Sculpture

Elena Petroukhina
I was born in Bryansk, Russia, and spent a lot of time doing art and playing music before I came to Arkansas. I have a Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Art and Art education form University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. After receiving my degree I taught art in junior high and high school for a year. My main occupation have always been art, so I decided to dedicate most of my time to it.

Project
The commission for the Bernice Sculpture Garden is a great way for the community to showcase local talent. My project is based on the American Indian history heritage that are intertwined with the Quapaw.  The Sculpture consists of five poles representing the totem poles of the Native Americans. Each pole will be covered with hand made ceramic tiles, with each  tile featuring a texture impression of a surface from the area. Each pole is free standing and the viewer is able to walk trough and be a part of the sculpture.

Maribeth Anders
Maribeth Anders has lived in Little Rock since 1984. She has taught a wide variety of art courses for the Arkansas Arts Center, the Little Rock School District, The Community School of the Arts, and Arkansas Extended Learning Center. In 2008, she completed her Master of Arts degree at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and is currently a Visual Arts Instructor for Pulaski Technical College as well as a lecturer for UALR.

She has also participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout the region.
Sculptures from Ms. Anders’ most recent body of work can be seen in the 2009 Arkansas Artists Calendar and at Gallery Central in Hot Springs.

Heidi Mullins
Heidi Mullins is an Assistant Professor of Art in Art Education at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She is a Native American artist and scholar who has recently received a Fulbright Scholar’s Award to Iceland.  Her work focuses on indigenous histories and ideas and their relationship to contemporary society.  Foundational to her work is the notion of “story” where the personal, collective, and cultural converge. She received her doctorate in Art Education from University of Houston, in Houston, Texas.

Project
Voices of our Ancestors is an interactive sculpture based on the story of Diodema, a Lenni Lenape  (Delaware) daughter born on the Trial of Tears, a historically and culturally significant event, that has roots in Little Rock.

David Harris
Having been a professional artist for more than 29 years, David established Light and Time Design Studio and Foundry in 1991. H e is the co-founder and president of the Arkansas Sculptors Guild working to promote Arkansas Sculptors. When choosing a subject, he goes beyond the obvious, finding a different perspective on one of nature’s age-old themes. David works in a variety of mediums when creating his sculpture but prefers the finality of metal.
“Art is the progression of materials united with thought, design and form until it become exactly like the artists themselves. To invoke emotion from the viewer is the ultimate goal of any work of art”

Project
A larger than life whimsical frog created in an alternative affordable composite medium. Designed to allow public interaction.

Robert Best
Robert Best is the fourth generation of his family to work with metal. He has a BA in Psychology, and is a self taught artist. He lives in Little Rock, where he has spent the last several years
sculpting a landscape of evergreens at his home, and more recently building walls of steel.

“Walls Did Talk” combines skeletons of steel to form walls. Through organic process, what remains
of industrial waste are assembled into a cohesive whole. In this form they reveal a new meaning.
As these particular walls have evolved in the studio, they reflect an optimistic view of the future for this place.