Poetry the impetus for 'Spaces' exhibit

Facing a blank canvas can be a real challenge for artists.

So imagine what Robert Bean might have felt facing three blank walls 8 feet tall ... plus three posts.

Bean, chairman of painting and drawing at the Arkansas Arts Center's Museum School, has created a drawing installation in the school's gallery. After the walls were emptied, Bean faced more than 250 square feet of blank space -- complete with electrical outlets -- that he needed to fill.

The 43-year-old Jonesboro native and Little Rock resident has risen to the challenge with an exhibition titled "Personal Spaces," though Bean admits to moments of doubt.

"That's usual for me before I start working on an installation," he says. "But by the time I'm actually making the work, I'm in the planning stages for a new project or two. Because this is planned out, I don't have to wing it. Now I'm just problem solving."

He began drawing on July 11. The exhibit opened July 18, but Bean didn't finish until July 25.

"People come through while I'm working, ask questions and talk to me about the work," he says. "That slows me down, but I really enjoy people asking questions about my art. I love it when people get something out of my work that I would never have thought of."

Bean was offered the project last fall and started working in earnest in January.

It began with a series of poems.

"I wanted to do a visual narrative, so I wrote about 40 poems," he says. "The words you see on the wall come from those poems."

Bean says realizing he was at the midpoint of his life was the inspiration for the work.

"'Personal Spaces' is about the stories that swirl around us, it's a kind of historical narrative. I was focused on writing about my relationships with people, to places in my life ... falling in love, losing people, the spaces you build around yourself. I usually don't have this kind of emotion in my work."

The poems were narrowed down to 13 and Bean says he began showing them to friends. "I wasn't sure they were worthwhile. My artist friends told me they were raw and honest. Still, it was something that scared me. A writer friend told me if I was scaring myself, I was doing something right. I thought that was fantastic."

Writing has always been a component of Bean's art.

"I might work on narrative titles before I develop images," he says. "I may write a page of two of prose, develop a story and build the imagery from that. Sometimes, I'll do a sketch, write a story and then do a painting."

The drawings of "Personal Spaces" aren't completely autobiographical.

"I took a writing class from David Jauss at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2007. He said to start with what you know and make up the rest. That's how I created 'Personal Spaces.' I think some of it will be something anyone can relate to."

Drawing on the poems, Bean began sketching out his ideas in a series of preliminary drawings: "This was very much thought out before I started to work in the space."

And that space threw him a few curves, too.

"The surface is not uniformly textured," he says. "I'll be trying to create a nice, big graceful line and the marker starts jumping. It's rough in places and I have to come back and carefully finish it. The wall absorbs paint so fast, the marker dries quickly."

Bean drew with a refillable marker using high-flow black acrylic paint. The marker has a spongy tip and the sometimes rough walls can tear the tips apart.

Visually, Bean says he was inspired by graphic novels and comics.

"Comics got me into art when I was a kid. I wanted to be a comics artist, then I learned about the fine art side. I got into [Henri de] Toulouse-Lautrec; he was a real inspiration. Ultimately, I decided to embrace my love of comics and brought that into what I do as well."

Along with teaching and creating art, Bean also organizes art shows by Arkansas artists at Muggs Cafe in North Little Rock and Arkansas Capital Corporation Group in the River Market District of Little Rock.

What happens to "Personal Spaces" after Oct. 1 might startle some art lovers.

The drawings will be covered with a fresh coat of paint.

"It doesn't bother me, the whole idea is the experience, the temporary aspect."

Bean hopes "Personal Spaces" will live on.

"We are documenting it with photographs. I would love to do a book with using the poems, the sketches, the photographs of the installation."

It has, he says, "been a lot of fun. I love large spaces. Now, I want something larger!"

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Style on 08/01/2017