The Bella Vista Arts Council will honor Dustie Meads as the March 2019 Artist of the Month. Meads will be honored at a public reception at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 13, at the Wishing Spring Gallery, located at 8862 W. McNelly Road in Bella Vista.
Meads turned her passion for hunting driftwood into a way of expressing her creative side. Driftwood can be described as wood that has been washed onto a shore by winds, tides or waves. Meads prefers to describe it as "long-dead wood, sometimes 20-plus years old, that has been sculpted by the very forces that sculpt solid rock -- wind and water." She feels honored to be able to incorporate this naturally beautiful wood into her own creations.
Meads makes a variety of arts and crafts using her locally-found driftwood. Some are practicals, such as decorative mirrors and hat racks, and others are purely aesthetically pleasing, such as wall art and sculptures. Every work is uniquely different. Her past works can be viewed on her website at www.ozarkdriftwood.com.
Meads is also an avid videographer who, while out and about on the Bella Vista lakes, videoed over 40 animals in nature. Adding music she created herself using a special program to the various clips, she produced a 35-minute nature movie called "The Nature of Bella Vista." This movie is available on DVD at the Wishing Spring Gallery and also at the Bella Vista History Museum. Meads is in the process of working on a second video, "The Nature of NW Arkansas," and hopes to have it completed by this spring.
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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, also, during the month their work is recognized and 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 03/20/2019