By Barbara Augsdorfer, Editor for the Effingham Herald

Isaiah Scott, currently a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, is coming home, well, nearby anyway, next week to display some of his work as a bird photographer.

The pop-up display at the Gibbs Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, will run April 3-8.

“I'll be doing the artists in residency there and I'm leading a workshop. And my specialty within art is bird and nature art and specifically, the illustration of birds,” Scott explained.

In addition to viewing some of his work, patrons may learn how to paint birds.

“I'll be teaching a workshop on how to paint birds. Specifically my favorite bird is the painted bunting which (is a) beautiful, colorful bird. I think it would be very fun bird to learn to paint and kind of analyze the anatomy and the physiology and how to accurately illustrate and paint it,” Scott said. The painted bunting can be found all over the southern U.S., Mexico, Cuba, and the Bahamas. Coastal Georgia and Florida are among its breeding grounds in spring and summer.

Scott has been drawing and painting as long as he can remember, but his talent really began to shine when he took an art class while a student at South Effingham High School. He is now a sophomore at Cornell majoring in environment and sustainability, along with studying ornithology (birds) and taking art classes.

And as a Gullah Geechee, it was only natural that his studies in environment, sustainability, and birds would somehow become linked.

“I was very interested of how the Gullah Geechee people were able to connect with nature and adapt to the swamps of the low country and the marshes,” Scott said. “Then just be able to connect with the animals, plants, and nature in order to preserve this West African tradition, survive, and just how they're able to be stewards (of) nature and coexist.”

The interest in his heritage and art then led him to apply for the Don & Virginia Echelberry Fellowship through Drexel University. His proposed idea of producing a book or a field guide of birds connected to the Gullah Geechee was accepted in 2021.

“My proposed idea for (the fellowship application) was creating a field guide or an illustrated book (of) birds that are connected to Gullah Geechee people, cultures and Gullah Geechee animal folklore,” Scott explained. He added that birds may have played a significant role in the lives of the Gullah Geechee, the enslaved people who worked in the rice plantations, hunted birds to sustain themselves, and so forth.

“I had this idea for the main theme of the book is how birds are a natural expression or a metaphor for freedom and liberation of the Gullah Geechee people and African Americans. And telling this kind of untold story about the connection of birds and African culture as well,” Scott continued.

The Gibbs Museum of Art is located at 135 Meeting St, Charleston, SC. For more information and to purchase tickets for Scott’s exhibition, call 843-722-2706.