Art is all about heart. Having heart. Taking heart. Seeing and creating with heart. At artCentral we live and work, play and thrive with heart! 

emails, developed posts for social media and attended educational workshops to enhance our fundraising skills. 

With all my heart I thank Betsy for generously sharing her time, talents and skills during her board tenure. The board and I join together in wishing Betsy many happy pleasures in all her future endeavors in Carthage and beyond!
 
At the Heart of artCentral, creating and catalyzing events and exhibitions, is a dedicated, beautifully balanced board of directors that includes Jackie Boyer, Alexandra Burnside, Maddie Capps, Wendi Douglas, Kalee Hinspeter, Doug Osborn, Jason Shelfer and newest member Cheryl Church. Each month, for the love of art and artists, they gather at artCentral to guide the behind-the-scenes business of making our unique, hometown non-profit arts center a place of vibrant and exciting fine arts culture.
 
At artCentral’s recent Board and Annual Membership Meetings officers were elected for our 2022-2023 year. Doug Osborn is stepping up to serve as board president. Lori Marble will assume the responsibilities of our secretary, while Kalee Hinspeter continues in her role as treasurer.
 
At the Heart of artCentral are the generous artCentral Members and Community Supporters who continue stepping up and contributing to help artCentral bring grand art to our small town as we continue to help grow and expand our mission to support, share and teach fine arts in greater Carthage.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        At the Heart of artCentral is the Annual Membership Exhibition and Picnic when artCentral’s galleries showcase a host of artcentral artists and their tremendous talents. This year artCentral artists will present their richly diverse creative expressions in a broad spectrum of dimensions and subjects and media for your delight and celebration at the Opening Awards Picnic, June 3, 2022, Friday, 6:00–8:00 p.m. Make your $10.00 dinner reservations by email to artCentral@artcentralcarthage.org or by phone (417) 358-4404.
 
The Annual Membership Exhibition will continue through July 23, 2022, with viewing during weekend hours through June 24 and by appointment during July. More information can be found on artCentral’s website at artcentralcarthage.org.
 
At the Heart of artCentral is artCamp where uninhibited, lyrical children fill Hyde House with their love for art and their art-making laced with laughter. Yes! artCamp is coming for two weeks, Mondays through Fridays, July 11-15 and July 18-19, 2022! Curriculum and registration forms will be available soon at venues around Carthage and Joplin and at artCentral. They will also be available on the artCamp page at artcentralcarthage.org where you will find all the fun artCamp facts. With all our hearts we are eager for your budding artists to come and make art at artCentral!

​Friday and Saturday, May 20 and 21, 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., are the last Weekend Gallery Hours for SIGNS & WONDERS. Please come see the creations my husband David and I made to celebrate the sacred we have found in our ordinary pleasures. There are many on exhibit—almost 100!
 
Have you seen “The Big Buddha”, painted on a giant tree trunk worn smooth before being rescued by David from rushing waters? Have you seen “Treesa”, painted on a bark-encrusted plank salvaged by our friend Jan from a pile of milled cast offs? Have you seen David’s appropriation of my favorite mini garden rake to serve as the tail for his giant “GARR”?
 
Have you seen the Wonders I have found in transforming common road signs into story-telling paintings? Have you seen my “Monk on a Mantle” sitting in quiet meditation before an amber field outside of Carthage? Have you seen my four black sheep in their mangers after a day of grazing the lawns around the Eiffel Tower?
 
Come see! Our SIGNS & WONDERS Exhibition remains on view through May 21.
 
Next up is artCentral’s ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP EXHIBITION, opening with the AWARDS PICNIC on June 3, Friday, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Make your $10.00 dinner reservations early by email to artcentral@artcentralcarthage.org or call (417) 358-4404.

​David and I have our artful contributions ready! They are our best offerings.
 
Appearing as an inspired vision on his morning commute to his day job, David’s “Second Coming” is a painting in oil, 40”x20”. Rendered in broad strokes that seem to vibrate to the breath of the frame, his scarlet crested pileated woodpecker flies through the picture plane as though on a mission for the Spirits.
 
