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The Carthage Press - ART NOTES from Alice Lynn Greenwood

6/24/2015

THE BLISS OF ANTICIPATION AND SATISFACTION

Ah…the bliss of anticipation as Hyde House and artCentral’s campus are made beautifully ready for the staging of this DirectorCurator’s first Annual Membership Exhibition and Picnic, underwritten by the generosity of McCune-Brooks Healthcare Foundation, recognizing art as an integral part of our community’s wellbeing.

Special thanks to all who contributed their hours and creativity providing support before, during and after the festivities: Judy Goff, Reception Impresario; Gail White, Jackie Boyer, Helen Kunze,

Brenda Sageng, Kelly Heidlage and my phenomenal triplet interns—Katie Watson, Emma Pound and Maddie Capps--as well as Terry Beetem and Mike Burken plus his landscape crew.

As our preparations quicken inside, art is delivered and installed. Our interns mount identifying labels and story cards. Jurors, Beth Simmons, Director, and Shala Rogler, Assistant, of McCune-Brooks Healthcare Foundation, and Christine Bentley, Art Department Head at MSSU, arrive and make Awards selections.

Outside, while The Great Wall waits to be unveiled, gardens are weeded, shrubs pruned and the lawn mowed. Chairs are scrubbed and tables, brought out of storage, are set up and colorfully draped. Magnolia blossoms are floated in the birdbaths. Alas, we are ready to party for our Annual Membership Exhibition and our 30th Anniversary RETROforward! Picnic.

Then…voilà! Just as our guests begin to arrive, the heavens open with a deluge followed by shower after shower. Time for our back up plan!

Tabletops laden with festive picnic fare are hoisted onto our spacious porch and seating brought indoors to ring around the Galleries and throughout our lovely home. Undaunted, our Annual Picnic continues with celebratory conviviality as Members, Guests and Artists view art and cheerfully converse while dining all over Hyde House.

Members of the Joplin Regional Artists Coalition are enthusiastically welcomed, making a clean sweep, as I announce Award Winners, distribute cash prizes and invite each of the four recipients to speak of their art and inspiration.

Congratulations to these fine, hard-working artists: Karen Brust, Underwriter Award; Linda Teeter, Gold Award; Sandra Conrad, Silver Award; and Sarah Serio, Bronze Award.

Without exception, of the sixty-eight artworks on display, each one is of highest quality creating an exhibition I am proud to share with the many visitors who are finding their way to the Galleries of Hyde House, arriving from New Orleans and Indiana and Spokane and other distances whether by way of GPS or word-of-mouth. Indeed, day by day artCentral is becoming more and more a must visit destination for summer travelers. Looking for artistic inspiration, they find an abundance in our Annual Membership Exhibition.

Take advantage of this exceptional opportunity to see and enjoy for yourself the blissful satisfaction of homegrown art enriching Hyde House. The Exhibition remains in our Galleries through this coming weekend.

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The Carthage Press - ART NOTES from Alice Lynn Greenwood

6/19/2015

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A FEW GOOD PEOPLE

I’m learning. Just relax. Breathe. Good people are present. Everything always works out perfectly.

As I unpack my bag to settle into Sophie’s guest room for her east coast birthday party weekend, I receive an unexpected phone call from a longtime supporter of our artCamp. The news is not good and shakes me rather terribly at a time when I most want to be upstairs with a two year old eager to play with her Grandmère.

The good man on my cell tells me with regret, that

there’s a hiccup in the distribution of grant funds we’ve requested for artCamp 2015 and that no funds will be coming from his source which has consistently been a grantor for artCentral’s most important outreach program for children.

Oh dear, oh dear! What to do with this troubling information, while I’m hearing Sophie pulling out her toys in anticipation of our first moments of playtime for our too brief three days?

Being travel weary and hugely disappointed, what I want most is to stop time, sit on the edge of the bed and have a much-needed, long bottled-up wailing cry--though certainly not the most helpful response, a rather appropriate reaction, considering how hard I’ve worked and the depth of my emotional and intellectual fatigue.

Instead, I begin to call good people, suggested by the regretful messenger, as possible resources for alternative funding. I also call Pat Goff, artCentral’s treasurer. Pat worked as hard as I, preparing the numbers and information needed for our Grant Application. He’s reliably cool, reasonable and clear thinking in every situation. Pat’s advice? “Relax. This will work out.”

Which is basically what each good person tells me: “Enjoy your time with your granddaughter. We’ve got this. artCamp will be funded!”

Carrying these assurances on my heart, I play with Sophie and enjoy our first of three family dinnertimes. After we all turn in early, I only toss and turn a little, waking refreshed and ready for more play and party preparations.

As we’re driving to pick up balloons, another Carthage call comes. Everything is beautifully set straight, when yet another good person assures me the artCamp funds are secured and he’ll personally deliver the check to me the day of my return. He does. We’re covered!

artCamp 2015 is happening, and I’ve learned the power of Carthage’s good people, compassionate movers and shakers one and all, to fund what must be funded with artCamp definitely on The List.

