On the back of The Call Mall, where foster parents can choose from donated cribs, diapers, clothes, beds, bathtubs and mattresses, Brush Creek-based artist Carrie Sherbert is now filling in the outlines of a tree-shadowed, sun-dappled neighborhood scene, with textures and colors that gladden the eye and the spirit.
Although the work is not yet finished, the image already evokes the phrase those requesting the mural pitched to Sherbert. “They gave me a couple of catch phrases, and I liked ‘Hope begins with a home.’ So I decided to paint some homes. We've got six houses.”
Sherbert herself hails originally from Arkadelphia where her affinity for creation started very soon in life, mostly because of her family’s examples. “My interest in art began, I guess before I remember, because I've always been interested in art. I'm understanding now that both my parents are artistic, although they really didn't display the general artistic tendencies. My mother's a quilter, and my dad saw these big Christmas decorations that were cut out of plywood, and he just went home and drew them and cut them out.”
She got a degree in Art Education and a master’s in art history from Henderson State and then served as an art teacher in the Malvern Public School District for 28 years. She has done murals before. “I've done a big mural that was just leopard print. I've done a mural at a gym in Malvern that I just made up as I went along. Have you heard of a Zentangle? It's patterns and shapes. And it was so much fun,” she said.
Her murals include one in a Yerger Middle classroom that was once used by her sister Amber Tackett. Marilyn Marks, the school’s current principal, saw that mural and was so impressed she had Tackett contact Sherbert to ask her to do another one in downtown Hope as part of a project overseen by the Hope Hempstead County Leadership Class this year. Marks is enrolled in that class.
Looking around her as she worked, Sherbert had praise for the art she is surrounded by in Hope’s downtown, including one by a familiar artistic colleague. “I’m just amazed, within a block of where we're standing, there's a dozen murals. My former brother-in-law painted that one.” She pointed directly across West Second at the Yes, Michael Sherbert lives here in town. He lives in one of Clinton's old houses. When people show up, he’ll just give them a tour and then try to sell them a painting when they leave.”
Sherbert herself currently lives in a 200-year-old house, which she often works on in Brush Creek. “Yeah, out in the country,” she said. “And I just love it. And I'm quilting, and I make afghans, and I still draw and paint.” Her youngest child is pursuing a career in the arts himself, working on his master’s degree.
While she spent many years as a teacher, for Sherbert teaching was not the first vocation she pursued. “I was a graphic design major, and I had an instructor who's Cajun, Ed Martin. And he said, ‘Carrie, you don't always do what we ask you to do.’ I said, ‘Sometimes I think the assignments are stupid.’ He says, ‘Well, if you get a job as a graphic designer, and you don't do what your client says, you're going to get fired. So I said, ‘What do you suggest?’ He said, ‘Well, you could go into education.’ And I had this look on my face like I bit the lemon and said, ‘Well, all right’ and then I stayed 28 years.”
Carrie, who is contributing her labor and expertise for free, has been spending long hours in the September sun this week, mostly mornings when it’s a little cooler. On my visits to take photos of her progress, after I’ve made sure she’s sufficiently sun screened and hydrated, I notice the music she’s playing hearkens back to my own early adult years. One day it was 10,000 Maniacs and on another it was Leonard Cohen. I’ve recommended Matthew Sweet.
She said the members of the Hope Hempstead County Leadership Class have been good about responding to her needs while she works. “I'm on a group chat with the Chamber of Commerce, and somebody said, ‘Can we bring you some water or snacks?’ Yes, well, I've got water and I've got plums and oranges. Cheetos sure do sound good. Then [Lisa Clark, another member of the class] brought me a full bag of every flavor.”
About her role this week as a very public artist creating a work that will be seen in nearly the center of town, Sherbert said, "I'm just grateful for the opportunity to bring a little fun and a little color and a little interest to the community, because there are so many people who don't see art, and if you put it out in public, they don't have a choice. And I like not giving them a choice. You should see art everywhere."
The mural for The Call is the culminating project of the 2025 HHCLC, which consists of nine current professionals living here who have met once a month since March for day-long sessions on such topics as Education, Economic Development, Tourism and Recreation, Manufacturing, City/County Government and State Government. Their most recent class in late August was spent on Agriculture. All the sessions are organized by members of past classes in collaboration with Hope Hempstead County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Christy Burns.
Each day features guest speakers with expertise and experience in these particular areas as well as field trips that have taken those enrolled to locales as diverse as Southwest Arkansas Educational Co-op, the New Millenium factory, a courtroom in the Hempstead County Courthouse and the state capitol building in Little Rock.
All along the class has been working on a project meant to benefit the Hempstead County community. It quickly settled on the creation of a mural on the back of The Call’s storage building, which from the building’s placement last year has been a beige blank that may be all too tempting for graffiti artists but also offers a chance to publicize what The Call does. We have photos of how that blank is being filled in by Carrie Sherbert so far.