My “Ozarkian Cobbler’s Abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel” is composed of my gleanings from our sacred Sunday mornings made as my tribute to David’s courage and to the community of seekers with whom we gather at midday every Sunday.
 
Our Sundays begin with ringing our Tibetan singing bowl after we set our intentions. Finishing a mini morning feast we take to the woods for an up-and-down hike with our Aussie. David carries a shoulder bag to gather trash. Occasionally we collect deadwood—a branch or a root worth saving. I pick up shards strewn along the moss-lined path. Sometimes we find an unexpected treasure like a small, very empty discarded bottle of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum.
 
One Sunday, ready to head home, we were detoured by a sign pointing to “Old Stuff for Sale”. Stopping and shopping there as our fifth anniversary gift to each other, I discovered the base for my “Abbaye”—a vintage cobbler’s stand made of a heavy hand hewn wood support topped with an iron shoe form.
 
My following Sunday studio afternoons were devoted to constructing my tribute to David and our new found friends. I used a weathered board from our old Chickie Palace as the base. With wood and copper wire and lichen I built a church high up on top of the shoe last. Tibetan prayer flags decorate the perimeter. Below, like an undulating sea, my collected shards of glass wave up and around the cobbler’s stand. The empty Captain Morgan bottle lies washed up on a cluster of rocks as though an old habit cast off and left behind by a commitment to sobriety.
 
David tells me my “Abbaye” looks like a lighthouse. Hearing this, I feel happy. I like thinking of art as a lighthouse—a beacon of solace and safety. A place that stands strong and serene even when life’s seas roil rough around us. A place like our Sunday community of seekers. A place like artCentral. I wish for all at least one lighthouse.
 
At artCentral, standing like a serene lighthouse—the cultural center of our hometown—you will find many beacons of inspiration shining in the 2022 ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP EXHIBITION, June 3 through July 17!  Come see!
 

Opening a new message lighting up my phone, I was pleased to find Cheryl Church asking to bring her graduating Carthage High School senior art students for a to view SIGNS & WONDERS. Since their class schedule did not jive with our regular weekend gallery hours, we made arrangements for a special appointment on a Thursday morning—their last day of art class with Mrs. Church.

​​Cheryl, like our artCentral board member Alexandra Burnside, is an artCentral artist; both are experienced and very popular artCamp teachers; and both in the last year have received the honor of being named by the Missouri Art Education Association as “Art Educators of the Year”—Cheryl as the high school level recipient and Alexandra in the elementary division. 

​Given Cheryl’s serious cred in the world of art education, I knew touring with Cheryl’s class was going to be another happy art adventure with eager young artists-in-the-making.
 
Arriving in an assortment of vehicles including a black-‘n’-white retired police car they stood in the parking lot waving hellos. Inside we exchanged names and had a photo op and the tour began. Briefly I told the story about how my husband David and I created SIGNS & WONDERS from inspirations gleaned and gathered over four years from various local walking excursions and Sunday morning country road drives paired with Sunday afternoons in our twinned studios. 

shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”

Besides the 98 works of SIGNS & WONDERS, Hyde House, as always, was a favorite feature of my guests!  The paintings of our benefactress Katherine Hyde were greatly admired as was her décor of a pink and green palette seen in the two bathrooms (one pink, one green) and in the kitchen along with the stove reminiscent of an Oldsmobile from the 50’s. All were worthy of close inspection. They even inspired selfie and group photos before the fluorescent lighted mid-century vanity mirror!
 
There is still time for you to drop by, take in all the art and the charming features of Hyde House and have your own photo ops! Two SIGNS & WONDERS weekends remain with viewing hours continuing on Fridays and Saturdays, 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. through May 21.

siblings. A two-month old babe-in-arms came along for a first art outing.

Oh, how my heart at first sight loved them all and their bright eyes eagerly ready to see lots of art. We did.
 
