Mount Pleasant Magazine March/April 2016

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a beak is necessary to turn unrelated pieces of driftwood
into a pelican.
Humphrey has not limited his work to likenesses
of creatures who hang out in or near the water. His
collection includes everything from whales, marlin and
rainbow trout to crocodiles, pelicans and sea turtles, but
he has drifted into other areas with a grumpy cat, a witch
and a product of his vivid imagination: “Ninja Turtle
Spongebob.” He’s even started doing people, including
two of the Lowcountry’s most distinguished but disparate
celebrities: actor Bill Murray and master of mystery
Edgar Allan Poe.
“A lady who lives in Canada and has a house on the Isle
of Palms asked me to do two Poes, one for her and one to
give as a gift,” Humphrey said, adding that he’ll do work
for people who request something specific, as long as he
can find a piece of driftwood that fills the bill.
Humphrey has painted two Murrays, his favorite
being one that looks a lot like Dr. Peter Venkman of
“Ghostbusters” fame. And he has sold some of his pieces
of art to a few notables in the world of entertainment,
including Late Show host Stephen Colbert and comedian,
actor and writer Paul F. Tompkins.
He’s even created a few logos out of driftwood, and
the sign outside Breakwater Associates in Mount Pleasant,
where his wife, Meg, works as a school psychologist, was
once floating aimlessly in the Atlantic Ocean.
Humphrey always looks for driftwood when he goes
to the beach, but there are certain times when he is
more optimistic about finding something that he can
transform into a fish, a bird or some other creature. Some
Lowcountry residents see coastal storms as a potential
problem, but Humphrey prefers to look at them as an
opportunity, a chance for a raucous ocean to bring him a
piece of driftwood in a shape he hasn’t seen before.
“When there’s a storm, I usually go to the beach and
check it out the next day,” he explained, adding that
he’ll sometimes look to see what the tide has dragged in
during his lunch break from his real job. A graduate of the
University of South Carolina with a degree in business and
a minor in graphic design, he currently works as a front-
end developer for Blue Acorn in downtown Charleston.
“I look at Google maps, and sometimes I’ll find a little
bay that looks like it might be a good place to discover some
useful driftwood,” he said.
In the past, Humphrey has exhibited his work at the
Southeastern Wildlife Exposition, and his fish, fowl and
humans are on display online and at Blend Juice Bar in
Mount Pleasant and The Co-Op on Sullivan’s Island.
Humphrey exhibited a talent for art at an early age,
taking lessons and painting with his grandmother when
he was 7 or 8. Though he did produce some more
traditional artwork before he started painting driftwood,
he described much of his art in high school and college as
“doodles and sketches.”
With a full-time job and two young children, Brown,
3, and Thames, 1, his work bringing driftwood to life for
the most part is limited to evenings. Does he ever think
about becoming the Charleston Fishman on a full-time
basis? Maybe not.
“I like doing this as a hobby. As a job, it might be less
enjoyable,” he said. “I’ve had to become a night owl. I
work mostly at night because of work and the kids, but I
really like to relax and paint in my garage.”
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