After starting his career as a strict purist, visual artist John Fulton eventually opened his mind to the digital age and discovered his true photographic forte. Using the computer as his canvas, over the last decade, his talent has allowed him to travel the world on high dollar advertising campaigns as well as contribute editorial images to publications around the world.

Things aren’t ever as they actually appear. Just ask visual artist John Fulton. Because while the word “photography” suggests a truthful representation of the subject in focus, the magic of Fulton’s work lies in his ability to seamlessly blend fact and fiction. Although specializing in conceptual advertising, Fulton’s large body of work ranges from calculated pictorial advertisements to editorial narratives that are heavy with symbolism and ambiguity. For the viewer, there is both satisfaction and guesswork in his art.

Tour these local galleries for this season’s must-see exhibitions.

Jepson Center for the Arts

Birds of Flight

This installation by Matt Hebermehl features a series of painted, wooden birds suspended from the museum’s atrium ceiling. The opening reception is on September 23 and the show runs until March. 207 W. York Street, 912.790.8800, Telfair.org.

Seed Eco Lounge

Untitled

A new series of mixed media by Rachel Raab is on display starting August 2 until September 30. There will be an opening reception on August 3 at 5 pm. Raab will curate future exhibits at Seed. 39 Montgomery Street, 912.349.5100, Seedecolounge.com.

JEA Art Gallery

Calvin Thomas, Tuesday June 1 – Wednesday June 30

The Jewish Educational Alliance Art Gallery features the work of Calvin Thomas, a Wrightsville, Georgia native and former SCAD fashion major. Thomas loves how paintings can change one’s mood and abstract painting is his passion. A reception will be held Thursday, June 24 from 6-8 p.m.

5111 Abercorn Street, 912.355.8111, savj.org

Irene Sullivan Gallery

On the Water, Saturday, July 24 – Saturday, September 18

The Irene Sullivan Gallery features the work of Tiffani Taylor, Ann Jackson, Skye Tarr, Ting Blessington and Janice Bentley. Beginning in July, the gallery will display paintings of the award-winning artist Skye Tarr in an exhibit called “On the Water.” Tarr’s oil-on-canvas paintings reflect landscapes of the Low Country. An opening reception will take place on Saturday, July 24 from 5-8 p.m.

18-C Tybrisa Street, Tybee Island, 912.786.8786, irenesullivangallery.com

Leahy Art Gallery

Ongoing exhibit

Located in Richmond Hill, Leahy Art Gallery Fine Art and Custom Framing features oils, watercolors, drawings, etchings and prints by local artist, Jim Leahy. Leahy’s work focuses on coastal scenery, nightscapes, and life in the Southeast. The gallery also offers a full-service, in-house, custom frame shop. Jim personally provides art placement and installation services.

11258 Ford Avenue, Richmond Hill, 912.727.5330, leahyartgallery.com

Black Dog Studio

Ongoing exhibit

Randy Parker, owner of Black Dog Studio, has been creating custom cabinetry locally for more than 25 years. With formal training in fine art, his specialties are color and finishes. Parker also displays his etchings and paintings in a gallery next to his wood shop and show room.

541 E. Liberty Lane, 912.236.6008, blackdogstudioinc.com

Gutstein Gallery

Diane von Furstenberg: Journey of a Dress, Friday May 14 – Saturday July 3

Diane von Furstenberg is a fashion designer who is most known for her timeless knitted jersey wrap dress. Von Furstenberg originated the wrap dress in the 1970s and it continues to be a staple in wardrobes today. Journey of a Dress celebrates her astonishing career and influence on the world of fashion.

201 E. Broughton Street, scad.edu/exhibitions

They were sick of asking permission.

