Location: Lowcountry
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Yvette R. Murray
“Build your community and keep writing.”
Quick Facts
Level of Education: Undergraduate School
Years of Experience: 40 Years
About
Yvette R. Murray is an award-winning writer whose poetry opens the doors of seminal Low Country history for anyone willing to turn the pages. Growing up within the Gullah Geechee community in Charleston, she disagreed with how her neighborhoods were being portrayed. It was then Murray decided to pick up the pen and paint the rest of the untold story.
When asked about her process, Murray simply stated, “we all have our quirks.” She emphasized building communities for young writers and aspiring poets, highlighting the importance of practicing the craft. “Writers write,” she says.
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Rebecca Waechter
“Whether it’s a group of creatives, a book, a program, online community…find the support and encouragement you need to keep moving forward.”
Quick Facts
Level of Education: Graduate School
Years of Experience: 10+ Years
About
A contemporary artist, Rebecca Waechter specializes in three various fields: Anxiety Renaissance, Aviation, and Charleston Coastal. Growing up, drawing was always an art form that piqued Waechter’s interest. Pursuing an art major at Anderson University felt like the most natural next step.
For Waechter, there isn’t one subject of art that she solely focuses on, but rather, there are multiple that represent all parts of herself. “I wouldn’t necessarily say there is anything unique or unusual,” she says, “although I have been collecting dental parts for an interesting project that may or not may not ever happen.” Her Anxiety Renaissance work is her primary focus at the moment, and she hopes to showcase her work in the Charleston area more frequently over the next few years.
Waetcher credits the support from her artists’ community as the key motivator throughout her journey. She emphasizes that “there is a large mental component to all of this that a lot of people don’t talk about” and stresses that artists will experience “serious moments where you’ll have to grow and pivot, you’ll doubt yourself…all kind of things.”
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Cookie Washington
“Stay consistent, and keep quiet about your ideas in development, lest negativity causes you to stumble or pause.”
Quick Facts
Level of Education: Graduate School
Years of Experience: 50 Years
About
Cookie Washington is a fiber artist whose work centers on art quilting, doll making, and upcycled home décor rooted in cultural tradition and sustainability. She creates and teaches handcrafted rugs, baskets, and home goods using Gullah rag quilting, upcycled fabric coiling, and rag crochet ancestral, no-sew techniques that transform fabric into textured, functional art.
Her journey into the field began within a family tradition of making. Born into a family of multi-generation needleworkers, Cookie started sewing by the age of six. She shares, “By sixteen I was working with my mother, creating costumes for entertainers and making wedding gowns.” This early immersion developed into a lifelong commitment to craft, culture, and teaching.
The foundation of her work lies in cultural preservation and heritage practice. She explains, “Yes, I am teaching and crafting Gullah Rag quilts. This craft centered in the Low Country, has almost died out. The last person known to teach this has retired due to illness. I was taught raggin by her, and though I am not Gullah, I am a heritage crafts keeper.” Her work continues traditions that are at risk of disappearing while adapting them for contemporary audiences.
Her contributions to the field have gained significant recognition as she was recently named the 2026 Sam Doyle Artist-in-Residence. The residency is affiliated with the Penn Center National Historic Landmark District on St. Helena Island and recognizes artists working within Gullah Geechee tradition and is committed to cultural preservation and environmental stewardship. Her work has also been featured in major publications, highlighting the growing recognition of fiber arts within national conversations.
Cookie emphasizes the broader cultural and environmental significance of her practice. She explains, “In recent months, my work has also been featured in the Post and Courier here in Charleston, and I have been featured in the Saturday Evening Post. Together, these moments feel like part of a larger shift toward recognizing fiber art, particularly African American fiber traditions, as a vital part of American art and environmental dialogue.”
Through her ongoing work and the development of “Beautility,” she explores the intersection of sustainability, heritage, and design. She examines how sustainability, heritage, and design intersect, turning what has been discarded into objects of beauty, use, and cultural meaning. She believes there is a larger national story about craft as legacy, about Black women’s work becoming more fully visible, and about the role of traditional practices in addressing contemporary environmental concerns.
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Nina J Ita
“Don’t wait for someone to give you a manual. Be the person who solves the problem.”
Quick Facts
Education: College of Charleston and Trident Technical College
Years of Experience: 13+ Years
About
Nina J. Ita is a Senior Graphic Designer at A+E Printing in Charleston as well as a freelancer based in the Low Country of South Carolina, specializing in print design with over thirteen years of professional experience. By her own admission, she was never the kid who was constantly sketching in a notebook. Design found her through direct purpose and a willingness to raise her hand when no one else would. That combination became the foundation for a career built on solving problems. She describes her discovery as “the thrill of creating something from nothing was addictive.”
Her first real taste of design came in at the College of Charleston, where she and a group of friends founded the Asian American Student Union. With only MS Paint and Word at their disposal, they created poster campaigns and event programs for fashion shows featuring local Asian businesses and student work. With a formal background in Business and Marketing, Nina’s path into design is a classic case of the right place, at the right time, and a willingness to say yes. After college, she landed an internship that grew into an entry-level marketing role with a local restaurant group.
Despite having a comfortable but routine corporate job where “the most fun I had all day was making my Excel spreadsheets look pretty. That’s when I knew I had to commit.” she took a leap of faith. She began taking night classes at Trident Technical College, saved every penny, quit her job, and completed a degree in Graphic Design. Two months after graduating, she landed a position at her present company, the printing press she had been a client of during her restaurant days.
