How I love open window autumn weather—to fall asleep to the tree frogs gently singing their last songs of summertime passing—to wake to the fallen leaves softly whispering beneath the paws of a neighborhood cat returning home after an evening out.
Every season has her repeating rituals. Autumn is no exception. I got Lee Radcliff’s seasonal call as I do each year when the first hints of fall begin approaching. Lee, the Publisher/Editor of the terrific SHOWmeThe Ozarks, annually features Carthage in the magazine’s October edition. Again this year she reached out to ask for ideas for art-related stories.
First to come to mind for me was artCentral’s, SCULPTURAL SPECTACULAR, created by artist and artCentral board member Jason Shelfer. This exciting outdoor installation continues on view on the Hyde House campus through December featuring provocative assemblages Jason has put together with cast-off and found upcycled objects.
Lee was ahead of my inspiration. She had already set up her staff writer Savanah Mandeville to interview Jason and to create a story with photos. Read this terrific spread on page 50 of October’s SHOWmeThe Ozarks. (Free copies are available at the Chamber of Commerce and in local businesses.) Chances are you will want to make an autumn pilgrimage to artCentral to see all nineteen creations in this exhibition at 1110 East Thirteenth Street.
During weekend gallery hours (Fridays and Saturdays 12:00-5:00 p.m. with CDC protocols practiced), be sure to plan a visit inside artCentral’s elegant, historic, four-square American farm home where you can view amazing art created by forty-nine artCentral artists.
The INA NIDAY & MARY DATUM | TWO FRIENDS | Oil Paintings and the SMALL WORKS | GREAT WONDERS Silent Auction Fundraiser are on display and available for your holiday shopping through December 5 in Hyde House, at https://www.artcentralcarthage.org/events.html and on Facebook (ArtCentralCarthage).
After reading about SCULPTURAL SPECTACULAR in SHOWmeThe Ozarks, flip over to pages 52-53, and you will find “Art as Life”—another art-centric write up—the godchild of my early autumn conversation with Lee Radcliff. As we reminisced about the part Lee’s magazine played in my husband David’s and my coming together, I told her of the chemistry behind our initial attraction and of our ongoing shared artistic passions.
David holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Institute of Art. For fifteen years he owned his own Upstart Crow Gallery in Kansas City. I have a Bachelor of Arts Cum Laude from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, with emphasis on studio art and theater design. I also studied at the Art Students League in NYC. “Give Happiness”, a recently made artwork, is included in the October Inaugural Exhibition for the new Windgate Museum of Art at Hendrix.
Both David and I now work for artCentral, I as Executive Director-Curator and David as artCentral’s volunteer Prepitor (art handler): both practicing artists for many years, today we have twin studios in our home where we are collaborating on a mixed media exhibition, Signs and Wonders, to be installed at artCentral in the Spring of 2022.
Together we are in the third year of transforming our 1890 Carthage home into a living and live-in studio/gallery alive with art—our own and that of artCentral artists and artist friends. Since the beginning of the sheltering days brought about by the pandemic, creating art outdoors has been one of our best shared pleasures. This spring and summer we designed and planted a new shaded meditation garden filled with textures and colors and contours created with rescued statuary, mosses, ferns, shade-loving flowers, various ground covers, a meandering, stone-lined waterway and paths made with slabs of Carthage marble, locally sourced pavers and vintage stamped red bricks.
As autumn winds pull the canopy from our maple trees and spread a golden, leafy quilt across our summer gardens, we love having “Art as Life” as a lasting celebration of our summer’s halcyon days just past. Found in October’s SHOW Me The Ozarks this most recent chapter in our story is beautifully told with Lee Radcliff’s always creative approach to giving life to her editorial ideas; Kathleen Swift’s talented wordsmith ability to tell a story clearly and succinctly with flavor; and Tera Miller’s photographic gift of gaze that finds the perfect image on which to place her focus. David and I are very happy to be in the company of these talented print oriented artists and to share our “Art as Life” through them.
