The South Arkansas Arts Center will host “The Portrait Experience” in the Price and Merkle Galleries.
A collaboration between three talented area artists and their high school art students, the show consists of 81 photograph portraits and 81 painted self-portraits. They will hang through July 15 with an artists’ reception to be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday.
Lisa Burton Tarver, local photographer and Arkansas Artist in Education teacher, Maria Botti Villegas, also an Artist in Education teacher and visual arts instructor at SAAC, teamed up with Sarah Beth Howard, who teaches art at El Dorado High School to bring this self-portrait experience to the high school art classes.
“I took photographs of the students, and they allowed me to ‘capture them’ in their photographs,” Tarver said. “The greatest reward for me was seeing them smile when they saw their portraits for the first time. The painted portraits became what the students wanted them to become, depending on their skills. They all are different, but they all are fabulous. Some painted their portraits realistically and others felt a ‘freedom’ in painting their piece.”
Villegas, who helped the students transform their photograph portraits into paintings on canvas said about the experience, “Sara prepared the students with exercises to be able to draw and paint these portraits. Lisa’s formidable photo portraits made a difference in the mind of the students since they chose the photos they wanted to represent. After many hours sorting photos, charcoal drawing and transferring, and discovering pallets and colors, we painted the self-portraits shown in this exhibit. These portraits are unique, the result of the students’ choice of color, shape, form and content. They are different and special. The fact that most of these high schoolers have not had any contact with a task like this before made it difficult at times, but very rewarding.”
Howard was instrumental is teaching the students on a daily basis and helping them to create their portraits.
“This exhibit is unique,” she said. ‘To create this many varied, expressive and successful self-portraits is a feat of the imagination. It is inconceivable that so many novice art students would dig so deeply within themselves and accomplish what eludes many professional artists. To teach art is to teach others to see. As human beings we are endowed with an ego and preconceived notions of ‘self.’ ‘Who am I?’ is a spiritual and existential question. It is a question that an astounding number of artists have attempted to answer. During a three month period EHS students had a chance to examine and respond visually to that question.
“Working collectively is something artists do routinely. However, an art classroom is a bit like a kitchen…if you get too many cooks working at the same time it can get dicey. Working together, working through difficulties for the benefit of the students was key. Watching these young people be so engaged, soaking up all the personalities and abilities of their instructional team was incredible. It is truly what AIE was created for.”
For more information on “The Portrait Experience,” call the SAAC office at 870-862-5474 or visit saac-arts.org. SAAC is located at 110 E. Fifth St., El Dorado.