05 Nov 2024 Artist of the Month: Amy Jones

By Rita Halter Thomas

For First Community Bank (FCB) in Conway, the real treasures are not secured in a vault or under lock and key. Historical images, creatively given new life, adorn the offices and hallways of the bank’s new facility on Harkrider Street, and reflect something more valuable than silver and gold: our community, its people, its history, and its heritage. 

Lori Melton, Senior Vice President of Business Development for FCB, explained the bank always strives to represent its communities through its décor, which differs by location and is meaningful to each area. Since the arch bearing the words, “Historic Downtown Conway” is visible from the property, the bank wanted the Conway facility to look and feel more historic. The new location, which hosted a grand opening on May 29, was built with marble flooring, tin ceilings, wood trim and heavy wooden columns that are traditional, while the furnishings and artwork make it fresh and new. 

As she imagined the artwork at the new branch, the idea of 17,000 square feet of black-and-white historical pictures didn’t appeal to Melton. “I am one who likes to go past the boundaries. If I am going to take something on, let’s go all the way,” she said. So, Melton turned to someone with the skills and the talent to do just that, her former neighbor Amy Jones of Amy Jones Design.

While most of Conway knows Jones as an incredible, award-winning photographer, Melton knows that Jones has a background in advertising and graphic design, was once an art director for a prominent ad agency and is a true artist with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and drawing from the University of Arkansas. “Most photographers don’t have those credentials,” Melton said.

“[Lori] knew when she came to me, that while I was a photographer, I understood the art side of things, I understood the production side, and she knows I am an idea person,” Jones said. Inspired by a quote from Rudyard Kipling, “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten,” the pair set out to tell a story of this community. 

Melton credits Jones for the idea of colorizing restored historic photos and then painting them by hand, a technique she developed specifically for this project. Jones, who has focused on photography for the last 18 years, dusted off her paintbrushes and produced a sample of the artistic rendering she had in mind. “What if FCB was known to the Conway community as a destination for art and history?” Jones proposed. Melton was sold. 

“At the time, I said we’ll show the original images, we’ll tell the story, and then we’ll have these (images) artistically rendered so that it kind of looks like a museum,” Jones said of the concept.

Understanding the timeline, Jones reached out to fellow photographer Tim Donar to take photos of the images at the museums and send them to her and Melton for final selection.  Jones and Donar worked on the original restorations, then Jones finalized them and turned them into art pieces. She painted them in Photoshop, then had them printed on canvas and mounted on Masonite. Once the pieces were custom-framed, Jones masked them off and hand painted each image for texture. Donar and Kevin Chenoweth, with The Giving Table, created custom framing.    

For Jones, using all her skills and education for the bank project was particularly meaningful. “It was like the icing on the cake,” she said of the creativity and opportunity to use multiple forms of artistic media in one project. “And it was fascinating to learn the history because we curated all the images,” she said. 

The entire process, down to the details of printing trading cards and postcards of some of the art pieces for the grand opening, took almost a year to complete. Great consideration was given to where the images would hang, all while the building was still under construction. The size and orientation of each piece needed to be pre-determined for the space it was to occupy. 

Further, Melton wanted the story to represent different aspects of the community, such as education, athletics, general life and commerce. She also handpicked photos for private offices that would be personally meaningful to the ones who would occupy that space. The pair searched thousands of photos from the Faulkner County Historical Society, the Faulkner County Museum, the Pine Street Museum and other resources. Many long days and late nights, and over fifty images later, a part of Conway’s story hangs in the halls and offices of FCB. “It is so gratifying because Lori is giving tours every day of people coming into the bank to see the art. It’s just so cool,” said Jones.

Stroll through the bank for a trip down memory lane or discover something you didn’t know. Stand in awe over the quality of Jones’ work while a chill comes over you at an image, a memory of a time or place; just let the nostalgia set in as discovery begins.

Perhaps you’ll spot an ancestor or notice a mud puddle in the middle of the dirt intersection now known as Toad Suck Square. Maybe you’ll remember Woodrow “Woody” Cummins in a green tux as the Toad Suck Daze Toad Master. Will you spot Joe Ford, founder of Alltel, among a group of patriotically dressed kindergarten students? Will you know the dapper-looking gentleman from the early 1900s who delivered the mail wearing a three-piece suit, leather shoes and a hat, who later became a postmaster?

Will you be able to spot former Conway Mayor Tab Townsell in a group photo of middle school students in front of the old railroad depot? Do you have a relative in the group of men standing outside the depot during the Depression, about to travel a great distance north to find work? Maybe you will recognize the names or faces of a handful of prominent community leaders and businessmen among the Pine Street Polar Bears football team. Or maybe you’ll stand in awe, staring at a photo of some of the earliest community leaders seen in Conway’s first Rotary Club. 

Perhaps you’ll be blessed by the piece honoring Second Baptist Church, which once occupied the property, or of Patti Cakes, the beloved bakery that burned earlier this year—the owners deciding not to rebuild only days before the project’s deadline. 

From generations past, this “tour-worthy-art-gallery-museum-in-a-bank” is sure to be treasured for generations to come. 

To arrange a tour of FCB, contact Lori Melton at 501.207.6000.