A myriad of charcoal creations, passionate paintings, and sublime statues crowded the walls and floors of Baum Gallery during the Arkansas Faculty Invitational on Jan. 25.
Brian Young, director of the Baum Gallery, wanted the showcase to focus on artists and professors who can inspire students at UCA.
“Everyone here is a professional artist and makes their living as an artist — no hobbyists,” Young said.
“She teaches full-time here. He’s an artist-in-residence. Harlan Bozeman at University of Arkansas Little Rock. Full-time Professor Lisa Floryshak at Arkansas State University Beebe.
“All these artists make their living as artists, that’s what they do. And so to our students, I would say you want to be a full-time artist? This is what their work looks like. This is what professional artists create,” he said.
The showcase not only focused on professional artists, but particularly ones who live and teach in Arkansas, with many of the pieces having connections to the state or its history.
A sculpture at the Baum Gallery exhibit incorporates various patterns and icons.
“Arkansas has a large land area and low population, even in its biggest cities, so developing a healthy art scene has to start locally and then the community can grow through regions or state-wide programs and events,” art professor Scott Meador said.
“This exhibition has state-wide artists, which is an excellent way for us to see other Arkansans’ work and for those artists’ followers to come to Conway to see the array of work,” he said.
There were around 20 different artists shown at the event.
Aside from paintings, sculptures and drawings, other mediums featured at the event included jewelry, installations, photography and scratch art.
“Everybody that’s selected for the exhibition was selected by me. So there’s something about every piece that I like,” Young said.
One of the artists at the event, Thomas Fernandez, an assistant professor at Arkansas State University Beebe, had seven pieces on display at the event.
Young described Fernandez’s work as “sketchy in nature,” pointing at the degree of finish in his works, as most of his pieces were not fully colored.
One of Fernandez’s pieces, titled “Quiet,” features a woman and a child lying down. The piece is predominantly black-and-white, with only the blanket underneath their heads and the child’s pants colored in.
A series of photographs hangs on the walls of the Baum Art Gallery.
“I add color and details to the personally important-to-me parts of those moments,” Fernandez said.
Fernandez works with a variety of different tools, ranging from pencils and paints to markers and even shoe polish.
Scott Meador’s oil and acrylic painting titled “Goat Farm” displayed the decaying remains of a dilapidated building.
“I enjoy creating observational artwork, especially of aged structures made of natural materials like wood, brick, and steel – materials that will biodegrade. My style leans toward realism and close, tight compositions,” Meador said.
Although both artists work to accomplish different mediums of art, their inspirations both come from a similar place — pictures.
“I am inspired by my surroundings. When taking a walk on campus, or when traveling, I will take photos of objects, shadows, textures, etc. that I find fascinating and typically show some age or decay,” Meador said. “I’ll then consider the best medium to translate the subject I photographed, such as paint, graphite, ink, or charcoal.”
Fernandez said, “I look through my sketches and snapshots and look for the ones that hit me hardest, make me cry, or sicken me with their goodness.
“Some moments are just so good you want to bite them, shout it to the world or hold onto it for the rest of your life. Then I get to work on drawing,” he said.
The next showcase in the Baum Gallery will be the Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Fine Arts exhibition currently slated to open in April.
