Totems, Corsica, and the Soul of an Artist

September 15, 2025

I first knew of Nathalie Naylor only in passing — a distant acquaintance whose work came recommended by a friend, along with a simple link to her website. But when I opened that page, I felt something shift. There was a magnitude to her art that refused to be contained by the screen. The textures, the colors, the scale — they pulled me in.

It wasn’t enough to admire from afar. I had to meet her, to step into the world from which this work was born. So I introduced myself — boldly, perhaps — into her home and studio. That day, I didn’t just discover an artist. I discovered a universe.

Every corner of Nathalie’s home held intention: dressers layered with objects styled like miniature installations, credenzas humming with sculptural rhythm, and canvases alive with experimentation. She was just beginning what would become her totem sculpture series — wooden towers of myth and memory, hand-carved, burnished with fire, painted in a language that felt both ancient and new.

From that moment on, I knew I wanted her work to live alongside mine. I showcased her pieces in my antique store, carried them to High Point, even staged them at the Dewberry Hotel for a pop-up exhibition. Today, I am honored to represent Nathalie through Rutledge Atelier, so her vision can meet the designers and collectors who will cherish it.

On a recent visit to her studio, I found Nathalie in a flurry of inspiration — painting on cardboard, stretching color across old screens, torching wood into charred textures, and layering vivid pigments onto her totems. She shared with me the photographs that first inspired this series: images of ancient rocks she captured on a journey to Corsica. To see them was to understand — how weather, time, and spirit carve themselves into stone. It’s as though Nathalie was chosen to carry that raw, elemental beauty back with her, reinterpreting it for the world.

I’ve never been to Corsica, but through Nathalie’s work, I feel as though I’ve been on a mythical pilgrimage — one that begins in the rocks of the Mediterranean and ends here in Charleston, where an artist’s hand transforms inspiration into legacy.

This is the gift of artistry. It is more than material, more than craft. It is a mirror of the soul, carried across continents, generations, and now — through Rutledge Atelier — into the spaces we inhabit.

Nathalie’s work is not simply art. It is a myth retold in wood, paint, and fire.