$7.95 US | $9.95 CAN Volume 1, Issue 1
Beautiful views of another kind: upcoming art expositions and concerts in Southern Utah.
Feed Your Senses Intimate interviews with notable and up-and-coming artists of the Mountain West region.
Profiles in Fine Art Experience the incredible talent and art showcase that took place during the Fibonacci Grand Opening week.
Concert Performances
P R E M I E R F I N E A R T S D I G E S T O F T H E M O U N TA I N W E S T
DIGEST
SPRING/SUMMER 2014
P R O G R A M S
F I N E A R T
E V E N T S
THE INTRODUCTORY ISSUE
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Artist Darrell Thomas, Crocoadile Rock Courtesy of Fibonacci Fine Arts Center under Darrell Thomase, Artist
ARTISTRY in EVERY
SMILE
Michael Theurer, DDS, MS, PC Children & Adults Evening & Saturday Appointments Available New Patients Welcome • No Charge For Consultations Most Insurances Accepted
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965 E. 700 S. • Ste. 101 • St. George, UT 84790 • 1-800-NEW-GRIN (639-4746) http://www.theurerorthodontics.com
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ESCAPE INTO THE MUSIC
2014 Deer Valley® Music Festival Summer Home of Utah Symphony | Utah Opera
KENNY ROGERS with the Utah Symphony July 5, 2014 (Sat) | 7:30 pm | Deer Valley Resort Jerry Steichen, Conductor
THE MUSIC OF JOHN WILLIAMS July 11, 2014 (Fri) | 7:30 pm | Deer Valley Resort Jeff Tyzik, Conductor
MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER with the Utah Symphony July 19, 2014 (Sat) | 7:30 pm | Deer Valley Resort Vince Mendoza, Conductor
DISNEY IN CONCERT: TALE AS OLD AS TIME august 1, 2014 (Fri) | 7:30 pm | Deer Valley Resort Jerry Steichen, Conductor
SUPER DIAMOND: THE NEIL DIAMOND TRIBUTE August 2, 2014 (Sat) | 7:30 pm | Deer Valley Resort Jerry Steichen, Conductor
THE BEN FOLDS ORCHESTRAL ExPERIENCE with the Utah Symphony
august 9, 2014 (Sat) | 7:30 pm | Deer Valley Resort Jerry Steichen, Conductor
ALSO THIS SUMMER: The Texas Tenors: Let Freedom Sing!, The Music of U2, Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, 1812 Overture!, The Muir String Quartet, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, Rosco and Friction Quartet For tickets, visit deervalleymusicfestival.org or call 801-533-6683 A Fine Arts Company
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DIGEST
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Founders Message
12 Editors Welcome 13 Featured Writers
C ontents
14 WHO IS FIBONACCI – The Divine Proportion
by Nicole Selinger
17 GREGORY STOCKS – Clean Classical & Contemporary
by Kameron Braunberger
20 GLEN HAWKINS – Showing us the world is beautiful
by Carmen Stenholm
24 SCOT P. OLSEN – Beauty in Chaos
by Kameron Braunberger
27 INTO THE WILD - With Luke Frazier
by Rebecca Stowers
30 A NEW DAY HAS BEGUN - The Seasons of Success of Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller
by Robert Benson M.D. MBA
34 OPERA HOUSE - Excerpts from “Images of Faith”
by Lynne Clark
37 WILLIAM “BILL” LEE HILL – A Painter’s Painter
by Rhett S. James
Mona Lisa Image:Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
41 DOCUTAH – Envision the world through Documentary Film
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by Lani Puriri
Early in the Morning Skylar Chang 38 x 18 Watercolor
45 OUR LOVE HATE RELATIONSHIP – with movies
by Linda & Richard Eyre
48 FIBONACCI PHOTO GALLERY 52 UTAH FILMMAKER – Explores paths to spirituality
by Peggy Fletcher Stack
56 MEANDERINGS – Porch swings and lilacs
by Dennis Smith
59 THE ARTFUL DETOUR – The unexpected art of travel
by Taylor Steelman
63 THE CREATIVE LIFE
Flower Garden Frank Huff 24 x 30 Oil on Canvas
by Janice Brooks Grapes and Silver Carlos Reales 20 x 24 Oil on Canvas
haven G A L L E R Y SELECTED WORKS ON DISPLAY page 65
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We invite you to enjoy a feast for the senses.
