ARKADELPHIA — Artwork by Clark County art educators — both retired and currently employed — is on display in a new exhibit at the Arkadelphia Arts Center.
The Art Educators’ Show and Sale features approximately 70 pieces of art by 23 artists from the area. The work may be seen — and purchased — through Oct. 10. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
“Clark County has exceptional art instructors ranging from teachers in the public and private schools and universities to those offering private lessons,” said Farrell Ford, executive director of the arts center and its governing body, the Clark County Arts and Humanities Council. “This exhibit features their work and gives our community an opportunity to see the creativity of those teaching the skills necessary to produce visual art.”
Ford, who taught art at Arkadelphia Junior High School before going into counseling and retiring from Henderson State University, has work in the current show. She said the exhibit features diverse styles, subjects and media including photography, collage, sculpture, pottery, textiles, basketry, metallurgy, painting and more.
Evelyn Good of Arkadelphia is another artist who has work in the exhibit. A retired family and consumer science instructor at Henderson State University, Good selected two textiles for the art show. She also paints in watercolor and oils.
A native of Louisiana, Good said she came to Arkadelphia in 1969 “to stay for one year.”
“And here I am, still,” she said with a laugh.
She has degrees in clothing and textiles from Louisiana Tech University and Louisiana State University.
“At Henderson, I taught whatever came along,” she said. “I taught clothing construction or sewing, textiles, working with fibers and yarns. I even taught a course in housing design.
“I always had an interest in art,” she said. “I might have majored in it had I known then what I know now. My aunt was an art teacher and my grandma was artistic.
“Between the time I graduated from Louisiana Tech and went into the working world, I took private art lessons,” she said.
“Everything I taught reflected the basics of art — color, design. It was just a different way of applying those principles.
“I told my students I wanted to do something else when I grew up,” Good said. “So when I retired in December 2007, I started doing art.”
Good said she has rarely exhibited her art in an organized show.
“When I was teaching, I had a piece in a show at Fort Smith,” she said.
“I make baskets, too,” Good said. “I showed my baskets at three national meetings of the American Home Economics Association (now known as the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences).”
In addition to making art, Good is also an avid bird watcher.
She is a member of the Clark County Arts and Humanities Council and the Caddo River Art Guild and has participated in its Round About Artist Studio Tour in the past.
“And in my spare time, I work with the Clark County Extension Homemakers,” Good said.
In addition to Good and Ford, other local artists with work in the Art Educators’ Show and Sale include James Langley, Amy Hornsby, Nik Chamberlain, Kasten Searles, Rosie Huddleston, David Stoddard, Sandra Capps, Adria Ozmun, Raouf Halaby, Katherine Strause, Wayne McAfee, Shirley Howard, Donnie Copeland, Margo Duvall, David Warren, Aaron Calvert, Rita Earles, Jerry Burrow, Ed Martin, Jane Watson and Debbie White.
For more information on the current show or the Clark County Arts and Humanities Council, call (870) 403-8216. The Arkadelphia Arts Center is located at 625 Main St.