Cutting-edge art

Husband and wife carve own niches in their work

Print by Tammy Harrington
Print by Tammy Harrington

A professor of art at the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Tammy Harrington will be sharing an Arts Center of the Ozarks gallery in February with her husband, Neal Harrington, an associate professor of art at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. Asked about the exhibition, she wants first to brag on his work, not her own.

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Print by Neal Harrington

She points out he has won the Delta Award at the Arkansas Arts Center twice, once in 2013 and again in 2015, and says that's an "amazing" accomplishment among the more commonly accepted painters and sculptors. She adds that he was featured last year in The Idle Class magazine. And she talks about how switching from painting to printmaking has earned him renown.

FYI

Also On Show

Joining the Harringtons will be Benton artist Warren Criswell.

Also on show in the other gallery will be “The Hostage Project,” photographs by Marsha Lane Foster.

Go & Do

Harrington & Criswell

When: Through Feb. 25, with a reception 6-8 p.m. Thursday

Where: Arts Center of the Ozarks in Springdale

Cost: Free

Information: acozarks.org or (479) 751-5441

"What ties us together is we are both print makers," she says. "We use similar mediums but have differences in how we approach the subject matter."

The differences might be described as big ones. Neal will be showing parts of two series of woodcuts, one titled "Bootlegger's Ballad" -- 24-by-24-inch stories about the mystique of an Ozarks character -- the other, "American Goddesses." Those woodcuts are 8 feet tall by 4 feet wide and required Neal to create a tool to apply the ink.

"The content of my work fuses the rich tradition of Greek/Roman mythologies with an American roots music perspective," Neal Harrington says in his artist's statement. "These visual ballads sing out in their symbolism, narrative and energetic atmospheres. My work balances a multifaceted investigation of independence and mystical narratives. These themes can be found in 'The Bootlegger's Ballad' series and the pulp novel/comic pinup imagery of 'The American Goddesses' series. The bold and graphic marks of the woodcut/relief technique reiterate the tension and energy of the figures in these works."

Once pinned down to share, however, Tammy Harrington's artwork is fascinating, too. She creates self-portraits that reflect her dual identity -- the child of Chinese immigrants who is thoroughly American in everything but appearance.

"I've always done self-portraits because it's a great way to investigate something," she says with a chuckle. "You're always around yourself."

The couple -- she from Sioux Falls and he from Rapid City -- met at the University of South Dakota at Vermillion. Over the years since they shared graduate school at Wichita (Kan.) State University, Tammy's art has evolved to include portraits of their children, Jake and Olive. They face the same presentation of their ancestry but are even further away from it, she says.

"The beginning of my life was very tied in to Chinese culture -- not just with my parents, but I had a grandmother that lived with us," she says. "We watched TV in English, and everyone spoke Chinese. It was almost like there were two mes, the Chinese me and the American me. I was Chinese and American, but I didn't truly belong to either world.

"Now my parents live with us," she goes on. "And it's interesting to see my children growing up in those two worlds."

Becca Martin-Brown can be reached by email at bmartin@nwadg.com.

NAN Profiles on 02/07/2016

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