Shrink, shrank, shrine
Posted on Thursday, May 8, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Style/225108/
Steve Martin started his career as a stand-up comic and his absurdist routines had club and concert audiences laughing till they hurt.
When Martin said, “Let’s get small,” people roared.
But when Zarks gallery co-owner Sara Armellini said, “Let’s get small,” the artists of Eureka Springs groaned.
“A few whined,” Armellini says, laughing.
Still, they accepted the invitation to create matchbox shrines, works of art that fit inside a kitchen matches box, about 2 1 / 2 by 4 1 / 2 by 1 1 / 2 inches.
“Some things are a stretch; this one’s a squeeze,” she says.
Not for jewelry maker Cynthia Dupps.
“The matchbox shrines theme got my creative juices flowing,” she says. “I also make books, so I’ve created a book within the box and called it ‘Only You.’ It is my ode to the tree. The title comes from the Smokey Bear slogan ‘Only you can prevent forest fires.’ The book will come out of the box. There is a window inside the book, with some beaded small trees and a ceramic bear.”
The invitational theme show at Sara and Rick Armellini’s Zarks Fine Design Gallery, 67 Spring St., is one of the highlights of Eureka Springs’ annual May Festival of the Arts. This year’s show will be on display Saturday only. The public votes for the show’s only award, which will be presented at an artists reception that begins at 6 p. m. Saturday.
Painter Zeek Taylor has created threedimensional artworks as large as 3 by 4 feet.
“I find challenges inviting, and this one takes me out of what I’m comfortable doing,” says Taylor, whose colorful works often feature chimpanzees.
His matchbox, which has a chimp, is called Lucinda Harper My Night Muse Arrives at 2 a. m.
“I’m an insomniac,” Taylor says. “I am up at 2 or 3 a. m. working. The phone doesn’t ring and no one comes to the door.”
Potter Steve Beacham found the matchbox theme “a fun challenge.”
“My pieces shrink 12 percent when they’re fired, so I had to be very careful that it would fit in the matchbox,” he says.
Woodworker David Pettit, who also creates found-materials sculptures, is a past winner of the invitational.
“The size of the matchbox just focuses the work,” he says.
The Armellinis are also creating shrines. “I have an idea and I hope it works,” Rick says. “It’s a shrine to the gods of illusion.”
The invitational, Sara says, was inspired by the Arkansas Arts Center’s Toys Designed by Artists show.
“It’s all about artists doing something they don’t usually do,” she says.
The size of the kitchen matchbox is small, but the artists should be glad Sara didn’t go with her first idea.
“I thought about using the smaller matchboxes, like the ones you see decorated from New Mexico and Mexico. But we chose the kitchen matchbox because it will show better and give the artists a little more space to work with.”
Let’s get small beats let’s get smaller.