What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1278695
to work with magazines. But during the timeframe I was in college, we were still working with 35mm black and white film. This not only gave me a greater appreciation for digital art and the quick process, but also color! I will hardly ever create a black and white image nowadays. Shabana Kauser: I love capturing details, so oils work very well for this. I begin a painting by using acrylic paint to establish the basic shapes and colors on the canvas, then I switch to oils to capture details, light and texture. Oil paint tends to dry a lot slower — my details stage requires more time with room for trial and error. Each painting varies with fabrics, details, light and texture. I always learn something new with each painting I create. Q. How do you hope having your work presented in conversation with other artists' pieces will impact the viewer's connection with the exhibition's theme or with your own work? Duffield: I hope viewers will see what I see — both the power and tranquility that nature exudes. Kauser: My work represents real Pakistani women and immigrant stories, with no media bias or outside influences. It's a vision from a British Pakistani immigrant artist now living and working in Northwest Arkansas. The carefully selected fabrics, the way the dupatta is draped or placed in each painting, the natural skin tones, the strong poses held by each model, all derive from my memories and real life. My work is there to encourage dialog within the community, to share immigration experiences, history and culture. Reamy: I certainly hope that my art images are accepted, appreciated and that it is in harmony with the other artists' works in this forum. Please note, that foremost, the opportunity via Art Ventures to be invited in a gallery exhibition is sincerely appreciated. This is a new experience, and my hope is that the "viewer" will see new works that may inspire them. Q. The exhibition description explains that the details in the "language of art" are "keys to ways of seeing the world and our travel through it." How do you see the world? And how is that reflected in your work presented in this exhibition? Duffield: I view the world as a never-ending place to be explored with blessings to be seen around every corner. From the smallest of macro details to the ever-expansive night skies, there's magnificence all around us; we just have to look. Kauser: Our roots, major life events such as immigration, the culture we are born into, shape the ways we view and experience the world. My oil painting titled "Bahin" is inspired by my sister Samina's story. The word "Bahin" translates to "sister" in Urdu (official national language of Pakistan). When my parents moved to the U.K. in 1975, my older sister, Samina, was a baby at the time. She was forced to stay behind, [being] raised by my grandmother and family in Pakistan. In 1985, Samina was finally granted legal status to reunite with us in the U.K. I met her for the first time when she was 10 years old. She didn't speak English and … had been raised as the only child. While my three siblings and I had grown up in both the British and Pakistani culture, her only connection was to Pakistan. I remember her wearing traditional Pakistani AUGUST 16-22, 2020 WHAT'S UP! 7 "I see the world as dangerous and beautiful, cynical and hurting, angry and tortured, kind and giving, hopeless and hopeful, mystic and mysterious," digital artist Rhee Reamy says of what inspires the vision for his pieces. "I see a blue planet hovering in a sky of stars, hoping that humans respect and care for Mother Earth, our home." (Image courtesy of the artist) "I hope that my work adds to the variety of cultural perspectives and human representation, and especially brings them into our current experience," shares illustrator and painter Hannah Newsom Doyle. "Some of my pieces in this collection are also heavily influenced by current events as well, such as '#IAmNotaVirus' and 'Stay Home,' which speak to our current pandemic, and racist backlash towards Asian peoples that occurred as a result." (Image courtesy of the artist) See Art Ventures Page 40 FYI Duffield — brennenduffield.com, Brennen Duffield Photography on Facebook, @ozarkditchhiker on Instagram Kauser — shabanakauserart.com, ShabanaKauserArt on Facebook, @shabanakauserart on Instagram Newsom Doyle — hlnewsom.com, @lindoyle_ on Instagram Reamy — rheereamy.com, @rheereamy on Instagram