The Atlantic House Commemorative Series, "The Final Moments"
by Madeline Carol

It was September 21 , 1989, and the airways were filled with warnings of the approach of Hurricane Hugo. The morning paper depicted the approach of the storm and cautioned about its impact upon the coast of South Carolina. It was a warm morning with grey skies and swirling clouds and the highways were filled with residents fleeing the coast before the arrival of the Hurricane that was growing in intensity as it approached the South Carolina shore. On Folly Beach the swells of the Atlantic were growing and sending vibrations up the pilings into the Atlantic House. This old structure had weathered storms before and survived the wrath of hurricanes which had visited the shores of Folly Island. A popular spot normally filled with the voices of people and the activities of the employees which worked there, the Atlantic House was this day being battened down to sustain the force of whatever was to come. When its doors had been closed and the last person left, no human was to ever see and experience The Atlantic House again, a Charleston landmark. There it sat in dead silence and calm as the turbulence grew without and the fateful rendezvous approached. As the evening progressed and the storm moved into the Charleston area, the Atlantic House defended itself against destructive winds and a turbulent sea. But with hurricanes, there is the eye of the storm, with the winds tightly knitted around the walls and the calmness with in but containing a deadly storm surge in a dome of water. As the eye moved into the Charleston area, the storm surge came crashing down on a flooded Folly Beach, and the Atlantic House which had fought so valiantly was lifted from its foundation and began crumbling and tearing apart in the force of Hurricane Hugo. It is this energetic and violent finale which is captured in the first of the Atlantic House Commemorative Series, "The Atlantic House, The Final Moments". Madeline Carol has captured the dead calm of the interior of the Atlantic House, and the beaten exterior struggling against the elements as it is being overcome by the storm surge rolling in and beginning to lift the Atlantic House from its foundations. You can see the walls of the eye of Hurricane Hugo which are passing over Folly Island and the dome of water known as the storm surge, inundating the beach bringing the final blow to the Atlantic House. Through the use of lively watercolors, Madeline has created a feeling of being in the eye of the storm and being exposed to the violence and the energy of the storm surge. Through her impressionistic technique, she is able to convey to you the feeling of an Atlantic House alone and sad, though still standing, tattered and weathered by the battle it has endured during the preceding hours and reluctantly yielding to the hostile elements around it. From consultations with Mr. Eddie Taylor, owner of the Atlantic House and local WCIV TV meteorologist, Bill Walsh, Madeline has tried to recreate what no human being was there to see, the final moments.

Through the eye of Hugo she gives you the panorama of the Atlantic House being transformed into a memory. Through the glow of the pale light of the eye of the storm, the Atlantic House to the end stands proud and defiant. You can see the pride in the tight lines of the painting and yet feel it's predicament in the depiction through the use of soft colors. It is this type of emotion and feeling, which when combined with historical recreation lets you see what only the eye of Hurricane Hugo saw, The Atlantic House, in the final moments.

In the second part of the commemorative series Madeline Carol revisits the Atlantic House for the final time. In Part Two of the Commemorative Series, she takes you back to the morning after, so that you can see what awaited the first human eyes and memory. There is the wreckage and yet the ghostly apparition of what once was. Part Two is painted with the exact view as Part One. It should prove to be thought provoking as "The Atlantic House, The Final Moments" Both of these prints are painted and sold under license of The Atlantic House, Inc., for the use of the trademark, The Atlantic House.

Madeline Carol, Capturing the Spirits
Art Gallery