The Bella Vista Arts Council will honor Jenny Gowan as the February 2019 Artist of the Month. Gowan will be honored at a public reception at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13, at the Wishing Spring Gallery, 8862 W. McNelly Road, Bella Vista.
Gowan grew up in Minnesota with an artist mother, which led Gowan to develop her interests at a young age. Sketching and painting were her favorites. Her mom always had projects for her and her siblings to do related to art and creativity. She remembers many trips to the Walker Art Gallery in Minneapolis.
While Gowan's career was in banking for the last 30 years, after retiring four years ago she recently rekindled her creative spirit. While living in Arizona, she was inspired by some metal art she saw -- metal horse gates that had running horses cut out and a rusty patina on them. She mentioned how grand they were to her husband and how she wanted to learn how to cut the metal. Her husband had a plasma torch and taught her. With that, the practice began with some old shovels.
Inspiration came from nature and her love of it. Most of the designs are of trees, flowers, plants and forest creatures, as Gowan's mother was also a master gardener and Gowan remembers sketching many of the flowers from her garden when she was young. The metal she finds consists of vintage farm metal. She loves the different shapes that the shovels and farm implements come in and enjoys recycling the old rusty metal.
• • •
The Bella Vista Arts Council, an advisory board to the City Council, was created by the City Council in February 2016 to help promote the arts in Bella Vista. The board established an Artist of the Month program, in which selected artists and their work will be showcased to the public. Three volunteers serve on the selection committee -- Sara Parnell of the Artist Retreat Center, Pearl Williamson, president of Wishing Spring Gallery, and Demara Titzer, curator of several galleries in Bentonville.
The committee will choose each month from qualified artists, who must be residents of Bella Vista and have their work displayed somewhere in the city. Showcased artists will have their work displayed at the Artist Retreat Center and, during the month they are recognized, the work will be on display in a location around the city, such as the Bella Vista Library or Historical Museum.
To submit your name or other nominations for consideration, contact Parnell at the Artist Retreat Center, 479-268-6463, or email [email protected].
Community on 02/06/2019