Shantel Wingate: Faith In Form

The newest The Artist You Should Know is Shantel Wingate. She is a native of South Carolina, specifically Lane, a small, rural town of about 3,000 people. Lane is about thirty minutes Southeast of Sumter. I love to spotlight artists from small towns, for the same reason I love to highlight those from the South… they just don’t get enough love. To be crystal clear, you do not need to be from New York, Chicago, or L.A. to be talented. Nor do you need to hail from Charlotte, Atlanta, or Charleston to be worthy of a gallery show. 

Shantel is a proud small-town girl who described her hometown as a peaceful and whimsical place, where you could see the stars at night because there were so few street lights. She remembered sitting on the front porch as one of her favorite activities. And she can still remember getting her first paint set from her mom. Her actual art journey started by cutting up her clothes to make outfits for her Barbies at age four. 

From the beginning, her mother acknowledged and encouraged her talent, buying art supplies and signing her up for local creative opportunities. Shantel was in Art Gifted and Talented classes in middle school with Ms. Debbie Burrells. She then attended CE Murray High School where she continued to learn more about art before graduating with her 95 classmates. 

At this point, Shantel had planned to enter the military, to make money, be trained in a career field, and not put any financial stress on her parents.  However, when the recruiters came to take her to Basic Training, she had had a change of heart. 

Now most parents, especially those who have labor-intensive jobs, where every paycheck counts, would have probably argued for the stability of the military path. But when their daughter said she would rather go to college and major in art, Beatrice, a factory worker, and Harry, a railroad worker, told her to follow her heart. Her mother told her to go to school and major in what she wanted, because even if she didn’t use it later, she would have done something that made her happy.

Shantel describes her years at Claflin University as magical. For her it was a place of freedom that allowed for self-discovery. Claflin is a historically Black university in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Orangeburg is a special kind of college town because of its distinction of having two HBCUs and another one just 20 miles away. 

Shantel entered Claflin as a Studio Art major. As she tells it, in her Freshman year while taking Dr. Herman Keith’s class, they were all encouraged to experiment with different techniques and approaches. In doing that, she discovered a unique style that was not like anyone else’s among her classmates. And though later in life she would come to appreciate it, in her late teens she was self-conscious and insecure, displaying a style that did not fall in-line with what everyone else was doing. Hers was more abstract, with faceless figures that had more definite lines. Her forms were angular, and not as proportionate or anatomically accurate as her peers working in realism. So what do you do when you are an outlier? You fall in line…

Or in Shantel’s case you shift to ceramics. Shantel was able to work with terracotta, porcelain, and other materials at Claflin. And that, not drawing or painting, was her focus when her Senior show came around. 

Though she did the prescriptive thing of working at the campus gallery/museum and applying what she had learned about curating and handling art, finding a job in the industry post-graduation, in 2007, was more difficult. After months of applying for positions with no luck, Shantel moved to Columbia where she hoped to have access to more opportunities. 

Marriage, motherhood, working for a local non-profit, and living with past trauma was her life during the years that followed graduation. During those very busy five years, Shantel says that she felt like she “was losing herself in those titles”. All really good things, but not all of her was being tapped into, explored, or expressed. Many folks, I am sure, can relate.

Her conflict was though she had a Christian Art Center on her heart since before she left Claflin, she could not figure out how to make it happen. She was reminded in her day-to-day life that she was not using her God-given gifts, but faced a dilemma. When you are trying hard to fulfill the duties of the titles that you already have: Wife, Mother, Daughter, Sister, Employee, etc., wouldn’t it be ludicrous to think about adding another: Artist? 

And to add it to what purpose?  

It was not until 2019, when a dear friend and co-worker questioned why if she graduated with a degree in art, there was no evidence of that part of herself anywhere to be seen. With that earnest question, Shantel took a long look at her life and where her heart was and discovered though she thought “you bury dead things”, her talent and love for creating was not dead and was still waiting for her. Though she had a good life, she did not have the special joy that art brought to her and she missed it.

With the callout, in love, by her friend, came a lot of fear – fear of inadequacy,  the comparison of her talent to others, and mostly, just the fear of the unknown. In 2019, twenty years after leaving art behind, Shantel started back where she left off with ceramics. Still running from ‘her style’, she then dabbled in anything but the art that old Panther classmates would readily identify her with.  After doing just about everything but, she FINALLY returned to her style. She found beauty in what she and only she uniquely created.  

Remembering her initial affection for fashion, she links her style to the faceless models that designers use to develop their color, draping, and cut ideas. A major difference is that her inspiration is usually faith-based.  Her oeuvre celebrates Salvation, Grace and a life of faith. She sees her abilities as a special gift from God, the Creator, that in turn allows her to create also. She sees her story as evidence that God’s Grace waits on you to return to what He has planned for you. In this new-ish chapter of her story,  the process and the results of her art are an act of worship. 

I love having these conversations with artists because there is always a common factor that affects us all. The themes of fear and grace that are found in Shantel’s story can be found in all of ours. I hope that I have done the re-telling of her story justice, because the power of her unearthing her gifts after so long, moved me and made me look at my own life journey, including what I have been running from. 

Thank you Shantel, for your art and your testimony.

To keep up with Shantel and her art practice you can find her at The Christian Art Gallery  (Facebook).