T
he Fibonacci Fine Arts Digest is dedicated to elevating the visibility of the fine arts to a broad audience throughout the Mountain West region. By sharing the stories behind the performing artists, painters, sculptors and filmmakers, and by featuring the star talent we have right here among us, this publication is designed to grow their following. This digest hopes to not only promote the artists, but also the world-class galleries we have scattered from Cache Valley through the cluster in Salt Lake City and Park City, down to Springville and on to St. George and the region’s southern tip. In addition, the music venues the region boasts span from Utah Symphony’s modern Abravenel Hall, the historic theatres in Salt Lake City, the amphitheaters in the canyons and in Utah Valley, and of course the southern corridor and its renowned gem in Ivins Utah, Tuacahn Amphitheater. Throughout the region are some of the finest university concert halls, where music performances are staged and notable talent is incubated and uniquely showcased. Fine arts are a vital part of every modern society, but today the beneficiaries are too few. We hope to combine journalistic expertise and a passion for the arts in an elegant digest of high quality digital photographic content showcasing musical artists, visual artists, regional galleries, and much more. We aim to engage the audience before us, and to inspire others waiting in the wings. Music speaks to our spirits and transports us to a higher place. It motivates and inspires us all in ways unique to each individual. The emotions we derive from music, especially in its most refined form, are only elevated by the viewing of original art. Original art has a perpetual enjoyment factor, and its presence in our workplace, institutions and homes enriches our daily lives. Original painting and sculpture by notable and acclaimed artists in our communities has the power to benefit our lives for generations. The Fibonacci Fine Arts Company is dedicated to sharing the stories behind these artists, their music and their art, and to motivating others to seek out and support this art in the Mountain West region. The Fibonacci Fine Arts Digest is a fundamental part of our effort to fulfill that mission.
Robert T. Benson, M.D., M.B.A.
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Saturday April 26th at 7:30pm
For Tickets or Event Details
435 • 656 • 3377 1495 Blackridge Dr. St. George, Utah 84770
Classical Guitarist
ricardocobo
www.fibonaccifinearts.com
performs at the
“Cobo’s concert was remarkable for its impeccable taste, fluid technique and clarity of design. This hugely talented Colombian musician demonstrates the quality of his breeding at every turn. Invariably he delivered the goods with textural clarity, control and passionate musicianship.” - Seattle Post-Intelligencer Seattle Pacific Univ. Bach Theater
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DIGEST
FOUNDER Robert Benson M.D., M.B.A. EDITOR
Delivering culinary experiences
Taylor Steelman MARKETING / ART DIRECTOR Joe Olivas FEATURED WRITERS Carmen Stenholm Dennis Smith Janice Brooks Kathleen Benson Lynne Clark Peggy Fletcher Stack Rebecca Stowers
to the level of an art form
Rhett James Richard & Linda Eyre CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Kameron Braunberger Lani Puriri Nicole Seligman ADVERTISING SALES MANAGERS Joe Olivas Jeremiah Cox CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS C. Darling
that nourish and invigorate your senses.
Madeleine Jones Scott Jones Sky Clayton
For advertising information send inquiries to: Fibonacci Fine Arts Company Attn: Fibonacci Fine Art Digest 1495 S Black Ridge Drive St. George, UT 84770 P 435.656.3377 www.fibonaccifinearts.com
Custom Dining Studio 490 West St George Blvd, Unit 2 St George, Utah 84770 435.862.4765 marketcafestgeorge@gmail.com 10
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Advertisements in Fibonacci Fine Art Digest, are not endorsements by the publisher. The publisher is not responsible or liable for errors or omissions in any advertisement beyond the paid price. Fibonacci Fine Art Digest is published 4 times annually by The Taft Co., LLC and is distributed throughout the Southern Utah and surrounding areas. Any reproduction, electronic, print or otherwise without written concent from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Address requests for special permission to the Managing Editor. To subscribe to the Fibonacci Fine Arts Digest, make changes to your current subscription or purchase back issues, call (435) 656-3377 visit our website at www.fibonaccifinearts.com for details. Copyright © 2014 Fibonacci Fine Art Digest, The Taft Co., LLC. All rights reserved.
