Artist: Grayson Russell, Bryant Durant Russell | Location: Sumter, SC
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Artist: Grayson Russell, Bryant Durant Russell | Location: Sumter, SC
Sumter, SC
I am a 37 year recovering alcoholic, who after many years in the wind found myself in a very desolate place. I had traveled from South Carolina to Paris, Spain, New York and most of the Southeast only to return home, homeless. For the past two years I have come back from that and become the Director of Sumter Mission Outreach, a long-term men's and women's transitional shelter in my hometown of Sumter. Artistically, I have studied painting, literature and sculpture ever since I can remember. Years ago I worked with the renowned wildlife artist Grainger McKoy with the hopes of following in his footsteps. Sadly, and luckily, I did not have the talent to pursue that particular medium. Instead, I chose to become a writer and studied beneath two very wonderful professors at the University of Georgia named Dr. James Kilgo and Coleman Barks. Then I ventured out to see the world. Since I have returned and over the last two years, I started working wood again, and began making handmade crosses as an effort to help fund our homeless shelter. It began humbly in the beginning as a conduit to express or a way for me to investigate my own spirituality. And from there it has bloomed into what it is now, an art form, a responsibility and a continual dialogue with myself and the outside world. The piece I am submitting is a part of this dialogue.