Q&A: Meet the Athens artist who created jewelry for 'Atlanta' TV series

You don't have to be an artist to learn something important from Charles Pinckney. After growing up in Jim Crow-era South Carolina, Pinckney spent time as an airplane pilot, hospital staff member and radio personality before pursuing visual art as a career.

Though his current Lyndon House Arts Center exhibit "Story As Jewel" ends Friday, Pinckney's work has been immortalized on film in the FX TV series "Atlanta" and in the personal collections of those who have purchased or commissioned his signature jewelry over the decades.

In this Q&A with Banner-Herald arts and culture reporter Andrew Shearer, Pinckney discussed the profound influence of his earliest childhood memory, why he recently retired from travel and vending as a metalworker, and how life isn't necessarily about finding your calling, but answering it when it calls you.

Andrew Shearer: Your work often features a unique combination of precious metals and found objects. What was the origin of your signature style?

Charles Pinckney: I always had this memory of a white car, and when I asked my dad if we had ever owned one, he said that we did but I was 3 at the time, much too young to remember it. Someone picked me up and sat me on a white car. I didn't know what that memory meant, but I do now. While I was sitting there, I saw something that grabbed my attention and transfixed me so much that I had to reach out and touch it. Oh, that was magic. Decades later, I learned that it was the hinge for a truck. Just a couple inches long, I guess. Lord, the middle tapered off the ends, and it was beautiful. That's when it started. I've got no PhD backing me up, it's just my brain. One of those things that reoccurs throughout the length of your life that you see glimpses of, but you may or may not focus on it. It's consistent, it's there, and that is where you need to go.

Shearer: How old were you when you started making art?

Pinckney: When I was 9 or 10, I was old enough to mess around with knives, and I started carving sticks from the yard. First thing I carved was a pocket knife from a twig. To challenge myself, I wanted to carve this pocket knife without breaking it apart. I got an X-Acto knife and cut out the blade inside the carving. It's not about removing the material all the time. Sometimes it's about separating it. Will it work? You only find out by trying. And I thought I could pull that blade out of that twig. From that, would move on to scrimshaw (engravings, and carvings done in bone or ivory).

Shearer: When did you decide to pursue a career in art?

Pinckney: Around 1983, I took a weekend course at Arrowmont (School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee) with a woman named Eleanor Caldwell and fell in love with metal. One day, I came into the studio to start the class and Eleanor was going through the notebook that I left on my workspace. She said that my designs were wonderful, and that she was impressed because I had no previous experience in metalworking. That lead me to leave wood and bone scrimshaw behind and explore the metal, but I gradually came back to incorporate those things later on.

I knew that I couldn't just jump into art and make a living. By then, I had plenty of contacts in the radio business if I wanted to come back, so I took the savings that I had and moved to Athens, which was a cheap place live in the mid-1980s. My decision was to give myself two years. I spent the first year learning technique, taking classes and practicing. For the second year, I learned marketing by getting a view of how my work would be accepted. I did a show where I didn't sell anything, I just asked people to tell me what they think. What do you like? What don't you like? From there, I traveled to craft fairs all over the country and sold my work locally at artist markets and flea markets. I measured my success by whether or not I was making money, and I was.

Absynia: This Athens artist wants you to ’feel like art’ wearing her handmade African-inspired jewelry

Shearer: How did your jewelry come to be featured in the FX TV series "Atlanta"?

Pinckney: I had colon cancer in 2015 and had just completed 12 rounds of chemotherapy. At the end of it, they said I was good to go, and I rang the bell and everything. Cancer-free. There was a craft show in Marietta that year, and even though my immune system was still kind of vulnerable, I needed to get back out there. That's just me. While I was there, I ran into one of my old radio colleagues and told him about the cancer. Little did I know, he had cancer then and would end up dying a short time later. Had I remained sitting on my behind, I wouldn't have seen my friend, and I wouldn't have been there when the set designer for "Atlanta" came through the show. They contacted my wife and business manager, Karen Hamrick, and the rest is history. Almost all the jewelry work by Zazzie Beetz in the first season of "Atlanta" was designed and created by me. The hard part was making duplicates of everything, because they need backups incase the pieces break or go missing.

Shearer: Now that you're retired, what is your relationship to your art career?

Pinckney: Karen passed away in 2020, and I realized very quickly that I couldn't carry the load on my own, and I shouldn't be out there if I can't do that. I just don't have the stamina for doing shows, especially the outdoor ones. If I start out with a good head of steam, the heat saps it just like that. And when the weather gets bad, you have to take your display down quickly, and I didn't want to impose on the other artists. They'd be willing to do it, but they didn't come there to help Charles hold his tent down when they're trying to hold their own tent down. I went from doing 20 plus shows a year to do like three. I have a great clientele and have been so blessed with the people that I've built up as followers. Now I stick close to home, and always indoors. I'll be at The Creative Arts Guild’s 60th Annual Festival of Fine Arts and Crafts weekend in Dalton on Sept. 15-17.

The Lyndon House Arts Center is located at 211 Hoyt St. in Athens. Admission is free and open to the public. For hours of operation, visit accgov.com/9910/Visitor-Services. To read more about Charles Pinckney, visit charlespinckney.com.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Q&A: Athens artist Charles Pinckney made jewelry for 'Atlanta' TV show