Thank you good people, for giving me three sweet, worry-free days with my precious Sophie. Thank you to two caring, anonymous donors--Good People donating to artCamp and the young budding-artists of our beloved community, a community of Good People!

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The Carthage Press - ART NOTES from Alice Lynn Greenwood

6/14/2015

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BEING TWO and THE FOUR MUSES

I cherish all my Happy Places —moments spent at my easel, in my gardens or on my mat in Holly Royster’s yoga class; face-timing with my family; a window table with a latte at Mother Road Coffee and afternoon phone calls with my best Arkansas friend, Mary.

Having more than one go-to Happy Place is a good idea! Another favorite Happy Place for me is hanging with sweet Sophie.

Oh! how I love traveling to the east coast to spend a happy birthday party weekend with my precious grand, Sophie, as she turns two! To me she’s the most magical of magical children, even as she and her wee party guests practice the basics of two-year old vocabulary—commanding, less than endearing—“No! Mine! More! Up, Mommie, Up!”

During my quick flight from Joplin to Dallas, I ponder children and the child-like Muses that frolic within me. When I strap into my seat belt at DFW, I pull out my sketchbook and my four, sometimes slacker Muses immediately show up and begin to dance my pencil across the page. Like the two year old at the end of my journey, my Muses like to run the show! They draw, draw, draw and delight in their likenesses that emerge as they sketch non-stop all the way to touch down in Newark.

I’ve wanted to play with this musing quartet ever since early spring. That’s when artCentral’s Great Wall got white washed at the beginning of our RETROforward! 30th Anniversary celebration. As six other Great Wall artists (Andrew Batcheller, Cheryl Church, April Davis, Annabelle Fuhr, Helen Kunze and Brenda Sageng) enthusiastically got started on their portions, my Muses (Innocence, Instinct, Intuition and Imagination), like drama-prone, obstinate two-year olds, went on strike and refused to creatively cooperate.

While for winter and spring I kept my head inside my computer putting in place the nuts and bolts of artCentral’s in-house operations, my Muses metaphorically stomped their feet and would not play or paint or party. All they did was whine and pout. Apparently my Muses aren’t big fans of crunching numbers, attending meetings, fielding phone calls, answering emails and most of the daily office duties that come with artCentral’s Director’s chair.

Today these four are obviously feeling better, creating our newest go-to Happy Place, nodding to Chagall, Keith Haring and the diminutive Toulouse Lautrec, as they use our inflight sketches to paint on the Great Wall.

Some walls are for wailing. Some are for making good neighbors. artCentral’s Great Wall is for being a Happy Place and experiencing the joy of collaborative creativity. Come see for yourself when the Great Wall is unveiled this Friday, June 12th at artCentral’s Annual Membership Exhibition and Picnic.

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The Carthage Press - ART NOTES from Alice Lynn Greenwood

6/6/2015

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artCAMP INSTRUCTORS and GOOD PEOPLE

artCAMP INSTRUCTORS

As we anticipate summer’s arrival, artCamp and our Annual Membership Exhibition and Picnic will fill our galleries, campus and classrooms with traditions we cherish.

Our Membership Exhibition and Picnic begin on Friday, June 12th at 6pm.

Member Artists—deliver your entries on Sunday, June 7th, 1-5 pm!

Gold, Silver, Bronze (Christine Bentley, Juror) and Underwriter’s Awards will be given through the generosity of McCune-Brooks Healthcare Foundation, our Exhibition’s underwriter.

artCentral’s fifteenth annual artCamp takes place the last two weeks of July: 20-24 and 27-31. Schedules are available at the Library, Cherry’s, Mother Road Coffee and in the Information Box at Hyde House. Pre-registration is required. A full day class (10am-3pm) is $35.00. To sponsor a scholarship call (417) 358-4404.

Our artCamp educators are either recognized working artists, experts in their media, or public and private school teachers. Several are both professional artist and school teacher.

DEB BENTLAGE, recently returned to her Missouri roots, is a successful author of digitally self-published books, currently working on a photographic volume featuring the beauty of Missouri landscapes.

Originally from Kansas, CHERYL CHURCH-SAVING, teaching art at Carthage High School and artCamp for a number of years, is a successful professional artist recognized for her colored pencil drawings, rich in design and color.

APRIL DAVIS, well known in and around Carthage as an accomplished painter and experienced teacher in oil and acrylic, exhibits and teaches frequently throughout southwest Missouri. She’s contributing to our Great Wall mural.

SEAN FITZGIBBON has worked as an artist on the east Coast and throughout the Midwest and has taught frequently at artCamp. Presently he’s working on a graphic novel set in the Crescent Hotel of Eureka Springs.

Art was the emphasis of ANNE-MARIE GAILEY’s Bachelor degree with a minor in Art Education. Her teaching experience includes high school and elementary art programs, artCamp and Spiva.

An award winning artist, CINDY HEAD has shown her colorful, multi-media creations at Rose Gallery, artCentral, the State Capitol, Spiva Center for the Arts and numerous regional Art Walks.

