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Charleston IN PLACE Artworks Tour
Item 5 of 8
This is a contributing entry for Charleston IN PLACE Artworks Tour and only appears as part of that tour.Learn More.
Alternately known colloquially as Portrait of a Student, Girl is a 2019 work by Debra Rayhill. Rayhill typically creates inventive watercolor portraits. This piece is paint on metal and part of the city of Charleston's IN PLACE initiative, which placed small works of public art throughout the city. Rayhill's Girl, like all other IN PLACE pieces, interfaces directly with its surroundings. In the case if this piece, the tangle of ivy and bushes serve as a stand-in for the young woman's hair. The community title of the work suggests that the figure is a student and this is supported by Rayhill's placement of Girl near Stonewall Middle School. Rayhill's work is unassuming and simple, though once one knows of its existence, the local landscape is enhanced.

Girl.

Plant, Plant community, People in nature, Terrestrial plant

Charleston putting new "face" on landscape with in-place mural projects, WCHS. April 19th 2019. Accessed January 26th 2021. https://wchstv.com/news/local/charleston-putting-new-face-on-landscape-with-in-place-mural-projects.

Eye of the Beholder: Public art fits in seamlessly around Charleston, Charleston Gazette-Mail. June 23rd 2019. Accessed January 26th 2021. https://www.wvgazettemail.com/life/eye-of-the-beholder-public-art-fits-in-seamlessly-around-charleston/article_2a10c3f6-315e-5004-b895-8d6d9797d752.html.

Public Art to be Installed During City-Wide Clean Up, Charleston WV. Accessed January 26th 2021. https://charlestonwv.gov/news-items/thu-04182019-1557/public-art-clean.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Office of Public Art, Charleston WV. Accessed January 26, 2021. https://gisweb.cityofcharleston.org/storymaps/arttour/#.