Upcoming Events

The spring, summer, and fall calendar is filling up fast. Here is a list of upcoming exhibits, classes and other events.

AR Literary Festival

Documentary Graphic Novel Panel Presentation

April 8,9

sUgAR Gallery Adjunct Faculty Exhibition

Group Exhibition

April 28-May 29

DomestiCATed:Paths Once Crossed

Graphic novel available for purchase

May 2011

Revolver Gallery Exhibition

Solo Exhibit

June 1-30

NWACC Exhibition

Solo Exhibit

June 1-30

PSU Gallery

Solo Exhibit

November 25th-January 20

PSU Artist Lecture

January 20, 2012

Springdale, AR Public Library

Comics and Manga Class

Sat, March 26th, 2 pm - 4 pm

Registration is required.

Call 479-750-8180 or email sharonchristian@springdalelibrary.org to sign up.

Northwest AR Community Creative Center (Nadine Baum Studios)

Basic Drawing Class

Thursdays, 4-6 pm, May 5 - May 26

Ages 8-13

Student Repeated Symmetry Studies

Just wanted to show some of my studio art class symmetry studies. These student collage studies are interesting examples of cut out and drawn symmetrical and near symmetrical designs repeated to create kaleidoscopic patterns.

Free First Issue Of Small Wonders Available

Just a quick reminder that the first issue of the three part series Small Wonders is available for FREE! Please visit http://smallwonderscomics.com/ to check out the first issue.

May 2011 Group Exhibit At sUgAR Gallery

This Spring I'll be exhibiting work at the sUgAR Gallery adjunct faculty exhibit running from April 28 thru May 29. Please join us for the reception on Friday, May 6, 5:30 pm-7:30 pm. Artists featured include Stephanie Pierce, Cindy Wiseman, Sam King, Sonia Gutierrez, Sean Fitzgibbon, Hank Kaminsky, and Jinsoo Song.

The university student run gallery features the visual research of students, faculty, and visiting lecturers from the Department of Art and the Fay Jones School of Architecture.

For location and hours of operation please visit http://art.uark.edu/resources/sugar.php.

Rendering Different Eras

Thought I'd elaborate just a little more about the process that goes into this documentary graphic novel. Rendering eerie environments is always a lot of fun and this project is particularly so because I'm drawing from sketches I did while visiting the Crescent Hotel and from old photos and other researched documents. Throughout the book I illustrate exteriors and interiors as it is now (top right and bottom right), as it was during the turn of the century (bottom left), and as it was as the cancer hospital of the late nineteen thirties (top left). We will also visit the abandoned, lurid halls of the hospital/hotel as it lay dormant in the nineteen forties. This is a good story and it is a dark story that needs to be told. I've chosen to tell it in the format I know best.

The above images are not finished. This is a work in progress but is scheduled to be completed by October of this year (just in time for Halloween).

In The Works

Currently I'm working on a documentary graphic novel series entitled What Follows Is True... The first book chronicles the Dr. Norman Baker years (1938-1939), the darkest years of the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, AR. The hotel was converted into a cancer hospital during this time and what took place during these two years is shocking. This book is in full production now and I'd like to share a little of the process that goes into this type of project.

The images above are preliminary drawings I made of interiors of the hotel as it was during the Baker years. A great deal of research is involved in faithfully representing this late nineteen thirties converted hospital. Because of the heinous events that took place between these two years, Baker saw to it that there was not much photographic documentation of the buildings interiors. However, through much persistence, I've been able to locate the necessary information and visual references from town historians, old newspapers, the library, historical society and the hotel itself to faithfully tell this very dark chapter of Arkansas history in a graphic novel format.

Literary Fest 2011

Please join us April 7-13 for the 2011 AR Literary Festival in Little Rock http://www.arkansasliteraryfestival.org/. Recently I was asked to step in as a panelist/presenter along with graphic novelist Josh Neufeld. Neufeld's recent book is the New York Times bestseller, A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, a nonfiction graphic novel about Hurricane Katrina. If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it. He is currently illustrating The Influencing Machine, written by Brooke Gladstone, co-host of NPR's On The Media. We will be discussing our documentary-style graphic novels along with new trends in the illustration industry.

Other authors presenting at the 2011 Literary Festival will include one of America's preeminent humor writers, David Sedaris (Barrel Fever, Holidays on Ice), Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse series which is the basis for HBO's True Blood series), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson (Warmth of Other Suns), renowned fantasy author Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn), esteemed author Kevin Brockmeier (The Brief History of the Dead), Robin Becker (Brains), Joan Ray (Jane Austin For Dummies), and many, many more.