- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Annual Holiday Art Sale to be held Nov. 14-15

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 22:31:01 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Friends of the Arts will host its annual Student and Faculty Holiday Art Sale Nov. 14-15 at the Windgate Center of Art and Design.�� Handcrafted items made by Department of Art and Design faculty and students will be featured. The pre-sale event will take place from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14. Admission is $25 for ��Vlog��ý Little Rock staff and students or $50 for the public. Tickets can be purchased . Libations and heavy hors d’oeuvres will be served. A bronze pour will take place at 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. “We deeply appreciate the work that Friends of the Arts, faculty, and students put forward to raise funds for student scholarships through this sale,” said Thomas Clifton, chair of the Department of Art and Design. The pre-sale on Nov. 14 offers guests first pick of the sale items, which will include jewelry, ceramics, photography, drawing, painting, and woodworking. The admission fee includes annual membership in Friends of the Arts, a College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences program that provides support such as student scholarships, opportunities for students to interact with professionals, underwriting of visiting artist performances, and grants for supplies and equipment. Benefits of membership include special events such as receptions with visiting artists and gallery openings. The art sale will continue with free admission from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15, at the Windgate Center of Art and Design.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Extended Education offers non-credit community art classes

Ajani Oyindamola — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 17:33:26 +0000

Central Arkansas residents who are looking to learn more about art without the stress of tests and grades can take one of four extended education courses in visual arts and art history this fall at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Extended Education courses are non-credit, community enrichment classes. Leslie Mangiamele, a professional artist who has taught studio art and art history for more than 33 years at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, will offer three drawing classes on Mondays from Sept. 9 to Nov. 11 with a tuition of $189 per student. Drawing for Adults for those 18 and older will be held from 2-3:15 p.m. This is a comfortable and casual drawing class designed for the adult who has had some, little, or no formal training. It is a class in classical drawing that includes the close observation and rendering of objects from nature and the man-made world. Modeled on college art classes, students will study the elements of art, principles of design, and a variety of traditional drawing techniques. Drawing for the Young Child will be held from 4-5 p.m. This is a classical drawing class designed for the young child and is for children who have had little or no formal training. The emphasis is on drawing from reality, learning basic techniques, becoming acquainted with the elements of art, and experimentation with a variety of art media. Friendly, fun competitions and rewards will be used for inspiration. Drawing for Pre-Teens and Teens will take place from 5:15-6:30 p.m. This is a drawing class designed for the student who has had some formal training and achieved a basic level of accomplishment or higher. It is a class in classical drawing technique that includes the close observation and rendering of objects from nature and the man-made world. Floyd Martin, professor of art history, will teach Great Artists of 18th and 19th Century Europe on Tuesdays from 3-4:15 p.m. The classes will run from Sept. 10 to Nov. 19. Each class will focus on major figures of European art from the Rococo, Neoclassical, Romantic, Realist, and Impressionist periods. The cost of the course is $115, and 75 percent of the tuition will go toward scholarship funds for art and design students at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. For more information, please visit the or call 501-569-3276.

Warrick creates public sculptures for Arkansas, Texas

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 12:50:33 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock art professor used his summer break wisely to create two public works of art for a university in Arkansas and a community in Texas. In Arkansas, Michael Warrick, professor of sculpture, created a bronze sculpture portraying the benefits of meditation for the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. The sculpture, “Vision,” will encompass a four-foot-tall, 3D-printed portrait cast in bronze and mounted on a three-foot steel base. “The sculpture represents a man in meditation, and the back side of the sculpture is an exact negative of the front of the sculpture made in golf leaf,” Warrick said. “There are many metaphors at work in this piece. Gold is one of the most precious metals on Earth, and its inclusion symbolizes that the mind is one of the most precious gifts a person has. There are also illusions to the negative and positive. The sculpture shows how people may be calm on the outside while a storm is brewing on the inside.” The piece is a part of a series of sculptures Warrick created called “Portraits of Peace.” Utilizing contemporary 3D scanning and scaling technology, Warrick produced monumentally scaled portraits reflecting the benefits of meditation and spiritual centeredness. The project was partially funded through a $2,480 Summer Research Fellowship Grant Warrick received from the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences in 2018.

Michael Warrick’s model of “Vision.”

