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By Brittany Williams
an illuminating vision
Arts Center marketing director’s dedication to ‘being creative’
El Dorado native Colleen Means dreamed of being center stage as a young girl, but her work behind the curtain at the South Arkansas Arts Center helps the city flourish as a hub for the arts.
She is one of nine children and only recalls growing up in El Dorado after her father moved
her family to town to work at Mur-
phy Oil, she said.
Means was inspired by her high school drama and math teachers, leading to her undergraduate edu- cation at the University of Arkan- sas in Fayetteville and work as the marketing director for the SAAC.
“I get to use those life lessons that
they taught me everyday when I
go to work and it’s interesting that was able to work out for me,” Means said. “I found pretty quickly that I wasn’t a front of stage person ... That’s where sort of the math starts com- ing in — the building, designing, color and shape. It’s still being an artist, but with a 3D palette.”
While working toward her bachelor of fine arts degree in
theater, she worked part-time at a place that happened to be her future husband Mike’s former place of employment.
“There was all of this art all over the building ... They’d go ‘Oh, that’s Mike’s, he painted that ... He drew that,” she said. “One day I’m at work at the back of the shop and this guy walks in ... I said, ‘You must be Mike.’ His jaw dropped and his hand shook ... I guess that struck him because he asked me out and we dated for a while.”
Mike Means visited Fayetteville during breaks while serving in the U.S. Navy
as a draftsman illustrator. After years of courtship, they eventually got married and settled on a Navy base in Hawaii, she said.
The marketing director recalled visiting her family for Christmas and hearing a rumor about a guy who needed an em- ployee with Apple Mac computer expe- rience. Her husband followed this lead
and was offered a job in her hometown, she said. They also opened Creative Means Picture Framing, a small, quirky shop embellished with her husband’s immense Disney mem- orabilia collection.
“I think Mike is an amazing artist. The more I do and the more I see him do as a graphic artist, the more I learn,” she
I“want to be able to work in my craft and be happy.
I can say that I am doing that.
BELLA – February 2017 – 3
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