from one year to the next. As an adult, I can’t believe it’s already here. Time speeds up from Thanksgiving to Christmas faster than we can sing enough carols, hang enough greenery, make enough merry, spread enough joy, consume enough yummy seasonal goodies, and for many, take enough time to think about the reason for the season, whatever your faith or spiritual beliefs.

Here’s the thing: there’s an opportunity in the midst of the Christmas countdown for us to slide in a bit of expanded, contemplative time. Bear with me here.

From the Neolithic Period, near the end of the Stone Age, beginning around 10,200 B.C., people of many cultures have observed the end of shorter and shorter days and the return of more and more daily sun time. Initially, pagan celebrations featured fire and light as symbols of the longest night of the year – the winter solstice. Neolithic monuments, such as Ireland’s Newgrange, have been scientifically proven to be deliberately aligned with the rising sun on that particular day. One of the world’s best-known prehistoric monuments, Stonehenge, is oriented toward the winter solstice sunset. Ancient Romans reveled for a week prior to the solstice during a festival known as Saturnalia that honored Saturn, the god of agriculture.

Native American winter solstice practices differ from tribe to tribe. For instance, the Zuni Pueblo’s rituals that encompass all the Earth’s peoples reflect an ancient understanding of the connectedness of the world.

Of interest to religious and scientific circles, Spanish Colonials left distinct reminders of the importance of the winter solstice through illuminations at hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of Spanish missions from northern California to Peru. At dawn on December 21st, a ray of sunlight enters each church and bathes a significant religious icon, altar, crucifix, or statue of a saint in dazzling light, representing the rebirth of light, life, and hope in the coming of the Messiah.

As our own December holidays approach, these time-honored traditions validate the power of our instincts to guide us through the darkness toward the light.

This year, on December 21st at 4:48 p.m. ET in our area, the winter solstice heralds the official astronomical start of winter, the shortest period of daylight, and longest period of nighttime of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. (Just for the record, this pivotal event occurs on June 21st or 22nd in the Southern Hemisphere.) The winter solstice happens because the earth’s axis of rotation is tilted at its maximum 23.4 degrees relative to our planet’s orbit around the sun, thus creating the changes noted above, so that one half of the earth is tilted toward the sun and the other half away from it at the time of solstice. After December 21st, the days grow longer until the summer solstice in June, which marks the longest day of the year and the first day of summer.

It is believed that for thousands of years, pagan Germanic peoples celebrated Yule for 12 days around winter solstice. In modern times, Yuletide has been reformulated by Christians and renamed Christmastide. Today, this celebration retains many of the original customs, such as gift giving, lighting trees, and hanging holly and mistletoe.

According to the Farmer’s Almanac, we often think of the solstice as spanning a full calendar day, while actually, it’s the exact moment when a hemisphere is tilted as far away from the sun as it can be. “Although the winter solstice means the start of winter,” this long-revered reference states, “it also means the return of more sunlight. It only gets brighter from here.”

Now there’s a reason to be grateful.

Begun in 1898 as a promotional periodical for the Southern Pacific Railroad, Sunset Magazine has a few ideas based on ancient rituals as to how you can celebrate the winter solstice and add a bit of relaxing, back-tonature time to the holiday hubbub. From Sunset’s pages, the following is from an article by Nena Farrell. • Build a Yule Altar to honor the sun’s return – On it, place a gold, silver, or yellow candle as a symbol of the sun. Add wintry pine cones, evergreen boughs and wreaths, and perhaps a yule log. Cleanse the altar with sage or sweetgrass. • Make an evergreen Yule Wreath for your door or your altar – In ancient times, evergreens represented protection and prosperity. • Burn a Yule Log – In Nordic tradition, an entire tree was brought into a home to burn for the 12 days of Christmas. Either burn a log in your fireplace or play the Netflix video, “Fireplace for Your Home.” Aren’t you glad you live in this century of technological marvels?! • Decorate a Yule Tree – Chances are you’ve already done this if your Christmas tree is up. Back when, Yule Trees were in actuality living trees rife with hanging candles. Along with any other decorations, these symbolized the sun, moon, and stars, as well as remembrances of lost loved ones. • Exchange Nature-based Gifts – Forego Amazon and give a small handmade wreath, a plant-based candle, meaningful crystals, or seeds. Choose something sustainable. • Give Back to Nature – As winter solstice is a time to celebrate the natural world, take time during the day to scatter seeds for birds and animals, and spend time outdoors. • Celebrate in Candlelight – To honor the return of the sun in forthcoming months, cover a tabletop or your altar in unlit candles. Place one candle, preferably yellow or gold as the sun, in the center and above the rest of the candles. Light that candle first, then the others. If you choose, you can recite a ritual while doing this. This link has suggestions: https://www. learnreligions.com/welcome-back-the-sunfor-yule-2562985 • Cook for the Season – How about a warm, stick-to-the-ribs soup made with root vegetables, a thick bread pudding with bourbon sauce, and hot buttered rum or cocoa? • Set Up a Meditation Space – Take time on the year’s longest night to think about what the new season and the new year might bring and what you’d like to manifest. The quietness of winter is a perfect time for reflection and inner growth.