Josh Wright performs at the
Works by Fauré, Saint-Saëns and Rachmaninoff
Saturday May. 3rd at 7:30pm
Purchase Your Tickets & Reserve Your Seat Today!
For Tickets or Event Details 435 • 656 • 3377 www.fibonaccifinearts.com
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Editor’s Welcome the suprise of the mountain west
I
moved out west after having lived on the east coast all my life. My first night in Utah, I drove alone down I-15 from Las Vegas to St. George. It was after dark but a half moon lit the cloudless sky. Passing Mesquite, I could recognize the distinct silhouette of a mountain wall in front of me. I assumed it must be miles away, at least across the state line, surely. As minutes passed, the range grew visibly closer, and I nervously wondered where this road was actually going. Was I about to dead-end into a giant black wall of rock? Did I miss the sign that said, “Drivers turn here for passable roads – Intrepid mountain climbers continue ahead”? Surprise… To drive into the Virgin River Gorge is to drive straight into a mountain. Not a tunnel, not a bridge, but clean through a mountain pass. The clearing is an imposing and assertive force of nature that left me in awe of this new land I’d stepped into. Of course, my new neighbors knew all this already. Perhaps in a region where local scenes compete with Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon, we overlook the beauty of impressive attractions that don’t necessarily bring visitors in and of themselves. And so it is, I’ve since learned, with the art of the Mountain West. Perhaps in the land of Bierstadt and Remington, artists like Dennis Smith and Gregory Stocks get less recognition than they would “back east,” as I’ve started calling the place I grew up. Tucked away in Ivins, one of the best American bronze sculptors, Edward Hlavka, designs and creates monuments for the Smithsonian Institution and the US Capital Building. Near the Idaho border, Glen Hawkins, the painter in our feature profile, creates paintings that would hang seamlessly in the best Parisian galleries. These are living masters of the craft who live
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humbly outside of the bedlam of the metropolitan arts capitals. The caliber of music is no less extraordinary. The soprano you’ll read about in this issue, Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller, literally brings Broadway performances to charming Utah concert halls, along with her Grammy and Tony accolades. The Utah Symphony Conductor Thierry Fischer has led orchestras on the top European stages and now enchants crowds in Salt Lake City’s exceptional Abravanel Hall. The night that a St. George string quintet played Beethoven alongside pianist Mykola Suk at the Fibonacci Fine Arts Center, they moved the small audience to tears. Everyone knows about the Sundance Film Festival, but the DocUtah and Logan film festivals are growing a following among top Hollywood distributors. Unlikely though it may seem, in some ways it makes perfect sense. The allure, grandeur, and tranquility of the Mountain West scenery offers a perfect setting for the creative mind to step back from distractions and let itself play. While there are talented artists everywhere, we don’t go just anywhere with the expectation of finding great art; our destinations to hear the greatest musicians and to be moved by the world’s most beautiful art are more often New York, Los Angeles, and Paris. This publication aims to change the dynamic so people, like me, are less surprised at fine art in the Mountain West, and even expect to find it here and purposefully seek it out. In these pages you will find stories celebrating the artists and the art of this beautiful region. There are so many stories to share and artists to profile, along with the stories of those who shaped and are continuing to build this local industry. Welcome to Fibonacci.
