“Eureka, I Found It”
“Eureka! I Found it” Banner for a group Exhibition at Brews 8-13-2025
“Eureka, I Found It”
{STATEMENT FROM CURATOR: “Eureka I Found It” is the new group exhibition at Brews featuring the works of 70 local artists. There is an opening reception this Wednesday, August 13 2024 from 5 to 8 p.m. where everyone is invited to attend. I asked artists to create a piece of art inspired by our tiny town – asking – What excites you about living here, why did you move here, what keeps you here and what magic keeps drawing you back? In the ten years of curating shows at Brews, I’ve never put together a show with Eureka Springs as a theme and can’t wait to see what some of our local talent come up with and to share it with you all. John Rankine }
“For the Birds” by Rebecca Epp (Becky Stracener Epp) © 2025
*This is my piece for the show.
“For the Birds”
When I started this piece, all I knew was that it was going to be an Eureka Springs theme. I had been wanting to paint Humpty for a while, so I decided to do it. Basin Park had just gotten remodelled, and the new Humpty Dumpty Statue was placed around the same time I started this, so it was perfect timing. I wanted it to look like Humpty got up and went to feed the birds, not knowing he had a hole in his birdseed sack and had a trail of birds following him. I used the old Humpty Dumpty statue as a reference for this painting. I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out, although I ended up having to rush it more than I really wanted to. Those birds!!! HA! Before I finished, I really was thinking “this is for the birds!”.
Even though I felt this painting didn’t really meet the theme of the show because obviously Humpty Dumpty is not the reason I moved here, he is iconic to Eureka, and many locals have fond memories of growing up with him or seeing him when they would come here to visit, including me.
The true story of why I moved here is long, and I doubt you want to read all of that, but the TLDR version is, I never felt like I belonged in Texas, where I lived most of my life. After my kids grew up and moved out, we started travelling more. There was a vacation that I took with my family as a kid, where the town sort of haunted my memories, but I wasn’t sure which town it was. We decided to visit Eureka Springs, and when we started driving down Planter Hill, I recognised the area, was flooded with memories, and knew this was the town that had haunted me for most of my life. After we moved here, my dad told me that he and Mama had come here, and Mama had made a wish for a baby, and I was actually conceived here, in Eureka Springs… In the words of the great old Cajun man on Joe Dirt, “Home, where you make it.” And I feel that Eureka has finally brought me home.
Reference Photo
Reference Photot
Original Humpy Dumpty
Below are a few of the art pieces by other artists and a few pictures from the art show. Image credit is to everyone who took the pictures and to the artists….
John Rankine and Robin Bray Ford took these photos.
Art by Zeek Taylor © 2025
art by Rosie Rose © 2025
