Fraction of Time | Featuring Artists Steve Hurst and Byron Myrick

This exhibition showcases the two- and three-dimensional fine and functional art of clocks, plates, vases, and more, created by artists Steve Hurst and Byron Myrick. Presented with support from Forrest County and the Montague Fund for the Arts About Steve Hurst Born in 1952 with the monicker Winthrop Steven Hurst, Steve grew up in Ida B. Wells housing projects in Chicago, a low-rise, beautiful, sprawling, safe community. After high school, he pursued a career as a saxophonist and singer. Tired of living on the road and not making money, he moved to New York at 21 and studied graphic design, photography, and fine art at the School of Visual Arts. In 1978, he started freelancing in New York City. His graphic design career led him to Boston, Westchester County, New York, Cleveland, and California for twenty-four years. He started making clocks after the 1991 recession hit New York. His clients weren’t paying him, so he made clocks to pay the bills. The first show at his home yielded $1,800 in two days ($4,246 today). That money facilitated his move to Cleveland, which had experienced its recession some years prior. He’s had one-man shows in Illinois, Boston, New York, Cleveland, and California, exhibiting paintings, illustrations, and later, clocks. He has sold over 1,000 clocks since 1990. Owners include his first cousin, Oprah Winfrey (a gift), and Magic Johnson (a gift from the city of Richmond, California). Another custom clock was commissioned by Richmond as a gift to its sister city, Shimada, Japan, where it resides in City Hall. He moved from California to Hattiesburg in 2022. His latest clocks are made from retired drum cymbals, some with hundreds of holes drilled, revealing twinkling or color-changing lights as in a starry night sky. He creates landscapes from real rust that he forms from iron particles. The effects are mesmerizing and very soothing. He uses whatever happens to be lying around, or what people give him, and states that his purpose is not…