Category Archives: Visual Art

Ark Arts Center opens new exhibit on art of tattoos

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The Arkansas Arts Center kicks off the 2012-2013 exhibition season with Tattoo Witness: Photographs by Mark Perrott on Friday, June 22. A reception for AAC members will take place tonight. The exhibit is organized and toured by the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, PA.

Perrott’s photographs, which document 25 years of tattoo culture, highlight the artistry of the tattoos as well as the individuals who have stories to tell. Tattoos are one of the oldest subjects in art, dating back over 5000 years.

The exhibit features 25 large-scale black and white photos of men and women and their tattoos.
It grew out of a project which Perrott began in 1979 when he started hanging out at a tattoo parlor in Pittsburgh. That led him to continue to explore the artform in a widening area. Between 1995 and 2003 his continued curiosity compelled him to visit ten American mid-career tattoo masters at their studios, scattered across the country.

Mark Perrott – TONY, 1992

Mark Perrott has worked as a professional photographer for the past 40 years. In addition to his commercial work, which includes portraiture and photography for annual reports, Perrott has taken photographs that document Pittsburgh’s citizens and its rich industrial landscape. His photographs are included in the permanent collections of a number of museums, including Carnegie Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Baltimore Museum of Art and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

The exhibition will showcase a collection of murals painted by local tattoo artists including Robert Berry from 7th Street Tattoo in Little Rock, Richard Moore from Backroads Tattoo in Russellville, Caleb Pritchett from Electric Heart Tattoo in Little Rock, Chris Thomas from Golden Lotus Tattoo Studio in Sherwood, Brooke and Ryan Cook from Lucky Bella in North Little Rock, Nancy Miller from Main Street Tattoo in Jacksonville and Scott Diffee from The Parlor in North Little Rock.

A section in the exhibition called Arkansas Tattoo Witness Corner will feature a selection of videos created by local individuals telling the stories behind their tattoos. To be included in the Arkansas Tattoo Witness Corner section of the exhibition, people can submit videos telling their tattoo story. Videos should be three minutes or less in length. People can upload their videos through the Arkansas Arts Center web site at http://www.arkarts.com. Videos will be accepted throughout the run of the exhibition.

RELATED PROGRAMS
The lecture TATTOOED: The Sociogenesis of a Body Art by Michael Atkinson, Ph.D. will be held Thursday, June 21, 2012. A reception will be held at 5:30 p.m., and the lecture will begin at 6 p.m. Dr. Michael Atkinson, sociologist and tattoo enthusiast, authored the book Tattooed: The Sociogenesis of Body Art. In this lecture, Dr. Atkinson will discuss the change in tattoo culture in North America in the past decade including the role of women and other influences. Admission to the lecture is $5. Arkansas Arts Center Members attend free.

The Arkansas Arts Center will offer free public tours of Tattoo Witness: Photographs by Mark Perrott by docents on Saturdays at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. and Sundays at 1 and 2:30 p.m.

Live demonstrations will reveal the art and technique of tattooing by local tattoo parlors from 2 to 4 p.m. on the following dates (visitors cannot receive tattoos at the Arts Center):

June 24: Golden Lotus Tattoo Studio, Sherwood
July 15: Lucky Bella, North Little Rock
August 5: 7th Street Tattoo, Little Rock
August 26 : Electric Heart Tattoo, Little Rock

Sculpture Vulture: First Tee of Little Rock

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Since the US Open concludes today, today’s featured sculpture is of a young boy playing golf. This sculpture sits in front of the clubhouse at the First Tee of Little Rock facility. It was unveiled in 2001 at the dedication ceremony for First Tee. President George HW Bush and Arnold Palmer were present along with Jackson T. Stephens and his son Warren Stephens.

Over the past eleven years, thousands of boys and girls have walked past this sculpture as they learn not only the game of golf but also the life skills that golf teaches. In May 2011, President George W Bush spoke at a ceremony commemorating the tenth anniversary of the First Tee of Little Rock.

Sculpture Vulture: Jan Woods’ FULL OF HIMSELF

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Since the Belmont Stakes were run yesterday and tonight’s Tony Awards promises many tight horse races, today’s Sculpture Vulture features one of the horse sculptures found in the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden in Riverfront Park.

Jan Woods’ Full of Himself was installed in 2009. It was donated by Ms. Woods and the National Sculptors’ Guild. Ms. Woods was a featured sculptor during the 2009 Sculpture at the River Market event. The sculpture, made of bronze, depicts a horse mid-canter standing tall with head erect and tail proudly raised.

Woods creates sculptures of a variety of subjects (including doing the bust of President Clinton which is on the grounds of the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion) but is perhaps best known for her equine sculptures.