Featured Writers Dr. Carmen Stenholm is a national award winning author of Crack Between the Worlds, an historical novel about the resilience and identities of women escaping Post-War Germany. Her incredible story and news about her forthcoming book can be found at http://www.crackbetweentheworlds.com. She and her husband live in St. George, Utah. Rhett James is an author, playwright and educator who teaches at the LDS Institute of Religion in Logan, Utah. His book, A Painter: A Western Odyssey, is the definitive biography of the last Bill L. Hill. Rebecca Stowers is a professional writer who has written for Ad Astra, the National Space Society’s Magazine, and built branding content for a number of aerospace companies. She is
also a violinist who has performed with the Utah State University Symphony and the New World String Quartet. She lives with her husband and four children in Logan, Utah. Lynne Clark is an artist, musician and therapist who has been a prominent photographer in Southern Utah for more than 40 years. She is the author of Images of Faith: A pictoral history of St. George, Utah, a 400 page book with over 1,200 photographs from her historical collection. Janice Brooks is a professional speaker, public affairs consultant, executive coach, creativity guru, freelance writer, poet and storyteller. She is the curator of “The Literary Café and Salon,” a literature and discussion round table. She lives in Ivins, Utah with her husband and son.
Join us for Symphony in the Desert Upcoming Performances
Side Street Strutters Friday, May 9, 2014 Patriotic Pops Under the Stars Saturday, May 17, 2014 Performances are held at the Cox Performing Arts Center on the campus of Dixie State University 325 South 700 East St. George, UT 84770
Single tickets may be purchased by visiting our Website or at the Dixie State College Central Ticketing Office at 350 South 700 East, St. George, UT 84770 tel. (435) 652-7800
Patriotic Pops is held in Springdale with a breathtaking view of Zion National Park.
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Who Is Fibonacci the divine proportion by nicole selinger
F
ibonacci. Sounds familiar, right? It must be the name of a renowned opera singer, or maybe a painter for the Medicis, or the namesake of a spectacular Roman cathedral. History’s most famous Fibonacci was actually an Italian mathematician whose work was indeed related to many inspirations in the arts, music, architecture, and our everyday life. Fibonacci was born in the city of Pisa in late 12th century as Leonardo de Pisa. His father was a merchant named Guglielmo Bonaccio and through some misinterpretations of the surname “filius Bonaccio” (son of Bonaccio), Leonardo became know as “Fibonacci.” As a boy, Fibonacci traveled the world with his father. In his travels throughout the Mediterranean, Fibonacci was exposed to the Hindu-Arabic numeric system. In contrast to the Roman numeral system extant in Italy at the time, this placevalue system was based on the usage of a decimal point and the integers 0-9 which hold different value depending upon their location in the “one’s place”, “tens place”, “hundreds place”, and so on. Fibonacci observed myriad advantages of the Hindu-Arabic numeric system and upon his return to Pisa, wrote Liber Abaci (“The Book of Calculations”), one of the first western books exposing Europe to this new system of numbers. As one might Fibonacci Sequence In Architecture Spiral Staircase
imagine, the transition from X’s and I’s to place value notation made business transactions and mathematical calculations far more manageable. Over the course of several centuries, Europe shifted to this new numerical system, and with the exception of the occasional Superbowl event, our lives are fairly well established on its use today. Beyond helping to shepherd a place-value numerical system into the West, Fibonacci’s most appreciated contribution to mathematics, science, and the arts was a series of numbers known as the “Fibonacci Sequence.” The sequence is a series of numbers that came from solving the following hypothetical question: A certain man put a pair of rabbits in a place surrounded on all sides by a wall. How many pairs of rabbits can be produced from that pair in a year if it is supposed that every month each pair begets a new pair, which from the second month on becomes productive? (Above) Fibonacci Sequence In Nature Nautilus Shell
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“...some of the shapes most pleasing to the eye and compositions most harmonious to the ear involve the proportions of the golend ratio.”
