What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1161131
BECCA MARTIN-BROWN NWA Democrat-Gazette A s an artist, I have always been interested in a sense of place and the various characteristics that make any one location unique," muses David Mudrinich. "This can include the natural geographic features of landscape as well as the human alterations made to the land. My work fluctuates in perspective between both expansive panoramic views and more intimate, close-up locations. "The works I am presenting are my meditation on a sense of place, as it relates to the natural world I live in," he adds. "My hope is that after viewing this show, others will reflect more on their own experiences and enhance their relationship to the environment they live in." Mudrinich, who studied at Penn State and the University of Georgia, lives in Pope County and is a drawing and painting professor in the department of art at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. He's also the guest artist currently showing his work at the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum. His exhibition is titled "An Element of Nature – Drawings, Paintings & Beehives." "David was the winner of the 2018 RAM Invitational," explains Lou Meluso, the museum's executive director. "That provided a cash award ($3,000) plus the opportunity to have a one-person show at RAM. This is his show. "The invitational is judged by qualified art professionals in the region," Meluso adds. "I don't get to vote — drat! — but his work is fabulous." Here, Mudrinich talks about his childhood, his artistic choices — and the beehives. Q. How did your life growing up in Pennsylvania inform your art? Or did your inspiration really come in the forests of Georgia? A. Both locations really played a role. I was always outside as a kid growing up. We lived on a small plot of land with a creek running through the back. There is where I first discovered the natural world of plants, animals and design patterns in nature. The creek was always moving, supporting life and changing the natural appearance of the stream bank. Parallel to this experience, I would also spend time in the mill town of Farrell, Pa., where I was born and where my grandparents still lived. It was just over the hill, three miles from this backyard creek, but it was an extremely different environment. All the houses and streets were in rows lining the hill. This setting was dwarfed by the gigantic, loud, dark, bellowing steel mills that filled the river valley below. I always thought the building bricks were black in town until I saw them pressure-washed one time, revealing their true red- brown color. This dual contrast in environments, as a youth, was striking and remains with me forever in life. 8 WHAT'S UP! SEPTEMBER 1-7, 2019 'A Sense Of Place' Artist tries to capture more than what he sees COVER STORY Courtesy Image "Above the Vale" Oil by David Mudrinich FAQ David Mudrinich: 'An Element of Nature – Drawings, Paintings & Beehives' WHEN — Through Nov. 24; hours are 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday & 1-5 p.m. Sunday WHERE — Fort Smith Regional Art Museum COST — Free INFO — 784-2787, fsram.org