As the sole graphic designer at A+E Printing, Nina’s days are defined by variety and velocity. She might open the morning with a menu update for a long-standing restaurant client, shift to a corporate business card order, then pivot entirely to a brand-new client with a detailed, multi-part design project and a tight deadline. She has developed what she calls “rapid context switching”, which is the ability to move fluidly between different brand voices and industries without losing the creative thread.
Most recently, she led a full brand refresh just in time for A+E’s 30th anniversary in 2026. She balances her own client relationships with her day-to-day internal marketing and design responsibilities, a skill which has kept her versatile and sharp. For emerging creatives, her advice is direct: lose the fear of doing it wrong. You just need the drive to solve problems and the courage to say, “I can help with that.”
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Jael B. Gadsen
“Get as much experience as you can, each one counts!”
Quick Facts
Education: Furman University
Years of Experience: 20 Years
About
Jael B. Gadsen is a performer, songwriter, and vocal director whose relationship with music began the way it does for many, in the community. Growing up singing in church, participating in theater, and performing at special events, she built a foundation rooted in storytelling and shared experiences. A graduate of Furman University, she has spent the past two decades channeling that foundation into a career that spans multiple disciplines, from directing youth productions and coaching performers to performing in professional theater settings.
What makes her work distinctive is her ability to move fluidly between roles. Jael moves seamlessly between roles as a performer, vocal director, and teacher, connecting with people of all ages and backgrounds along the way. Her career has also taken her beyond South Carolina, having worked as a performer in Japan, an experience that reflects both her versatility and her willingness to follow the craft wherever it leads.
She describes her work simply: “I sing, write, and teach music”, but the body of work behind that statement tells a longer story. Jael has written and released three albums and earned recognition as a songwriter, building a catalog that reflects the same range of voice she brings to every stage and classroom she enters. Her career reflects how creativity can grow from community roots into a lifelong practice of performing, teaching, and storytelling.
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Joshua L. Shumak
“Stay connected to your community and honor what came before you”
Quick Facts
Education Level: Graduate School
Years of Experience: 10 Years
About
Joshua L. Shumak, Vice Chief of the Wassamasaw Tribe, works to preserve and promote Native American culture in South Carolina through leadership, cultural education, traditional arts, and community partnerships. Growing up, he recognized the importance of cultural knowledge, art, and storytelling in sustaining identity. He began by engaging in cultural preservation efforts and learning traditional arts from Native artists and cultural leaders, which developed into a broader commitment to advocacy, education, and community engagement.
The uniqueness of his work comes from its intersection of culture, community leadership, and public service. As Vice Chief of the Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians as well as the Tribal Liaison for the State of South Carolina, he operates between tribal communities and state institutions, fostering collaboration and mutual understanding. His work emphasizes “the intersection of culture, community leadership, and public service.”
He emphasizes the importance of remaining connected to one’s community and understanding that creativity is not only about producing something new, but also about honoring what came before. For Indigenous artists, creative work carries stories, teachings, and responsibilities. He encourages aspiring creatives to learn from elders and mentors, to understand the meaning behind traditions, and to develop their voice from their cultural roots.
Joshua prioritizes the fact that Native cultures are living cultures. The tribe’s traditions, arts, and stories are not just part of history—they continue to evolve and thrive today. He tries to “help create spaces where Native voices, artists, and communities can share their stories in their own words, and ensure that future generations have the opportunity to learn and carry those traditions forward.”
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Ronda Taylor
In this episode, we’re exploring what it means to find your voice with poet, storyteller and publisher Ronda Taylor as a writer and program director at Youth Empowerment services in Charleston, South Carolina, Ronda has leaned on her creative passions to uplift and connect with her community.
Transcript
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Gil Shuler
“I’ve always been an artist; I drew all the time.”
Gil Shuler is a graphic designer and business owner in Charleston, South Carolina. He holds a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts with a concentration in Graphic Design from Western Carolina University. He has owned his design studio and company, Gil Shuler Graphic Design Inc., for over forty years and is known for his artwork of the “Palmetto Doves.”
About
Gil Shuler was born and raised in Sumpter, South Carolina, where he started his art journey at an early age. From spontaneous art drawings to private art lessons and his early mastery of oil paintings, Shuler’s creative side was a driving force in his life. However, as he approached his junior year of high school, Shuler began to lose interest. Despite his deep-rooted passion for art, he focused on academic education. With two older siblings already in college and after an intensive search, Shuler attended Anderson Junior College, but he was still unsure exactly what his career path would be.
“I was there for two years, and after the second year of basically partying, I was like, I need to do something,” said Shuler. Shuler found his “something” when speaking with one of his art professors at Anderson, who introduced him to the field of graphic design. From there, Shuler attended Western Carolina University, where he received his degree in Graphic Design. Later, Shuler created his design studio and company, Gil Shuler Graphic Design Inc., In the early days of his career, Shuler took on jobs with individuals and small businesses, such as posters for a theater company where he first met his wife. Since then, Shuler began to grow his business and was able to recruit larger clients.
Shuler’s typical workday is anything but typical. He sets his own pace with multiple jobs, working from a punchlist throughout the day. This flexibility allows him to engage in other activities such as reading and fishing, but also to create work for himself and the Charleston community. One of his notable projects is the “Palmetto Doves,” a project he crafted to honor the nine victims of the 2015 Emmanuel Baptist Church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.
From Shuler’s experience in running his own business and establishing his career as a graphic designer, he offers advice to up-and-coming creatives who are interested in entering the graphic designer career path and working within companies. “Be flexible, listen. Don’t talk, listen, then execute,” said Shuler.
