“Porgys”

East Bay St. in Charleston SC is a familiar scene for tourists that visit the city. This work shows the view that most see when they enter the city at it’s most popular cross-section of Market an East Bay Streets.

Tom Meddaugh Gallery

Paul Silva Gallery

After the Civil War, this area of Charleston devolved into near slum conditions. In the early 1900s, Dorothy Porcher Legge purchased a section of these houses numbering 99 through 101 East Bay and began to renovate them. She chose to paint these houses pink based on a colonial Caribbean color scheme. Other owners and future owners followed suit, creating the “rainbow” of pastel colors present today. The coloring of the houses helped keep the houses cool inside as well as give the area its name.

Common myths concerning Charleston include variants on the reasons for the paint colors. According to some tales, the houses were painted in the various colors such that the intoxicated sailors coming in from port could remember which houses they were to bunk in. In other versions, the colors of the buildings date from their use as stores; the colors were used so that owners could tell illiterate slaves which building to go to for shopping.

Artist Biography:

Artist and equestrian Joyce Hall grew up in the heart of Maryland horse country where at an early age she began observing and drawing horses. After teaching the equestrian program for Tulane University and establishing the riding programs for the College of Charleston and the Citadel she retired to devote all her time to painting and teaching art.

Select Exhibitions & Awards:

Joyce has exhibited in many museums and international juried and invitational exhibitions. She is a three time participant in the Leigh Yawkey Woodson’s flagship exhibit Birds in Art in Wassau, WI. She has shown several times at the Mikissic Museum Invitational in Columbia, S.C. as well as Art of the Animal Kingdom in Baton Rouge, L.A. Art Show at the Dog Show in Kansas has shown her canine paintings and invited her to a special exhibition at the American Kennel Club Museum of Dog Art in St. Louis. Canine awards also include The Afghan Hound Society and Eukanuba Dog Art Award. Her dog portraits are a regular at The American Dog Art Competition at Sardi’s in N. Y. where she won first place and People’s Choice.

Her dog portraits are represented nationally by The Studio in Charleston, S.C. Joyce’s equine art won the Royal Canadian Winter fair in Ontario and has been featured in Equine Art News, and Equine Images and she is a poster artist for The Carolina Cup Steeplechase in Camden, S.C.

One man shows of her equine art include: The Springdale Race Track Museum and Rutledge Gallery in Camden, S.C. and The Kershaw Museum. She was also the poster artist for Polo for Polio, and the S.P.C.A. Charleston Dog Shows. Joyce also exhibited her work at the N. J. Equine Artists Association Show and a regular exhibitor at The Kentucky Horse Park Museum. Joyce is a member of OPA, An Associate signature member of AAEA, and a Signature member of both NOAPS and SAA..

Carolyn Epperly “Four Corners of the Law”

is a term commonly used to refer to the intersection of Meeting and Broad Streets in Charleston, South Carolina. The term was coined in the 1930’s by Robert Ripley, creator of Ripley’s Believe it or Not!. St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, constructed between 1752 and 1761, stands on the southeast corner of the intersection. In its churchyard are the graves of John Rutledge and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, signers of the United States Constitution. On the northeast corner of the Four Corners is Charleston City Hall, constructed in the Adamesque style between 1800 and 1804. Across the street, on the northwest corner, stands the Charleston County Courthouse, originally constructed in 1753 as South Carolina’s provincial capitol, the building was rebuilt in 1792 for use as a courthouse. On the southwest corner is the United States Post Office, built in 1896, and the Federal Courthouse. The term “Four Corners of the Law” represents the presence of institutions representing federal, state, local and ecclesiastical law on each corner of the intersection.