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Show / 945 at the age of 35. It is quite likely that his involvement with music prepared Don to see the expressive possibilities of non-representational painting. He said, "The abstract painter tries to give pulse and motion to the unrecognizable just as the musician tries to give pulse and motion to the very abstract qualities of music." Don was not the first abstract painter in Utah but he was the first artist to employ a new type of painting being advanced by the Abstract Expressionists in the 1950's. Painters such as Hans Hoffman, William deKooning and Jackson Pollack declared and demonstrated that the picture plane, or surface of the canvas, need not be thought of as a window through which to see, but it could be an "arena in which to act."They observed that, rather than being bound to the rules of perspective, formal and spatial structures could depend on the layering of forms of color. Working intuitively and without preconception, the honest expression of the artist's interior life was considered far more important than making images or objects of conventional beauty. Don said, "a painting reveals the internal expression of the artist and has nothing to do with observation of visual facts." He agreed with his teacher, Hans Hoffman, that "the deeper sense of art is obviously to hold the human spirit in a state of rejuvenescence." PAINTING In sheer numbers, no other visual art form has as many participants as does the activity of painting. An ancient medium, painting still retains much of its mysterious ambiance. This is due in part to the fact that no other medium can match the qualities, especially the density and depth of its color-the primary element of vision. Although removed from time (unlike film), and only able to imply space (unlike sculpture), the skillful painter can, as Leonardo pointed out in his writings, "partake of an act of creativity that boarders on the divine". F.ANTHONY SMITH, SUSAN BECK, AND BONNIE SUCEC, all from Salt Lake City, use paper as well as canvas and board for painting surfaces. Smith's works often seem to be an encyclopedia of the many images, forms, techniques, and spatial structures available to the artist. In his work, we may see illusionistic objects, with shadows and highlights, flying through streams of rushing paint or skillful representations of birds in the pale moonlight. Beck and Sucec, whose studios share the same floor in the Guthrie Building, are close friends. Both are figurative artists and both take liberties with images of the natural world. Some of Beck's recent work has taken on a disquieting tone with rendering truncated and bound figures. The context, or field, of her images suggest her interest in social and psychological issues. Sucec first participated in the Utah Arts Festival in 1978 in the Artist Marketplace, and notably again in 1993 as an Art in Public Places proposal artist. Of course, her work has changed since that time but her intuitive approach is very much the same. Her familiar paintings on paper are characterized by unusual figures in colorful, complex environments. ALEX BIGNEY'S studio is in his house, high in Woodland Hills overlooking the southern end of Utah Valley. His paintings of hybrid figures in dreamlike scenarios declare that the unconscious is still a force in representational art. Although it is not possible to access the exact nature of Bigney's interior life as revealed in his works, there is no question that an adventure is in progress. RICHARD VAN WAGONER is a Professor of Art at Weber State University and lives just north of Ogden in Pleasant View. A masterful watercolorist, his work originally centered on faithful representations of elements in the world that he found interesting, most particularly, the geometric perspectives of freeway interchanges. During the last year,Van Wagoner become an advocate for tolerance and acceptance of our gay and lesbian community members. The father of a homosexual son, he has seen firsthand the bigotry and intolerance some members of the community impose upon those with an alternative sexual preference. With the use of symbolic and inferred imagery, Van Wagoners work reflects his meditations on this difficult subject. CONNIE BORUP AND SUSANNAH KlRBY both live in the park-like, residential area of Holladay. Borup has developed a reputation for large, moody, and tonalist landscapes. Her classical compositions are achieved by editing down to the essential landscape elements as she paints. Kirby lives with cats, dogs, a horse in the back yard, and exotic plants, all of which are likely to show up in her work. An open and curious artist, she fearlessly combines scenarios and images that catch her eye, regardless of cultural context. WORKS ON PAPER BOB KLEINSCHMIDT is a printmaker and professor at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. His primary work is lithography, the most challenging printmaking technique. His varied imagery and composition often contain a subtlety of color and a transparency of form available only to the lithographer. SARA NORTHERNER of Utah State University in Logan, was a finalist in this year's Fellowship Competition sponsored by the Utah Arts Council. Although she derives her images from the natural world, her photographs are often created in the darkroom. The layering of her images suggests layers of reality, levels of perception, and psychological depth. MIXED MEDIA At a simple level, mixed media refers to works created by using more than one medium. It can also refer to a wild conglomeration of disparate materials that can be hung, suspended from the ceiling, or be free standing. ANNA CAMPBELL BUSS AND PAUL HEATH are both from Salt Lake City and typify the usual range of the genre of mixed |
