DePoyster Explores Identities In Portrait Series ‘Beyond Labels’
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Design Diva, Mentor, Salsa Dancer, Unapproachable | Diva del Diseño, Mentora, Bailarina de salsa, Inaccesible by Virmarie DePoyster is one of 16 portraits in Beyond Labels.
Exhibition by Noted Pastel Artist, Teacher Opens Oct. 28 with Reception
A collection of stunning new pastel portraits by Virmarie DePoyster will be publicly shown for the first time at ASC.
Beyond Labels | Más Allá De Las Etiquetas by Virmarie DePoyster opens Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021, in the William H. Kennedy Jr. Gallery. ASC will host a drop-in opening reception from 5-7 p.m., which will give visitors an opportunity to visit with the artist.
The exhibition is sponsored by Relyance Bank.
The series of 17 portraits — of people across races, genders, and backgrounds — explores identity and the preconceptions that are placed on people, and how those people see themselves.
DePoyster, who is bilingual and a native of the U.S. territory Puerto Rico, channeled her own experiences and explored others to create the series of portraits.
Beyond Labels was inspired by an email she received from a local exhibition curator almost four years ago.
“She wrote at length about me being a person of color and used the acronym ‘POC,’” DePoyster explained. “I had not heard that term before and had no idea what POC meant or what she was talking about. There are so many acronyms today and my brain only has so much storage space! Also, some things get lost in translation. So I Googled it and learned that I was a ‘Person of Color.’”
DePoyster continued, “I had spent most of my life trying to shed the words and labels others used to describe me, and here I was in 2018, with more identities than ever. After much consideration, I came to realize that labels have the power to either divide or connect us.”
DePoyster To Visit Second Saturday Family FunDay on Nov. 13
Virmarie DePoyster will be the guest artist at the next Second Saturday Family FunDay, from 1-3 p.m. Nov. 13. Family FunDay is ASC’s free monthly activity, sponsored by the Pine Bluff Area Community Foundation.“It is often said that the eyes are the windows to the soul, so I plan to do a demo and guide exercise as we explore why our eyes are so captivating,” DePoyster explained. “We will use handheld mirrors and explore our faces as we ‘paint’ with pastels on brown kraft paper and capture our essence.”
Trustworthy, Kind, Loves harmonies, Soft (Buen Amigo, Cariñoso, Le encanta cantar, Delicado), from Beyond Labels, depicts 11-year-old Jon.
She then began to wonder about others’ experiences with labeling and enlisted both friends and strangers to model and interview for a portrait. DePoyster asked each person to bring one item or wear clothing they felt represented who they are, or embody a persona that illustrated how they saw themselves. During each visit, they explored issues of identity and connection surrounding the labels that had affected all of their lives.
“These pastel portraits aim to illustrate how labels can be overcome through self-acceptance and openness. My hope is to inspire an appreciation for one another’s unique identities, so we may learn to look beyond labels and truly see one another.”
One of the portrait models is 11-year-old Jon, in Trustworthy, Kind, Loves harmonies, Soft (Buen Amigo, Cariñoso, Le encanta cantar, Delicado). The African American boy crosses his arms while wearing his favorite sweatshirt, with a hint of a strong and sweet smile.
Another portrait is of longtime family friend Dorothy in 93, Natural Wonder, Determined, Energizer Bunny, Widow (93, Maravilla natural Determinada, Conejito de Energizer, Viuda). Dorothy — captured in a purple turtleneck — doesn’t let age or scoliosis keep her from her mission of walking three miles every morning.
Perhaps one of the most eye-catching portraits is the one of DePoyster herself. Empathetic, Artist, Native Puerto Rican, Immigrant (Empática, Artiste, Puertorriqueña nativa, Inmigrante) captures DePoyster draped in an American flag, the red and the blue of the flag standing out strongly against the painting’s neutral background.
Virmarie DePoyster included herself in Beyond Labels, in Empathetic, Artist, Native Puerto Rican, Immigrant (Empática, Artiste, Puertorriqueña nativa, Inmigrante).
“As I looked inward and explored what I would use in a self-portrait, I immediately thought of the U.S. flag,” she explained. “It represents pride, freedom, dignity and at times, used to remind us of joys and sorrow. As a Puerto Rican and a U.S. citizen from birth, the U.S. has given me shelter, protection and covered me during hard times so wrapping with the flag felt like wrapping with a warm blanket.
“The pose portrays my empathy and reflects the pride I have for this country for all the opportunities it has given my family. My gaze was looking forward, signifying my hope and wonder for the day when we can all love each other with open hearts and truly see each other for who we are.”
The pastel portraits of Beyond Labels invite our empathy, asking us to examine our subconscious biases and the way we view others, explained ASC Curator Jessica Lenehan.
“Her subjects are depicted in joyous colors with an innate openness that allows the viewer to easily connect to these strangers,” Lenehan explained in her curator statement. “This connection is made more intimate by the inclusion of the subjects’ own labels, whether how they feel they really are or how they would like to be seen. How do people see you, how would you like to be seen, and how vast is the space between?”
The exhibition will include an interactive wall; visitors will be encouraged to write their own labels on sticky notes and affix them to the wall.
DePoyster said that she hopes this interactive wall starts conversations and allows people to stay open hearted.