KAHLIE JONES has worked for many summers as an artCamp aide at artCentral. A recent Carthage High School Summa Cum Laude graduate, Kahlie is a talented artist and new instructor at artCamp.

TOM JONES is an accomplished and prolific artist with Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Art Education. He teaches art at Carthage High School, has instructed at many artCamps and will have an artCentral Gallery Exhibition in September.

BETH LAWSON teaches art at Carthage Middle School and is an adjunct professor of art at MSSU. She has taught art in public schools for over a decade and is an experienced artCamp educator.

As a printmaker, SARAH SERIO has exhibited her work in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami. She serves as President of the Joplin Regional Artists Coalition and participates in numerous regional exhibitions.

NICOLE SHAFER, a teacher at Joplin High, enjoys combining teaching with art making and constructing. She will add her experience, enthusiasm and creativity to our artCamp curriculum for the first time this year.

RANDY WRIGHT, a member of artCentral’s artCamp staff since 2000, holds degrees in both studio art and art education. She designs and creates award winning jewelry sold widely through exhibitions and gallery representation.

artCentral's artCamp, artCamp instructors and our Annual Membership Exhibition and Picnic—definitely traditions to cherish!

GOOD PEOPLE

artCentral is a community of Good People!

Friday, June 12th at 6 pm, many Good People will gather for artCentral’s Annual Membership Exhibition, Picnic and the Unveiling of the Great Wall. Christine Bentley, Art Department Head at MSSU, will select Exhibition works to receive Gold, Silver, Bronze and Underwriter’s Awards, given through the generosity of McCune-Brooks Healthcare Foundation, our Exhibition’s underwriter.If you’re not yet an artCentral Member, come to the Picnic, join on the spot and be welcomed into our inclusive, creative community. We’ll be happy sharing the fun and festivities with you!

Every week, every day, Good People appear in the life of artCentral.

The nicest man, a new friend, recently came to Hyde House. He arrives in early morning to pick up art for his partner and finds me in the porch swing prioritizing my daily tasks. When I invite him to sit a spell, he does. While we remark on recent abundant rainfall and the effects on gardening and about how he had to scoop standing water away from his veggies and herbs, our conversation segues to my time in the wilderness and the beauty of river rocks and my wanting laying hens and driving to the nearest town to buy three chicks (gender unknown), who grew up to be my fine cherry eggers—Gertrude, Genevieve and Hazel. Having chatted pleasantly about all this and more, we turn to our chores waiting indoors. After I work through a couple of items on my to-do list, and this nice man loads the art he’s come to fetch, he asks if there’s any way I can use his help.

Well, as many of you’ve already learned, if you offer your help here at artCentral, your generosity is gladly accepted with my best smile and my enthusiastic, nodding “yes”. “Yes!” I say to this nice man and together we accomplish a gallery task in half the time I’d need for me on my own!

Up and down the stairs we go gathering a fine selection of paintings by our benefactress, Katherine Hyde. We bring them into the Main Galleries where they will make up an “In Between Exhibition”—inspiring art displayed briefly between scheduled, extended exhibits.

As I give my “thank you” with a high five and a hug “good-bye”, this nice man going out the door, pauses, turns and says, “I really enjoyed this time. I like to sit and visit then get up and share a chore.” Me, too! And I really like a nice man who offers help then has the self-awareness and wherewithal to pause and say, “I had a good time.” He’s artCentral’s kind of Good People.

Cherry Babcock at Cherry’s Custom Framing and Art Gallery is an artCentral Member and one of our Good People, too. Since well before I accepted my position, Cherry’s been giving valuable storefront window space for an ongoing artCentral display. Here we let you know about artCentral’s Hyde House and community happenings, while you enjoy Cherry’s ever evolving collections of the high quality art she showcases.

I can’t imagine the Square without Cherry’s storefront and the wondrous offerings just inside her swinging screen door! Please stop in and tell Cherry “thank you” for supporting arts in Carthage and especially at artCentral. Cherry Babcock is definitely Good People!

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The Carthage Press - ART NOTES from Alice Lynn Greenwood

The Carthage Press - ART NOTES from Alice Lynn Greenwood

The Carthage Press - ART NOTES from Alice Lynn Greenwood

The Carthage Press - ART NOTES from Alice Lynn Greenwood

Author
ALICE LYNN GREENWOOD-MATHÉ
Executive Director-
Curator

artCENTRAL
for the love of Art &
for the love of Artists

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Categories

The Carthage Press - ART NOTES from Alice Lynn Greenwood

The Carthage Press - ART NOTES from Alice Lynn Greenwood

The Carthage Press - ART NOTES from Alice Lynn Greenwood

The Carthage Press - ART NOTES from Alice Lynn Greenwood

​

​AuthorALICE LYNN GREENWOOD-MATHÉExecutive Director-​CuratorartCENTRALfor the love of Art &​for the love of ArtistsArchives

Categories

Author
ALICE LYNN GREENWOOD-MATHÉ
Executive Director-
Curator

artCENTRAL
for the love of Art &
for the love of Artists

Archives