South Arkansas native Emily Moll Wood returns to the South Arkansas Arts Center
The South Arkansas Arts Center welcomes to their galleries returning artist as well as SAAC member and south Arkansas native Emily Moll Wood. Wood, who was born in El Dorado and grew up in Camden, resides in Little Rock and is bringing her exhibition “Home Work” to the Price and Lobby galleries on June 6. Wood’s artwork will hang at SAAC through July 7th. An artist’s reception will occur on Tuesday, June 7 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. honoring Wood as well as V…. Vaughan, whose exhibition “Glances: Fresh Views of Lands and Life,” is hanging in the Merkle Gallery through June 28.
Wood, who holds a Master of Arts in painting from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, paints a lot of portraits and, more recently, has created an “obsessive amount of flowers,” most of which are done in watercolor and on a variety of surfaces. When the pandemic began and while home bound, Wood found solace in observing and painting flowers as they took turns blooming. She has obsessively painted flowers each Spring since, realizing that part of that obsession is the connection she feels to the women in her family and those who came before her. She works from the many flower studies, combined with sketches from old photos of herself, her mother, her grandmothers, and her great grandmothers to create large paintings on inherited old tablecloths in order to draw attention to undervalued daily domestic work. The work in this exhibition examines those connections and differences between the life she has led versus the lives that her female fore-bearers led, ultimately reflecting broader social
changes. Wood is drawn to the flow and transparency of watery paint on various absorbent surfaces and finds the process of observing and translating faces, figures, and flowers into paintings to be therapeutic and meditative.
“I am excited to share this new work at the South Arkansas Arts Center, with the wonderful people who gave me my first solo show 11 years ago. I’m especially excited about the 28 ft. flower study installation I am installing together for the first time. I am from South Arkansas, as are many of the ideas and themes woven throughout this work, so it feels very right to show it here.”
Wood has taught painting classes for over 12 years, most being at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock. Her work has been accepted and won awards in numerous juried exhibitions. Wood’s work can be found in many private and public collections such as the Historic Arkansas Museum and the Springfield (MO) Art Museum.
For more information on this exhibit and the reception, please call the SAAC office at 870-862-5474 or visit the website at www.saac-arts.org.