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SAAC Opens New Exhibitions in September

Posted on September 4, 2012

The South Arkansas Arts Center opens two new exhibitions in the galleries for the month of September.Artist in Residence, Jorge Villegas? "Venus Gaze,? and up and coming artist Sheri Van Dyck?s "Eclectic Dreams? will be on exhibition from September 5-28. An artist reception will be hosted on Friday, September 7, beginning at 7:00 p.m. 

The exhibitions and artist reception are free and open to the public.After seven years, award-winning artist Jorge Villegas returns to the Merkle and Price Galleries with a new exhibition of feminine visages that explore the idea that the contact we make with people can shape our future.

"I realize with surprise how much I am taken by human beauty. The result is that poetic emotion caused by what I see daily: faces glancing at me.  Since I was very young, my memories have been visual: the hands of my father, beauty in the eyes of my mother, attention and astonishment that brought me to the understanding that through the eye, love attains the heart,? said Villegas.

"Venus Gaze? is a meditation on the power of the female gaze deeply responsible for our most profound emotions. Glances offer so much more than what we are, but we only see what we are able to appreciate or what it is reflected of us in the observed reality.

A small selection of the exhibition was previously on display in 2011 at the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock. Villegas received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1964 and his Superior Professor of Drawing and Painting in 1976 from Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Since 1982, Villegas has served the community of El Dorado and area schools as an Artist in Education. Villegas is a recipient of the Governor?s Arts Award. The award, presented each year through the Arkansas Arts Council, recognizes individuals and corporations for their outstanding contributions to the arts in Arkansas. Villegas has served as a panelist for Art Links conferences, hosted by the Arkansas Arts Council in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies (NALAA) in Nashville, Tennessee, and Washington D.C. Since 1971, Vllegas?s work has been exhibited, either as a one man show or part of a collection, across the southern United States and Argentina. His work can also be found in private and permanent collections across the United States. New artist to watch,

Sheri van Dyck brings her first exhibition of unique creations entitled "Eclectic Dreams? to the Lobby Gallery.

" I believe that each of us were created in the image of God and He being the creator of all things, is the supreme artist and the creativity that I have comes from Him. I love art! I love dreaming about it and having those ?ohhh? moments when the vein of creativity hits me. For me, it feels like I am unstoppable and it really makes me laugh because never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be creating art! If there was one bit of wisdom that I could impart to anyone it is this,? let go… dare to dream, forget all the negative things that you believe about yourself and live!? This has been my mantra while creating the artwork in this showing: ?Eclectic Dreams,?? said Van Dyck. 

Van Dyck was raised in a rural farm town community in Greenwood, Delaware. She married her husband, Daniel, in 1991 and moved to El Dorado, Arkansas. After their son, Talon, was old enough, Sheri began working at the Olde Towne Store, where she met her hero, Rhonda Hicks, who opened up a whole new world to her, the wonderful world of art. Through the encouragement of Rhonda and also from her friend, Joanne Marino, she signed up for an "assemblage? artist workshop with Ocean Springs artists Bill Myers and Vicki Niolet in 2009, and from there she was hooked.

Van Dyck?s work has been awarded "Best of Show? during the Annual Membership Show and Competition and she was invited to participate in an invitation only exhibit hosted for the Arkansas Arts Council. She also participated in the invitation only "Art Walk,? hosted last spring in historic, downtown El Dorado. Sheri?s work has quickly become desirable to the private collector. The South Arkansas Arts Center is located at 110 E. 5th Street in El Dorado.

For more information about September?s exhibitions, contact the SAAC office at (870) 862-5474 or visit www.saac-arts.org.                                                                                       " "Governor Beebe Offers Accolades to EHS Students – Wednesday, September 05, 2012"