June’s 2nd Friday Art Night

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As Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote, “June is bustin’ out all over.”  Tonight, art is bustin’ out all over downtown with the monthly 2nd Friday Art Night.

Among the many stops are:

Quapaw Quarter Association at Curran Hall, 615 East Capitol Avenue.  The artists Dixie Rogers and David Bud Bell will have art on display throughout the period rooms in Little Rock’s official visitors center.

Butler Center Galleries, 401 President Clinton Avenue. Pattern in Perspective: Recent Work by Carly Dahl and Dustyn Bork. Carly Dahl and Dustyn Bork are an artist couple who both work in painting, printmaking, and installation.

Historic Arkansas Museum, 200 East Third Street.  Recent Acquistions; A Collection Vision, 2008-2012.  A look at artwork acquired by HAM over the past four years.  In addition there will be live music by Blue-Collared Greens and a beer tasting with our local brewery, Diamond Bear.

Christ Episcopal Church, 509 Scott Street.  Art Musings.  Work by clients of the Creative Expressions Program of the Arkansas State Hospital.

Arkansas Arts Center a Blue Star Museum

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The Arkansas Arts Center is a proud participant in the Blue Star Museums, a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and more than 1,500 museums across America to offer free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families through Labor Day 2012. Leadership support has been provided by MetLife Foundation through Blue Star Families. The complete list of participating museums is available at www.arts.gov/bluestarmuseums.

“Through Blue Star Museums, the arts community is extending a special invitation to military families to enjoy over 1,500 museums this summer,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “This is both an opportunity to thank military families for their service and sacrifice, as well as a chance to create connections between museums and these families that will continue throughout the year. Especially for families with limited time together, those on a limited budget, and ones that have to relocate frequently, Blue Star Museums offers an opportunity to enjoy one another and become more fully integrated into a community.”

“As we enter the third consecutive year of the Blue Star Museums program, we are happy provide an opportunity for our nation’s service members and their families to connect with our national treasures,” said Blue Star Families CEO Kathy Roth-Douquet. “Through this distinctive collaboration between Blue Star Families, the National Endowment for the Arts and more than 1,500 museums across the United States, military families have an unparalleled opportunity to visit some of the country’s finest museums for free.”

This year, more than 1,500 (and counting) museums in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and American Samoa are taking part in the initiative, including more than 300 new museums this year. Museums are welcome to join Blue Star Museums throughout the summer. The effort to recruit museums has involved the partnership efforts of the American Association of Museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors, the Association of Children’s Museums, the American Association of State and Local History, and the Association of Science-Technology Centers. This year’s Blue Star Museums represent not just fine arts museums, but also science museums, history museums, nature centers, and 70 children’s museums. Among this year’s new participants are the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar in Richmond, Virginia, the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, NM, the Cleveland Botanical Garden in Cleveland, Ohio, the Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco, California, the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, and the World Figure Skating Museum & Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Sculpture Vulture: Michael Warrick’s GROWN

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Since June is a month in which people spend a lot of time in gardens, the Sculpture Vulture will focus on sculptures found in a garden. In this instance it is the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden, located in Riverfront Park. Over 30 sculptures are located in this garden, which opened in 2009.

Today’s is Michael Warrick’s Grown which was installed in 2010. Using bronze, Warrick creates a framework to evoke the lower-half of a human. What initially looks merely like an abstract series of strips is, in fact, sculpted to resemble twigs and branches. The sculpture is approximately four feet tall, making it roughly 25% larger than life.

Warrick is a longtime faculty member at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and has sculptures placed as far away as China in addition to appearing in many public and private collections in Arkansas and throughout the United States.

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Sculpture Vulture: Gov. Sid McMath

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As Arkansas Heritage Month draws to an end, today’s Sculpture Vulture features Gov. Sid McMath. A proud officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, it is also appropriate to feature him on Memorial Day weekend.

The sculpture was crafted by Bryan Massey, Sr. and was commissioned by the Central Arkansas Library System. It stands on the campus of the library branch which bears the Governor’s name. It was dedicated in 2006.

This bronze sculpture depicts Gov. McMath in shirt sleeves, slacks and a tie in mid stride. He confidently smiles as he raises his right hand to wave with the hat in the hand. It is based on a photo of the Governor walking in a Little Rock parade along side President Harry S. Truman.

Behind the statue are a series of medallions mounted on individual pedestals which depict scenes from McMath’s life. They are accompanied by a quote from U. S. Senator David H. Pryor “…the best friend Arkansas ever had.”

The plaza is flanked by the United States, Arkansas and Marine Corps flags.