FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Did you ever wonder what a grid filled with colors described in a novel, say, War and Peace, might look like? Or what mental images might be evoked when viewing a naval signal flag? Art professor Marilyn Nelson did, and the results are currently on display in Mullins Library on the University of Arkansas campus.

Artwork titled “J,” “M,” “Middlesex,” by Marilyn Nelson.  Used by permission.

One of the hallmarks of art that transcends the ordinary is a glimpse through an alternative way of seeing. Nelson, associate professor in the department of art at the University of Arkansas, creates just that. Both projects allow the viewer to explore alternative ways of conceptualizing the written word.
The first project, titled “U.S. Naval Flag Signal Narratives,” is a suite of 26 editions of serigraph prints - one edition to represent each alphabetic flag. U.S. Navy maritime flags are used to communicate with other vessels while maintaining radio silence.

Each flag represents a single letter in the alphabet when hoisted on a halyard as a series, but represents another maritime signal when singly displayed. In addition, each letter also represents a word in the military alphabet code, such as “Charlie” for “C,” “tango” for “T,” or “Romeo” for “R.” Nelson begins with these multiplicities of meaning and adds on additional evocative layers of images, colors, diagrams, documents - all of which are suggested by the original naval flag.

Nelson explains that the flags are “visual abbreviations for the words they represent” and her imagery “revolves around lyrical interpretations of these words.” Each serigraph represents complex layers of meaning, which Nelson, whose father was a career naval officer, says often arose from “personal histories and iconographies” that have “emerged and evolved to reveal patterns of experience and memory.”

The second project, titled “Color Interpretations/Meditations,” is a series of paintings depicting Nelson’s interpretation of the “vivid color descriptions” in novels such as Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and Tolstoy’s War and Peace. A “grid field” painting shows each color in the order in which they appear in the novel, and a companion black and white “digital grid” shows the actual color words and the page number on which a reader can locate a specific color mentioned. Nelson says that because the color order is arranged according to the text, “many unexpected color juxtapositions occur” and “areas of pattern, or blocks of similar colors emerge.”

Nelson received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking and her Master of Fine Arts in painting from the University of Colorado in Boulder. From 1979 to 1987 she was art director and designer at Celestial Seasonings Inc., an herb tea company in Boulder, Colo. On the faculty at the University of Arkansas since 1993, she currently teaches Visual Design. Previously, she taught at Eastern New Mexico University, University of Oregon and the University of Colorado. She has received grants and awards for her teaching activities, including the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences Master Teacher Award. Her work has been viewed in many solo exhibitions and juried group venues nationally and internationally. These include La Biennale Internationale D’estampe Contemporaine, Québec, Canada; Siggraph: 30th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, San Diego; Gallery Pecanians, Mexico City; Gallery International, Baltimore; aRaMoNaSTuDIo and Gallery 402, New York City.

“A Diversity of Shape, Color and Design” will be on display in Mullins Library lobby level through the end of June. For more information, call (479) 575-6702.