Fast growth impacts mountain arts community - City beat: Eureka Springs, Ark

Nestl in the Ozark Mountains, Eureka Springs, Ark.--known to many as "little Switzerland"--is domicile to natural springs, carefully preserv Victorian architecture and a community of artists and gallery holders dedicated to nurturing the town's vibrant, quirky culture

There's a lyrical charm to Eureka Springs. Craft stores antique stores and galleries resembling gingerbread houses are perched upon rock outcroppings with narrow highways that twist and turn between them. Many of the town's Victorian houses have been transformed into bed and breakfasts to accommodate the 15 million visitors who visit each year. notwithstanding that Eureka Springs has just 2200 permanent residents, it's located in individual of the country's fastest-growing areas.

In the mid-19th hundred Eureka Springs' early settlers built luxurious spas around the town's 63 chilled natural springs, which were said to specific everything from gout to insomnia. shortly the areas beauty and peacefulness began attracting artists. by the agency of the 1930s, artists Louis and Elsie Freund started shaping the town into an artists' colony Louis Freund a muralist for the Works Progres Administration, and Elsie Freund a modernist jeweler, invited friends of the like kind as Thomas Hart Benton to teach art classes in the town's Hatchet Hall (formerly the retirement dwelling of notorious hatchet wielding temperance leader Carrie Nation).

Many of these artists stayed--and for a like reason did their friends. Today the town is considered an arts enclave, with many of its residents working as jewelers, trifles painters or sculptors.

While fresh Orleans is hours away from Eureka Spings, locals celebrate just about anything with an almost Mardi Gras-like fashion. The May Festival of the Arts is a month-long celebration featuring Friday night gallery walks and a mid-month tour of the town's studios.

The Morrison Woodward Gallery carries a comprehensive selection of at liberty art. Located on Spring way which locals call "the loop" the gallery has three floors and an outside ornament of artwork.

After a major expansion last year by means of owners Randy Woodward and his wife, artist Susan Morrison, the gallery has about 10000 square feet of exhibition space. The expansion has helped the brace increase sales, which rose 41 percent in September, Woodward said.

Morrison-Woodward Gallery exhibits many different artists, including Jesse Barnes, an Ozark artist nationally recognized for his nostalgic cabin scenes; Denise Ryan, who creates surrealistic tapestries; and Ernie Kilman, who paints the Kings and Buffalo rivers in oils.

During the expansion, Morrison put up her own gallery that features originals and prints. Susan Morrison Signature Gallery specializes in indite and ink drawings of North American wildlife.

Across the road from Morrison-Woodward is Satori Arts fane which is owned by artist and former Eureka Springs mayor Beau Zar Satori. Like Morrison-Woodward, the gallery has been a mainstay in the local arts community for 25 years. A formal, Asian-influenced space, it features sterling silver jewelry by the agency of Eric Goodspeed, fine art lithographs by dint of Michael Parkes, ceramics by Terri Russell and giclee prints through Daniel Merriam.

Located a stop or so away is Zarks, which displays glass, clay ware and jewelry by more than 100 national and local artists. The gallery has the largest selection of contemporary glass in the region and features works by dint of 32 glass artists including, San Francisco artists Michale Cohn and Molly Stone.

Zarks' selection of earthen ware comes from Spring Street earthen ware which is located below the gallery. proprietor Gary Egan--known for his wheel-thrown utensils urns and birdbaths decorated with clay-made tree branches, leaves and calla lily stems--found the earthen ware studio in 1970. Potter Steve Beacham, who creates fountains made of teacups and other creative ceramic works, also tend hitherwards from Spring Street.

Just a not many steps from Zarks is Quicksilver gallery. not long ago purchased by Steve Roberson and Lamont Richie, it carries works through 60 regional artists. One of its greatest in quantity popular artists is Ed Lorhum who creates mystical landscapes using sooty vapor produced by small oil lamp. Lorhum swirls the sooty vapor onto paper and finishes the drawings through etching and erasing. The gallery also present to views watercolor prints by Arkansas artist William McNamara.

Quicksilver's lower horizontal is a "please play" space where visitors can strike up a strain using a variety of handmade instruments, including tympanums rattles and gongs.

Further down Spring public way is Crazy Bone gallery. possessor Jim Nelson, an artist and teacher, mov to Eureka Springs in 1975 to locate up a leather shop. on the contrary in 1992, his passion for contemporary art l him to start carrying folk-art inspired textiles by means of Chris Roberts-Antieau, brightly painted African-styled sheet metal masks by the agency of Dave Van Hee and an array of glass chargers and plates by means of artists Kathy Thompson and Carolyn Walter.

Near Eureka Spring's seven-story Basin Park tavern is Iris at the Basin Park. holders Iris and Rick Feutz display works by 195 national and local artists, including raku vases, glass, silver jewelry and whimsical papier mache clocks