The Artist Behind The Eggplant

The eggplant is everywhere. West Ashley has been covered in it since the summer, when posters advertising the West Ashley Farmer’s Market sprang up in the windows of businesses around the area. But where did the eggplant come from? It sprang from the brush of Charleston artist Kate Waddell.
“Harrison Chapman from the Office of Cultural Affairs contacted me on Instagram” to commission the  2016 poster for the downtown market, Waddell recalls. The social media platform generates ninety percent of her art’s exposure and sales. While the bulk of her ideas for the first poster had involved flowers or fruit, the afterthought of a rooster finally caught the city’s eye as the subject of the poster for the spring market in Marion Square. When the city decided to pilot the West Ashley market, they came back to Waddell to ask for the eggplant, which would be in season during the fall market. Waddell, whose love affair with art revolves around color, was thrilled by the rich hue of the vegetable and produced the multi-shaded work we now see around town.
Waddell declared a Studio Art major during her freshman year at College of Charleston, but she never expected to paint for a career. However, after working as the assistant to another artist at Redux Contemporary Art Studios while finishing her degree, she decided to give it a go. She obtained her own studio space at Redux soon before her graduation in May of 2015; she says by that time, “I was in the studio more than I was in class.” Despite having never taken a business class, she now makes a living selling her work. Though the artist’s life can be harder than it looks, requiring a mind for business and a thick skin, Waddell exhibits gratitude for her career.
The colors of Charleston have inspired plenty of street scenes in Waddell’s career, but her most recent series has been a number of paintings of colorful skeletons in her signature impressionistic style. While facing a slump during a difficult personal time this summer, she sought out a challenge and, recalling the most difficult drawing assignment she’d faced in college, chose to paint a skeleton. Though she wasn’t sure whether the series would connect with anyone else, she carried on with the work; it turned out that people loved the unexpected presentations of human bones. For Waddell, a view of the human body as an artwork in itself along with a family history of spinal injury make the skeletal system a subject of fascination. But she also finds that the paintings connect her with others. “I like adding color and joy to something people see as scary,” she explains.
Waddell’s paintings are available for sale on her website, and she expects to open a show in the spring. “My hope in every painting is to spread a little joy” and offer something different to the world, she says. A quick survey of her work—or simply the eggplant—reveals that she’s succeeding.