And even if they had, Matt Hebermehl and “Dr. Z.” James Zdaniewski aren’t the kind of artists to take “no” for an answer. So, on Halloween night—the opening night of the Savannah Film Festival—armed with a 3000 Lumen Projector and DVD player, Hebermehl and Zdaniewski perched atop the State Street parking garage, opposite Savannah College of Art and Design’s Jen Library. After scoping out different spots across the city, Hebermehl decided it was the perfect location for taking their artwork to the streets. They ran an extension cord from the garage’s electrical outlets, through the stairwell, to their equipment. “We [acted like we] were just messing around,” Hebermehl says. “Like we didn’t know what was going to happen.”

The quintessential outdoor artist, Paul Alico gets all of his inspiration from the world around him. As he takes to Savannah’s streets for hours each day. After visiting the Lowcountry a few years ago, the New Yorker says his style has grown tremendously since embracing Southern culture and now spends half of the year here creating his paintings and pastels.

His work is available at the Mansion on Forsyth Park. Enjoy some examples of his work here, not seen in the magazine.

Head to the Starland District this Friday for a free evening of art and music featuring the immense talent of dozens of Savannah artists. Desotorow Gallery will feature two group shows: Gendered, a juried exhibition of art on the themes of gender and identity, and Strut, a showcase of work by local artists.
In addition to the group shows, Starland-based artists Raabstract, Kellie Walker and Matt Hebermehl will open their studios to the public. Open studios are always intriguing for artists and lay-people alike, because they provide an opportunity to see the unique environments that artists create for themselves, as well as glimpses into the process of making art.

Where art meets design and form meets function, students at SCAD become professional designers.

Happening into a hip Baltimore boutique, Savannah College of Art and Design student Kay Wolfersperger was surprised to find a particular collection of geometric melamine dinnerware on display. In espresso brown, slate gray, teal and gecko green were the patterns of diamonds, layered circles and block-in-line designs she herself rendered by hand and computer. “This is really happening,” she remembers thinking, standing before The Kay Collection chargers, salad plates, bowls and tumblers. “The scale to which my line was being marketed and sold across the country did not hit me until I saw it [then] … and it wasn’t just limited to Savannah.”

With brush in hand, Anna Fox Ryan explores the gritty relationship between man and machine.

“What if nothing changed and industry continued chugging oil, choking our economy and churning out pollution? What if the machines that destroy us become the relics of our existence?”

Pondering—and painting—these questions is a full-time job for Savannah-based painter Anna Fox Ryan. Her work, which touches on apocalyptical circumstance, directly questions the costly behavior of big business, the wastefulness of our society and the destruction of natural habitats. Intending to spread awareness, Fox Ryan renders power poles, smoke stacks, wind turbines and fire as motifs for a collection-in-progress.

She came to Savannah from Charlottesville, Virginia for the same reason as many other students: To obtain a degree that would allow her to have a career that is both creative and financially secure.

The South celebrates an artist who forges a uniquely artistic look for Savannah’s historic district.

On Wayne Street, a pair of Camellia trees stand in eternal bloom. Swaying branches support individual petals and delicately veined leaves. These life-size trees are the forged steel creations of renowned metalworker John Boyd Smith. Welded together, the trees form a carport gate at a private residence. Metalwork of this caliber, where flowers of steel bloom in three-dimensional form, is unusual, first in its artistic achievement and second, for its practical purpose.

Unlike traditional metalwork, which commonly features scrolls and simple designs, Smith’s creations depict elements of nature with sculptural nuances and careful detail. Smith renders metal into “realism.” Only a handful of American blacksmiths can produce this caliber of work—“Maybe less than five,” Smith says.

Savannah artist Elena Madden has been in “a blue mood.” But she’s not looking for pity “That’s a good thing for me,” says the 33-year-old painter. “Sometimes I go crazy—monochromatic. Lately I’ve been feeling that cerulean blue color.”

“That cerulean blue” leaps off the surface of recent works in Madden’s Ring Series— abstract mixed media paintings of large, shimmering overlapping circles in rich teals, blues and reds covering canvasses three- to four-feet square and capturing a juxtaposition of elements that the artist has made her own—the intersection of water and light.

In the 13 years since receiving her painting degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design, the Ring Series is perhaps Madden’s best-recognized and most lasting body of work.