Pausing on the porch we introduced ourselves. I told them my job as director-curator is to take care of Hyde House and all the art inside. We chatted a bit about the best ways to look at art and to take care of the art as we look. We agreed to walk about without bumping into display pedestals. We talked about not touching what we would see, no matter how tempting, since our fingers and hands might have oils and soil that might harm the art. We decided they could ask lots of questions, if they remembered to raise their hands so I could help them take turns one at a time.
 
Passing through artCentral’s green door of hospitality, we gathered in the foyer. Being rather homunculus, I climbed part way up the stairs so all my homunculus visitors could see me. “Are there any signs in here?” I asked. Lots of hands stretched out with fingers pointing at several artworks displayed around us.

My painted photo tableau of a long horn steer making funny faces created giggling responses before we moved on to see my painting made with the image of a leaping deer. Almost everyone said they had seen “be careful” road signs with leaping deers like the one in the painting.

The kids especially liked two of my tableaux of Lasyrenn as a puppy. In one she is hiding in pampas grass with a cat and a chicken while a donkey stands on her head. In another she is perched as a tiny “watch dog” (ha! ha!) on a barbed wire fence along a country road.

The homeschoolers were fascinated with my husband David’s art made from keepsakes he did not want to throw away—“Crazy Foot” with his worn out leather sandal and the tiny “Lost and Found” paper box with a mermaid on the front and buttons inside. Of course David’s “Dragon Inn”, a painted wooden shingle hanging from a weathered fence post, brought lots of discussion as we talked about how words and titles can often have double meanings.

​Just before we finished exploring the galleries of Hyde House, all the kids and moms loved the special privilege of seeing the studio attic as we concluded our art adventure. Do come and enjoy your own adventure! Weekend Gallery Hours are Fridays and Saturdays, 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. SIGNS & WONDERS remains on view through May 21.

​Registration and prepayment are musts. Be sure, artCampers, to register June 13, or soon after, to reserve the classes you want with your favorite teachers.

At Hyde House we have rooms full of art supplies and a surprise bonanza, too! Thanks to a generous donation from artCentral Member Mark Adams, we have bushels and bushels of gourds waiting to be transformed into art!
 
Naturally, the theme for this year’s screen-free artCamp is “Gourd-a-Rama and Lots, Lots More”, so there will be Gourd Art + Glass Art + Painting + Sculpting + Clay + Fibers + More! 

​Teachers, the time is now to get ready with your class proposals!
 
Interns this is a terrific opportunity to make your summer a special one as you work with teachers to inspire young artists.

curious. As grownups, though we are conditioned by experience and education, the heart of an uninhibited, lyrical child beats deep within each of us. At artCentral we love our artCampers!

​artCAMP CALENDAR

Friday, May 6 by 5:00 p.m. – Deadline for Teacher Registration and Submission of Class Proposals 

Friday, May 6 by 5:00 p.m. – Deadline for Intern Registration

Submission of Class Projects Samples: Deliver before or at Teacher Orientation/Materials Check
 
Monday, June 13 at 9:00 a.m. Registration for artCampers begins 
 
Friday, June 17, 3:00-5:00 pm - Teachers and Interns-Orientation/Materials Check/Deliver Project Samples
                                                                        
July 11-15 and 18-22  artCamp 
 
Friday, July 22, 6-8pm artCamp Reception & Exhibition in Hyde House Galleries

McCune Brooks-Healthcare Foundation is the gracious underwriter for this exhibition. 2022 Recipients of Cash Awards for outstanding contributions will be selected by Juror Beth Simmons, Executive Director, McCune-Brooks Healthcare Foundation, and members of artCentral’s Board of Directors.

ARTISTS - Pre-registration is required and must include (1) your digital image of your entry and (2) a description of your entry (title, dimensions, medium, price, framed or unframed). The Registration Deadline is May 14, Saturday, 6:00 p.m. Email your registration to artcentral@artcentralcarthage.org.
 
