• HOME
  • FEATURES
    • Best Of Cover Shoot
    • Pet Owner’s Stories
    • People
    • Places
    • Issues
    • Remembering
    • Things
    • To Do
  • DEPARTMENTS
    • Finance / Real Estate
      • Financial Articles
      • Top 10 Most Expensive Homes Sold
      • Real Estate
        • Real Estate Experts
        • Articles
    • Attorney Directory
    • Ask the Experts
    • Business
      • Belle Hall Shopping Center
      • Lowcountry Women in Business
      • MP Business
    • Entertainment
      • Golf
    • Fashion & Beauty
    • Food & Drink
    • Giving Back
    • Health & Wellness
      • COVID-19 Articles & Resources
    • House & Home
    • Learning
      • Wando High School
    • Love & Marriage
    • Pets
    • Relax & Retire
  • Read Magazine
  • MORE MAGS
    • Charleston Women 👩‍🏫🏢
    • Lowcountry Cuisine 🧀🍷
    • Best of Mt Pleasant Mag 🏆🏆
    • Charleston Women in Real Estate 👩🏘️
    • MP Business Mag 🏢
    • MP Pets 🐶🐱
    • Charleston Independent School Directory 🏫
    • MP Senior Living 👴👵
    • More Mags
      • IOP Mag
      • SI Mag
      • MP Town Hall Magazine
  • OUR TOWN
    • MP Town Hall
    • MP Town Council
  • DIRECTORIES
    • East Cooper Church Directory
    • East Cooper Fitness Directory
    • Local 2019 CPA Tax Directory
    • Mount Pleasant Apartment Directory
  • SUBSCRIBE

Mount Pleasant Magazine

Mount Pleasant Magazine (Mount Pleasant, SC) informs residents and visitors about people, places and happenings around our area.

Shop Belle Hall
  • Best of Mount Pleasant
    • Best of MP Podcast
    • 2021 Best of Mount Pleasant including Previous Years
    • Best of Mount Pleasant Winner Articles
    • 2021 Best of Mount Pleasant Cover Photo Shoot
    • Best Of Magazines
    • Best Of Videos
    • Best Of Party Photos
    • Best Of Plaques
  • VOICE for MP Podcast
  • Real Estate Podcast
  • Our Winners
  • Advertise
    • Advertise With Us
    • Media Kit
    • Video Testimonials
  • MORE
    • MP Neighborhoods
    • East Cooper Online Network
    • Real Estate Experts
    • Attorney Directory
    • News
    • Contact

Small Movements, Big Ideas – Clay Rice’s Many Art Forms

Posted by MPM Leave a Comment

Clay Rice lives and works on the Isle of Palms.

Clay Rice, a popular artist who resides on the Isle of Palms, travels all over the United States to create silhouettes – and he can snip a profile in as little as one minute.

“I began cutting silhouettes and traveling to share them with others in 1982,” he told me over lunch at Triangle in Mount Pleasant. “From there, I began working with department stores, boutiques and toy shops.”

Rice initially learned his craft – and the passion for it – from his grandfather, the renowned Carew Rice, who was known as the silhouette “master” of the 20th century. The elder Rice’s famous landscapes had no color whatsoever in them; their mystery is part of what made them unique.

“What he was able to do with black paper is amazing,” said Rice. “His work invokes a kind of sensation as if you were in a dream. It reaches deep inside of you.”

Rice uses minimal color in his silhouettes and in his popular children’s book, “The Lonely Shadow.” He is careful to use just enough hue to “add feeling,” he said, while not “overpowering” the silhouette. His artistic influences in the use of color include Elizabeth O’Neill Verner and John Carroll Doyle.

As much as Rice loves creating silhouettes, his books – including this year’s print edition of “Mama, Let’s Make a Moon” – are a synthesis of his other artistic loves with silhouettes.

“Silhouettes aren’t all I do; they’re just a portion,” he explained. “I’m also a writer and musician.”

Rice’s affinity for writing songs began in Nashville, Tenn., studying music at Belmont University, where he “learned how to tell a story in three minutes or less,” he said with a smile.

“I have several influences in the art of storytelling,” he said. “Guy Clark, Shel Silverstein, Townes Van Zandt and Patty Griffin, to name a few.”

Rice feels that great storytelling is a matter of “peeling back layers and touching the spirit,” which seems to come easily to him. His main themes in the second book include family love, creativity and the idea of “making something from nothing.” Likewise, his first book, “The Lonely Shadow,” deals with a child finding companionship in, literally, himself.

“The Lonely Shadow” has won numerous awards for children’s literature, including the prestigious IPPY Gold Medal Award and the Independent Publisher’s Award.