Along with his sculpture, the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith will hold an exhibit featuring Warrick’s work. “Perspectives on Darkness and Light” will be on display through Sept. 30.�� The exhibit displays a range of Warrick’s sculptures from the past decade as well as 20 sketchbook drawings from the last 20 years. The work includes figurative and portrait motifs as a means of expression. Warrick will give a special lecture, “Portrait of Peace Project: Creating Vision,” at ��Vlog��ýFS at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, in the Fine Art Theater Room 107. He will discuss the sculpture’s inspiration, creating the 3-D printed model, 3-D printing on a monumental scale, casting the bronze portrait in 12 pieces, failures and lessons from the casting process, and the fabrication process for the unusually shaped base. Following the lecture, “Vision” will be installed near the south entrance of the Windgate Art and Design building as an addition to the ��Vlog��ýFS permanent collection of art. In his second public art project of the summer, Warrick created an 18-foot-tall stainless steel sculpture, “The Mockingbird Tree,” for the community of Southlake, Texas. The Southlake Arts Council selected Warrick’s design from 18 proposals. The piece celebrates the mockingbird tree as one of the state’s natural resources and represents the medical, retail, and residential developments surrounding the roundabout where the sculpture will be placed at Zena Rucker Road and Tower Boulevard. The sculpture also incorporates three mockingbirds, the state bird of Texas, and is another symbol of how the roundabout connects the three neighborhoods for the public good.�� “The sculpture is inspired by a drawing by my daughter, Annika, when she was a child,” Warrick said. “She has served as an inspiration for many of my pieces over the years. Sometimes, the ideas of children are some of the best. I want people to take away a little bit of whimsy and beauty and simplicity from this sculpture.” Warrick is also receiving some local help to complete the interstate project. GC Evans Sales and Manufacturing Company in Little Rock has donated space in its warehouse for Warrick to work on the sculpture over the summer.

Michael’s Warrick’s rendering of “The Mockingbird Tree.”

Two professors featured in new exhibit at Boswell-Mourot Gallery

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 13:27:46 +0000

The artwork of two art educators at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock will be on display at a new exhibit at.�� The exhibit will feature fine art created by Kensuke Yamada, assistant professor of ceramics, and Ricky Sikes, instructor of drawing and painting. The exhibit will be on display from Saturday, July 20, to Saturday, Aug. 10. An opening reception will be held from 6-9 p.m. July 20, at the gallery at 5818 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock. Boswell Mourot Gallery is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. For more information, call Boswell Mourot Gallery at 501-664-0030.

Arkansas teachers learn new skills at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock graphic design workshop

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 13:24:20 +0000

Stacy Owens, an art teacher at Pinnacle View Middle School, found the opportunity to take a free graphic design workshop for teachers at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock this summer serendipitous, considering she will begin teaching graphic design again this fall after many years of not teaching the course. “I was a graphic designer for 10 years before I was a teacher,” Owens said. “I decided this was a kismet (destiny or fate) thing that right before I was supposed to teach design again, this workshop became available.” Kevin Cates, associate professor of graphic design at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, taught a free week-long graphic design teacher workshop in June in ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Windgate Center of Art and Design. Participants learned principles and practices that are helpful in building a foundation for innovative graphic design trends. The workshops are funded by a $754,108 gift from the Windgate Foundation in January 2019 that enabled the university’s Department of Art and Design to establish a series of free educational art workshops for art teachers and high school students in Arkansas and surrounding states. “These sessions will be designed not only to instruct or train participants in a particular technique or process, but also to introduce them to our highly skilled Department of Art and Design faculty and the up-to-date equipment and facilities of the Windgate Center of Art and Design,” said Thomas Clifton, chair of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Department of Art and Design. Owens found the workshop a good way to reboot her skills and to come up with some lessons for her students in the fall. “It’s been the reboot I’ve needed,” she said. “Sometimes, it’s good to get a clean start and see what others are doing in the field before you get too comfortable. I’ve really enjoyed the program, and I’m making sure I’m first on the list for next year when the new classes and workshops are posted. I’m going to modify the exercises we’ve learned to a middle school concept for my students.”�� In the upper right photo, art educators from around the state participate in a free professional development summer workshop for graphic design at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Photo by Ben Krain.

Photographers learn historic 19th-century photographic process at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 12:54:56 +0000

Erasto Carrananza, a photographer since 1989, has been studying historic photographic processes for more than 15 years.�� “I’m in the middle of my master’s degree in visual arts, and this is one of the four historic photographic processes that I want to use in my final project,” Carrananza said. “That is why I am here to learn this process.” The former architect traveled from his home in Monterey, Mexico, to learn how print photographers use the chemical cyanotype process, a non-toxic, historical light-based printing process discovered in 1842. Joli Livaudais, assistant professor of photography, taught a week-long workshop on the process June 10-14 in the Windgate Center of Art and Design. The workshop is part of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s artWORKS Artist Workshops Series, which provides a learning community dedicated to creativity and growth through the making and understanding of the visual arts.�� “This simple and inexpensive technique yields gorgeous handmade prints in Prussian blue and has many options for toning and manipulation of the final print,” Livaudais said. Carrananza’s desire to learn historic photographic processes stems from his desire to preserve these dying arts for the next generation.�� “In 2000, digital photography took flight,” he said. “I don’t like digital photography because I like to use film. At that time, I started to seek printing processes back in the early days of photography. The main reason to learn these processes is to reach the younger generation and not lose the information over time. If just one student learns the process, it’s a win.” Melissa Gill, a professor of drawing and printmaking at Hendrix College, was inspired to learn the chemical cyanotype process after seeing her students use it.

Workshop participants develop photographs in a darkroom at the Windgate Center of Art and Design using a 19th-century photographic process. Photo by Ben Krain.

