Throughout the month of February, the Arkansas Arts Council has been shining a spotlight on just a small portion of the incredibly talented African American creatives here in Arkansas. 
 
The creatives profiled are listed on the Arts Council's Arkansas Artist Registry. If you’re not familiar with the registry, it is a great tool for artists to showcase their work. It also allows those on the list to submit for work in our annual Small Works on Paper exhibit. The Arkansas Arts Council also looks for ways to educate and support artists by providing grant opportunities and workshops. From the start, one of our goals has been to seek out ways to showcase diversity within the arts community in Arkansas. We do this by looking at the many types of art available here, as well as the creative forces behind these works.   
 
Watch the videos below of each artist explaining where they find inspiration, how their creativity works and what advice they can give to young artists finding their voice. 

Henri Linton, Sr.

Henri Linton, Sr. is an artist, curator and retired educator. For more than 50 years, Linton worked for the Department of Art at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. He began his career in 1969 as an art instructor, then became a professor before being promoted in 1980 to chairman of the art department where he remained until his retirement in 2014. In 2004, Linton founded and became the director of the University Museum and Cultural Center, a facility that documents UA Pine Bluff’s and the surrounding Delta Area’s 144-plus years of history and creates changing art exhibitions.

Linton, whose artwork focuses on the Arkansas Delta landscape, is among the most renowned landscape painters in the state of Arkansas. His paintings are included in private and corporate collections and are in galleries, public facilities and office buildings throughout Arkansas and the United States. Linton was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame in 2001 and later was selected to design the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame permanent exhibition located in the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in Little Rock. In 2018, he was selected for inclusion into “The HistoryMakers Digital Archives,” a video collection of prominent African Americans that is housed at the Library of Congress.

Marjorie Williams-Smith

Marjorie Williams-Smith is a 2019 Governor’s Arts Award winning artist. She has been using metals like aluminum, steel wool, copperpoint and other materials to create delicate floral pieces since 1985. She also designed the Congressional Gold Medal given to the Little Rock Nine by President Bill Clinton in 1999.

Now retired, Linton continues to work on commissioned projects. He is also organizing a museum and cultural center to document the history of Merrill High School, a historically black high school that existed in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, from 1886 to 1970.

Janis F. Kearney

Janis F. Kearney is an author, writer, presidential diarist, publisher and so much more. According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, she began her journalism career in 1987 when she joined the Arkansas State Press as the newspaper’s managing editor. When Daisy Gatson Bates, who founded the newspaper, retired later that year, Kearney bought the company and was the publisher for the next five years.

When Bill Clinton ran for office in 1992, Kearney joined his campaign, and was offered a job in his administration when he was elected president in 1993.

In 1995 she was appointed to serve as President Clinton’s personal diarist, keeping a comprehensive history of his administration. She left Washington at the end of his second term in 2001.

She established Writing our World Press in 2004 and has published several books.

Learn more about Janis’s life with the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

Leon Robertson

Leon Robertson is a self-taught artist living in Little Rock and Artist Registry member. He currently has two series of work. The first is “Arf & Soul” where he explores human social issues through the lives of dogs, and “The Junkyard Birds,” where he creates animal portraits using litter and other trash he finds in his neighborhood.

Equilla Walker

Equilla Walker is a photographer and Artist Registry member. She currently has pieces featured in the 2022 ‘Small Works on Paper’ traveling artist exhibition. Equilla studied business at UA Pine Bluff and Clark Atlanta University and has always loved art, photography and just about anything creative.

Perrion Hurd

Perrion Hurd is an artist, muralist, illustrator and more. The Hughes native studied graphic design and medical illustration at the University of Memphis, but considers himself to be more of a self-taught visual artist. His philosophy toward his work is to create something new every day, stay young and free at heart, and to grow and learn through positive self-expression.

His subject matter revolves around his love of music and geometric shapes with strong lines and bold colors that reflect the influence of the Memphis Beal Street and New Orleans culture.

Perrion is also receiving the Individual Artist Award for the 2022 Governor’s Arts Awards.

Donavon Brutus

Donavon Brutus is a Fort Smith born, Fayetteville raised professional animator and illustrator now living in San Francisco, California. He says he specializes in “simplifying the complex, and finding beauty in the dull.”  Donavon’s work “Roads to Revolution” was purchased by Mosaic Templars Cultural Center as it was inspired by the “Green Book” exhibit the center had on display in the summer of 2021.

Khairan Stafford

Khairan Stafford is a Newport native and Artist Registry member. He describes his style as a little bit of everything including video art, contemporary art, expressionism and abstract art, but he’s more drawn to expressionism. He likes to use color to convey emotion in his pieces. He also loves to see the progression his art has made over the years.

Rashawn Penister

Rashawn Penister is a Pine Bluff artist and a member of the Artist Registry. His art is a mix of abstract and portraiture. Every color and design serves a purpose in his art, demonstrating the choices people make in their lives.

Rashawn also has a piece in this year’s ‘Small Works on Paper’ traveling exhibition.

(Art created by: Top Left: Khairan Stafford, Top Right: Rashawn Penister, Bottom Left: Donavon Brutus, Bottom Right: Marjorie Williams-Smith)