An Island Of Creativity

For most of her adult life, Mariellen Griffith was a college professor, a mom -- but rarely an artist.

"I started with my first child, many, many years ago," she says of discovering art. "Then I went back to work."

Ready to retire -- from Butler University in Indianapolis, where she taught in the graduate school of counseling and school psychology -- she and husband Don Soderberg "looked everywhere" for a new home. Holiday Island turned out to be "the perfect spot."

"We wanted a place on the water but also a community of artists and diverse people," Griffith says. "It's like a college campus with no students running around -- and I've never met so many artists in my life.

Griffith soon joined the Holiday Island Art Guild, which boasts 50-plus members from Eureka Springs, Berryville and southern Missouri in addition to those living in the recreation and retirement community. Now, she's coordinating the 27th Holiday Island Art Show, which takes place this weekend at the Club House on Holiday Island Drive.

Forty-four artists have submitted 152 artworks for the show, which continues through Sunday. "Maybe only half of them are from the guild," she says, adding that about half the guild members are still "beginning artists."

"This is a place where artists and student artists can show their work and receive prizes," she says of the show. "We have a judge coming in -- the new staff person at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts, Danielle James. She comes from North Carolina, where she received her master's degree in fine arts and was teaching various classes in metal design. So we're bringing in an artist from a different school of thought."

In addition to the artworks -- some of which will be for sale -- the guild has solicited more than 100 items for a silent auction, which also ends Sunday. And viewers can vote in several categories for their favorite works.

Jay Vrecenak, best known around Eureka Springs as a freelance photographer for the local newspaper, will have three works on show -- in acrylics and watercolors, not photos.

"I've been taking pix since I was 8; that's my first love," she says. "I didn't start painting til 2012 after John Rankine challenged us on Facebook to shoot textures. After doing this, I had a great desire to paint these textures.

"It's an exciting adventure for me to paint. Since a lot of what I do is abstract, it's always interesting to see what pops out of my mind that I didn't know was there!"

NAN What's Up on 08/28/2015