Outdoors the trees are loaded with buds aching to burst. The daffodils are waking to raise and nod their cheery heads. The tulips and irises are unfolding to show their graceful leaves. The birds are engaging in their daily feeding frenzies as they prep for courtships to come.
 
Though I’m not an expert bird watcher, over time I learn to identify a few different traits of our feathered friends. For instance, robins, when hankering after worms, actually stand quite still, cock their heads and sometimes sing a jaunty little ditty to call up their snacks from beneath the sod. Male hummingbirds, once they arrive from southern climes, dance in sweeping, singing arches when wooing their intendeds who sit quietly vetting their prospects. Some birds congregate in clusters, others prefer less social interaction.

then another jay, then another flicker, then another jay—they keep coming until on my lawn are a flock of five fat flickers and too many jays to number. These are soon joined by dozens of various black birds all come by to dine. Oh, what a wonder!

At artCentral, like Mother Nature, we specialize in wonders. Come and be a part of our feasting including receptions, exhibitions and events; classes and workshops; quarterly newsletters; artCamp for Children; and much, much more!

The secret to artCentral’s vitality and ongoing success is your support. With your help artCentral continues to celebrate and encourage our regional talent and expand our horizons internationally, while we nurture our children and honor our elders. As a member, your contribution to artCentral today is a positive investment in the quality of life in southwest Missouri for all our tomorrows.

Your membership matters! Join or renew by phone, mail or online: 417-358-4404; artCentral, POB 714, Carthage; or www.artcentralcarthage.org/join.html.
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Our feast is yours!
 

​stretched and edgy.

When they eventually get around to choosing their album art, they settle on “Mountaintop Supplicant”, painted near the end of my four-year wilderness sojourn. The medium is gouache. The directness and motifs are common to this time of my creating—pure, mostly primary colors; three majestic mountains, companions to a glistening river; a clear night sky adorned with an eyelash moon, colorful planets and vivid stars; a throbbing heart burning with passion that informs the intuitive eye.
 
How I came to paint this way I sometimes wonder.
 
When my children reach ages I feel I can devote more time to my creating, I assume my expressions will be soft and gentle renderings from a subtle palette—soothing, serene paintings that bring comfort and quiet pleasure—the kind of lovely, calming works that go over sofas. Not to be! So I give my paintings the lives they insist on having. Each work I make is brighter, bolder, more symbol rich and more weird than the last.
 
Weird is a descriptor worth contemplating when considering art and artists.

 Sometime along the way, every artist will likely realize his or her perception of the world is weird, as in quite different from that of “normal” people. This awareness can produce an agonizing sense of anomie—that “Ah! no me!” place of not-belonging in the realms of regular perceptual values. To accept the weird of this sometimes lonely creative place is a real breakthrough to artistic freedom.
 
Come to Hyde House through March 28th and you’ll find fifty-two JRAC free expressions of the weird. They are simply wonderful!
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​I love that artCentral brings grand art to our small town. The work in JRAC’s current SPARKLE and SHINE, on view through February 28, is truly grand—expanding the artistic boundaries and cultural wealth of our neighborhood.
 
As a JRAC member artist, I’m pleased to have one of my own paintings shown alongside fifty-one genuine talents. I hadn’t been long in southwest Missouri, when JRAC solicited my membership and folded me into this fine group of gifted and supportive makers-of-art. These folks are serious about creating! Their 2016 calendar impressively includes a roster of juried exhibits with cash awards for outstanding artworks; their media communications are downright savvy, informative and handsome, too; and their Arty Hours provide frequent opportunities for learning, encouragement and inspiration. JRAC members, without exception, make our world more dazzling with each artwork and every exhibit they create, especially their current SPARKLE and SHINE which is filling Hyde House with an effervescent glow.

Last Friday’s celebratory Opening definitely lit up our neighborhood with artists and guests and inspiring comments by Juror, Burt Bucher, Professor of Printmaking and Drawing at MSSU. Congratulations to the four selected cash award recipients: Best in Show, Andrew Batcheller; First Place, Jeffrey Jones; Second Place, Brenda Sageng; and Third Place; Tamara Geisert.

ning and providing delightful savories, sweets and tabletops that glittered the evening with delights. Thank you also to those giving help with hands and hearts: Pat Goff, Alex and Jackie Boyer and Helen Kunze.
 