EXHIBITION TIMETABLE
May 22, Sunday, 2:00-4:00 pm: Delivery to artCentral of all artworks, entry fee paid and artCentral Membership paid/current with 3 completed ID labels for each entry. The ID labels may be downloaded at https://www.artcentralcarthage.org/2022-annual-membership-exhibition-3-june-23-july.html.

June 3 -July 23, Exhibition: Weekend Gallery Hours: Fridays & Saturdays 12:00-5:00 p.m.
June 3, Friday, 6:00-8:00 pm: Exhibition Opening Picnic and Awards
July 24, Sunday, 2-5 pm: Artist pick up for artworks not rotating into Satellite Galleries.
July 26, Tuesday: All unpurchased works will be rotated into artCentral's two Satellite Galleries to afford artists maximum exposure and opportunities for sales.

REQUIREMENTS
Open to artCentral Members only. Paid Membership must be current.
Only one entry per member with a digital image and three ID labels for each 2D or 3D work of any medium.
Entry Fee: $15.00 nonrefundable, paid before or at May 22, 2:00-4:00 p.m. delivery 
Theme: An open call to artCentral member artists to present their finest artworks
Entries must be original (no giclées) and created in the last three years. No works previously shown at artCentral will be accepted.
All exhibited 2D work must be professional-quality framed or gallery wrapped all sides painted, not gesso, with choice of 1) continuation of image, or 2) solid color; wired properly and ready for installation. No sawtooth hangers or clip hangers will be accepted.
All exhibited 3D work must be ready for installation and accompanied by any special display/hanging requirements. Pedestals will be provided.
artCentral provides Wall Labels for all works. No artist labels or explanations will be displayed.
Size Restrictions: Over-sized or heavy works, over 50 pounds, may require the artist's personal installation with Curator's supervision.
artCentral reserves the right to refuse a work because of unacceptable presentation.
All work must be family friendly: no explicit nudity or pornography.
All art must be for sale. No works sold prior to exhibition will be installed.
Artists will receive 75% of sale price. Artists are responsible for their own sales tax reporting. A 25% commission goes to artCentral for the fostering of regional fine arts and artists.
Liability: artCentral is not responsible for loss or damage to artwork while in transit to/from the exhibitions in artCentral and in artCentral's Satellite Galleries and while on display in any of these venues.
The artist agrees to allow artCentral, at artCentral's discretion, to utilize photographs of exhibited work.        
********
Mark you calendar for a spring outing to Hyde House. Come see SIGNS & WONDERS reported by visitors to cause smiles and even chuckles upon viewing! Through May 21, Weekend Gallery Hours are Fridays and Saturdays, 12:00-5:00. For more information call (417) 358-4404 or visit www.artcentral.org.

​Continuing toward the fortieth anniversary of his vibrantly successful career and the possibility of an encore endeavor, Lonnie, with twinkling eyes, told me, “Terri will never allow me to sit around and do nothing. She is sending me out our door with a smile on my face, a resume in my hand and a song in my heart!”
 
Out their door went Lonnie Heckmaster. Quickly he was recruited by Old Missouri Bank where he served as the market leader for OMB’s expansion into Carthage. When artCentral sought exhibition underwriting assistance, Lonnie made that happen, and Old Missouri Bank’s logo was proudly, prominently displayed on artCentral’s gallery walls.

​intellect and magic, perhaps because of their ability to see through darkness. From the “The Iliad” and the Bible through thousands of years owls have been portrayed as sage and wise. Early Christian texts used the owl as a metaphor for Jesus, who appeared in the darkness of sin and showed humans the way to salvation.

Some Native American tribes understand the owl as a symbol of bravery and protection. In contemporary Western culture, owls are synonymous with wisdom and knowledge. A bespectacled wise owl is found in childhood stories like "Winnie the Pooh".
 
