Black Steel Lowcountry Scene "Picking Crabs" Sculpture by Artist Thomas C. Smoak Jr. of McClellanville SC. The piece measures 21" inches long, 18 1/2" high and features a seated woman picking crabmeat with a pot of crabs in front of her. Weight is 6 pds. Each sculpture of Thomas Smoak is drawn on the steel by hand and then cut out using a Oxygen and Acetylene welders torch. PROVENANCE: A Private Charleston SC Estate. Thomas Smoak Jr. was born in Charleston on February 24, 1960. He grew up in the Cainhoy area of Berkeley County, on the Wando River, where he spent most of his childhood fishing, crabbing and hunting. From the artists site "My mother was the postmaster of the Wando Post Office, which was in our front yard in Cainhoy. In the summertime, some of the old local black men would walk by the post office, with an oar over their shoulder and carrying a bucket, cast net, fishing pole, etc. I was usually sitting on the front steps, and seeing no reason not to, I would take off behind them, and most of the time they would let me go fishing with them. My memories of these men and the stories they told are featured in my work. My father was the magistrate in that part of Berkeley County, and there was always something happening. Court was usually held in our living room, or many times, right in our front yard. So many stories I heard, true or not, are still things I sketch and use in my work."

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