In block letters on a tombstone painted by Tim Wirth, the epitaph reads, “Here lies a man who although showed little patience in life, loved to watch clouds and horses + hold his wife in the night.”

There is no name or date of death, just a memory.  

Girth is inspired by the gritty imagery and attitude of the South, such as “rock piles” and “dogs running in ditches.” He paints on both sides of wood panels in bright colors, often playing with solid shapes and letters in deceptively simple ways. Among others, his work has caught the attention of heartland rocker John Mellencamp.

He is one of nine artists representing the “Deep South” in the Northeast for an exhibit at Artstream gallery in Rochester through Aug. 31.

The show is curated by Grace Bonney, the blog writer behind the much-adored Design*Sponge. She was born and raised in Virginia, but has adjusted to city life in New York.

While speaking at The Savannah College of Art and Design on occasion over the past three years, Bonney became reacquainted with the contemporary art and design scene in the area. The artists in the show have a connection to the school. “I loved the way that southern artists worked with a different color palette and set of influences,” she said in an e-mail.

“I selected artists that I felt represented the real core of the young southern art scene,” she said. “They have a real respect and interest in southern culture, especially southern gothic, and incorporate that into their work in ways you just don’t see in other regions.”

One of her favorites, Stephanie Howard, draws intricately in black ink on yellowed paper that would have an antique photo quality if it weren’t for the mythical liberties. “Shag Queen for Devil’s Fork” is centered on the perfect face of a potential beauty pageant winner, but she has devil horns. She is drawn as though embroidered on a sampler or quilt along with a fiddle and fruit.

“In my work I try to convey themes of southern culture as honestly and sincerely as I can. If I dig through the red clay of a story and find blood in the ground, it must go in the picture. I thrive on the battlefield that is now a peach orchard, bootleggers in the Indian burial ground, and small children singing church hymns with a low country drawl,” Howard says in her artist statement. “I try to present something that contains the amalgamation of magic and faith that has been thrown together in southern culture.”

Four outfits from a clothing collection by Alabama Chanin, founded by Natalie Chanin, are also on display. The home goods and clothing company focuses on slow design and sustainability. The products come numbered in one-of-a-kind or limited edition series and signed by the artisan that made it by hand using a combination of new, organic and recycled materials.

They are expensive, but exquisite. A long jacket with all-over appliqué of tiny squares shows the linear stitches, which adds to the admiration. Other pieces have swirling circular patterns or embroidered words.

The Council of Fashion Designers of America and Vogue recently selected Alabama Chanin as one of 10 finalists for a Fashion Fund prize. The winner will be announced on Nov. 16.

Denise Falk, an art professor at Savannah College, has two mixed media collages in the show, combining vintage images with subtle connections that conjure up a childhood in the South like opening a toy chest. “Souvenir” includes a paper doll, a popcorn box, a “Golden Record,” a black and white photo, a postcard from Arkansas, and a music sheet of “Among My Souvenirs.”

Meryl Truett has applied three black and antique yellow photographs to squares from tin ceilings, creating a unique dimension and setting historical context. These are of a shady, tree-lined street, a cotton field with the shadow of a photographer, and a sandy road between palm trees. She calls attention to the tension between the past and present in an ever-changing setting.

Katie Runnels, cofounder of shopSCAD, assembles elaborate dioramas with vintage and natural items she has collected. Many have birds and nests and are exaggerated versions of grandmotherly decorations, but with a careful eye. “The Ugly Duckling” has a plastic swan and tall mushrooms under a glass dome. Words in Scrabble pieces and cutouts spell out “I never dreamed of so much happiness...” around the base, and inside is written, “when I was an ugly duckling.”   

After studying in Savannah, Emily Marie Cox remembers “the peculiar characters that inhabit that magical place.” Her sculptures represent both the people and the city in nostalgic, dream-like colors and tattered wares, made fantastical with distance. Some of the clay sculptures have old linens for hair, feathers for fluttering eyelashes or a nest for a skirt. She illustrated them to complete the story. A sculpture of a dolled-up, waiting woman is titled “They Are Gone,” and the corresponding illustration is called “Soon They will Come Home.”    

Lillian Farag also depicts southern belles with big eyes and long lashes, but through thread on delicate, vintage linen napkins. Haylie Waring’s mixed media assemblages contain personal sentiments, including one with a pin cushion called “I Think I’ll Sew Things Up and Bite the Thread.” It was a phrase her grandmother used at the end of the day.

Artstream is located at 56 North Main St., Rochester, 603-330-0333, www.artstreamstudios.com.