Dopamine Hit for the Arkansas Arts Community

Embrace nonsense.

Embrace the Absurd.

Embrace the brain’s critical chemical messenger for pleasure, motivation, and movement.

Embrace just plain fun.

LITTLE ROCK – That is what this past weekend’s Dada themed Dopamine the Art Show at the New Deal Studio & Gallery was all about.

The show was a smash success with various visions on the theme from 22 different Arkansas artists. Over 200 people packed the gallery and kitchen space on Friday night alone. Those in attendance admired and bought art and could take nonsensical portraits at the photobooth, sit for a very in demand on-demand personalized Dada poem written by renowned Arkansas poet Kai Coggin, and hand make free screenprinted t-shirts or posters with the guidance of local artist and educator Miranda Young. Donations for the screen prints went to the Recycled Bikes for Kids nonprofit. 

It was “a who’s who of the Arkansas art scene,” said Scarlet Sims, Artist Services Manager with the Arkansas Arts Council.

“This is the kind of – the Dada movement and the spin off of it – this has been what the artist community has really needed in a lot of ways. It brings a lot of joy,” she said. “Really just look around and pretty much anyone, any artist you’ve seen around are here and they’re buying art from other artists. That’s what this celebration is about.” 

Chris Massingill, the mastermind and curator of the show, said history is repeating itself and that Dada needs to make a comeback. 

The Dada art movement started during the late 1910s to early ‘20s  as a satirical reaction to and much needed release from the seriousness of growing nationalism, the horrors of war and the pressures to conform to a materialistic, capitalistic society.

“I was just kind of joking around about it,” Massingill said. “But I was like, you know what, I’m going to have a Dada show and call it Dopamine, you know, because that’s what we need. We need some dopamine.”

What made it more than a joke? She came to another show at New Deal and she talked with other artists in the community. All of the sudden, it seemed doable.

“I made a list of my ‘A-list’ of artists. Who would I want that makes funny work,” she said. “I wanted people that really made upside down and backwards fun work. Work that makes me happy. Work that makes my heart sing.” 

She said she didn’t even make it through her list because everyone was an immediate yes when she said Dada show. She sought a balance of 2D and 3D media. The weekend showcased photography, paintings, glass work, jewelry, ceramics, and more. 

Near the front entrance, Zeek Taylor from Eureka Springs – recipient of the Arkansas Governor’s Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2012 – showcased his art featuring many monkeys as well selling his collection of short stories, Out of the Delta: The Anthology.

“Every now and then, a person needs to expand their place of base. I thought Little Rock would be a good place to do that,” he said. “They said ‘your work is so whimsical; it fits the theme, because it’s not traditional.’ One piece I brought in particular is the ‘Hello Dalí’, because surrealism.”

Stacey Bowers of Bang-Up Betty had a booth selling her funny, snarky, feminist, custom hand-stamped and handmade jewelry as well as stickers. 

“Chris invited me and really I’d never been part of an exhibit… Jewelry gets left out a lot and it’s just nice to be included with other artists and celebrated in the same way.”

Ceramicist Robin De Rossitee creates things that bring her joy, she said, like twee frog pottery that opens perfectly for garlic glove storage (yes, this author immediately bought one for her kitchen). 

“I do it because I love to see people feel joy – the idea of having something of mine in someone else’s home, and they look at it and it makes them smile, that is, that’s my soul. Literally my heart and soul.”

“If you’re taking notes, it’s dido for me,” said fellow ceramicist Coco Luna set up at the next table.

Awards were given – as kind of a lark, Massingill said – to the artist for various categories, including most “avant-garde”, “most risky”, and “most witty”. Sims judged for the 10 “awards”.

Most came with small prizes related to the award donated from local businesses like Esse Purse Museum, Art Outfitters, Loblolly, and South Main Creative, Massingill said, “who were all very excited to help support the artists in our community. 

“To be honest, I asked for small prizes on purpose to encourage artists to go in someplace local and maybe spend some time there. I really love SoMa and am a big fan of shopping local.” 

For “Most Dope”, Sims said, “I was allowed to pick out somebody, like who was really dope, and it could have gone to someone else, but I have to be honest, Kai Coggin got ‘Most Dope’ because she looks like she should be just some sort of magical creature that fell out of Alice and Wonderland.”

Jeff Waddle – whose work is inspired from many aspects of his birthplace in California, being raised in San Francisco and having family in Hot Springs – won “Most Outrageous”

“You’ll see a blend of all those places and genres and that’s what’s really influenced me all my life,” he said, “especially the South West, Route-66 and that sort of thing. My family liked to do National Parks and stop off at the little motels with Tikis. Also growing up around Berkeley and getting to go down in the city and seeing all the old acid rock posters and underground comics.”

As a kid, Waddle said he always tried to draw everything exactly as it was. 

“Then, when I started seeing those posters and Salvador Dalí, [Hieronymus] Bosch, skateboard art from the ‘70s, ‘80s, then I was like, I can go out of the lines; I can do whatever the heck  I want. It all starts with my drawing, and then it goes into the paintings, it goes into the metal, it just oozes all around me. I love it.”

Saturday’s festivities included live figure drawing of Mermaid Sparkles (Brittany Sparkles), Chrissy Fisk, and Miss Pinky (Ebony Anderson). You could also make your own Dada poem with letter stickers and cut out word clippings. Art continued to be sold throughout the day. 

Fisk was invited by Chris and artist Robert Bean, who she’s worked with in modelling in the past.

Pointing to skates, a hoola-hop and butterfly wings Fisk said. “These are my hobbies. These are what I do for my mental health… It’s taken a lot to get me to come out of my shell and express myself at all. Now, next level will be [finding] where are the people that you learn from [and] connect with.” Her husband, sitting across the breakfast buffet in the gallery’s kitchen, mentioned raising kids for 20 years had taken most of their time but now they have space for activities.

The show also allowed several high school students a chance to work toward their graduation requirement of 75 hours of community service, said Bean, who teaches art at Wilbur D. Mills University Studies High School.

“We try really hard to get our art students opportunities doing art things. So, while they’re getting an opportunity to participate and draw, they’re also cleaning the screen for the screen printing, they’re helping carry and load things, they’re doing things to help the other artists out,” he said. “So for us, to get them into this kind of environment and get them around art stuff, I feel like that gives them a much greater sense of what it means to participate in arts and culture than just being in a classroom.” 

Given the success of this weekend’s show, Massingill verified there will be a second – maybe even an annual or bi-annual – Dada exhibit. If for nothing else, to justify the purchasing of all the fun costume items for the photobooth, she joked.