Artwork by NRH Residents

Featured on Electronic Billboards 

 

North Richland Hills brought recognition to its thriving art community with an innovative Clear Channel electronic billboard art exhibition 

 

Commuters driving along the Loop 820 corridor noticed some artwork interspersed with advertising on electronic billboards during the summer of 2022. The City of North Richland Hills ­­implemented an electronic billboard program that encourages and supports creativity in our community. The billboards ran at various locations during July 1 - August 31, 2022 at no cost to residents.

 

The temporary electronic billboard exhibition was launched as part of the Art Lives in Our City initiative, which provides visibility for talented North Richland Hills residents. This initiative also encompasses the Adventure World Boardwalk Art Trail and an upcoming Poetry Trail, featuring participants in NRH Cultural Arts Programs. “It's important to put the artists' names up on the billboard along with their work,” says Sarah Green, Cultural Arts Coordinator, “we can associate the art with the name and bring deserved recognition to these very talented people who are art celebrities in our community.”

 

The artists represented in the billboard exhibition included renowned Texas folk artist Jack Daw Russell, whose witty linoprints (a variation of a woodcut) can be found in galleries throughout the state. In a linoprint, a design is cut into a linoleum surface with a sharp knife, chisel or gouge. The linoleum sheet is inked with a roller and then impressed onto paper.  Jack’s sharp humor and wry social commentary imbue each of his prints, which are uniformly sized and immediately recognizable.

 

Betsy Allaire creates vividly-hued, nature-inspired visuals that she paints directly onto silk. Using special dyes, Betsy meticulously applies layers of intermixable thin colors onto a prepared fabric strip until she obtains an image with a bright and bold palette. Silk painting has a 3,500 year history in Asia and has been practiced for hundreds of years in Europe. Betsy’s lively floral motifs are abundant in rich, swirling designs that build upon an ancient tradition.

 

Photographer Mark Penland uses photography, collage, and found objects to create small-scale, two-dimensional work. These works are then photographed or scanned and the resulting files are printed with a large-scale archival inkjet printer. Using both historical elements as well as contemporary ephemera, Mark creates images that feel both familiar and evasive simultaneously.  Mark serves as an Instructional Associate in Photography at the Northeast Campus of Tarrant County College.

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The City’s talented artists help make North Richland Hills a more beautiful and exciting place to live, work and play.

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