Villegas' artwork opens gallery

The Mahony Family Library Gallery has opened with Villegas: A Retrospective, consisting of eight pieces by Maria Botti and Jorge Villegas which will be displayed through the end of December.

The Villegases each contributed four pieces from a total of eight different art series. Her work includes acrylic on paper and board, capturing impressions of single moments and reflecting her interest in human expression and its relationship with time and space. His pieces include acrylic on canvas and oil on canvas, and reflect human beauty and forces of the universe.

An artist reception was held on Oct. 4 to honor the artists and celebrate the opening of their display. Future exhibits will follow in the library gallery on a rotating basis.

Maria Botti Villegas is a professional muralist, illustrator and multidisciplinary artist who resides in El Dorado and has been teaching art for 27 years at the South Arkansas Arts Center and as an Arkansas arts-in-education teacher in the El Dorado School District. She has a five-year degree from Pueyrredon School of Fine Arts in her native country of Argentina. She has received numerous awards and has painted 30 public murals in Arkansas and Louisiana.

Jorge Villegas also is a multidisciplinary artist, muralist and educator who has worked with people from all backgrounds, from kindergarteners to death-row inmates, for the last 40 years. After graduating with degrees from three different colleges of fine arts in Argentina, he became a naturalized American citizen in 1993. He has received numerous awards and his work is in private collections and museums around the nation.