One afternoon driving a back road to Joplin, I saw the legendary Prosperity owl sitting calmly erect and attentive on a fence post very near the old, two-story red brick Prosperity Schoolhouse. His majestic head serenely watched my approach. He waited. His wings did not ruffle or flap. His body did not rise up in flight. As I pulled over to the roadside to watch him, the owl’s eyes never left me—just cast a steady gaze. Driving on, in the mirror I looked back. Still the Prosperity Owl sat watching—watching until I made the corner, and we lost sight of one another.
 
Like the Prosperity Owl, Lonnie Heckmaster is keeping artCentral in his sights, for he has chosen Art Central Carthage, along with the Jasper County Youth Fair, Inc., as recipients for his memorials. I am so very thankful he is watching over us still as he is spreading his wings and ascending into the company of the heavenly heights waiting to receive him.

Lonnie Heckmaster, always humble, made good and beautiful differences in every life he touched while spending time among us. 

I saw my art installed and seen and celebrated in Hyde House. I felt great joy, for the dream I had dreamed alone morphed into a dream dreamed in company with others. Ever since that opening night, artCentral and I have been dreaming together, making realities together. For me and for my art. For me and for so many other dreamers. 

​Another of my dreams, my collaborative expansive dream—SIGNS and WONDERS—a mixed media collection of 94 creations is filling all the galleries of Hyde House through May 21, 2022. Please do come see, so you and I can dream together. I will be so pleased to dream with you!
 
Weekend Gallery Hours are Fridays and Saturdays, 12:00-5:00 p.m. I will be at Hyde House most every Friday, eager to welcome you.  Members of artCentral’s Board of Directors and artCentral member volunteers will serve as Saturday gallery docents to greet you.
 
For more information visit artCentral’s website or Facebook page, email artcentral@artcentralcarthage.org or call me at (417) 358-4404.
 
A dreamed-together-reality does not happen overnight or with the wave of a wand. SIGNS and WONDERS was four years in the dreaming and in the making—four years of Sunday mornings spent collecting inspirations, followed by Sunday afternoons devoted to studio hours doing as an artist does.
 
When time for the Opening Reception arrived, dreaming together with my board of directors created the exhibition’s magical reality. My heart is full of gratitude for Maddie Capps, board secretary, the evening’s professional photographer; Betsy Flanigan, board president, and Wendi Douglas who together set a table with Parisian delights including an array of cheeses that Kalee Hinspeter arranged as Schreiber Foods’ donation; Lori Marble who kept the sales flowing smoothly; Jackie Boyer with her engaging gift for welcoming guests; Jason Shelfer in his role as bicycling master of media distribution; and Doug Osborn, house sommelier and donor of festive bubbly. How sweet to have Bren Flanigan taking his turn at greeting and filling glasses while good friends Lori and David Bigley upped the cheer and lent helping hands wherever needed.

Seeing art patrons choose selections to enhance their collections and hearing their stories around their choices added delicious depth and meaning for me, as an artist. I loved Doug Osborn telling me why he chose my painted photo tableau of layered gingko leaves to add to his works of other Carthage artists—the seasonally themed body of art he is building for his PALMS Massage and Day Spa. Doug says, “I was drawn to this piece because I especially love seeing the gold contrasts that the gingko gives to the autumn color changes of the maple trees on the Square.”
 
Come to artCentral. Come see! Come tell me your story around a SIGN or WONDER that speaks to you.
 
Come! Let us make a reality of our dreaming together.

For artCentral’s collaborative exhibition SIGNS & WONDERS opening April 1, 2022, the artists are two. They are a couple that is us—my artist husband David and me—married five years. Already you may know our backstory about how, since our courting days, we have shared the inclination to “oou and ah” together at sights that catch our eyes and tweak our fancies on our Sunday morning outings—about how we collect images, capture moments and make sweet memories on our drives together—about how we then go home to make our art in our twinned studios.
                                                                                                                                                                                  
All the way back to our childhoods art-making has guided each of us through all the places and phases of our personal journeys until David found me in a magazine and we began to make our life in art together.
 
