The artwork of local artists Beverly Buys, Barbara Cade and Dolores Justus has often been seen in Hot Springs and throughout Arkansas, but their work can now be seen nationwide.
The Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts recently announced the inclusion of these three Hot Springs artists on the roster of Arkansas women artists juried into the organization’s online artist registry.
Their works will be featured on the ACNMWA website for the next two years. ACNMWA is a statewide volunteer organization established in 1989 as an affiliate of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.
“The National Museum of Women in the Arts is a blessing,” said Buys, who is a native of Hot Springs. “The Arkansas chapter gives much-needed support both monetarily and by encouraging women artists. It provides an outlet for showing work and letting people know about the talented women who work in our state.
“It means a lot to me to be selected for the online artists’ registry.”
In May 2014, Buys retired as a professor of art at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, where she taught photography.
“I am currently adjusting to retirement and am excited about the possibilities that it holds,” Buys said. “My plan is to make art and make a garden.
“My photographic work at present deals with the rural countryside of Arkansas and, most specifically, the Delta region of Arkansas, though I have plans to expand my scope to other areas of the state.”
Buys said she works with film and chemistry. Her most-recent work employs the cyanotype technique, which is an early photographic technique, she said.
Buys received a Bachelor of Science in Education degree in art education from Henderson State University in 1977, a Master of Arts degree in photography from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1994 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in photography and printmaking from the University of Memphis in 1996.
Buys just recently had an exhibit, Delta in Blue, on display at Arkansas State University-Beebe.
“I am honored to be selected for the ACNMWA online registry,” Cade said. “As an adjunct to the National Museum for Women Artists in Washington, the purpose of the Arkansas committee is to highlight the artwork of Arkansas women artists. Over the years, the committee has found innovative ways to do that with scholarships and with a touring show.
“The new website not only exposes our work to more viewers, but since it is curated, it gives women artists a new goal to work toward.”
Cade, who was born in Illinois and raised in California, is a full-time studio artist who specializes in fiber tapestries and sculptures made of handmade wool felt.
“After the move to Arkansas, I was homesick for my friends and the outdoors of the Northwest,” Cade said. “I started making landscapes that I remembered. It was an attempt to bring peace and harmony back into my life.
“When I finished, I realized how much my work looked like Arkansas. I find inspiration in nature, from places I travel to, but mostly from the views of the woods and the lake from my studio. The places may be different, but the message is still the same. I like to magnify ordinary things in the environment. I think truth comes from the observation of nature.”
Over the years, Cade has taught herself weaving, felting, stitchery, other fabric constructions and handmade-paper techniques. She has taken classes in glassblowing and pottery. With her love of other cultures, she has studied Spanish, African-American history and Native American history.
She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in German from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1962 and a Master of Arts degree in German from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1967.
Cade recently had some felted geodes accepted into the museum store at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, and she has had several shows in her Blue Rock Studio/Gallery.
Cade also still does short-term residencies in Arkansas schools.
“That is work that gets me out of the studio and in contact with some hardworking, creative Arkansas students,” she said.
“It is an honor to have been selected for inclusion in the 2015-2016 online registry for the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts,” Justus said. “I appreciate the opportunity by the ACNMWA to have work reviewed for this registry by respected curators Les Christensen, director of the Bradbury Gallery at Arkansas State University, and Manuela Well-Off Man, assistant curator at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
“I applaud the efforts of the ACNMWA to support and promote Arkansas women artists through this and other worthwhile programs,” Justus said.
Justus was born in Morristown, New Jersey, but spent the early years of her life in Oregon. She said her love of nature was grounded in her experiences in the Northwest and was carried with her when she moved to the South.
In 2004, Justus opened Justus Fine Art in Hot Springs, where she displays the work of established and emerging artists. She is also the owner and art director of Justus Design and Marketing Co.
She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in graphic design from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1988. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the nation and abroad for more than 20 years.
Justus currently has an exhibit, Migratory Patterns, on display in the Roger D. Malkin Gallery of the E.E. Bass Cultural Arts Center in Greenville, Mississippi, which is sponsored by the Greenville Arts Council. The exhibit will remain on display through April 24.
The artwork of these three local artists that are included in the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts online registry, along with others from throughout Arkansas, can be found at nmwa.org.