Published: March 12, 2008 02:54 pm         

Art is by inspiration

Every hurricane season, Claire Foster-Burnett and her husband Scotye came to Greenville to visit his relatives and to get away from potential storms. When the couple came to Greenville in 2005, however, they had no home to return to because their house was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.

Now Greenville residents, the hardest thing for Burnett about Katrina was losing some of the most priceless possessions she owned — her African American artwork.

A second-grade school teacher for 36 years, Burnett had her first art showing in 1953. It wasn’t until she retired from teaching, however, that Burnett became deeply involved with her artwork.

“My art represents a part of black history and the spirits of my ancestors, which needed to be fulfilled,” she said.

One of Burnett’s most inspirational pieces, which is owned by 18 patrons throughout the country, is called, “Gold Weights.” The mixed-media Three-D collage depicts a slave ship, pointing upward, and is made up of golden half-clothespins clustered together, which represent slaves.

“I wanted it to show the empowerment and survival (of our ancestors),” she said.

Burnett said that the name, “Gold Weights,” was chosen to describe the slaves’ monetary importance in the Southern economy.

“In other words, they were worth their weight in gold,” she said.

When Katrina hit, Burnett said that they could see their neighborhood on television.

“We couldn’t see our house, but we recognized our neighborhood,” she said. “Our house was in water for 20 days. I had put my artwork upstairs, but about 30 pieces were still destroyed. When you create something like art, that’s like giving birth. You put so much into it, and when it was gone, it was like part of me was gone, too.”

Burnett, who also lost a lot of family antiques and some of her collectible African American books and artifacts, said that they had to start from scratch.

“Everything from clothes to pots and pans,” she said. “We had no place to go back to.”

After living on a month-to-month lease, Burnett said they decided to buy a home in Greenville.

“Once I saw that house (that we looked at), I knew that that would be home.”

Burnett, who recently showed off some of her books and artifacts during Black History Month at the W. Walworth Harrison Library, said she used to use her artifacts as teaching tools.

“I would bring the artifacts to the classroom because I realized that the kids didn’t know about black history,” she said. “Sometimes, I would have the whole school wanting to come into my classroom to see the artifacts. Students even asked me how did I have room in my house to store everything.”

Burnett said that once she gets an inspiration for an art piece, she’ll work into the wee hours of the night.

“Sometimes, I’d be up at 2 a.m., and I’d look over and see my husband watching me,” she said. “I thought he’d put a straight jacket on me right then and there.”

Scotye said he’s proud of his wife’s work, but he doubted her sanity at first.

“When she first starting doing this, I thought she was losing her mind,” he said with a laugh. “She’s very professional with her art. She does it her way or no way.”

Burnett said that when she first started her art work, she started to lose weight.

“I used so much energy,” she said. “Art is by inspiration, and it’s something that takes over.”