“The moment we meet someone, we scan them up and down and within the first minutes we make assumptions about who we think they are,” she said. “The same thing happens with photos we see on social media. Assumptions are made by everyone based on social status, clothing, and our old baggage. Looking at a painting also creates the same scenario. We stand in front of a painting wondering what the story is. Who are they? What is going on here? Why would she wear that? What are they thinking? Sometimes a painting has the power to make the person appear to come to life. It is like reading a book — in your mind, you can almost see and feel as though you know them.
“In this exhibition, I want the viewers to have that experience; to linger, talk to each other, and interact so that conversations are started about labels and assumptions.
“My hope is we can appreciate our differences and look beyond the labels.”
Inner Fire, Family rock, Regal, Passive (Fuego Inferno, La Roca de la familia, Regia, Pasiva) is one of the portraits in Beyond Labels
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Born and raised in Puerto Rico, DePoyster lived on the Caribbean island until she was 15. Then, her father left the family. A family friend offered her mother a fresh start in El Dorado, Arkansas. So DePoyster, her mom, and her two sisters left for Arkansas in September 1983.
She was entering 10th grade at the time and couldn’t read or write in English.
Their classes were all in English; there were no English-as-a-Second-Language program options. She carried a small paperback Spanish-to-English/English-to-Spanish dictionary everywhere.
“After school, I translated every other word in textbooks to be able to comprehend what I was reading. I must be honest and say I failed many tests during the first six months but teachers really wanted to see us succeed and helped. It took about a year to understand what people were saying and longer to speak well but it was sink or swim, right? That taught me to be tenacious, a skill that has served me well in my artistic endeavors.”
Driven by her love for fabrics, textures, and bright colors, she studied apparel merchandising and design at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. After graduating, she worked in retail for a few years.
“I didn't find retail fulfilling so I took a job designing business forms for manufacturing companies and healthcare,” she said. “Looking back on it, designing business forms was tedious, detail-oriented work like painting so I was creating.
“It’s amazing how art is used in all sorts of everyday jobs! I consider myself a maker. I have made jewelry, pottery, and knitted; some more successful than others.”
She noted, “I often say there are so many ways to create! You can garden, cook, or paint — all those use imagination, design, color, unity.”
DePoyster’s connection with pastels began in 2004 when she started taking painting classes at the museum school at the Arkansas Arts Center (now the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts) in Little Rock. She quickly fell in love with painting with soft pastels. By 2011, she was teaching pastels at the museum school and taught there until 2018.
True to Self, Well Read, Not Done Yet, Rebellious (Fiel a sí mismo, Bien leído, No realized todavía, Rebelde), is one of the Portraits in Beyond Labels.
In 2012, she developed and implemented a therapeutic art program, teaching at-risk youth in rural Arkansas how to heal through artistic expression. In 2016-2019, she built on this desire to give others a voice through art by providing her services to a wide range of individuals at an acute care facility in Little Rock.
She is currently a visual artist in residency with the Arkansas Arts Council’s Arts in Education program, which includes facilitating professional workshops for school teachers, focusing on how to better integrate art into their curriculum.
She also teaches group and private classes in her North Little Rock studio.
DePoyster’s subjects across her portfolio aren’t limited to people, and her artwork has also included botanicals, abstracts, and pets. She captures the individual beauty and personality of dogs as deftly as she does for people. Her portrait of one-eyed dog Carl was selected for the 61st Delta Exhibition at the Arkansas Arts Center in 2019.
Her other recent solo exhibitions include Bits and Pieces (2019) at the University of the Ozarks, in Clarksville; Curiosities (2017) at the South Arkansas Arts Center in El Dorado, and Color, An Artist’s Tale: Paintings by Virmarie DePoyster (2014) at the Arkansas Arts Center.
She’s even had a solo show in Italy; Revelation: New Works by Virmarie DePoyster exhibited in the U.S. Embassy in Rome in 2015.
In 2019, she represented Arkansas in Her Flag, a nationally touring collaborative art project marking the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment of the Constitution. (States began ratifying the amendment, which gave women in the United States the right to vote, in 1920.) Her Flag is an 18-foot by 26-foot banner comprising stripes from 36 artists. Each artist represented one of the states that ratified the amendment. DePoyster’s stripe depicts the progression of women’s self-expression, power, and choice using fashion to mark time.
DePoyster is represented by the Art Group Gallery in Little Rock and Justus Fine Art Gallery in Hot Springs.
She lives in North Little Rock with her husband, David DePoyster. They have two adult children — Grant, 26, and Anna, 23.
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Beyond Labels was originally scheduled to open in April 2020 at the Art Center of the Ozarks (now Arts One) in Springdale. The paintings were hung but the COVID-19 shutdowns kept the art center closed before the exhibition could open.
As things were opening back up, ASC’s then-curator Chaney Jewell reached out. She had been following DePoyster’s work on social media and asked if she would like to have a solo exhibition. “I told her I had been waiting for the right venue to come along and thrilled she reached out,” DePoyster said.
“The public has never seen them shown; I’m super excited y’all get to be the first.”
Beyond Labels is on display at ASC through Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. To read more about DePoyster and to see other artwork, visit her website at virmarie.com.
