What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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JANUARY 23-29, 2022 WHAT'S UP! 5 Women To Watch 'Paper Routes' ends tour at Fenix Arts APRIL WALLACE NWA Democrat-Gazette W hen Joli Livaudais was a graduate student of photography, her son was 5 years old. So she changed her bathroom light to a red bulb and stuck him in the bathtub while she developed images. That way, they could both have fun. "I fell in love with photos in the dark room," says Livaudais. "There's something really wonderful about being there — the red light and the sound of water — it's a wonderful feeling. I'm not sure I would have (fallen in love with it) if I'd been raised on digital." Livaudais is an artist and associate professor of photography in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Department of Art and Design. Her current installation, "All That I Love," is 1,500 origami scarab beetles and blades of grass made from photographs, most of which she took herself. It's all part of "Women to Watch: Paper Routes," a statewide traveling exhibit that opened Jan. 13 at Fenix Arts in Fayetteville. "It's a good show … full of unexpected work," Livaudais says. "The works are very, very different, but it surprised the heck out of me the first time I saw it (because it) looks like it belongs together." "Paper Routes" is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, whose goal is to bring increased awareness to artists in less populated areas of the country. The Arkansas committee for the organization juries every two years to select works to show around the state in an exhibition titled "Women to Watch." This is the sixth one and features Livaudais's installation, "Who Belongs On Our Money?" by Suzannah Schreckhise, "Rosebud Moments in Paper Planes" by Kim Brewer and "Start/Never Ending" by Linda Nguyen Lopez. Schreckhise and Lopez are Fayetteville-based artists, while Livaudais and Brewer are from Little Rock. "It makes me feel really supported as a woman in Arkansas to be selected," Schreckhise says. "All the women on the committee are volunteers, and they all work so hard. There's so much behind the scenes to get an exhibit together." That's true under normal circumstances, but especially so during the pandemic, when artists may not appear in person. That means giving lectures or receptions virtually and arranging for the safe carriage of their work around the state. Schreckhise says Mary Ross Taylor from the Arkansas committee coordinated the packaging, insuring and the arrangement of a moving company to take her work to each stop. "Who Belongs On Our Money?" is a three foot by three foot stretch of dollar bills lined up together, but they're not like the ordinary ones in Schreckhise Livaudais "Imperata Garden" by Joli Livaudais is also part of "Women to Watch: Paper Routes." (Courtesy Image) See Paper Page 38 FAYETTEVILLE FAQ 'Women to Watch: Paper Routes' WHEN — Through Feb. 26 WHERE — Fenix Arts, Millar Lodge, 150 N. Skyline Drive in Fayetteville COST — Free INFO — fenixfayettevilleart.com