University of the Ozarks Professor of Art Tammy Harrington recently won first place at the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum in the Annual Invitational Odyssey exhibition.
The awards were announced during a reception for the exhibit in May. The show runs through July 30, 2023.
Harrington’s piece, titled Whisper, is an Intaglio print and paper cut piece. The first place prize was $1,000 and a solo exhibition at the museum in 2024.
“I am grateful for this distinguished recognition of my art and it is rewarding to be acknowledged by your peers,” Harrington said. “I am fortunate to be in a profession where I get to teach art and to help others develop and grow with their creativity and artistic skills. It also allows me the time and environment where I can continue to explore, challenge, and push myself. I am constantly inspired by my colleagues, students, and fellow artists.”
Harrington said she has been “creating art my whole life and cannot imagine a time when I would grow tired of it. My art process is very tedious, I create compositions with a variety of papers and handmade prints and the images are a combination of self-portrait figures, other imagery, and patterns that are cut out of the paper. I am old school and use an X-acto knife to cut out each hole in the paper. I love how crisp the artwork looks and how the pattern repeats while also transforming the subject matter and space. I am not interested in plotting out designs with software in order to use a laser cutting machine. There are times as I am cutting that I will adjust and change the imagery based on how the artwork is developing. My work is very planned out but can be spontaneous as well.”
At the reception, Harrington discovered that one of her former students, Tyler Rideout ’14, was also in the exhibition.
“That made my heart swell with pride to see my students continue to make art after their time at Ozarks,” she said. “His piece is a mixed media sculpture created from recycled and repurposed materials. The title is Bird – Homer.”
Harrington, who has taught at Ozarks since 2002, earned a BFA in printmaking from the University of South Dakota and a MFA in printmaking from Wichita State University. She received the U of O’s Bagwell Outstanding Faculty Award in 2013 and 2018. She has exhibited artwork throughout the region and nationally. She has served as the president of the Arkansas Society of Printmakers and was awarded the 2017 Beaux Arts Award from the River Valley Arts Center.
The Annual Invitational is a national competitive exhibition that has been hosted by the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum since its inception in 1948. The purpose of this exhibition is to encourage and recognize professional artists. All works are for sale and proceeds will benefit RAM’s exhibits, educational programming and the participating artists.