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[caption id="attachment_1067" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Victoria Smalls gallery curator, Mary I. Mack gallery owner, and Vertamse Smart Grosvenor Culinary Griot"]<a href="http://www.beaufortislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Victoria-Smalls-gallery-curator-Mary-I.-Mack-gallery-owner-and-Vertamse-Smart-Grosvenor-Culinary-Griot.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1067" title="Victoria Smalls gallery curator, Mary I. Mack gallery owner, and Vertamse Smart Grosvenor Culinary Griot" src="http://www.beaufortislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Victoria-Smalls-gallery-curator-Mary-I.-Mack-gallery-owner-and-Vertamse-Smart-Grosvenor-Culinary-Griot-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>[/caption]

Friends, relatives and art patrons came out to the Red Piano Too Art Gallery’s Spring Fling Exhibit on Saturday May 28th, which featured many authors and artist Mel Green.  Mel Green (1934-2007), a Korean War Veteran and native of Beaufort County, graduated from Shanklin High School and the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1959; he spent the next seven years working as a commercial artist.  Mel Green has been praised for his ability to combine Expressionism, Primitivism and Cubism.<!--more-->

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He said about his work…  “My paintings are an expression of my love, ideas, true feelings and philosophy of life.  If you can see and understand the waves in the ocean or a beautiful dance in motion, then you will get the idea of what I am trying to express in my paintings.  It’s very abstract, but it’s also very recognizable.”

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The exhibit will run now through June 30, 2011 and is free and open to the public.

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Among the participants for Spring Fling were well known Culinary Griot, correspondent on NPR's Cultural Desk, and author of Vibration Cooking: or, The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl, Vertamae Grosvenor; local bee farmer turned storyteller and author of Tales of the Great Swamp: Shrouded in Mystery, Earl Cooler, Sr.; John Warley, author of Bethesda’s

Child and contributor to This I Believe on Fatherhood; and Alvin J. Green, poet and author of The Struggle For Peace Of A Gullah Mind and brother to the late artist Mel Green.

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The St. Helena Brach of the Beaufort County Library was also on hand to inform the community of services offered by the library and to show plans of the new library that will be located on the grounds of The Historic Penn Center.  The Spring Fling is an annual event celebrated around Memorial Day Weekend.

[caption id="attachment_1068" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Author and Gullah Historian Dr. Emory Campbel and Sam Green "]<a href="http://www.beaufortislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Author-and-Gullah-Historian-Dr.-Emory-Campbel-and-Sam-Green-l.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-1068" title="Author and Gullah Historian Dr. Emory Campbel and Sam Green l" src="http://www.beaufortislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Author-and-Gullah-Historian-Dr.-Emory-Campbel-and-Sam-Green-l-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a>[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1069" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Author of Tales of the Great Swamp and Bee Farmer Earl Cooler, Sr."]<a href="http://www.beaufortislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Author-of-Tales-of-the-Great-Swamp-and-Bee-Farmer-Earl-Cooler-Sr..jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-1069" title="Author of Tales of the Great Swamp and Bee Farmer Earl Cooler, Sr." src="http://www.beaufortislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Author-of-Tales-of-the-Great-Swamp-and-Bee-Farmer-Earl-Cooler-Sr.-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a>[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1070" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Barbara Planchon and Author Delores Nevils"]<a href="http://www.beaufortislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Barbara-Planchon-and-Author-Delores-Nevils.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-1070" title="Barbara Planchon and Author Delores Nevils" src="http://www.beaufortislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Barbara-Planchon-and-Author-Delores-Nevils-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a>[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1071" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Gullah Artist Sandra Renee Smith"]<a href="http://www.beaufortislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Gullah-Artist-Sandra-Renee-Smith.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-1071" title="Gullah Artist Sandra Renee Smith" src="http://www.beaufortislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Gullah-Artist-Sandra-Renee-Smith-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a>[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1072" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="John Warley, Author of Bethesda&#39;s Child &amp; Contributor of This I Believe on Fatherhood"]<a href="http://www.beaufortislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/John-Warley-Author-of-Bethesdas-Child-Contributor-of-This-I-Believe-on-Fatherhood.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-1072" title="John Warley Author of Bethesda's Child &amp; Contributor of This I Believe on Fatherhood" src="http://www.beaufortislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/John-Warley-Author-of-Bethesdas-Child-Contributor-of-This-I-Believe-on-Fatherhood-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a>[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1073" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Author of Gullah Mind Alvin Green"]<a href="http://www.beaufortislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/See-and-Be-Seen-Author-of-Gullah-Mind-Alvin-Green.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-1073" title="See and Be Seen-Author of Gullah Mind Alvin Green" src="http://www.beaufortislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/See-and-Be-Seen-Author-of-Gullah-Mind-Alvin-Green-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a>[/caption]

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