In December, SCCF honored two artists as recipients of the “Ding” Darling Brush of Excellence Environmental Art Award at its Annual Meeting: Cecilia Montalvo and Charlie McCullers. Montalvo and McCullers generously donated 23 large prints to our future Intern Housing, which is being rebuilt from Hurricane Ian.

Join the artists March 11 at our Artist Reception & Talk at the Bailey Homestead >>

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Montalvo and McCullers are an Atlanta-based team working in alternative photographic processes, mostly wet plate collodion. Their collaboration is about the condition of permanent change, as evinced by the dynamic nature of South Florida’s barrier islands, Ebenezer Creek, Georgia, and the other places where they work.

About the Brush of Excellence

In February 2015, SCCF was one of five organizations presented a framed paintbrush that was once used by well-known political cartoonist and conservationist J.N. “Ding” Darling, who was pivotal to preserving land on Sanibel. With the brush came the establishment of SCCF’s annual environmental art award called “Brush of Excellence.”

Each year, SCCF selects a small committee to identify and select a candidate for the honor of Brush of Excellence. Chosen artists are those who bring exemplary awareness to the natural world and highlight the uniqueness of Sanibel.

Andrea Koss, widow of “Ding” Darling’s grandson and standard bearer Kip Koss, doubled the size of her annual artist honorarium for the 2024 “Ding” Darling Environmental Art Award to be given to both Cecilia Montalvo and Charlie McCullers.

About the 2024 Recipients

Montalvo was born and raised in Miami. She graduated from the University of Virginia, and completed her MFA at the Savannah College of Art and Design. She has worked at The Phillips Collection, Smithsonian Magazine, and for Harvard University at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.

McCullers is a native Georgian and life-long working photographer. He graduated from the University of Georgia with a BFA, and the Savannah College of Art and Design with an MA, prior to completing his MFA. 

“I’ve been an artist my whole life. Ever since I can remember, I was always toiling with my hands and making things — I don’t know what it is to not be an artist,” Montalvo said. “And I think for me, art is more about the process than the product. The works that we’ve donated to the SCCF are very process heavy.”

Montalvo has come to Sanibel since childhood for family vacations — a tradition she continued with her own children, who went through Sanibel Sea School. Montalvo helped familiarize McCullers with Sanibel, Captiva, and the surrounding barrier islands during their work in the region.

“I remember [Montalvo] said ‘some people regard this environment as being one dimensional.’ Well, I was that guy,” McCullers said, recalling their early days of collaboration at the Savannah College of Art and Design. “She said, ‘let me take you for a coastline walk,’ and in the course of 45 minutes, having her pick up, and tell me about, everything that was there — the interconnectedness of the system just opened up for me.”

Their art largely uses an early photographic process from the mid 19^th century known as wet plate collodion, which requires a portable darkroom for use in the field.

“It’s a wet process. So everything necessary to make a photograph has to be done immediately on location,” McCullers said. “We decided, however, to experiment with the process, to push its limits. We wanted to not only document the place, but we also wanted to embed it.”

“Our art becomes an artifact of the place we’re working in,” Montalvo said. “The plates are embedded with all that is naturally occurring during capture — humidity, salt, sand, temperature, wind speed, etcetera.”

The artists said they want the future interns who live side-by-side with their donated works to be inspired by and to find their own meaning in the art.

“The images that we make are not the answers.  If they’re successful, they will provoke thought and questions,” McCullers said.

“We are so incredibly honored and grateful to be the recipients of the Brush of Excellence award.”