Locally produced documentary will headed to SCETV (PBS) in Fall 2026
Staff reports
A new documentary, “The Art of Believing,” will screen from 1 to 2:30 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 1 at Penn Center’s Frissell Community House, highlighting the faith, artistry, and enduring legacy of three Sea Island artists.
The documentary is a collaboration between NOW Communications and Harden Creative that explores the connection between faith and art through the stories of three Sea Island artists: Rev. Johnnie Simmons, Susan Stone, and John M. Bradley. The 30-minute screening will be followed by a Q&A and artist reception hosted by producer Luke Frazier and associate producer Sasha Horne Hirshout, which will also feature the artists Simmons, Stone, and Bradley.
The screening offers the Lowcountry community a rare chance to hear directly from three Sea Island artists whose deeply personal spiritual journeys, from Gullah pyrography to shamanic healing to spray-painted ministry art, shape everything they create.
Simmons is a self-taught Gullah folk artist and ordained minister raised in the farming community of Frogmore on St. Helena Island. He graduated high school in 1969 and served as a paratrooper with the Army’s 173rd Airborne in Vietnam.
Years later, while working through PTSD in a treatment program, he found an ordinary rock shaped like a lion’s head, an encounter that sparked a new way of seeing the world around him. Soon after, an impulse buy of a wood-burning kit set him on a path as a pyrography artist.
Simmons now etches Gullah folk scenes and biblical imagery into wood, often painting in vivid color and captioning his work in the Gullah language. His art has been shown at Penn Center, Four Corners Gallery, and other Lowcountry venues.
Stone is a Port Royal-based artist, author, and healer. She holds an associate degree in commercial art and spent decades working in advertising, landscape design, and kitchen design while continuing to paint and teach.
In 2010, Stone was struck by lightning, an event that required eye surgery and, by her account, opened a deeper spiritual awareness that continues to inform her art today. She is a certified Crystal Healer, Reiki Master, and Initiated Shamanic Practitioner, and founded The Arts Port Royal, a school offering classes in fine, mystic, and healing arts.
Bradley has roots on St. Helena Island and is known for his large-scale, spray-painted tunnel installation at the Technical College of the Lowcountry, celebrated for its striking depiction of historic figures. Bradley has since developed what he calls “Ministry Art,” using bold spray-painted imagery paired with biblical passages to carry messages of faith, often inviting viewers to look beneath the surface for a deeper meaning.
Admission to the screening is free, though a $5 suggested donation benefits the York W. Bailey Museum. For tickets or to RSVP, visit https://bit.ly/45bMsZd.
Editor’s note: Luke Frazier and Sasha Horne Hirshout, the producer and associate producer, respectively, of “The Art of Believing,” have prior working relationships with The Island News. Frazier writes feature stories, while Hirshout contributes to the website while also selling digital advertising.