HOT SPRINGS Couple serve as artists-in-residence at national park

Artist Hugh Dunnahoe displays works in his home that were created during his residency in Hot Springs National Park.
Artist Hugh Dunnahoe displays works in his home that were created during his residency in Hot Springs National Park.

— A Hot Springs couple were inspired to create more than 30 works of art during the two months they served as artists-in-residence at Hot Springs National Park.

Donna Dunnahoe, a fiber artist, was artist-in-residence during September. She created baskets using reed, sea grass and raffia, along with cotton and wool. She also created items on her loom using natural fibers.

Hugh Dunnahoe, a painter and illustrator, was the park’s artist in October, allowing both artists extra time in the national park for their work.

The Dunnahoes were actually in residence, living in a special cabin-studio in the Gulpha Gorge Campground, and both found the experience added to their art.

“I really enjoyed the experience a lot,” Donna said. “I found my craft cannot be isolated. I enjoyed being watched. People wanted to see what we were doing. I need people around, and I think the interaction made me better at my craft.”

Donna said the national park environment was well suited to her work.

“The natural colors, woodland textures and the light and shadow of the canopy create patterns that interpret in my textiles,” she said. “The Gulpha Creek and the natural hot springs provide inspiration for the glass and ceramics aspects of my work.”

Hugh said he and his wife first applied as a team for the residency, but both were selected separately.

“They allowed us to work independently, saying they didn’t want us to make a hybrid of our work,” Hugh said.

The two months in the program allowed the Dunnahoes to concentrate full time on their art, and they were able to complete what Hugh called an ambitious plan. He created 23 final works.

Three large pieces measured 30 inches by 24 inches.

“They were not gigantic, but they were a lot of work,” Hugh said. “They included a lot of symbolism.”

A painting titled Ancient Spring is an abstract work representing the streaming springs on the mountainside. Another large painting depicts the reverence Native Americans held for the springs as sources of spiritual healing. The third painting, Distribution, represents the control, utilization and commercialization of the springs.

The 20 other paintings were smaller, from 8 inches by 10 inches to 11 inches by 14 inches.

“Most were painted over a few hours, Hugh said. “You paint what you see in front of you before the light changes.”

Those paintings showed trails, campgrounds and campers, scenes of downtown Hot Springs and the bathhouses. The Hot Springs painter said he thinks these works are strong images and among his best.

“Every time I do something, I hope it is better than what I have done before,” Hugh said.

At the end of the residency,every artist selected donates a finished original work to the national park. The work must be based on or related to the park and is chosen by a selection committee from the body of work produced during the artist’s stay.

The committee selected one of Hugh’s smaller paintings and a free-form basket, titled Hot Springs, created by Donna using the coil-weaving technique, one of the oldest ways of making baskets. The works are on display at the Fordyce Bathhouse, the park’s visitor center and museum.

Other works created by Donna during the couple’s time in the park are on display at the Fine Arts Center of Hot Springs on Central Avenue. She was once the center’s president and now works there.

Born in Pine Bluff, Hugh grew up in southern California, but moved to Hot Springs three years ago.

“We visited here all my life, and I always loved it,” Hugh said. My parents moved back to Arkansas after retirement. I had seen Hot Springs many times, and after getting to know the artist community, it was like moving back home.”

Away from the park, Hugh’s other work includes graphic designs, including maps andguides for Disney theme parks and resorts around the world.

“The maps are really birdseye views of the parks and the resorts,” Hugh said. “The designs of the resorts are used in marketing, and the park maps are used by visitors to find their way inside the parks.”

Six artists-in-residence were announced this year. Three were from Hot Springs. Along with the Dunnahoes, photographer Beverly Buys was the artist at Gulpha Gorge in May.

Buys is the professor of photography at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia. Buys donated a silver gelatin print of her photograph titled Vista at Goat Rock, Top of the Trail.

Coming from out of state were Deanna Morse from Michigan in April and Rod Northcutt of New York, who was at the park in August.

New this year was the project’s first composer, Laurence Sherr of Georgia, who participated in the program in June. An associate professor of music from Kennasaw State University near Atlanta, Sherr wrote a piano prelude called Ouachita Waters that will premier during a recital in Hot Springs on April 24, 2010.

Sherr said he hiked the park and walked into town, “getting a sense of the natural environment.” The most obvious feature was the thermal waters of the springs, Sherr said.

“The composition musically follows the water at the base of Hot Springs Mountain, through its 4,000-year journey to a mile beneath the surface, where it is heated and takes only a year to come back up to the springs,” Sherr said. “I wrote it very quickly and finished it within three weeks and played it for Park Superintendent Josie Fernandez before I left.”

For more i n for mat ion about the artist-in-residence program at Hot Springs National Park, call (501) 620-6707. To see other works by the Dunnahoes, contact their studio outside Hot Springs at (501) 624-6200.

- wbryan@ arkansasonline.com

Tri-Lakes, Pages 65 on 12/17/2009

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