Savannah's "Swamp Child" Heads South
Multidisciplinary Artist Shelby Longbrush is taking her talents to Darien for her first solo exhibition
Shelby Longbrush’s current exhibition at The Old Jail Art Center and Museum in Darien, Georgia is called “Swamp Child.” It might as well be the artist’s nickname.
“We go deep in the swamps, the canals, the rivers around Savannah,” the multidisciplinary creator explained of her inspiration, “and I like to bring a pad with me, a little sketchbook, and stop for 20 minutes, paint a little picture there, bring it back home, rework it a little bit from what I remember it being.”
The jail’s gallery space is filled with a collection of 40 works. Besides the paintings referred to above, there are several mobiles featuring driftwood and raccoon skulls, as well as a bicycle decoupaged with flowers. While there are a few pieces featuring Savannah’s colonial architecture, most of the work comes from the adventures that she and her husband Kevin take out into the wilds of the Lowcountry.
“Ninety percent of my show is inspired by the outdoors,” she noted. “We like to see what Savannah was like before all the buildings were here, and imagine the wild that the city truly still is, how we can all kind of live together with nature.”
From “blight” to an artist’s hub
Longbrush was invited to show at the old jail by Linda Shouse Humphries, who manages the gallery and museum on behalf of the McIntosh Art Association. Located at 404 North Way in historic downtown Darien, the space was given over to the group after years of neglect left it ripe for renovation.
“[The McIntosh Art Association was] meeting at the library, and they decided that they needed a gallery, a space to show their work,” Humphries said, noting that their first gathering was on October 5th, 2000, and included just four women. “Someone suggested this jail building, because it was sitting vacant along the main route. It was ugly, it had air conditioners hanging out of the windows, and the towers and the chain link fencing. It was just really a blight.”
That was in 2006, and not only was the outside a mess, the inside was too, with trash and debris strewn about everywhere.
Flash forward to 2024, and the building now sports a large gallery, clay studio, and gift shop, along with a number of historical displays tracing the history of both the jail and the region as a whole. There’s also a room devoted to information about the Kit Jones, a large boat once owned by RJ Reynolds that was installed on the rehabilitated grounds of the property in July of last year.
According to their website, there are also currently 265 members in the organization, a testament to the growth the that art club has seen in it’s two-decade-plus existence.
“I think any small town that has an active arts association is going to be better for it,” opined Humphries. “It draws in more visitors for one thing, that are looking for some kind of culture. I think it has an influence on the surrounding area; people want things to look attractive and kinda artsy.”
It’s also been a boon to the creative community.
“As an artist, you’re creating something, and you want to have some way of generating some income from it,” she added. “It also works for the customer, because people like to get the eye candy. They like to get interesting views of things.”
Following in the footsteps of a Savannah artistic icon
Savannahians have no doubt become increasingly familiar with Longbrush’s work in the past two years or so, as the artist has significantly increased her profile post-pandemic. She and Kevin have done several murals around town, including a recent sci-fi inspired composition at The Wormhole, and the pair co-owns Savannah Rickshaw, where she’s frequently hand-painting new designs on the sides of their vehicles, compositions that get seen by thousands of tourists and locals alike as the pair pedal around downtown.
It was her work with acclaimed international local artist Jerome Meadows on his Enmarket Arena installation “Of Communities and the Land and the Trees that Bear Witness to Them,” however, that pushed her to move her own personal work to the forefront with the show at The Old Jail Center and Museum.
“He taught me so much about experimenting with different mediums,” Longbrush said of Meadows, whom she considers a mentor, “and having an overall flow and concept through stone, metal, mosaic work, painting, and drawing.”
One other thing that the up-and-coming creator shares with the iconic artist is that she’s staying true to herself with the work that she does. Shelby Longbrush is a swamp child. And with her exhibition of the same name, she’s hoping to inspire others in the same way that she was inspired by her mentor.
“I hope that people see this and go, ‘I want to take my bike out. I want to be in nature. I want to see what little creature lives in my backyard,’” Longbrush said of her hopes for the exhibition. “Just go and observe the animals, because they live here too.”
“Wherever you live, just go outside, before the world is painted all gray,” she continued. “There’s so much beauty in the world around us.”
