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Visual Artist Jim Creal Wins Award from Artists' Guild of Spartanburg

Jim Creal, a 1975 graduate of Washington and Lee University, won the 2D Excellence Award from the Artists’ Guild of Spartanburg during its 42nd annual juried exhibition.

The UpstartbizSC website describes his work as an “exuberant, exploding, pulsating dance of creation.” Jim creates landscapes, still lifes and non-representational images through lithographic, etching and monotype-print processes. His work, which has been exhibited in numerous solo, invitational and juried exhibitions and recognized by many awards, is held in private, institutional and corporate collections. Jim also teaches in the South Carolina Arts in Education Program.

A Spartanburg native, Jim’s path to creating art has been an interesting one. He earned a B.A. in philosophy from W&L and worked for several years as a mate on a dive boat in the Florida Keys and as a welder on a massive fossil-fuel construction site in Nebraska. He then earned a degree in geology from the University of Montana and worked as a minerals-exploration geologist in Ireland, Scotland and Alaska. He returned to school for a B.F.A., also from the University of Montana, and began a career as an artist.

In 2013, Creal initiated his South Carolina Coastal Lithograph Project with a successful Kickstarter campaign, dedicated to creating a lasting body of lithographic work that captures the mood, spirit and rich diversity of South Carolina’s coastal habitats.

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