Batesville couple show art in LR museum exhibit
LITTLE ROCK — Batesville artists Dustyn Bork and Carly Dahl, who are husband and wife, seldom show their work together but are doing so now in a new exhibit at the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock.
Titled Going Unnoticed, the exhibit features 12 pieces by Bork and 10 by Dahl. It will remain on display in the Second Floor Gallery at the museum through April 8.
“The museum contacted us several months ago about having an exhibit here,” Dahl told visitors at the opening reception of their exhibit during 2nd Friday Art Night activities Jan. 12.
“It’s all new work. We’ve spent the past few months creating and painting, then nailing everything down this last month. They wanted new work, so we really had to get busy,” she said.
“My work focuses on the ideas and ideals of beauty and unattainable representations of women in
society,” said Dahl, who is a painter and printmaker, as well as executive director of the Batesville Area Arts Council. “The ‘perfect’ figures within the artwork symbolize the distorted western standards of beauty and expectations of how women should behave. These artworks psychologically present the pressures and identities women face.
“I use the Rorschach inkblot in place of typical decorative patterns as an added element of psychology. The images feature blank faces so that the viewer can project herself or others onto the figures. These two bodies of work use printmaking and painting media with hand-drawn details.”
Bork is a printmaker and painter who is interested in color and pattern. He is an associate professor of art at Lyon College in Batesville.
Bork said he is interested in the contrast between old and new structures.
“It is a curious fate for the life of a building. Some go through many visual iterations and renovations, while others will not stand the test of time. I want viewers to make connections between the colors, lines, patterns, textures and forms in my artwork and those to be found in their daily interactions with the constructed environment,” Bork said.
“Certain architectural forms find their way in my work. My paintings and prints focus on the built landscape from my observable surroundings. I have experimented with abstracting forms and structures, lifting them from their original context,” he said. “The current series of paintings — shapes — removes the compositions from the more traditional rectangle and are cut into shaped pieces to more accurately reflect the forms pulled from various sources. I want the works to take on an object-oriented feel.
“The print series titled fragments also comes from my interest in abandoned or dilapidated buildings contrasted with modern design. Will the new designs and forms constructed today soon collapse, be replaced or last a lifetime? Each composition is meant to represent the beauty implicit in everyday surfaces and structures in various levels of decay and renewal.”
Bork and Dahl have been in Batesville for eight years. They moved there when Bork accepted a job on the art faculty at Lyon College.
“We were engaged when we moved to Batesville,” said Dahl, who is a former director of the Lyon College Kresge Gallery. “We got married over spring break of that first year we were here. We are both from Michigan and knew each other through mutual friends. We actually met when I was a student at the University of Toledo [in Ohio].”
Bork and Dahl create their artworks separately.
“We work in separate studios, but we text each other, so we give each other instant feedback,” Dahl said, smiling.
Bork and Dahl are both from Monroe, Michigan.
Bork received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in printmaking f rom the Univers i ty of Michigan-Ann Arbor in 1999 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking from Indiana University Bloomington in 2002.
Dahl received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in printmaking from the Center for the Visual Arts at the University of Toledo.
Bork is on a six-month sabbatical from Lyon College this semester.
“I am doing a residency in February at Vermont Studio Center in Johnson City, Vermont,” he said. “They have a great residency program. I hope to become more disciplined as a professional artist and to devote some time to my craft. I also hope to do research in art history. I hope all of this will help reinvigorate my teaching career.”
Dahl said she will be taking on extra work while Bork is away for that month: “I’ll be teaching one of his classes,” she said, laughing. “I’ll be taking over his senior projects class.”
The Historic Arkansas Museum is at 200 E. Third St. in Little Rock. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. The galleries are also open from 5-8 p.m. the second Friday of each month. There is no admission charge.
For more information, call (501) 324-9351 or visit www. historicarkansas.org.