VALDOSTA — Barbara Payne Ward is a whirlwind of artistic activity.

In the past couple of years, she has participated in dozens of exhibitions from her home base in Amarillo, Texas, to Australia to Valdosta starting this week with the opening of her printmaking exhibit in the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts.

Ward’s work is one of five new shows opening with a free public reception Monday evening at the arts center.

While she has been catching the eyes of collectors, jurists and art lovers throughout the nation and internationally, she has a Valdosta connection. Ward is a former student of Valdosta State University Art’s Danielle Harmon, prior to Danielle Harmon’s arrival in Valdosta. Ward also contributed work as part of art center curator Jamie Harmon’s drawproject exhibits.

In creating her works, Ward takes a different perspective than what many may expect from printmaking. She offers an expressionistic, abstracted approach.

“My images begin as ideas,” Ward notes in an artistic statement. “Exploring questions about and connections to nature, human relationships, epiphanic life experiences, and our humanity, I work with abstracted images and identifiable images used in an abstract, metaphorical manner to convey my ideas into visual works on paper.”

She also creates a texture of forms within her prints to explore her ideas and themes. A layered approach that seems to examine a concept tier by tier.

“The interplay of evolving digital/photographic technologies and techniques with age-old processes allows me to incorporate printing on and with alternative materials and tools,” Ward says. “I view contemporary printmaking and my process as a synthesis of traditional techniques coupled with the innovations occurring when I entered the dialogue and my openness to experimenting with and embracing these continuing innovations.”



GALLERY

Artist Barbara Payne Ward’s exhibit opens in Josette’s Gallery, along with the Best of Spring Into Art, Sallie and Harmon Boyette Gallery; artist Fay Bridges Hyatt, Price-Campbell Foundation Gallery; Valdosta Photo Competition, Jerry Tillman Gallery; the Boys and Girls Club, Roberta George Children’s Gallery.

Where: Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts, 527 N. Patterson St.

When: These shows open with a free public reception, 5-7 p.m. Monday. Winners will be announced for Best of Spring Into Art during this reception.

Show run: This show runs from Monday evening through Aug. 7.

Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; closed Sundays and Mondays with exception of opening reception evenings.

Admission: Free.

More information: Call 247-2787.



Changing of the Curator

The opening of this show marks the last exhibit with Jamie Harmon as the center’s curator. Harmon has served as the curator since 2006. This show also marks the first exhibit for new curator Bill Shenton, a graduate of the Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, who grew up in Valdosta. He had worked at US Press for the past few years.