Fibonacci Sequence in Space Image of M81 taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope and distributed by NASA
You begin with 1 pair, and the next month you still have that same pair before the rabbits have begun to reproduce. The third month, you would have 2 pairs: the original and their offspring. The fourth month, you would have 3 pairs: the original and two sets of offspring. Over the course of time, the following sequence results: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, etc. whereby each successive number is the sum of the previous two numbers. Now, what is interesting about this exploration is that whether you start with 0,1 or 1,1, or 1,2 as the first two “seed”
integers in the sequence, the ratio between consecutive numbers always approaches the number: 1.6180339887..., also known in Greek as “Phi.” Who cares about Phi? Well, it turns out that this number, or the ratio relationship that results in it – known as the “golden ratio” – is rampant throughout nature. Scholars have found fruits and vegetables such as cauliflower and pineapples to be built in Fibonacci sequences. Pinecones and numerous types of plants also grow in spiral-like rotations that seem to be based upon Phi as the optimal growth pattern for space efficiency and sun exposure. In 2010, the journal Science reported that the golden ratio is present at the atomic scale in the magnetic resonance of spins in cobalt niobate crystals. Phi is not only functional in nature; some consider it to be a formula for Beauty itself. It has been said that some of the shapes most pleasing to the eye and compositions most harmonious to the ear involve the proportions of the golden ratio. The Parthenon, for example, was architecturally constructed using numerous rectangular shapes in ratio to Phi. The ratio has also been identified in the musical works of Debussy and Bartok. In the visual arts, Salvador Dali and Mondrian have been said to have intentionally employed the golden ratio in their paintings, and Leonardo da Vinci’s illustrations in De divina proportione exhibit the ratio. It is even speculated that part of the enchantment of the Mona Lisa, beyond her mysterious smile, is due to employing the ratio in the painting’s composition. Given its widespread apparent manifestation throughout science, mathematics, the arts and nature, some have suggested that the golden ratio is a universal law. So, the next time you find yourself listening to a particularly entrancing piece of music, gazing restfully at a sunflower, or even calculating a tip at a restaurant using integers instead of X’s, take a moment to wonder at the legacy of this humble Italian mathematician. Grazie, Fibonacci! n Fibonacci Sequence In Nature Romanesque Brocolli
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Gregory Stocks clean, classical & contemporary by kameron braunberger
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riginally from Lubbock, Texas, and now living in Salt Lake City, Gregory Stocks is recognized for a remarkable combination of classical representation and contemporary execution. His art has been included in Southwest Art Magazine and American Art Collector, and is displayed in private and public collections around the world. His work can be seen in the Haven Gallery, A Gallery, and Mountain Trails Gallery among others.
Q:
Your work does have a noticeably relaxing effect on the viewer. It definitely leads to a decrease in “emotional noise” as you mention in your biography. How is it that you so
effectively instill this peace in the viewer through your work?
A : “There are a lot of factors involved in the emotional
makeup of a painting, but I probably rely on light, color and composition the most to arrive at the overall mood. Light is key in compelling an emotional response from the viewer. The landscape is essentially a stage on which light plays out its drama. People respond very directly to changes in lighting, so it can be used as an indicator of emotional content as well as a way to lead the viewer’s eye throughout the composition. Color relationships can also be controlled to be relaxing or calming, and the composition provides the solid structural foundation for the viewer’s experience. I, like anyone, am also looking for that peace and a sense of calm and well-being and am grateful to find it in my work. Hot and Cold 20 x 16 Oil on Canvas
(Above) Send Off 18 x 24 Oil on Canvas
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Evergreen Winter 48 x 48 Oil on Canvas
that I am looking for at the time. Sometimes I paint what I see with my eyes open. Other times I paint what I see when my eyes are closed. The internal landscape.”
Q:
Lastly, in your opinion, what must an art piece have in order to be compelling or moving?
A :“Everyone
To hear that other viewers get those feelings as well is hugely gratifying.”
Q:
Rather than just painting places, you mention that one of your intentions is to represent the “internal landscape.” What method or elements do you use to create this distinct depiction?
