Celebrate Archives!
In honor of American Archives Month, this blog is featuring photographs of Butler Center staff members in action. Enjoy!
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Thursday, October 28, 2010
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Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Celebrate Archives!
In honor of American Archives Month, this blog is featuring photographs of Butler Center staff members in action. Enjoy!
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Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Celebrate Archives!
In honor of American Archives Month, this blog is featuring photographs of Butler Center staff members in action. Enjoy!
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Monday, October 25, 2010
Celebrate Archives!
In honor of American Archives Month, this blog is featuring photographs of Butler Center staff members in action. Enjoy!
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Friday, October 22, 2010
Arkansas Archives Week
Click on the image to view a larger version of the proclamation.
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Thursday, October 21, 2010
Celebrate Archives!
In honor of American Archives Month, this blog is featuring photographs of Butler Center staff members in action. Enjoy!
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Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Featured Arkansas Artist: Karen Foster
The Arkansas Studies Institute houses four art galleries, including a retail gallery, featuring the work of Arkansas artists and art related to the state. This post is part of a bi-weekly series featuring ASI gallery artists.
Biography
Most of Karen Foster’s work is thrown on the wheel and then burnished with a smooth stone. When a piece is completely dry, terra sigillata slips are brushed on in many thin coats and then the piece is wrapped in a variety of materials such as seaweed, leaves, wire, and newspaper. At this point, Foster chooses between two different methods to smoke-fire the pot. One way is to surround the wrapped or unwrapped pot with sawdust in a stacked brick kiln and set the sawdust on fire. With the second choice, a wrapped pot is placed inside a clay saggar, surrounded with broken pot shards, and quickly low-fired in a Raku kiln.
All of this work is unglazed and still porous. The soft sheen is a result of the burnishing and the terra sigillata slips. The random patterns and colors are the result of the various organic materials used and the smoke-firing process.
“The Daily Egg”
“It all started as an accident. I had been working on a series of sculptures I call the Bird Women. I made an egg for one of the Bird Women, but the egg was too big, so I just set it aside. But that egg made me start thinking about eggs. My friend told me about a chicken who laid one egg a day for 30 consecutive days! That inspired me to challenge myself. I was compelled to begin creating an egg a day. My daily egg-making ritual has continued as a joyful, meditative experience and an exercise in discipline since June 16, 1995, and has led me to further study of this ancient symbol of Rebirth and all that it represents in history and art.”
Each of Foster’s daily eggs is unique. They are made by the pinch pot method, a way of shaping clay that is thousands of years old. She begins with a lump of clay, turning it slowly in the palm of her hand while pushing her thumb into the center, pinching and hand-sculpting a hollow form that gradually takes the shape of an egg. Foster rolls small lumps of clay into tiny balls and puts them into the hollowed form before closing the egg. The egg’s exterior is burnished using a wooden tool and tumbled agate, then signed and dated. Terra sigillata slips are brushed on and polished with a soft piece of silk cloth. The egg is then bisque-fired. To achieve the diversity of pattern and shading found in the natural world, Foster wraps each handmade clay egg in different organic materials, such as leaves, seaweed, and newspaper before Raku or sawdust firing.
Click here to see more work by Karen Foster. Read more...
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Celebrate Archives!
In honor of American Archives Month, this blog is featuring photographs of Butler Center staff members in action. Enjoy!
Click here to browse some of the media available on the Encyclopedia.
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Monday, October 18, 2010
Celebrate Archives!
In honor of American Archives Month, this blog is featuring photographs of Butler Center staff members in action. Enjoy!
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Saturday, October 16, 2010
More info from October's Legacies and Lunch
Courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, here are entries corresponding to some of the items and people discussed by Bill Worthen of the Historic Arkansas Museum in his Butler Center Legacies & Lunch lecture last week about the museum's Arkansas Made Collection. Read about these objects and personalities here--then visit the Historic Arkansas Museum!
Bowie knife
Arkansas Traveler
Edward Payson Washbourne
Meriwether Lewis Randolph
Louis Freund
Elsie Freund
Charlie May Simon
Howard Simon
W.B. Worthen
Historic Arkansas Museum
Friday, October 15, 2010
Celebrate Archives!
In honor of American Archives Month, this blog is featuring photographs of Butler Center staff members in action. Enjoy!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Celebrate Archives!
In honor of American Archives Month, this blog is featuring photographs of Butler Center staff members in action. Enjoy!
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Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Celebrate Archives!
In honor of American Archives Month, this blog is featuring photographs of Butler Center staff members in action. Enjoy!
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Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Celebrate Archives!
In honor of American Archives Month, this blog is featuring photographs of Butler Center staff members in action. Enjoy!
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The Butler Center Celebrates Family History Month
Tuesday, October 19 – 3:30 - 5 p.m.
