Local artists the stars in Arts Council of Southeast Missouri Annual Juried Show

One of the region's longest-enduring traditions is a thriving artistic environment. The Arts Council of Southeast Missouri helps to foster that creativity; its Annual Juried Show opened Nov. 7.

Gallery manager Erin Schloss said this is a regional show, open only to artists who live within a 175 mile radius of Cape Girardeau. But that doesn't limit the style of art featured in the exhibit.

"There was a whole range of stuff," Schloss said. "We had some digital mixed media, we had photography, paintings, oils, acrylics and watercolors, you know, homemade stuff."

Schloss said the council likes the art to showcase the region, whether the piece be inspired by where the artist grew up or a landscape of the area.

The winner of this year's show was a painting called "The Good Guys" by Mary-Ann Hartman of rural Bollinger County, who entered five paintings.

"I didn't feel like I was competing," Hartman said. "I just wanted to exhibit, and it was all pictures of my family over the years. I just put out some of my life on canvas and pastel board."

Winning "blows me away," she said.

"The Good Guys" began as a 1984 snapshot of her father and her son, but the painting was finished this year.

"My dad passed away a few years ago and a lot of what I do is I paint pictures of him and my son, family; just, kind of, my way of dealing with things," she said.

Her son, Nick, who appears as a baby in the painting, is now 24.

"I took the snapshot and did an oil painting of it. It's my interpretation of two guys with their white hats on. It's my way of remembering that grandpa-grandson bond from the early '80s," she said.

Hartman said she didn't expect to be accepted, let alone win. She said she is more passionate about painting than any of her other hobbies.

"If art can touch somebody, you know that's so powerful," she said.

More of her work can be seen on her website www.maryannhartmanart.com. The exhibit will run throughout the month of November at Gallery 100 and Lorimer Gallery in Cape Girardeau.

The Regions Juried Exhibition will be on display at the Arts Council Galleries through November 29. (AARON EISENHAUER ~ aeisenhauer@semissourian.com) [Order this photo]

A photograph titled "Into the Mist" by Tom Neumeyer took the Peoples Choice award. (AARON EISENHAUER ~ aeisenhauer@semissourian.com) [Order this photo]