“The Independent Publisher’s Award is the largest book competition in the world,” said Rice. “About 2,000 books from about nine different countries are involved. When I won that award in 2008, it garnished the attention of my publisher, and we knew a second book wouldn’t be far behind.”

“Mama, Let’s Make a Moon” is already a successful seller in the ebook world and will be available in print this summer throughout the United States and Canada.

“What is the book about?” I asked.

“Well, it’s about a little family that lives in the mountains,” explained Rice. “And they want to make a moon!”

I visited Rice’s studio a few days after our lunch at Triangle, where he was kind enough to show me his work space and the original silhouettes for “Mama, Let’s Make a Moon.”

“For larger pieces, I sketch out a landscape first, and then I freehand the animals and the other things that give it life,” he explained.

“How do you create such tiny details within the paper?” I asked, examining the miniscule snips that make up a rolling field of grass.

“With tiny movements,” Rice replied with a grin. “I use a special pair of scissors that I came up with – they have three loops for my fingers instead of two. That way, I can spread my thumb and finger farther apart and have better control of the scissors. I just came up with this technique a year ago.”

“You should call them Rice scissors,” I decided.

The "Rice scissors"

Next, he used a pair of “Rice scissors” to snip my silhouette right there in the studio. I knew I wouldn’t have to sit still for very long, but I still proudly declared that it was my first time being “an art model” since college.

Rice’s originals from “The Lonely Shadow” will be on display this summer at the Foundry Art Centre near St. Louis, where he’ll also be giving a seminar to teachers on the art of cutting paper.

As for his new book tour, the author will visit major cities around the Southeast and Midwest for a six-week promotion of “Mama, Let’s Make a Moon.” Stops will include Birmingham, Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Memphis and many others.

“And I’m working on my third book now,” he revealed. “But I can’t tell you too much yet. It’s a secret.”

 

By Denise K. James

Photos by Brian Sherman

 

 

 

Sharing is Caring

Possibly Related:

No related posts.

Filed Under: Things Tagged With: May-Jun 2013

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search the Site


We're on Facebook We're on Twitter Mount Pleasant Magazine Youtube Channel We're on Pinterest Mount Pleasant Magazine Facebook Community We're on Instagram
READ ONLINE
Read the digital magazine now.
GRAB A COPY
Where can I pick up a copy of Mount Pleasant Magazine?
SUBSCRIBE
Get Mount Pleasant Magazine Delivered.

2021 Best of Mount Pleasant Final Results

Best of Mount Pleasant Podcast

Ascue’s Auto Body & Paint Shop, serving East of the Cooper for 50 years
Mount Pleasant's ONLY source for everything PETS!
Read Charleston Women Magazine online now.
Need a doctor? Charleston Physicians can connect you with Mt Pleasant doctors.


Online Magazines

Mount Pleasant

Lifestyle Magazine

Read Isle of Palms

Magazine Online

Read Sullivan's Island

Magazine Online

Take a Bite

Lowcountry Cuisine Magazine

Georgetown, SC. Yummy Day Trips
Isle of Palms Magazine - family of sites logo
Mount Pleasant Magazine - family of sites logo
North Mount Pleasant Magazine - family of sites logo
Sullivan's Island Magazine - family of sites logo

Recent Posts

Southern Bell Living: A Wealth of Experience in Real Estate

By Lindsay C. Bishop In a place like Charleston, where houses go under contract the same day they’re listed, there’s no shortage of Realtors®. With so many well-qualified professionals to choose … Continue Reading

GrandScapes: Highlight Your Home

By Stacy Domingo Winner of Best Landscaper and also a nominee for Best Place to Work, GrandScapes is the go-to company for landscaping services in Charleston. Open since 2009, GrandScapes has … Continue Reading

Daniel Island Section

Keeping the Dream of Playing Tennis Alive: The South Carolina Junior Tennis Foundation

Since 1973, South Carolina’s Lowcountry has welcomed players from the Women’s Tennis Association once a year for the annual Volvo Car Open, North America’s largest women-only tennis tournament. … Continue Reading

Truly One-of-a-kind: 369 Ralston Creek Drive

Big cities certainly have advantages – culture, dining, employment opportunities and excitement. But face it: Sometimes people yearn for a peaceful, serene atmosphere where they can relax, raise a … Continue Reading

More Daniel Island Section Posts

SEARCH

Featured Pages

Mount Pleasant Apartments
East Cooper Online Network

Copyright © 2021 · Mount Pleasant Magazine, All Rights Reserved. Advertise With Us.