DE QUEEN, Ark.—As an educator, Frank Adams knows students who aspire to breathe the very essence of life into their dreams.
Adams and his wife, Jan, wanted to create a tribute to those dreams through a physical object to stimulate ideas. So when the couple visited Santa Fe, N.M. on a vacation, he found the artist Guilloume and viewed his sculptures.
Adams, chancellor of Cossatot Community College at the University of Arkansas in De Queen, was inspired by the art work and commissioned Guilloume to create the tribute. The artist and the chancellor created the concept, a trio of sculptures called “Aspiration.”
The sculptures, paid for by Adams and his wife, were unveiled Friday by Guilloume on the De Queen campus of Cossatot during a brief ceremony.
“The courage to aspire to fulfill the dreams of our soul is a lifelong task that first begins with learning who we are and how we fit into the order of the universe,” said Adams. “At last, we come to understand that it does not matter how great our learning or our skills, it is what we do for others that fills the great cavity in our souls and brings the peace and serenity that leads to contentment in his life and the happiness in our souls that lasts for eternity.”
Adams said he and his wife are “big believers in personal growth.”
“It’s for naught unless the growth leads you to help others. It could range from participating in a church pie sale, building a building or becoming a school teacher,” he said.
The idea to create a sculpture with a hole in the center of the body came to Adams after he went to a De Queen garage sale.
“I had stopped by to see a lady who was having a hard time. She had a garage sale and I saw a tiny statue made of stainless steel no more than three inches tall,” he recalled. “It was a human-looking figure with a hole in the middle. It reminded me of things happening in my life and other people’s lives through growth, education and religion.
“It fills our souls and we become useful persons,” said Adams.
A sculpture will be displayed on each campus in De Queen, Nashville and Ashdown.
Guilloume is a master of “Bolismo,” a self-described, emotion filled style using modest forms, textures and shading to portray the range of human feelings. He told the audience attending the unveiling his art is a “dreamscape of memory and emotion.”
Born in Colombia in 1957, Guilloume completed his formal studies at Medellin’s Bellas Artes Institute in 1982. Guilloume came to the U.S. in 1985 and maintains a studio near Santa Fe, where he uses oil, watercolor, oil-pastel, pastel, pencil and ink to create his paintings.
Guilloume’s bronze and stone creations have been singled out by Sculpture Magazine to place him among the 10 most important sculptors today.
“When I look at a person, I see beyond the persona and the temporary attributes of age, beauty and style. It is there I find the circles and roundish forms that create the essence of the human figure and define my preferred artistic style-Bolismo,” he said.
Guilloume said his subjects are purposely devoid of recognizable facial features.
“If I provide the viewer with identifiable characteristics, then I play a part in accentuating the differences between people. I prefer to underscore the similarities common to all humanity,” said Guilloume. “Typically, my paintings and sculptures depict two or more people. This is simply meant to express my understanding of humans as social beings.
He said, like living people, his characters are most happy when they are among family, friends and others with common interests.
“I believe art to be one of the universal languages and I have always sought to create beauty that speaks to people from all corners of the earth, from all walks of life, from all political spectra, from all age groups,” said Guilloume.
Adams and his wife, Jan, wanted to create a tribute to those dreams through a physical object to stimulate ideas. So when the couple visited Santa Fe, N.M. on a vacation, he found the artist Guilloume and viewed his sculptures.
Adams, chancellor of Cossatot Community College at the University of Arkansas in De Queen, was inspired by the art work and commissioned Guilloume to create the tribute. The artist and the chancellor created the concept, a trio of sculptures called “Aspiration.”
The sculptures, paid for by Adams and his wife, were unveiled Friday by Guilloume on the De Queen campus of Cossatot during a brief ceremony.
“The courage to aspire to fulfill the dreams of our soul is a lifelong task that first begins with learning who we are and how we fit into the order of the universe,” said Adams. “At last, we come to understand that it does not matter how great our learning or our skills, it is what we do for others that fills the great cavity in our souls and brings the peace and serenity that leads to contentment in his life and the happiness in our souls that lasts for eternity.”
Adams said he and his wife are “big believers in personal growth.”
“It’s for naught unless the growth leads you to help others. It could range from participating in a church pie sale, building a building or becoming a school teacher,” he said.
The idea to create a sculpture with a hole in the center of the body came to Adams after he went to a De Queen garage sale.
“I had stopped by to see a lady who was having a hard time. She had a garage sale and I saw a tiny statue made of stainless steel no more than three inches tall,” he recalled. “It was a human-looking figure with a hole in the middle. It reminded me of things happening in my life and other people’s lives through growth, education and religion.
“It fills our souls and we become useful persons,” said Adams.
A sculpture will be displayed on each campus in De Queen, Nashville and Ashdown.
Guilloume is a master of “Bolismo,” a self-described, emotion filled style using modest forms, textures and shading to portray the range of human feelings. He told the audience attending the unveiling his art is a “dreamscape of memory and emotion.”
Born in Colombia in 1957, Guilloume completed his formal studies at Medellin’s Bellas Artes Institute in 1982. Guilloume came to the U.S. in 1985 and maintains a studio near Santa Fe, where he uses oil, watercolor, oil-pastel, pastel, pencil and ink to create his paintings.
Guilloume’s bronze and stone creations have been singled out by Sculpture Magazine to place him among the 10 most important sculptors today.
“When I look at a person, I see beyond the persona and the temporary attributes of age, beauty and style. It is there I find the circles and roundish forms that create the essence of the human figure and define my preferred artistic style-Bolismo,” he said.
Guilloume said his subjects are purposely devoid of recognizable facial features.
“If I provide the viewer with identifiable characteristics, then I play a part in accentuating the differences between people. I prefer to underscore the similarities common to all humanity,” said Guilloume. “Typically, my paintings and sculptures depict two or more people. This is simply meant to express my understanding of humans as social beings.
He said, like living people, his characters are most happy when they are among family, friends and others with common interests.
“I believe art to be one of the universal languages and I have always sought to create beauty that speaks to people from all corners of the earth, from all walks of life, from all political spectra, from all age groups,” said Guilloume.