SPARKLE and SHINE continues through February 28. Give yourself a best pleasure. Pay a visit to Hyde House. Gallery Hours: Fridays and Saturdays, 12-5 pm; Sundays 1-5pm. Information: 417-358-4404.

with joy, pleasure, inspiration and nourishing satisfaction.

Counting the blessings of my loves in this enchanting February leaves me eager to have and celebrate ever more. As though hearing my request, I feel the earth and atmosphere trembling with “yes”.
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In the Celtic Isles the old folks think of February as the true beginning of spring. When I go outdoors and pay attention, I agree. Walking down my driveway to fetch my paper past my sparkling, frosted car, in early hours our world smells fresh and full of newness to be discovered. Pregnant buds adorning limb tips seem to be singing with the birds at the feeders. Daffodils in the cottage gardens are peeking through winter’s mulch, pushing up their green stemmed promises. When the noon sunshine kisses the soil, subtle hints of wakening loam tickle my nose. Yes, February is the herald of spring’s lovely delights about to happen.
I never knew this more than when living in an Ozarks wilderness valley. Every new February brought the same exquisite sensations of spring stirrings. Sitting early-morning-bundled in my back porch swing, my two canine companions fed and resting content at my feet, while I look beyond the fencerows to the backdrop of three majestic mountains and the snow melt stream winding around their feet, ever so faintly a sweet scent comes gently wafting to me.

Come and find all these at Hyde House, Friday 6-8 pm, and celebrate artCentral’s February Opening Reception presenting imaginings, blessings and loves of the Joplin Regional Artists Coalition displayed in a stunning showcase--SPARKLE and SHINE.
Information: 417-358-4404.

In 1986, my son, daughter and I were freshly transplanted to Manhattan. In 1996, after seeing ​both my parents through their end times, I began sixteen solitary seasons in an Ozarks wilderness valley. In 2006, I was enjoying life as a practicing artist atop Mount Sequoyah in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Today, perched at the beginning of 2016, I eagerly anticipate the unfolding of a fabulous fourth decade with artCentral.

artCentral, originally a part of C.A.S.T., the Carthage Arts Support Team, was established in 1986, under the inspiring influence of former Director Sandy Higgins. Since that significant 1986 launch, artCentral, as a non-profit arts organization, moved from Central Avenue to the Geranium House at Red Oaks II, before settling into our elegant home in Hyde House.

A visit to artCentral at Hyde House promises a gift each time you arrive. Our 2016 gallery opportunities will please and inspire your every visit.

February showcases JRAC’s mixed media SPARKLE and SHINE; March brings Sandra Conrad’s dramatic oils and charcoals in WINGED WOMEN; April presents RADIANT 88, featuring nine members of the MSSU Art Faculty; and May introduces artCentral’s first annual EMERGING ARTISTS exhibition featuring Katie Watson, Maddie Capps and the award winners of the CHS Boylan Foundation Art Contest.

July (18-22 and 25-29) is all about artCamp with two exhibitions celebrating the creations of 2016 artCampers.

Autumn unfolds with September’s lyrical MINDSCAPES by Doug Randall of Arkansas. October celebrates our Maple Leaf Festival with EAST MEETS WEST and the exquisite splash-ink watercolors of the venerable 97-year old Edward Lee. Originally from China, Taiwan and Canada, Mr. Lee comes to us from his current home Seattle.

Our November galleries will display artworks of fourteen ARTISTS of GRACE, representing the depths of the artistic community at Grace Episcopal Church. In December, artCentral’s second HOLIDAY BOUTIQUE @ Hyde House will fill our holiday bedecked home with giftable creations by artCentral artists enhancing the pleasures of your holiday shopping.
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Our exciting calendar is on our website: http://www.artcentralcarthage.org/2016-calendar.html. Visit often to see new posts, and while you’re there, take an exhilarating leap by renewing or becoming a new member at http://www.artcentralcarthage.org/join.html. Your membership strengthens and sustains artCentral’s work bringing art to our community in 2016 and for decades to come.