It began as a Christmas card and turned into one of the most extensive and artful compilations of the state's unique architecture. That's how one could describe the birth of Joy Stagg Rust's first book, Old Homes of South Carolina.
Ms. Rust created a pen and ink rendering of a local home as a cover for her family's annual Christmas card. Friends in other parts of the country started asking for copies of their own and found that she did not have any to sell. It was the first time she thought of actually publishing her artwork. She was already working on sketches of Charleston area homes when she realized that the only books on South Carolina's architecture focused on Charleston, not the entire state. She packed up her equipment and roamed the cities and rural areas to come up with 111 homes representing the variety of designs from nearly every European immigrant influence.
A native of Louisiana, Ms. Rust graduated from the John McCrady Art School specializing in ceramics and tole painting. She has taught arts and crafts professionally and was a member of the New Orleans Art Association. After moving to South Carolina in the early 1980s, she established herself as a watercolorist after exhibiting in the Tempo Art Gallery in Greenville, as well as having her pieces added to several private collections in Louisiana, South Carolina, and other states. She has been involved as a member of the Anderson Art Association and the Dutch Folk Art Association in Columbia.
With an avid interest in the history of South Carolina, she hopes her book will attract the attention of artists, historians, housewatchers, and tourists while serving as a reference guide to the state's diverse architectural styles.
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