The Statesboro Regional Art Association’s silent auction of pictorial works spawned along the river raised more than $6,000 for the Ogeechee Riverkeeper’s environmental education program.
Friday night’s “Life on the Ogeechee” event also served as a mixer for nonprofit organizations who have discovered overlapping interests.
“Many of our artists have grown up swimming, hunting, fishing, kayaking and picnicking on the Ogeechee River,” Betty O’Berry, the art association’s president, said in prepared remarks. “Deer, fox, some say bears, otters, beavers, alligators, frogs, snakes, eagles, ospreys, egrets, birds of various kinds, and most importantly man, rely on the Ogeechee for pure water.”
This year, the Statesboro Regional Art Association marks its 40th anniversary. But the monthlong exhibition of 48 works by local artists at the Averitt Center for the Arts, capped by the reception and auction, was something new.
Member artists, such as Ida Waters, first thought to devote an exhibition to raising funds for a local cause that they supported. The group considered other causes, but decided to make the Riverkeeper the beneficiary, as Waters advocated.
Planning began in November. So Friday capped half a year of artistic and organizational efforts. Members of the art association and the Ogeechee Riverkeeper – plus supporters of the Averitt Center and people who were officially none of those things – mingled over wine, soft drinks and finger foods through three second-floor gallery rooms. It was a “silent” auction because bidders quietly wrote their offers on cards beside each picture.
But the night wasn’t silent. The Ogeechee River Rounders, a part-time band made up of Matt Dowling, Rob Elliott, Steve Jones, and Abbie and John Thompson, played old-time and folk tunes. Unlike many of the Ogeechee-themed pictures on the walls, the band was not created for the exhibition. They formed a little more than a year ago, Dowling said.
Before the Rounders, the first music of the evening was a recording of “Ogeechee,” music for flute and orchestra by Atlanta composer and flutist Nicole Chamberlain.
The bidding was just starting when O’Berry introduced Emily Markesteyn, the Ogeechee Riverkeeper executive director, to make her remarks. Markesteyn thanked the art association, the Averitt Center and all who had a hand in the benefit exhibit. Then she talked about the Ogeechee River as having a “pristine quality” people cherish, but facing pressures.
Hometown Waters
“Despite the impression of a largely rural landscape, this region of Georgia is experiencing increased pressures – of agribusiness, population growth, water withdrawals and wastewater discharges – which are forcing the rivers to undergo drastic changes in water quality and face serious ecological decline,” Markesteyn said.
Ogeechee Riverkeeper works to reverse these trends and improve the condition of the 5,500-square-mile river basin, she added.
Founded in 2005 from earlier associations, the Riverkeeper organization now has about 1,000 contributing members and an annual budget of around $200,000, according to Markesteyn.  She describes its mission as including regulatory advocacy, investigation of problems, and public education.
But the money raised by the Life of the Ogeechee art show will go specifically to one aspect of the Riverkeeper’s work, the Hometown Waters Education program, Markesteyn announced.
“It’s one of our program areas where we go out into the schools and into the communities and we try to educate citizens and their families on the importance of clean water and ways to protect it,” she said in an interview.
After the paintings and door prizes were distributed, Jessica Mnieckowski, the Ogeechee Riverkeeper’s outreach director, announced a preliminary estimate that the event had raised $6,160. This included sponsors’ donations and sales of $10 reception tickets, as well as the auction sales.
Some artists donated their works outright. Others received the posted minimum bid minus $25, with the rest going to the Riverkeeper. Not all of the pictures found buyers, but Mnieckowski said that 60-70 percent had sold.
Artists’ approaches
Most of the artists created works specifically for the Life on the Ogeechee exhibition. Waters had painted “Sunset on the Ogeechee” earlier, but created two more works for the show.
Glenn Haynes could identify a very specific setting, near Williams Landing, for his “River Goddess,” a watercolor of an egret perched magisterially on the end of a log emerging from the water. The water’s surface, built up of specks of paint elongated to suggest the river’s flow, reflects the log and bird in shimmering colors.
Getting that effect took some struggle, Haynes said.  Observant visitors to Statesboro Regional Library saw the process in March, when Haynes displayed the work then in progress as part of his personal exhibit there. He has been kayaking along the Ogeechee, taking thousands of photographs along it, and painting for about six years now, since retiring as a church music director.
Displayed nearby, Julie Bressler’s watercolor “Springtime on the Ogeechee” drew the attention of several bidders with its vibrant greens and reds. But Bressler confessed that her three paintings in the show were done specifically to fit its theme and that she hates painting still water.
She took it up as a challenge on behalf of worthy cause, but can now return to doing watercolors of flowers and buildings, which she much prefers.
“It was a job, but it’s worth it. Tonight’s been wonderful,” Bressler said. “We’re already saying, ‘What can we do next year?’”
Carolyn D. Morgan’s “River Sunset,” painted in acrylic but with experimental paste method for texture, was used in some publicity materials for the show. Its whorl of shimmering, reflected sun made some viewers think of Monet’s “Impression, Sunrise” or even Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” But with clear representations of trees and river, it’s less abstract than most of Morgan’s work. A professional artist, Morgan now lives in Pembroke but once owned a gallery in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Betty Franklin took “River Sunset” home with a winning bid of $275.
The show also included a number of photographs. Edward W.L. Smith noted that his photos, such as “Alligator at Rest,” were of water scenes but not actually from the Ogeechee, because the artists had agreed that other water-themed works were permitted. There was also at least one fabric work, a small quilted piece by Sarah Higdon depicting a meandering river.
Buyers made bids based on interest in both art and the Ogeechee. Fred Shearouse, who lives near the river and is active in the Riverkeeper group, made some winning bids.
“I’ve fished the Ogeechee River since I can remember. We just thoroughly enjoy the river, and we do whatever we have to do to keep her clean,” Shearouse said.
With that, he mentioned the organization’s ongoing efforts to block King America Finishing from discharging wastewater from its Screven County plant into the river. This topic was not part of Markesteyn’s public comments, but she acknowledged in an interview that Ogeechee Riverkeeper, having stated its points of opposition, is awaiting a state Environmental Protection Division decision on the permit and continues to pursue a federal lawsuit.