FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – In honor of Women’s History Month, the University Libraries host an exhibit by Fayetteville artist Christy Young titled “Portraits in Color and Light.” Although Young primarily creates portraits on commission, the original paintings in this exhibit are portraits of family members on loan from several private collections, including the artist’s own. Taken together, these portraits display a pleasing range of media, subjects, and settings.

Some are formal, posed portraits in oil, such as “Judge Jim Haber Boyd,” whose subject sits in his office surrounded by personal memorabilia that is also recorded in minute detail. Another large portrait, “Molly and Children,” required the creative combination of five photo shots to achieve the posing of the three subjects, one of whom was a shy four-year-old boy, on a life-size sofa. Other paintings are more casual, like “Owen with Tiger,” a portrait of the artist’s young son, ready for bed with his blanket and favorite stuffed sleeping animal.

Some paintings have rich and intense backgrounds, like “Owen and Gabe at our Pond,” a portrait of the artists’ two sons set outdoors; others have no background at all, such as the oil pastel rendering “Skip and Connie,” a portrait of the artist’s grandparents, the intense richness of the pastel rendering thrown into startling relief against the blank paper background.

When asked about the challenge of painting portraits, Young says, “People are more interesting to me than cars or trees or animals. When I look at paintings, if it doesn't have a person, it doesn't hold my attention very long.” The challenge, she says, is in trying to capture more of a person than merely a figure, the essence of “likeness, personality, mood.” She notes, “A portrait may outlive its subject, so it should embody our memories of that person.”

One is reminded of that fact when viewing the various paintings of Young’s family in the exhibit. Young says, “A painting is a window through which we view an artist’s vision,” but in this exhibit, the paintings are windows in time, through which children stay young and beloved grandparents still smile at the viewer.

Christy Young studied at the University of Arkansas, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1986 and a Masters of Education in 1994. She was honored with her first solo exhibition at the Arts Center of the Grand Prairie in Stuttgart, Ark., in March 1996.

Her public commissions include a portrait of Anne Watson for Anne Watson Elementary School in Bigelow, Ark. (1997), a portrait of Culer Gill Keith for the elementary annex named in her honor in the same school system, and a series of murals for St. Mary's Hospital in Rogers, Ark. (1997).

Christy’s art has received awards and honors from the Fort Smith Art Center, the Ozark Art Alliance, the Fayetteville Art Association, the Rogers Kiwanis, and the National League of American Penwomen. She currently teaches middle school art at Benton County School of the Arts in Rogers, Ark.

“Portraits in Color and Light” will be on display in Mullins Library through the end of April. To see additional images, visit http://libinfo.uark.edu/info/artexhibit.asp or for more information, call 479-575-2962.