By Scott Mims
It’s one thing to be an artist; it’s quite another to have your art displayed in a reputable show or gallery.
Elizabeth Byrd of Clanton, founder of the Chilton County Arts Council, wants to help local artists know where they stand in the art world.
“Artists need affirmation,” she has said on more than one occasion.
One of Byrd’s paintings, a post-impressionistic piece entitled “I’m Lookin’ At You,” was featured recently in the 14th annual Energen Art Competition at the Energen Plaza in downtown Birmingham.
The painting allows the observer a glimpse into the window of a home, where people are conversing amongst a piano and a fireplace. In the bottom right corner of the window, a black cat stares directly back at the observer, hence the title.
Byrd calls the piece “fun” and says it’s her husband Albert’s favorite painting that she’s done.
Although Byrd’s work was not selected as a winner, she considered it an honor to be accepted. The judge for this year’s Energen Art Competition was Jean Ignatz of Northport, a well-known portrait painter and co-owner of Riverport Gallery in historic downtown Northport. The competition featured 482 entries, from which 200 works were selected for the final round of judging and exhibition.
Rewind back to third grade, when Byrd drew a picture of a girl in a dress and her art teacher hung her work on the bulletin board. As best as Byrd can remember, it was the detail on the girl’s dress that caught her teacher’s attention. That moment is Byrd’s earliest memory of acceptance as an artist.
Byrd graduated from Chilton County High in 1972 and took a year of art at UAB. Fast-forward to 1995, when she found herself raising a very artistic child without many opportunities. It was during this time that she decided to go back to school and graduated from the University of Montevallo in 1997 with a degree in marketing.
Although marketing might seem like an odd field of study for an artist, it goes hand in hand with developing a style and promoting one’s work.
“It’s a perfect marriage—marketing and art,” Byrd said.
Another thing that seems to go hand in hand with art is travel—experiences Byrd said she feels blessed to have had. At the age of 21, she lived in Brazil with her first husband, Dan, whose father was married to a Brazilian woman. In February of this year, she traveled back to Brazil with Albert.
“I wanted to put my foot down in the same place it had been before,” she said.
Byrd speaks fluent Portuguese and parts of several other languages. Among other places she has soaked up culture are France, Hawaii and Japan.
But perhaps Byrd’s passion for art is centered in Chilton County. She started the Chilton County Arts Council, which filed articles of incorporation in March 2010 and achieved nonprofit status in September 2011. At first it was a part-time endeavor, but now Byrd devotes her full attention to the council.
“It was a real passion because growing up in Clanton, there were very few opportunities for art instruction,” said Byrd, former president and current vice-president of CCAC.
CCAC sponsored a Sweetheart Showcase fine art show at the Clanton Conference and Performing Arts Center in February of this year. The show was juried by Ted Metz, a professor of art at Montevallo and a well-known sculptor throughout the Southeast. Because entry did not guarantee a spot in the competition, inclusion in the show granted a unique opportunity to local artists.
“Just being in the show exemplified a certain level of accomplishment,” Byrd said.
One of her primary goals through CCAC is to provide opportunities to kids, especially at-risk kids, in the area.
Recently, Byrd taught an art lesson to members of Tiger Trails, a grant-funded after-school program at Clanton Elementary and Clanton Intermediate schools. Students painted fruit and vegetables and had their work displayed at the Clanton Conference and Performing Arts Center in March.
If Byrd has her way, there will be more such opportunities on the horizon for the children of Chilton County.
“If my generation walks away and leaves this county exactly as we found it in respect to the arts, we will be doing it a disservice,” she said.