Maybe, like Nobel Prize-winning author and philosopher Albert Camus, you can use this time of year to plant a seed of hope and peace in your life:

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”

Warmer days of sunshine, the greening marsh, and sea turtle hatchlings will come . . . they always do. Use Christmastime as a prep for a lighter 2023.

by Katherine Tandy Brown

By Cassandra King

Recently the Pat Conroy Literary Center presented a program aimed at addressing the controversy over whether to remove certain books from Beaufort County school libraries. The extensive list of books under consideration for removal was compiled by a group of parents concerned that the subject matter of these books was inappropriate for students, especially in middle school grades. The outcome of this controversy is important as it will determine not only what library books are available to students but also who has the right to decide what another person can or cannot read.

The Literary Center works most effectively in the community by offering a forum for many different voices to be heard. Last Sunday we focused on the dangers of censorship, but in a future program, we want to hear more from parents, students and teachers. As the organization’s honorary chair, a retired teacher, passionate reader and writer, and the widow of Pat Conroy, I felt behooved to expand on the Literary Center’s stance as it relates to the many conversations about literary censorship going on today. “Every voice matters” is more than a PCLC slogan; it’s a vital component of our organization.

As a nonprofit dedicated to promoting education and the literary arts, the PCLC felt an obligation to examine this issue more thoroughly, especially since one of our main missions is our advocacy of reading. Banning books in school libraries was something that Pat and I discussed many times. A former teacher, Pat valued parental involvement and believed it benefited both students and educators immensely. As a voracious reader, however, his position was simple: if you don’t like a book, don’t read it, but don’t deny others that opportunity by banning it. If an objectionable book appeared on a school reading list, he took the same stance as our current school policy: it is your right to ask that a different book be provided your child.

Pat’s life was forever changed by the books he read as a young man and by the support he received from his Beaufort English teacher, Gene Norris. Pat’s gratitude to his teacher was enormous and publicly expressed. Many of us likely had teachers who were there for us when we were finding our way in the world. Inspired by the relationship of Pat and Mr. Norris, the PCLC is dedicated to being there for the teachers of today, who have an incredibly difficult job. We want to support educators and librarians in any way we can, but mainly by respecting them as trained professionals capable of making informed decisions on educational matters. In Beaufort County, we are blessed to live in a community where we can work together toward a common goal: the best education possible for the next generation. Our country is facing a critical shortage of teachers and we need to examine the reasons why. Another directive of the PCLC is our work in encouraging future teachers through scholarship and training opportunities. If our teachers don’t feel supported and respected by their communities, we can expect them to seek better paying, more satisfying careers. When that happens, we all lose.

Lastly, it’s important to remember that books are much more than mere tools for learning. While textbooks provide essential information, books of fiction offer something much more complex but certainly no less valuable. Through the stories of others, students learn empathy and compassion. Reading books written by the marginalized allows students who also feel marginalized to feel less alone in their own struggles. When these diverse voices are silenced, something

essential to a child’s emotional makeup is left these symbolized the sun, moon, and stars, out. Exposure to different viewpoints helps as well as remembrances of lost loved ones. develop critical thinking skills throughout a

Exchange Nature-based Gifts – Forego lifetime. Because we are living through a time Amazon and give a small handmade wreath, of unparalleled division and acrimony, it’s a plant-based candle, meaningful crystals, more important than ever that we commit to examining the role each of us plays in forming Give Back to Nature – As winter the citizens of tomorrow. solstice is a time to celebrate the natural Thank you for allowing me to have my say world, take time during the day to scatter on this very important issue, and I look seeds for birds and animals, and spend time forward to more discussion to come.

Celebrate in Candlelight – To honor the return of the sun in forthcoming months, cover a tabletop or your altar in unlit candles. Place one candle, preferably yellow or gold as the sun, in the center and above the rest of the candles. Light that candle first, then the others. If you choose, you can recite a ritual while doing this. Cook for the Season – How about a warm, stick-to-the-ribs soup made with root vegetables, a thick bread pudding with bourbon sauce, and hot buttered rum or

Set Up a Meditation Space – Take time on the year’s longest night to think about what the new season and the new year might bring and what you’d like to manifest. The quietness of winter is a perfect time for

Maybe, like Nobel Prize-winning author and philosopher Albert Camus, you can use this time of year to plant a seed of hope and

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible

Warmer days of sunshine, the greening come . . . they always do. Use Christmastime as a Katherine Tandy Brown has traveled the world as a freelance writer for 25 years. She teaches memoir, travel writing and writing practice in USCB’s OLLI Continuing Ed program and in her downtown cottage. A certified writing coach, she is penning her first novel, One to Go: An Equine or (859) 312-6706

Cassandra King Conroy is an awardwinning author of five novels, a book of nonfiction, numerous short stories, magazine articles, and essays. She has taught creative writing on the college level, conducted corporate writing seminars, and worked as a human interest reporter. She lives in Beaufort.