Every summer, Jacqueline Golden, Associate Professor of Art at the University of Arkansas, packs up her bags and easel and heads to Italy. There she directs a study abroad program titled “Art in Rome,” composed of month-long studio classes for both graduate and undergraduate students. The classes emphasize on-site specific work and include tours to ancient sites. “Looking out at the landscape of a foreign country is for me like a spiritual turning inward or a visual meditation,” says Golden. “The landscape may be strange, but at the same time, utterly familiar.'

Many of the pieces are worked in oil on board. Some such as “Roman Ruin,” “Afternoon, Boboli,” and “Campagna” depict easily recognizable Italian landscapes dating to pre-history, while others, such as “Yellow Satyr,” “Ode to Diana” and “Blue Venus” feature familiar Roman icons of myth. “The elements in the paintings are like archetypes in my mind,” observes Golden. “They are meant to be a metaphor for a universal feeling or experience.”

Other paintings in the exhibit, such as “Where,” “Terminus,” and “Clandestine,” all gouache on paper with pencil renderings, suggest a dreamy, illusory quality, a personal interpretation of the cultural mood. Golden states, “I believe the soul recognizes a feeling of longing and a deep desire to embrace the experience.”

Golden regularly participates in exhibitions around the country and is represented in several private collections. Most recently she was a participant in the “Delta,” an annual exhibition held at the Arkansas Arts Center, and the “Small Works on Paper” exhibition, an annual touring visual arts Exhibition coordinated by the Arkansas Arts Council. Recently, one of Golden's paintings was selected for exhibit in Senator Blanche Lincoln's office in Washington, D. C.