Feminine Nature

Women of the Ozarks is a collaborative show at Ozark Beer Company featuring female artists from the Ozark Mountain region of Arkansas. Our mission is to spotlight local, female-identifying artists, to bring Northwest Arkansas meaningful art in various media, and to provide an opportunity for our community to engage with local artists, and one another. Women of the Ozarks was founded by Tram Colwin and Claire Pongonis, who are visual artists, art educators, and advocates for sharing art with Northwest Arkansas.

Our 2024 inaugural exhibition will present a collection of art from 6 incredibly talented artists working in various media, as they express their unique interpretation of the show’s theme, “Feminine Nature”.
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Claire Pongonis proudly hails from the beautiful Ozark Mountains region of Arkansas, where she draws much of her inspiration. She specializes in embroidered thread paintings, utilizing a blend of traditional embroidery techniques and contemporary painting methods. With a background in Fine Art, Claire’s creative practice includes oil pastel, acrylic, and gouache. Her work is characterized by vibrant colors, rich textures, and intricate details. Claire constantly explores new methods of creating and loves to push the boundaries of her creative understanding to find something unique and magical. Her curiosity leads her to travel frequently, but she calls Fayetteville, Arkansas home.
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I am deeply captivated by the beautiful curves and lines of the female form and the similar shapes found in nature; this collection seeks to blur the lines between the two.

I intend for the landscape to be seen at first glance, and then, as a viewer spends more time with each piece, the female form begins to come into focus. This will leave the viewer with a sense of balance and harmony between these two elements, recognizing the inextricably intertwined presence of feminine nature.

At the end of 2023, I fell in love with the process of creating cyanotype prints. I knew I wanted to capture the female form for this project and allow those forms to fade into the piece and develop as the viewer spent time with it. Representing the bodies through the cyanotypes would give them a strong presence and a subtle silhouette I could build upon with embroidery.

It is important to me that the female form is represented as powerful, organic, and beautiful. I was raised with a cultural perspective that painted women’s bodies as dangerous, something to be hidden, something shameful – I have come a long way from that viewpoint, and I wanted to celebrate that here.