For many creatives, the most personal expression of who they are as an artist is the space in which they live and work. Perhaps even more so than the art they make within, a studio defines who they are, meticulously built to coax the muses into sharing their divine inspiration.
From the rustic Spanish mission style beams and endless New Mexico views of Georgia O’Keeffe’s studio to the paint-spattered barn where Jackson Pollock dripped his masterpieces, the space itself is as much a canvas as anything else the artist creates.
Bluffton artist Wally Palmer’s Smoking Bird studio, tucked among the serpentine waters of Okatie, is so much more than just an art studio. From its broad back porches framed by Spanish Moss-draped oaks, a visitor can gaze upon a breathtaking panorama of the Okatie River the length of the horizon. Around its grounds, from the tidal creek running alongside it to the dirt road that brings you in, you’ll find a hodgepodge of found items and artistic castoffs – carousel horses, old rocking chairs, dock floats, crab nets, signs, carvings, and more – each carefully arrayed for elegantly balanced chaos.
“It’s been an evolution,” said Palmer of his studio’s Winchester Mansion-like outward growth. “My workshop started off as a screen porch, and then a tree fell through it. About 12 or 13 years ago I started adding the deck. I have friends in the dock building business, so all the wood came from old docks they’d replaced.”
The decks spill out in multiple levels down the embankment to the water, each tier offering a different way for the artist to approach the sculptures, mosaics, and reliefs he’s famous for. One level bears multiple spatters from the resin he uses to craft his art. On the level below that, large 3D art pieces in the form of an L, a V, and an E, along with a pearl, await placement on a large fiberglass oyster he’s yet to make.
“We face east, so the sun comes up right out there,” he said, pointing. “I like to be out there working early so I can see that. Plus, if I start early, I can have a beer at 2 or 3.”
Wally Palmer with one of his dad’s famous bird sculptures.
Sculpting a Legacy
Too often, you can sense when an artist is approaching their craft from a certain mindset of putting on airs. They don’t just want to make art, they want to give off the impression of “being an artist,” one unburdened by the usual restraints under which the rest of us labor. Palmer approaches his art without any of that pretext. His is a salt of the earth approach to art that he comes by honestly. Not only is he singularly gifted in his own right, he is also part of a broader tapestry of art that covers his entire family.
His father, Walter, is the most famous example, especially around here. Walter Palmer’s sculptures, which he once described as “people cleverly disguised as birds,” are just as much a visual shorthand for the Lowcountry as a palmetto tree or a golf tee. In private collections and public spaces, his flock spread its wings across the Southeast as he sculpted for more than 45 years.
Walter’s brother Jim, Wally’s uncle, is a celebrated painter whose works can be found in the private collections of former presidents. Wally’s Aunt Lynne used to run the Red Piano Gallery. His brother Kevin is an artist too – in fact, a few of his sculpted eyes can be found peeking out from ivy leaves all over Smoking Bird. And that’s just a handful of the family members who share in the incredible creative streak that runs throughout the family.
“My dad and uncle were a part of the Hilton Head artist roundtable back in the ’70s with the big artists of the day, Joe Bowler and Coby Whitmore. I would get dragged there by dad, and I remember playing out behind the gallery and climbing trees where they were all hanging out,” he said.
Bluffton artist Wally Palmer’s Smoking Bird Studios, tucked among the serpentine waters of Okatie.
It was a congregation of legendary artists, and Palmer was there whether he liked it or not. It’s only natural that he would absorb some of the artistic atmosphere. In the coming months, he’s looking to bring the roundtable back, helping local artists discover the same kind of kinship that his family enjoyed with the arts community back in the early days.
“I started a group on Facebook as a continuation of what they were doing,” he said. “They’re doing a show in November of all the old artists from the roundtable and it got me thinking. So, I got talking with Babbie Guscio about bringing it back and doing it in Bluffton. … It’s just a couple of hours where artists can hang out, share ideas, or just talk about basketball or whatever. We’ll have some musicians and Will Guscio is going to cook for us, so it’s going to be pretty cool.”
Even as he continues his father’s legacy as a member of the arts community, Palmer is also helping to rebuild that legacy, one broken bird at a time.
The Bird Doctor Will See You Now
One of the most fascinating rooms of Smoking Bird Studio is the oldest part of the building, where a fish camp once stood on the banks of the river. Stretching across a broad table, Palmer’s Bird Hospital has become the only place where his dad’s signature sculptures can be restored to their original glory.
“During the summer, I try to work on his pieces all at the same time. Some of them are really old and were never meant to be outside,” he said. “But then the parents would die, the kids would inherit them, and they wouldn’t know that.”
The repairs require Wally’s unique insight into Walter’s process, simply because of the unorthodox methods Walter used. “Anything he could use to get a shape with, he would,” he said. “I used to take old beer boxes and flip flops and [stuff] out of them. There were bed springs in one of them. He’d paint everything with resin then stick some Bondo on it when they’d harden up. He’d use a lot of cardboard and shower curtains and things.”
Among his patients are a few of his father’s most famous works. One piece is from 1968 by Wally’s reckoning, passed down through the Mingledorf family and currently rehabbing a broken leg. Another has served as the trophy for a Kiawah Island Golf Club tournament for years and is being treated for a triple fracture. And on the back deck, the famed bird that stood on Coligny Circle for 20 years before it was stolen is being patched with fresh fiberglass.
“A couple of years after it was stolen, a lady was walking her dog in Shipyard and saw an emu looking at her through a (villa) window,” said Palmer. “She called security, and this crazy-looking dude opens the door, chickens fly out, and they find all these live birds in his villa. He was really into birds. And there, in the corner of the living room, were the three birds that had been stolen from Lighthouse Realty.”
Palmer’s good friend Bill Sease purchased the lot for $500. Palmer was gifted one of them when Sease passed last year. Its restoration will allow the Lowcountry to appreciate once again an iconic lost masterpiece from one of its most treasured artists.
In the meantime, it makes a great conversation piece in the middle of a studio crammed with them. Each piece tells a story, and at the center of it all you’ll find Wally Palmer, continuing to express his art both on gallery walls and in the artistic retreat he’s created.