DAVID GREENWOOD-MATHÉ
Upon leaving his native Joplin, Missouri, David enrolled in the “Foreign Study League”. He earned art history credits in Rome, Florence and Paris: these were transferred to the Kansas City Art Institute, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1973. He returned to Joplin and Missouri Southern State College for a Bachelor of Science in Education. David is a combat naval veteran, having served in the Middle East as well as the Mediterranean, Western Pacific and Arctic Ocean. While always pursuing artistic endeavors, he has been a semi-professional musician and singer-songwriter performing primarily on guitar or mandolin as well as a few other more exotic Instruments. David has appeared in music videos and three major independent films. While continuing his own freelance art career, for fifteen years David owned and operated the Upstart Crow Gallery in the Crossroads District of Kansas City, Missouri. Upon marrying me and moving to Carthage, David became a participating artist and the Gallery Prepitor (Art Handler) for artCentral.

ALICE LYNN GREENWOOD-MATHÉ
As a very young child I began to write and illustrate stories and to construct houses of sticks and stones. Art making was my passion then and has been ever since. With a BA, Cum Laude, in studio art from Hendrix College, while I raised my two children, I worked as a freelance graphic artist in Dallas, Texas, and Little Rock, Arkansas. Moving my young family to NYC, I attended the Art Students League and General Theological Seminary. For a small Manhattan fashion house I dressed Greenwich Village boutique windows and designed one-of-a-kind originals. After my nest emptied, I took to the wilderness of the Ozark Highlands. Four years of solitude beside the Little Buffalo River were spent rambling, photographing, gardening and deep diving into the world of spirit. I painted what I found as though writing my journal with a brush. Back in community, I exhibited and marketed my work full time until assuming the role of Executive Director-Curator here at artCentral. Now with David I still pour my passion into my own art making as I write her weekly Art Notes and nurture a vibrant creative space where other artists can flourish.      
 
Since David and I both have full time day jobs, David down the road at Ajinomoto, and me at artCentral, for now our personal art-making is limited to our Sunday afternoons. No surprise that the creating SIGNS & WONDERS has spanned four years of Sunday studio afternoons. David and I hope you will come see us and our eighty-eight creations!
 
For more information visit www.artcentral.org, email artcentral@artcentralcarthage.org or call (417) 358-4404.
 

                   SIGNS & WONDERS – The Backstory                                     ​

showing off their beauty; and naked winter old growth standing staunchly sensuous and unapologetic in bareness.

We love discovering a nursery of young black vultures lined up on a white fence railing with a raucous murder of ebony crows circling overhead; or a solo longhorn posing roadside and offering a repertoire of amusing expressions as though for a photo-op; or a pasture of horses dressed in masks and spats looking ready for a neighbor’s costume party.
                                           
With our comings and goings we are frequently entertained by the seemingly ordinary directional signs we encounter placed on poles to help and guide us in our travels. One in particular—the very noire arrow, pointed up with a wiggly tail flowing down over a reflective yellow backdrop—was the first road sign I decided to paint. “Wiggle Bottom” is a reminder of the squirming Aussie riding in my lap as we made our way up that curving, twisting tarmac trail.
 
All these signs and wonders seem to be love notes left by a grand heart filled with benevolence—reassuring us we live in a world of beauty and goodness, telling us to pause and slow down. We do. We slow down. We stop. As David gathers an appealing stick or stone or rusted scrap of bric-a-brac for his sculpture, I start snapping my camera’s shutter—collecting images, capturing moments, making sweet memories to put into my painted photo tableau.
 
We have loved collecting and making our SIGNS & WONDERS. We love sharing them with you. We hope they bring you joy and give you much to love, too!
 
You can see a preview of all 88 of our SIGNS & WONDERS creations at www.artcentralcarthage.org and in our photo albums on artCentral’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ArtcentralCarthage. Purchases will be available online or at Hyde House beginning at noon on Friday, April 1, 2022.