HOT SPRINGS - The art of Gary Simmons is featured for the month of May in the Fine Arts Center of Hot Springs.
The show is titled "The Mind's Eye" and reflects the diverse interest Simmons has with his media as well as his subject matter.
Best known for his draftsmanship and his pen-and-ink drawings, Simmons' explorations have led him through large portrait montages, western subjects, equine scenes, nudes, landscapes, animals and mythology.
His diversity in media includes works in terra cotta sculpture, pastel, oil paint and watercolor as well as his pen and ink.
This show's title, "The Mind's Eye," is represented by its signature piece of the same name, featuring a large crow seemingly emerging from an introspective human face.
The ambivalence as to what this relationship is or who is dominating the piece suggests the kind of mystery that Simmons likes in his work.
"Artists rarely have something so crystal clear in their minds that they produce exactly that image when they set to work," he said.
"The image evolves as a mutual interplay between the thoughts that are evoked and the unexpected effects suggested by the medium. In this case, with oil paint, simply moving the brush around on the canvas creates interplay with color and sometimes suggests shapes that weren't part of the original plan. Part of the artist's skill is capturing these moments and making them work in the context of the composition on the canvas.
"It's all about the mystery, the mystery of the creative process, the mystery of how our minds work, of how we perceive our realities, and of how we relate to our world. Sometimes the mystery for me is manifested in a subject as straight forward as a landscape where the play of light and form are otherworldly. Sometimes the mystery is in a face, in an animal, or simply in an imaginative thought.
"This show represents some of these aspects of my own journey. Part of that journey is working with paint rather than the pen, an exploration for me that leads to new places in my imagination I haven't visited or haven't been able to access with the pen. My journey is always about the mysteries, and so is this show."
Simmons' work has hung in the Arkansas Governor's office, the Clinton White House and in the homes of celebrities such as English author Mary Stewart, thoroughbred racing's Hall-of-Fame trainer Jack Van Berg and Hollywood producers Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth.
He ran his own design studio for 10 years, co-owned the design studio Stephens and Simmons Inc. for five years, taught pen-andink workshops nationally for three years and has taught art at Henderson State University since 1991.
The Arkansas Arts Council awarded him the Governor's Award for Individual Artist in 2001.
In 2004 he was given the Arkansas Advertising Federation's 2004 Distinguished Educator Award.
Tri-Lakes, Pages 141 on 05/18/2008