What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1290149
SEPTEMBER 20-26, 2020 WHAT'S UP! 9 two positions, which turned it into a more collaborative effort on their part, and it was a phenomenal success." Art Ventures interns start out learning gallery basics, like how to write a press release, but eventually their training becomes more rigorous. "We hoped that, with the incremental knowledge gained through the course of the semester, that, if we did that right, the interns would be able to come up with an exhibit proposal," says Jackson. "We hoped it would be something we could launch, and we were more than pleasantly surprised when our two interns put so much time and energy into it — the success [of the proposal] even surprised us a little bit. [This exhibit] is the fruits of their labor — it gives them something tangible and professional that will be out there for the public to see, and they can say, 'Look, I created this. I launched this exhibition.'" "It was hard to focus on anything else," confesses intern Morgan Garner of conceptualizing "Isolation." "This proposal was written either the week everything got shut down or right after. Artistically, this hasn't really happened since Renaissance times, when there was a plague. … Jordan and I started looking at artists who had been in isolation, either because of their abilities or systems in place that isolate people, as we continue to see how the pandemic shows the true colors of things like the health care system. … Some of the work in the exhibit comments on the prison system — these are ways we can get people to relate to this time that we're all going through. We want the people seeing the art to be inspired by it and, for the first time, if they haven't been able to relate to isolation, now they can develop a new way of perceiving this time in a creative sense. "We were working on this simultaneously, but we weren't together — we were all isolated, but collectively coming together to [create this]," she adds. "I think that's what art should do: Bring individual people together through those that are experiencing the same thing." The exhibit is wholly online and can easily be accessed by pressing a button on the organization's website. The design is clean and pleasing, and melancholy music accompanies your tour through the artwork, which is supplemented by artists' bios and statements. That you can view the entire exhibit from the comfort of your own couch, dressed in pajamas — and alone — is strangely fitting for the theme. Garner says her experience interning with Art Ventures has been incredibly valuable. "I would love to work with them again," she says. "They let us know that, in the past, they've relied on their interns and sometimes reach back out for skills that they displayed, and I would love to work with them again someday." The feeling is mutual, says Jackson. "These interns become permanent members of [the Art Ventures] family," he says. Ruth Lawlor A graduate of Wichita State University, Ruth holds a Master of Arts in Education and has taught art in public schools and universities and continues to work as an advocate of art education. Now a full-time artist, she exhibits her work in Northwest Arkansas and galleries in Kansas and Louisiana. She lives and main- tains a studio on Beaver Lake near Garfield. Erika Nelson Erika Nelson lives in Bentonville and earned her BFA in drawing and painting from Califor- nia State University in Fullerton. She is a free- lance fine art artist as well as graphic artist and film editor. Nelson's artwork has been featured on the cover of American Bar Asso- ciation Quarterly and in 2018 she exhibited works in the World Art Exhibit hosted by the International Watercolor Society (Budapest, Hungary) and the Small World Show Aid for Cancer Research (Hope Forest, South Austra- lia). Nelson has shown in multiple galleries in Southern California, and her artwork is collected by celebrities and corporations. Nelson is a member of Plein Air Painters of the Ozarks and Artists of Northwest Arkan- sas, where she received a 2019 signature award for her fifth juried artwork, titled "To Your Good Health." "Corona" By Moh'd Bilbeisi From the artist's statement: "My work is about walking the fine line between the real and the unreal. The subject matter is a direct critique of what is propagated as being ultimately true and beyond doubt. Some of it, the topics, is historical, religious and political. All subjects are personal, and I see it as me sharing my view of what's around and what's inside." "Woodand Walk" By Ruth Lawlor From the artist's statement: "I find beauty in simplicity, preferring to portray the essence of experience, the contemplative connection, the spiritual suggestion, rather than the literal. Nature can be expressed in ways other than what the eye perceives. My creative spirit is challenged and intrigued to communicate turbulence, balance and serenity through a line, a shape, a color or texture." "Great Dream" By Margaret Correll From the artist's statement: "My art has always been inspired and energized by poetry. A few of the poets that inspire me are John Asbury, John Donne, William Butler Yeats, Louise Bogan, Denise Levertov and May Sarton. Many lines of poetry written by these poets I have carried around in my head since the early '70s. Poetry is passionate and thus influences my art. 'Benevolence Against Themselves' includes a portion of a poem by John Donne." "After the Rain" By Erika Nelson From the artist's statement: "I had polio when I was 6 months old, which paralyzed both legs and my upper right arm. Due to extreme polio, I developed an extreme case of scoliosis, and I use my motorized wheelchair daily. I graduated from a stroller to a wheelchair. Due to my physical limitations, I explore a lot of easels and other art tools that might better accommodate my wheelchair because I would really like to be able to work on larger pieces. My left arm is my painting arm, which also is my cooking, cleaning, bodily support, leg carrier and texter arm."