Arts Center of the Ozarks hosts exhibit featuring Neal and Tammy Harrington, Warren Criswell, and Marsha Lane Foster

February 17, 2016 9:06 am

WORDS & PHOTOS / TRYSTAN HANEY

On Thursday, February 11, Art Center of the Ozarks, located in Springdale, Arkansas, hosted the opening art reception of four exceptional artists. The two-story exhibit featured The Marsha Fosters Hostages Series and a group exhibition from Tammy Harrington, Neal Harrington, and Warren Criswell.

Eve Smith, Director of Visual Arts at Arts Center of the Ozarks, first discovered Neal Harrington through The Idle Class magazine and fell in love with his printmaking. Neal decided to collaborate with his wife, Tammy, and one of his favorite artists, Warren Criswell, in order to create a successful group exhibit.

Neal and Tammy may be united through marriage, but their art styles are unique enough to stand-alone. Although they both focus on printmaking, Neal uses a woodcut technique with additions of India ink washes, while Tammy draws inspiration from her Chinese-American cross-cultural influences and often uses papercuts. I had the pleasure of speaking with Neal and Tammy about their artwork and successes as prominent artist.

Neal begins his process with a piece of smooth wood. He draws his desired image on the wood, carves around the lines using different shaped gauges, rolls on the ink with a rubber rolling pin, then gently places the paper on top of the wood and peals it off like a stamp. Finally, he tapes it up to a board and adds the Indian ink washes to complete the final project.

Tammy’s charcoal drawings with papercuts are motivated by Chinese folk art. One of her personal portraits is paired with a drawing of her husband, Neal. The self-portrait represents the Yin, with additions of flowers and delicate papercut designs. The drawing of Neal is considered the Yang and includes a dragon with flames, which represents masculinity.

The floor just directly above the group exhibition is where you will find Marsha Foster’s Hostages Series on display. Marsha’s emotional series began by asking women on social media, “What in your life has held you hostage or permitted you from prospering?” She unexpectedly received a flood of varying responses – from women explaining how they no longer have any personal time to women sharing their heroin addictions stories. She then transposed their personal stories into life-like photos.

In each photograph the model, Layla Fields Dyke, is physically bound, but always ensured a safe way to escape. In Marsha’s words, “This is meant to represents how we keep ourselves down not because we cannot break free, but because we do not have the confidence to do so.”

Under each print displayed is a brief narrative explaining the concept. Several of the narratives were derived from a journal Marsha kept back in 2010. She wrote notes in her journal of the events that took place in her previous marriage and forced herself to read them over and over again no matter how painful it was. Marsha said, “It’s not so much my story anymore, it has lost its power to hurt me.”