With open arms and minds and hearts may together we welcome this new year. May 2022 bless us all with health and wealth and happiness in body and mind and spirit.
May we experience love holding, surrounding and carrying each of us through each day. May wealth be ours in all the ways that sustain our well-being. May happiness be our friend and companion as we count our blessings great and small.
At artCentral we have many, many blessings for which to be grateful as we begin a full new year of exhibitions and events. To all who generously supported artCentral on #GivingTuesday we offer a grateful “Thank You!” To the Carthage Area United Way we are grateful for a grant to kick start the fundraising for artCentral’s 2022 Summer artCamp for Youth.
To, Lori Marble, the newest member of artCentral’s board of directors, we say, “Welcome! Thank you for joining us as we pool our time and talents in service for artCentral’s mission to promote, exhibit, teach and foster the appreciation of fine arts in our community.”
Lori is the Director for Strategic Innovation at Mercy Hospital Joplin. Before entering health care, she held public relations positions in higher education, government and as an independent practitioner, serving a client list including Spiva Center for the Arts.
Lori holds a Bachelor of Science in public relations from Oklahoma State University and a Master’s of Liberal Studies in 20th Century Art History from the University of Oklahoma.
A Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) College of Fellows member, Lori is involved with Mercy’s Women Leader’s Mentoring and Sponsorship committee, Pro Musica Joplin, the Neosho Arts Council, Joplin Regional Artists Coalition and Friends of St. Avips.
While always having appreciated abstract paintings, Lori began painting watercolor florals in 2014. Her work has been shown at Bookhouse Cinema, Neosho Area Chamber of Commerce, Urban Art Gallery, Spiva Center for the Arts (Membership shows) and various Joplin Regional Artists Coalition exhibits.
In 2019, Lori had a deep brain stimulation (DBS) device surgically implanted to treat her hemi-dystonia. After surgery, Lori began to explore her brain and creativity connection. Though her dominant side is her right side, she began painting abstract art with her left hand, the side affected by her hemidystonia. At first she had to hold a rock in her right hand to train that side to be still. Now her right side is content to stay at rest as she moves her brushes across picture planes.
Left-handed painting has become Lori’s choice of therapy. Her initial plan to paint 20 left-handed abstracts grew into an almost daily practice which evolved into ninety paintings exhibited along with retrospective works of Jo Mueller in their “p-i-e-c-e-d TOGETHER” exhibition in the galleries of Hyde House in 2021.
With open arms and minds and hearts we welcome this new year that brings Lori Marble and her moxie into the boardroom of artCentral. May this 2022 bless us all with health and wealth and happiness in body, in mind and in spirit as we go about the business of caring for the art and artists we love.
