Tom Betts & ephemeral realism

As Tom Betts researches his ontology through the creative act of art a hyperrealist oil painting is produced that alludes to society's consumption of time in an age where temporal states of awareness and interaction are governed by technology. He uses the subject of a teacup, a family heirloom that he floats on the water of the Great Salt Lake as a visual reference and a metaphor of his Wasatch Front upbringing. The wake of the teacup provides a timeline of a moment's passage into myth as it becomes so large that it can no longer be seen but must be imagined. This article exposes his cognitive process as well as his emotional response to his creative act in five parts: Minimal Narrative, Realism, Painting Process, Ephemeral Nature of Light and Ephemeral Measurement. Betts's visual concept of Ephemeral Realism works to reveal the delicacy and fragility of the various states of human temporal identity.