Graphic artist’s mural design picked for new Searcy project
Graphic artist’s mural design picked for new Searcy project
Tara Peacock said she always knew she wanted to be an artist.
Peacock, of Bald Knob, who designed and painted a mural on the Quattlebaum Music building in downtown Searcy as part of the Think ART Project, was recently selected to have a mural that she designed painted at Crafton’s Furniture & Appliances in Searcy as part of the Small Business Revolution-Main Street mural contest.
“Being an artist is something you’re born with,” said Peacock, who is a senior designer at Think Idea Studio in Searcy. “It’s the desire to create. Whenever I started college, I started in the design program because it’s close to something I wanted to do, and I thought, ‘If I don’t like this, I can transfer out.’”
Peacock is a 2008 graduate of Lavaca High School and a 2012 graduate of the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design.
“I knew I wanted to do something designer or art related,” she said. “At first, I thought that might be interior design or architecture, but I started out in the graphicdesign program at UA-Fort Smith because they didn’t
offer anything different. I was close to home, and I had a scholarship there. I thought I’d try it and see how I liked it. I loved it. I work very hard to always bring my best for everything I design.”
The mural she designed for Crafton’s Furniture was part of a contest sponsored by Deluxe, a small-business services and products company that sponsors the Small Business Revolution-Main Street series on Hulu. Searcy won its Season 4 competition and will be featured on the show, which is expected to air in fall 2019.
“[The mural contest] was open to the public for a local designer,” Peacock said. “I submitted a design for that one, and it was the one chosen.”
The mural has a colorful group of people on it with the quote: “Together, we can do so much.”
“It comes from the quote, ‘ Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much,’ by Helen Keller,” Peacock said. “I just incorporated that quote up on the wall. It was kind of fun. It’s a youthful style, an artistic approach to the individuals who represent the people of Searcy and the people of our nation. It’s just the diversity.”
Peacock said Deluxe wanted something that included everyone.
“I want to expand and push myself with what I’m able to do and take a stab at it.”
Tara Peacock
ARTIST WHOSE DESIGN WAS SELECTED FOR SEARCY MURAL
“This lets people know Searcy is very welcoming, accepting differences and different things,” she said. “We’re an open community. That is just something I wanted to incorporate into my design.
“Something that I’m passionate about is typography, which is the use of type in a design.”
Peacock said she will not be painting the mural at Crafton’s like she did the one at Quattlebaum Music.
“At the end of 2017, the Think ART Project was developed,” she said. “Mat Faulkner, owner of Think Idea, spearheaded that effort, bringing art to the community and showing what a difference art can make, economically and just bringing togetherness for the community. I submitted the [mural design] for Quattlebaum. After a blind-review process, my artwork was chosen for that.”
That was Peacock’s first mural.
“It was the first mural I had ever done. … Also, it’s the first and only mural I’ve ever painted,” she said. I worked with local artist Jason White, who will be painting the one at Crafton’s. I worked with him, my mother-in-law and my husband, Brad, and we pained the Quattlebaum building, which is a huge building.”
Now, Pe aco ck has a 6-month-old son, Silas, and with her full-time job at Think Idea, she said she doesn’t have time to paint the mural at Crafton’s.
“I love the process of being able to design it,” she said. “Deluxe had worked with Jason. I really don’t want to paint this one. I don’t have time. I very much enjoyed the process of painting the one at Quattlebaum. For this one, I’m great for working with Jason. He’s an amazing artist as well. I know he’ll bring life to this one. He has several other murals around town.”
White said working with Peacock has been “awesome.”
“She’s a great designer,” White said. “It makes my job a little bit easier. It saves me the time of having to come up with the design.”
White, who has been painting murals full time for four years, said working with Peacock on the Quattlebaum Music building was a great opportunity for her.
“She wanted to learn how to do murals, so it was an opportunity for her to work with me and for me to teach her everything that I know,” White said.
Peacock said she never really thought about doing a mural before the one at Quattlebaum as part of the Think ART Project.
“But I’m open to all different types of projects,” she said. “I want to expand and push myself with what I’m able to do and take a stab at it. I’ve always been someone who will jump at anything. I want to do it 100 percent.”
Peacock said she moved to White County after marrying her husband. She was attending college in Fort Smith while he was attending Arkansas Tech University in Russellville.
“We met through my best friend, his cousin,” she said. “They introduced us. That was in 2009. We’ve been together ever since. He lived in a couple of different places, including Russellville and Tallulah, Louisiana, for a little bit. Then he ended up moving back to Bald Knob to farm with his family. That is where we ended up.
“We said the farm didn’t move, but I did.”
After moving to the area, Peacock was hired at Think Idea Studio.
“I wanted to work for a company that has great values and really appreciates their employees, and be able to work with a wide range of clients. It’s something. That is why I went into design, because I don’t like things that are mundane. I like something different every day. I think I get to do that. I get to work with different clients every day and work with different industries. That is what I enjoy about design.”
Think Idea is a full-service marketing agency.
“We do logos and branding, which are my favorites,” Peacock said. “We also do any kind of print materials. We do signage, websites, digital marketing. Anything designed-related, I have a hand in it.”
Peacock said she loves to work with her clients.
“When I’m working with clients or on different projects, I try to tie in personally with a client or the project,” she said. “That’s something that comes across in a design. I’ve always just been artistic or crafty, if that’s a term we want to use. I’ve always just liked things like that.”
Peacock said attending UA-Fort Smith was beneficial to her.
“I thought, ‘I’ll give this graphic-design thing a try, and if I like it, great. If not, I’ll find something that is slightly related to it,’” she said, “but I ended up loving it. I loved the professors there, the mentors and the different internships I had the opportunity to work with.
“That really set me up for when I came here to Searcy after graduation. I already had a little bit of experience. I’ve really grown here at Think Idea. I’m always developing new skills and learning new things every day.”