Fine Art Exhibits
Featuring Works by Regional Artists
Airport staff is working with a committee of area professionals to showcase the artistic talent of the region. Exhibits rotate quarterly and include painting, photography, digital prints, sculpture and a variety of other media.
A link to information about each exhibiting artist is provided. The letter in parenthesis next to the artwork dimensions indicates the area of the terminal in which the work is displayed (see map.) The airport terminal is open 24 hours and visitors can park free in the short term lot for 30 minutes.
Artists interested in exhibiting work at Springfield-Branson National Airport should contact the Springfield Regional Arts Council at 417.862.2787 or register online at www.springfieldarts.org/artistregistry.
julie blackmon |
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Baby Toss60 x 40 (C) |
The Dutch proverb “a Jan Steen household” originated in the 17th century and is used today to refer to a home in disarray, full of rowdy children and boisterous family gatherings. The paintings of Steen, along with those of other Dutch and Flemish genre painters, helped inspire this body of work. I am the oldest of nine children and now the mother of three. As Steen’s personal narratives of family life depicted nearly 400 years ago, the conflation of art and life is an area I have explored in photographing the everyday life of my family and the lives of my sisters and their families at home. These images are both fictional and auto-biographical, and reflect not only our lives today and as children growing up in a large family,but also move beyond the documentary to explore the fantastic elements of our everyday lives, both imagined and real. The stress, the chaos, and the need to simultaneously escape and connect are issues that I investigate in this body of work. We live in a culture where we are both “child-centered” and “self-obsessed.” The struggle between living in the moment versus escaping to another reality is intense since these two opposites strive to dominate. Caught in the swirl of soccer practices, play dates, work, and trying to find our way in our “make-over” culture, we must still create the space to find ourselves. The expectations of family life have never been more at odds with each other. These issues, as well as the relationship between the domestic landscape of the past and present, are issues I have explored in these photographs. I believe there are moments that can be found throughout any given day that bring sanctuary. It is in finding these moments amidst the stress of the everyday that my life as a mother parallels my work as an artist, and where the dynamics of family life throughout time seem remarkably unchanged. As an artist and as a mother, I believe life’s most poignant moments come from the ability to fuse fantasy and reality: to see the mythic amidst the chaos. |
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Before the Storm40 x 40 (E) |
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Candy40 x 40 (E) |
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Girl Across
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The Power of Now60 x 40 (C) |
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Zebra Bikini60 x 40 (D) |
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gary bowling |
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Orange Sky40 x 60 (A) |
There seems to be no end to the amount of attention we devote to weather and the various climates that shape our living circumstances. We constantly make observations on the swings between wind and calm, dry and rain, hot and cold, clear and cloudy. I think that maybe those people who are closest to the environmental elements are more predisposed to this kind of reflection than those more isolated from them by their living circumstances– for example a farmer versus some apartment dwellers in a city. But some weather events seem to take on the significance of a high drama for almost everyone– droughts, floods, tornados, hurricanes, blizzards, and the like. The various and subtle weather features of the landscape always arouse a feeling of emotional connection in me. While I find blizzards to be a little frightening, I always find thunderstorms and even tornados to be grand and gorgeous in a viscerally thrilling way– yet I know that these can be devastating. I find it almost impossible to separate the particular weather circumstance from the landscape experience. This is particularly relevant as I develop any landscape painting. Trying to get a grip on the spirit of that particular atmospheric patina in each landscape painting seems to be one of the most difficult and elusive things that I do. It is as if I am trying to direct my attention toward a clarifying instant during which I feel joined to that particular kind of moment and that kind of place.By extension, I think the paintings are invitations to share in that same kind of landscape experience, which includes an emotional connection with the weather. |
rebecca miller |
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Purgatory #137 x 27 (B) |
Purgatory Series This series began as an exploration of the idea of being trapped between two different states of existence; the physical and the spiritual, ecstasy and agony, childhood and adulthood, success and failure. With the unexpected death of my father in January of 2008, the work shifted directions. Ironically, most of the landscape photographs that I was using as under-paintings for the series were photographed with my father in south Florida. Most of the photographs are of the Everglades, an area of Florida that I grew up exploring. It was this representation of my past, paired with the actual painting process of the present, which remained consistent within the series and signified the differences between the two different states of existence. Purgatory #1, #2, and #3 were done before he died. When I returned to south Florida for his funeral, I spent many days sitting in my parent’s house, staring at three photographs that I had taken of the Everglades. Purgatory #4 was done not long after I returned home from the funeral, while Purgatory #5-#11 were all done six months after his death. The process of making the images was a way of working through the grief of losing someone I loved. The underlying concept of being trapped between two states of existence remained, however the concept shifted to being trapped between wonderful memories of the times I had spent with him and the terrible reality of life without him. |
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Purgatory #222 x 28 (B) |
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Purgatory #328 x 22 (B) |
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Purgatory #422 x 28 (B) |
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Purgatory #528 x 22 (B) |
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Purgatory #622 x 28 (B) |
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Purgatory #728 x 22 (B) |
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wade thompson |
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Pilgrimage120 x 60 (A) |
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jacqueline warren |
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Round Trip, Paris48 x 96 (A) |
These new images expand the memory of my experiences. Hidden secrets partially revealed, trying to blend realism with abstraction. My work is about reconstructing images through a painterly vocabulary. A theatrical, romantic sense of place is the current theme. Color and drawing is inherent in the surfaces. Moments are recalled. Color and image coincide. Synthesizing my version of reality, I seek an easy recognition. I prefer to give the viewer the opportunity to reach their own conclusions. To me the best of what the activity of painting has to offer at the end of the twentieth century is a glimpse of life, transforming human activity into the surprising language of the visual. What is seen is left up to the viewer to understand individually. To quote Kenneth Baker, an American critic, "Painting should be carried on without cynicism or apology, like a heroic act. Painting is the first and last refuge." I reprocess all my experiences. I am not the avant garde, I am the artist who comes after the avant garde. I am concerned with the continuity of ideas. I let the materials I use speak for themselves. I thrive on performance and energy of one's own personal vision. I have to reaffirm the reality I can experience. "Painting could be a form of historic dreaming, bringing an artist near the gods, it allows you to go out a door and reenter anew" ...Nathan Oliveira, American Artist. |