Norwood Creech’s exhibition, #GildTheDelta, opens January 18, 2018 at the Arts & Science
Center for Southeast Arkansas in Pine Bluff. Through paint and pastel, Norwood captures the Delta agricultural landscape and elevates the miles of crops into gilded works of art. Each painting depicts a specific place from Native American burial mounds to exact roadside locations, farmer’s pivots in the field to Johnny Cash’s childhood home.

Creech describes the impulse to gild as “an ultimate gesture when one finds themselves in love, enchanted, or captivated with a person or thing. Raise its value even more, by preserving it with a precious metal, much like sealing a relationship with that band of gold; dipping the baby shoes in sterling; or living amongst the gilded Louis XVI furnishings trappings of your average authoritarian. In this series of work, #GildTheDelta, I have incorporated gold and metallics, in my plein air and studio landscape paintings, heightening the symbolic glorification, and my love, of Arkansas’ delta.”

“Norwood’s exuberant use of line makes the artwork leap off the canvas, utterly engaging the viewer in the experience,” says curator, Dr. Lenore Shoults. Celebrating the Arts & Science Center’s 50 th anniversary in 2018 Shoults explained, “one aspect of our collecting and exhibition scope is Art of the Delta and this exhibition focuses our gaze on the beauty of the Delta, its history of farming and Native American culture, and the inherent life waiting to spring forth from the soil—in other words, the perfect artist to celebrate the Delta.”

The opening night reception, on January 18, includes an artist’s talk and reception with hors d’ouevres, wine and beer. Everyone is invited to this free reception. The exhibition will run through April 21, 2018, with free admission to the art galleries and free hands-on activities for school tours and groups which can be arranged by calling 870-536- 3375.