Danielle Fontaine in virtual conversation with Dwight Rose | Still Time on Pye Pond

Join us in welcoming author Danielle Fontaine for a virtual event with award-winning artist Dwight Rose! Fontaine's memoir, Still Time on Pye Pond, is a beautiful memoir told principally in encaustic paintings. Join us for a unique author event featuring visual art at its intersection with literature!

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Still Time on Pye Pond

by Danielle Fontaine

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Still Time on Pye Pond stands at the intersection of literature and visual arts. It is the story of a young White woman, the author’s daughter, rejected by her paternal grandfather for marrying a Black man. The memoir is told principally in encaustic paintings, from the point of view of the mother who remains painfully silent to avoid further unraveling tenuous family bonds. The story follows the author’s technical progress as she reclaims her voice in a newfound medium. Her paintings become the means through which a remnant of harmony is preserved, a hopeful bridge toward eventual reconciliation. The art becomes the words she cannot speak.

Dear reader,
Please come take a walk with me around Pye Pond, Grandpa's picturesque little farm in South Georgia where my beautiful daughter is no longer welcome because she married a Black man.
Let us consider together this enduring question of what we elect to keep or preserve and the reasons why, and pause to reflect on what, or whom, we discard along the way.
Let us consider the challenges of interracial marriage, and the importance of granddaughters.
With much love,
Danielle

"There is something vital in this conversation between image and story of the past--which is not the past at all, which is lived out any time Fontaine walks on Pye Pond. What is there about a belief that is more important than a granddaughter? Where words fail us, maybe these images can tell the story."--Jim Grimsley, author of How I Shed My Skin

"Still Time on Pye Pond is haunting and memorable. I want to look again at the images and let them wallow in my mind."--Leo Twiggs, South Carolina Hall of Fame artist and Verner Award recipient

Still Time on Pye Pond was published by Clemson University Press with the support of a grant from the Metropolitan Arts Council of Greenville, SC.

Danielle Fontaine was born in St-Adelphe, Québec, Canada, and lived in four countries and six states before settling in South Carolina in 1999 with her husband and four children. She is a graduate of McGill University in Canada, Oxford University in England, and Queens University of Charlotte in the United States. Her fascination with art began as a child, with the architecture of the Montreal World's Fair. The fantastic forms, colors and stories of Expo'67 inspired her to study architecture and later, creative writing. When she discovered encaustic painting, a new storytelling adventure began.

Dwight Rose is a professional artist, specializing in painting and teaching watercolor. After graduating with a BFA in painting from the Ringling College of Art and Design, he began his career in Sarasota, Florida. Exhibiting in local galleries, his paintings were recognizable with images of tropical landscapes and historic homes. Teaching for Ringling College, he later expanded his courses to community and museum programs. An award-winning artist, his work has been in the SC Watermedia Society Traveling Exhibition, and recently featured at Converse College, Blowing Rock History and Art Museum, the Peacock Gallery at the Middle Georgia State University, USC-Aiken Etherredge Center and The ArtStation Stone Mountain, Georgia. His career includes memberships in the National Watercolor Society, The Florida Watercolor Society, The Manatee Art Center and a signature member in excellence at the SC Watercolor Society. He has been a board member of the Spartanburg Artist Guild, and  the Spartanburg Collective formerly known as the West Main Artist Cooperative in Spartanburg SC.