Featured Artists
Irene Tison
Irene Tison Forrester was born a native of Jasper County, South Carolina in the late fifties to parents that were still sharecroppers during that time period. Irene remembers the cotton fields that her family planted, especially the harvest times. Some of her older 12 sisters and brothers helped her parents with the planting and the harvesting of crops. Irene started drawing before she entered the first grade and was guided in her artistic efforts by her mother Mary Bell.
She remembers that her mother would come home from the fields and relax by sketching the world she knew as a child. Irene would sit at her mother's feet and watch her make a plain piece of paper come alive. Irene believes every canvas is a dream waiting to be awakened to a painting and everythingthat is seen is a world of joyful colors you don't see until it becomes a painting.