El Dorado native Lisa Burton Tarver returns to the gallery with The Polaroid Show, a collection of 12 large format manipulated Polaroid photos. The limited edition 30″ x 36″ prints are signed and numbered. The print run of most of the photos is limited to ten.
Lisa’s love of photography began at an early age as she watched her father using his old Polaroid camera. “That’s why I love Polaroids – they remind me of my daddy,” she said. “This show is a collection of my favorite Polaroids that I’ve done through the years. This large format is a new way for people to be able to appreciate them.” The Polaroid Show includes her daughter as a child, flowers, trees, and still lifes. Her amazing transformation of simple Polaroids also shows the progression of her interests and the different experiences of her life.
She began experimenting with manipulating Polaroids when Rhonda Hicks gave her a book about the process. Manipulation is done while a Polaroid is still in its wet stage. Any number of tools can be used to gently move the colors around to create a swirly effect, a Van Gogh-like quality, on the face of the photo. Lisa begin practicing the technique on her own, and creates Polaroids that look like Impressionist paintings.
Lisa is currently the Photographer in Residence at the South Arkansas Arts Center, where she teaches photography classes through the Artist in Residence program and documents events for news releases, publicity brochures, the webpage, and SAAC archives.
The artwork will be in the Lobby Gallery March 2 – April 7. An artist reception, which is free and open to the public, will be Saturday, March 12, 5:30-7:30pm.