Saturday, October 23 – 11:30 - 1:30 p.m.
Arkansas Studies Institute Research Room
In celebration of Family History Month, the Butler Center is offering a kid-friendly basic genealogy course. Participants will learn how to use online databases and city directories, as well as how to archive family documents. Led by local history specialist and Butler Center staffer Rhonda Stewart, the sessions will be a fun and creative way to learn about the past.
The sessions are recommended for children age 10 and up. A parent or other adult must be present. Space is limited, so please contact Anna Lancaster at (501) 320-5754 or alancaster@cals.org to reserve your spot today. Snacks will be provided during the Tuesday session, and lunch will be provided during the Saturday session.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Celebrate Archives!
In honor of American Archives Month, this blog is featuring photographs of Butler Center staff members in action. Enjoy!
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Friday, October 8, 2010
Celebrate Archives!
In honor of American Archives Month, this blog is featuring photographs of Butler Center staff members in action. Enjoy!
Standing, Left to Right: Glenn Whaley, Steve Teske, Michael Hodge
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Celebrate Archives!
In honor of American Archives Month, this blog is featuring photographs of Butler Center staff members in action. Enjoy!
Read more...
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Featured Arkansas Artist: Dennis McCann
The Arkansas Studies Institute houses four art galleries, including a retail gallery, featuring the work of Arkansas artists and art related to the state. This post is part of a bi-weekly series featuring ASI gallery artists.
Biography
Dennis McCann was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1952 and was raised in North Little Rock. In 1983, while completing his master’s degree, he accepted a job with the Little Rock Fire Department. This allowed him the time to develop as an artist and the privilege to serve his community in a fulfilling professional career. He is currently a captain with the LRFD in the Community Outreach and Public Education Program.
McCann has achieved considerable recognition as a regional artist, having had his work accepted in 155 regional and national juried exhibitions, in which he has won forty awards. He has had twelve one-man exhibitions and is included in ninety-eight private and corporate collections. In 2002, he had two one-man exhibits: Dennis McCann, A View of Arkansas at the Arts Center of the Ozarks, in Springdale, Arkansas, and a retrospective at the Baum Gallery at the University of Central Arkansas, which highlighted three stages of McCann’s paintings and drawings. He was also the recipient of a 2002 Individual Artist Fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council. In 2005, four of McCann’s landscape paintings were selected for the South Arkansas University Reynolds Collection.
McCann is represented by the Arkansas Studies Institute Retail Gallery in Little Rock, Gallery Central in Hot Springs, and the Hannah Davis Gallery in Memphis, Tennessee. His work can also be seen at the Reynolds Center on Aging website and the Arkansas Artist Registry website.
Artist Statement
Over the years, my work has adapted to new techniques and experiences, dealing mostly with subject matter, scale, and process. However, the one constant in my work is the use of sunlight and shadows to establish interesting compositions. Draped lawn chairs, neighborhood scenes, and Arkansas landscapes are subjects that I use.
My neighborhood scenes remind me of the simpler times of my childhood. Many represent the 1960s architecture of the Levy subdivision of North Little Rock, not far from my childhood home. The compositions of these artworks also rely on sunlight and the geometric shapes created by the cast shadows.
My landscape compositions place the viewer in the middle of the woods rather than in a panoramic scene. I stand in the creek, brush aside branches, or just wait for the light to change in order to achieve the desired composition. I also look at light and value changes with regard to color and intensity. Sometimes timing is everything if red maples and yellow leaves of hickory trees are to be appreciated. Add some snow or blazing fall foliage, include springtime chartreuse or summer viridian, mix in some sunlight, and the conditions are perfect.
To create my artwork, I work in my studio, using photos that I have taken. I generally work on a large scale and listen to music while I draw or paint. Each piece is a representation of the photo, and I make adjustments to the composition based on intensity of light, color, or subject complexity.
Click here to see more work by Dennis McCann. Read more...
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Celebrate Archives!
In honor of American Archives Month, this blog is featuring photographs of Butler Center staff members in action. Enjoy!
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Event Reminder: Legacies and Lunch, October 6
with Bill Worthen, Director of the Historic Arkansas Museum
Wednesday, October 6, 2010, Noon to 1 p.m.
Darragh Center, Main Library
Bring a sack lunch; drinks and dessert provided. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 501-320-5717 or visit www.butlercenter.org. Read more...
Monday, October 4, 2010
Celebrate Archives!
In honor of American Archives Month, this blog is featuring photographs of Butler Center staff members in action. Enjoy!
Read more...
Friday, October 1, 2010
Celebrate Archives!
October is American Archives Month, a time to grow appreciation for historical documents, archivists, and archives.
Do you visit an archive regularly? Has a staff member helped you out in a particularly special way? Let them know you appreciate what they do; you will make their day.
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