Local artists included in Small Works on Paper exhibit in Tri-Lakes area

 Four artists from the Tri-Lakes Edition coverage area have works in the 2015 Small Works on Paper touring exhibit. The artists are, from left, Warren Criswell of Benton, and Henderson State University seniors Claire Cade, Houston Fryer and Megan Snoddy. The show is on display at the William F. Laman Library in North Little Rock through Jan. 27. It will tour throughout Arkansas during 2015.
Four artists from the Tri-Lakes Edition coverage area have works in the 2015 Small Works on Paper touring exhibit. The artists are, from left, Warren Criswell of Benton, and Henderson State University seniors Claire Cade, Houston Fryer and Megan Snoddy. The show is on display at the William F. Laman Library in North Little Rock through Jan. 27. It will tour throughout Arkansas during 2015.

NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Artists from across Arkansas gathered Jan. 9 for the opening of the 28th annual Small Works on Paper touring exhibition at the William F. Laman Library in North Little Rock. Four artists from the Tri-Lakes Edition coverage area were among them.

The exhibit, which is sponsored by the Arkansas Arts Council, will remain on display at the North Little Rock library, 2801 Orange St., through Jan. 27 before moving on to nine other locations throughout the state.

Warren Criswell of Benton and Megan Snoddy, a senior at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia and a resident of Jacksonville, both received purchase awards for their works. Purchase-award winners receive the cash amount equivalent to the value of their selected works. Funded by entry fees, the purchase-award pieces become part of the exhibition’s permanent collection.

Two other HSU students also had works selected for the show — Claire Cade of McRae and Houston Fryer of Hot Springs.

Criswell received a purchase award for his linocut The Secret Sharer. He also had another linocut accepted for the show, Alignment (6 AM).

“I am happy, absolutely happy, to be selected for this show,” Criswell said.

Primarily a self-taught painter, Criswell, 78, is also a printmaker, sculptor and animator. He has had 41 solo exhibitions in the United States and one in Taiwan. His work has been included in 72 group exhibitions across the country and in Germany and Taiwan and is represented in the permanent collections of many institutions.

Criswell talks about his purchase-award-winning piece of art:

“This image came to me one night when my wife mentioned Joseph Conrad’s story ‘The Secret Sharer,’ which I had read years

ago,” he said.

“Basically, this is an encounter between the captain of a sailing ship and a swimmer he discovers one dark night, a fugitive from another ship. This guy is on the run, or the swim, having committed a crime on the other ship, but the captain immediately thinks of him as another version of himself, a doppelganger.

“The idea is that the captain has safety and security but no freedom, while the swimmer is in great danger, but he is also free. It’s the old dichotomy of security vs. freedom, always a problem for artists.

“So I intended for the face of my swimmer, even though he’s down there in the water with the sharks, to have a sort of smirk on his face, and when I modeled for it, I videoed myself with this smug, evil grin. But when I painted it, the brush took over, as so often happens, and this terrified face emerged. Not what I intended at all, but I realized that this was the truth, so I left it that way. Apparently, I’m too old now to swim with the sharks. Often the artwork is more truthful than the artist.”

Snoddy, 21, received a purchase award for her linocut Mind.

She is set to graduate in May from HSU with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in digital art and design. She is the daughter of Kevin and Kathy Snoddy of Jacksonville and a graduate of North Pulaski High School. She hopes to enter the character design and concept art field after graduation.

This is the first time she has entered the Small Works on Paper competition.

“I am very happy that I got in and won a purchase award,” she said.

As a freelance artist, Snoddy said, “I work with a Wacom Cintiq (digital pen display) to create digital drawings and illustrations. Most of my work focuses on the characters themselves rather than the environment they are in. These characters take place in a nonfictional world. Fictional elements such as supernatural events are sometimes incorporated.

“The very beginning of a piece is sometimes difficult to come up with, but it is the most exciting. I spend most of my time sketching. I believe it is the best way to generate ideas rather than diving straight into a piece.

“I derive inspiration and ideas from websites such as tumblr.com or pinterest.com. Looking through pictures of people and fashion is one of my pastimes. People are interesting and complex both in personality as well as shape and size. I sketch them to help generate ideas to create characters of my own.”

Cade, 22, has a reduction linocut in the show. She titled her work Sisters in Christ.

This is the second time Cade has had her artwork selected for this exhibition.

“I am delighted to be in the show again,” she said.

The daughter of Gary Cade of McRae, she is a graduate of Beebe High School. She is scheduled to graduate from HSU in May with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio art.

Cade said her current artwork is about dichotomy in a person’s life.

“It’s about the dichotomy people feel about secular values vs. church morality,” she said. “I always felt the pull. I grew up to be an atheist, an agnostic, a queer girl, but I was raised in a churchgoing family.

“It’s all about being true to yourself,” Cade said. “Sometimes you are not sure which self you should be true to. The conjoined twins in this linocut represent that dichotomy.”

Cade said she hopes to find a “good job” in Little Rock, one that will allow her to continue making art.

In addition to the SWOP, Cade also has work on display in the Arkansas Society of Printmakers’ show at the Historic Arkansas Museum.

Fryer, 24, has a pen-and-ink drawing in the exhibit that he calls Lunarman.

The son of Janet and Robert Fryer of Hot Springs, he is a graduate of Lakeside High School. He is scheduled to graduate in May from HSU with a degree in studio art and painting and has already applied to several graduate schools.

This is the second year Fryer’s work has been selected for the SWOP exhibit.

“I am happy to be in the show,” he said. “They will accept up to three entries. I enter one I feel good about, one that I think the juror will like and one I think the juror will not like. The juror chose the one I thought she would not like.”

Fryer said he typically paints in oils “on a large scale.”

“Bigger than me,” he said with a laugh. “It’s nice to break that mold and to do something smaller and simple.”

Fryer said he likes to play off nicknames when he titles his works of art.

“My roommate is Lunarman,” Fryer said. “He’s 6-8, and his head is in the clouds. Maybe that’s why he’s called that.”

Eleana Del Rio, owner of the Koplin Del Rio Gallery in Culver City, California, served as this year’s juror of the competitive visual art exhibition that showcases artwork no larger than 24- by 24-inches by Arkansas artists who are members of the Arkansas Artists Registry. Del Rio selected 29 artists for the show, which includes 40 works of art.

The 28th annual Small Works exhibit is free and open to the public. Gallery hours at the William F. Laman Library are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The gallery is closed on Sunday. For more information, call (501) 758-1720.

The 2015 SWOP touring schedule follows:

• Feb. 4-25, the University of Arkansas at Monticello;

• March 2-30, East Arkansas Community College in Forrest City;

• April 2-30, Northwest Arkansas Community College

in Bentonville;

• May 6-27, the College of the Ouachitas Library in Malvern;

• June 3-26, the South Arkansas Arts Center in El Dorado;

• July 1- Aug. 12, the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas in Pine Bluff;

• Aug. 23-Sept. 11, Harding University in Searcy;

• Oct. 6-26, Henderson State University in Arkadelphia; and

• Nov. 2-28, Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia.

For more information, call the Arkansas Arts Council at (501) 324-9766 or visit www.arkansasarts.org.

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