“I’ve seen my students use this process at Hendrix, and I thought it was so beautiful that I wanted to learn it,” Gill said. “This is working with layers of color, and that is exactly how a printmaker works. I wanted to see how this process could inform my work. Now that I know how it works, I can better advise my students who do this work.” Dave Erickson, a commercial photographer and drone pilot from Milwaukee, traveled from Wisconsin with a friend to attend the workshop. The two have plans to set up a darkroom when they get back to explore the chemical cyanotype process as a hobby.�� “I’ve always had a varied, robust interest in photography,” Erickson said. “I have a lot of respect for people who have mastered this process. There is a lot of artistry involved. It’s not as clean cut as just developing a photograph. It takes a lot of patience.”�� In the upper right photo, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock professor Joli Livaudais, left, works with participants of a week-long art workshop on the chemical cyanotype process. Photo by Ben Krain.

Works by Warrick on display at new Boswell-Mourot Gallery exhibit

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 19 Jun 2019 13:44:54 +0000

New artwork by Michael Warrick, professor of art at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, is on display at a new exhibit at.�� The exhibit will be on display from June 22 to July 13. An opening reception will be held from 6-9 p.m. Saturday, June 22, at the gallery at 5818 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock. The exhibit features a dozen of Warrick’s “larger than life” portrait sculptural pieces in bronze and clay completed in the last year. The exhibit also features paintings by artist Nancy Wilson. Warrick has a Bachelor of Science in ceramics from Illinois State University and a Master of Fine Arts in both sculpture and ceramics from Southern Illinois University. Boswell Mourot Gallery is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. For more information, call Boswell Mourot Gallery at 501-664-0030. In the upper right photo, Michael Warrick’s 2018 bronze sculpture, “His Memory,” is one of the pieces that will be on display at Boswell Mourot Gallery.��

Prints by professor on display at North Little Rock library

Janea Snyder — Fri, 17 May 2019 14:47:17 +0000

Work by Joli Livaudais, assistant professor of photography in University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Department of Art and Design, is on display through June 15 at the , 420 Main St., North Little Rock.

“And Then I Will See” is a series of 21 prints Livaudais created using gum bichromate, a historical handmade print process used before film was invented.

Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. For more information, call (501) 687-1061.

Photo of “Breakfast,” courtesy of Joli Livaudais

Livaudais’ photography exhibit on display at North Little Rock library

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 16 May 2019 17:40:21 +0000

Joli Livaudais, assistant professor of photography, will hold a photography exhibit at the Argenta Branch of the from May 17 to June 15.�� The library is located at 420 Main St., North Little Rock, and is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. The exhibit, “And Then I Will See,” will feature a series of images printed using an historical printing process, gum bichromate, which involves hand coating watercolor paper with a light-sensitive emulsion combined with watercolor pigments in multiple layers to achieve a print. “This highly involved process yields images that are softly focused, surreal in color, and are reminiscent of a constructed memory,” she said. This series is inspired by her father’s search to uncover patterns in the universe that would allow him to win the lottery and achieve financial security for his family. “My mother’s last battle with cancer financially devastated my parents. When she died, my father fixated on his solution to the crisis. He decided he would win the lottery,” Livaudais said. “My father believed there are patterns in the universe and that by studying nature they could be discerned. Things we believe to be random can actually be predicted, if we could account for all of the variables that go into this pattern. He spent the next several years working on uncovering this great truth.” Livaudais’ father analyzed thousands of samples of random numbers. He tracked the astronomical objects and weather patterns. He would buy a single lottery ticket every week, but never won the lottery, concluding that there were “just too many variables to account for.” “When he died, and I sat with the boxes of pages of gridded numbers, I recognized much of myself in the pages – the study of nature in search of something deeper, the same desire for meaning and order,” she said. “In these photographs, I study nature, beauty, and the minutia of my own life and relationships in the context of my father’s data, with all the emotion and ambiguous connections that such a study implies.” The images were captured on black and white film with a lensless pinhole camera and layered with photographs of her father’s numbers.

University’s south entrance gets colorful touch-up

Janea Snyder — Thu, 09 May 2019 13:00:03 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s entrance from Asher Avenue has gotten a mural makeover – with a little paint and some elbow grease. Ricky Sikes, instructor of drawing and painting in the Department of Art and Design, and a ��handful of student and faculty volunteers have spruced up the 9-foot wall that runs 180 feet along the south side of University Plaza. The weather-worn wall got a fresh coat of gray paint, and Sikes and his crew added maroon lettering that says “��Vlog��ý Little Rock Home of the Trojans.” An adjacent 54-foot wall facing Campus Drive reads “since 1927.”�� Klansee Tozer, senior graphic designer in the Office of Communications and Marketing, designed the mural. The four-foot letters and the Trojan head can easily be seen by passing motorists on Asher Avenue. The group began painting on April 28 but got delayed because of rain. Rebecca Farhat, a junior nursing student; Carly Berbarian, a senior art student, Julian Francour, and professor Michael Warrick all helped with painting. Art instructor Ricky Sikes and student��Rebecca Farhat paint maroon lettering on the concerete wall facing Asher Avenue near the university’s south entrance. Photo by Benjamin Krain

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Annual Holiday Art Sale to be held Nov. 14-15

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Extended Education offers non-credit community art classes