Works by three artists from the River Valley & Ozark Edition coverage area can now be seen in an online registry sponsored by the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Catherine Christie of Damascus, Charlotte Rierson of Fairfield Bay and Mary Ann Stafford of Maumelle are among 25 Arkansas women whose works will be featured on the committee’s website for the next two years.
The statewide volunteer organization was established in 1989 as an affiliate of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.
“This award is a true honor for me,” said Christie, who grew up in Conway. “I am an Arkansan, and Arkansas has always been a part of my work, perhaps not figuratively, but there nonetheless.”
Christie graduated from Hendrix College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in art in 1969. She received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1973 and a doctorate in education from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1999.
She has taught at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and at UALR. She retired in 2003 and said she welcomed retirement as an opportunity to have time to devote to her work and to outdoor activities.
She volunteers at Companions, the Faulkner County Humane Society thrift store in Conway. She and her husband, David Stedman, live outside Damascus with a variety of dogs and cats.
Christie’s paintings are included in private and corporate collections in areas from Wisconsin to Louisiana. She has exhibited in shows and galleries throughout the Mid-South. In Arkansas she has shown her work at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, the South Arkansas Arts Center in Pine Bluff and the Fort Smith Art Center; at Hendrix, UCA and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville; and in local galleries, including the Heights Gallery and Stephano’s.
She works primarily in oil on canvas, but sometimes combines oils with other media such as graphite, pastel, crayon and gold-and-silver leaf.
“My paintings are a combination of what I see, experience, think and believe, as well as what I have studied and learned,” Christie said.
Rierson grew up in Jacksonville. She and her husband, Don, moved to Fairfield Bay in 1992 after he retired from the Air Force.
“The National Museum of Women in the Arts and its Arkansas affiliate do so much to promote and encourage women artists,” Rierson said. “I was thrilled and honored to have my artwork selected to be in this prestigious group.”
She has been involved in what she calls her “Art Spirit Journey” since she was young. She taught dance arts for two generations and received a Bachelor of Science in Education degree from UCA, where she majored in art education. She trained in museum management and was a volunteer docent at the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock. Rierson is a past president of the Mid-Southern Watercolorists and is the organization’s director of regional art advisers. She is a signature member of the Arkansas League of Artists.
She has exhibited artwork at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.; and at the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion, the Clinton Presidential Library and the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, all in Little Rock. She has shown her work statewide and has won numerous art awards. Her work can be found in permanent private and corporate collections.
In the early 1990s, Rierson established the North Central Art Gallery in the Fairfield Bay Conference Center and is coordinator of the gallery and one of its contributing artists.
Stafford grew up in Pine Bluff.
“The Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts is dedicated to promoting awareness of the work of Arkansas women artists,” Stafford said, “and I am honored to be included in the 2015-2016 Artists Registry.
“In addition to its online website, the ACNMWA provides scholarships and opportunities to women artists throughout the state.”
A large family and teaching career kept Stafford from pursuing a serious career in the fine arts until she retired in 1993. Her education credentials include Bachelor of Science in Education and Master of Arts degrees in English, art hours from the Kansas City Art Institute and the University of Arkansas, and a doctorate in education with an emphasis in art. She taught high school English, humanities and art for 16 years, was an assistant principal for five years and served as staff-development coordinator for the Arkansas Department of Education until she retired.
Since then, she has been painting and drawing full time and studying art under nationally recognized artists. She teaches drawing and pastel at the Maumelle Senior Wellness Center and recently retired as a faculty member at the Arkansas Arts Center.
Stafford has been juried into many regional and national shows and featured in solo shows in Fort Smith, El Dorado, Little Rock, Pine Bluff, Stuttgart and Hot Springs. Her work is on display at Gallery 221 in Little Rock, Art on the Green in Conway and Eurekan Art in Eureka Springs.
Stafford said she enjoys working with watercolors, pastels and acrylics, but also loves to draw with pen and ink and colored pencils.
Her exhibit titled The Argenta Historic District, a series of 25 pen-and-ink drawings of historic structures in downtown North Little Rock, has been shown at five locations in central Arkansas. For this project, Stafford received a scholarship from the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum for Women in the Arts. A book that includes historical and architectural facts, as well as the 25 images, is being published.
Stafford holds signature memberships in the Pastel Society of the Southwest in Texas, the Mid-Southern Watercolorists and the Arkansas League of Artists.
Since its inception in 1989, the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts has awarded numerous artist scholarships and educational internships to Arkansas
women and arts organizations. The committee also promotes Arkansas women artists through the biennial Women to Watch exhibitions and the National Museum of Women in the Arts series.
For more information on the committee or to view works by these three local artists, visit acnmwa.org.