A:
“I work from memory, photos, small studies or preliminary drawings on much of my work, but I feel that that there is also a trove of visual information that I have acquired in my mind over my life time. We spend roughly two thirds of our lives with our eyes open. That is a lot of information. Some of what I paint looks very much like where I grew up in Southern Idaho. I don’t recall noticing the landscape at all at that age, but somehow it is there in my subconscious. I incorporate information from outside as well as these internal sources to build the emotional environment Wind Row 48 x 60 Oil on Canvas
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responds to different things, but to me, subject matter and emotional content are what make a piece compelling or moving. These are what can pull a person across the room to look at a painting. They provide a point for the viewer to connect and then have the opportunity to explore the piece for more interest and deeper connection. Getting the viewer’s attention is only half the battle. The other half is to keep it.” n
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Glen Hawkins
showing us the world is beautiful by Carmen Stenholm
G
len Hawkins opens his front door for me wearing a black knit hat and equally black Harley-Davidson T-shirt over jeans and biker boots. His blue eyes seem to see all of me with one glance as he invites me up the stairs to his living room. It’s sparsely furnished with two couches and a La-Z-Boy recliner. Art books are stacked on the floor. The various guitars that lean against a couch have clearly seen many hours of practice. On one wall, near the lone overstuffed chair, above a stack of illustrated books of famous painters, hangs a painting of Larry Wade in his studio. It has clearly been painted by Glen Hawkins. I recognize the colors, the richness of dark hues and highlights of paint that Hawkins is famous for. I see the soft edges and the composition that gives up its secrets slowly as if testing the viewer to discover them one at a time. Larry Wade, Hawkins’ teacher and mentor, is portrayed with the intimate knowledge of long friendship. Glen had promised me breakfast, so after a few words of introduction in which I tell him about my lifelong passion for motorcycles, we make our way into his kitchen. I watch as he prepares breakfast burritos. Stirring eggs and stroking his abundant beard, Glen confides his love of the culinary arts. A self-taught chef, he often prepares meals for his four children, the loves of his life. Between chopping and stirring, Hawkins talks to me about his passion for art. When I ask him when he knew that he was an artist he replies, “forever, since I can remember”. More chopping and history follow. He tells me about earlier generations of Hawkins’ pushing handcarts across deserts and mountains. They came to build lives and futures for themselves and Trio 30 x 24 Oil on Linen
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their children filled with worship and hope and freedom from persecution. Glen’s parents settled in Bountiful, not far from Salt Lake City. It was here, against the backdrop of snow-covered mountains and a fertile valley that Glen first fell in love with the beauty of this world. He still lives near where he was born, and where he first astonished teachers and fellow students with his talent for drawing. One of Glen’s teachers, a World War II veteran, was so impressed by a sketch young Hawkins
made of World War II fighter planes that he bought it from the young man. Glen was in fifth grade. Since those early years, Hawkins has not stopped working to master the gift that has defined his life. His eyes see colors the rest of us can barely imagine. Colors within colors within colors. Picky to a fault about the light that illuminates his subjects, he is perhaps best known for his exquisite oil nudes that summon a reality most of us perceive only dimly. An impressionist painter, Glen Hawkins explains to me that we see very little of what we look at. In fact, “if you look into someone’s eyes you can’t really see their whole face. All you actually see is the tiny point—the eyes you’re looking at--even the eyebrows and tear ducts are simply impressions. They are shadow and light, a color here and there. Our senses perceive only part of what is around us and our brains interpret it according to the context of our past experiences.” After breakfast, Glen and I walk out a French door onto a beautiful deck and grapevine covered pergola overlooking his garden. Through a separate entrance, he leads me to his art studio. I am struck by the immensity of this space; its large 14-foot high windows face north and are topped by an array of skylights. All have closable shutters and blinds to control light. There is a reading area with a soft chair beneath a smaller window and floor to ceiling bookshelves filled with hundreds of art books. Acoustic and electric guitars sit ready within arms’ reach. A side room holds a framing table and narrow counter
Pacific SOLD
covered in small nudes and plein air paintings left to dry. Every wall is covered with paintings ranging from a Russian impressionist to fellow Utah artists. His own drawings, watercolors and oil paintings of landscapes, still life, portraits and nudes hang throughout the studio. The nudes are curves of light celebrating the exquisite forms of female and male bodies. They are respectfully rendered without faces. “A face would make them too intimate, too openly suggestive,” Glen explains. “Portraits are about the face, nudes are about the figure.” Hawkins is equally famous for his bar scenes. Although he does not drink liquor, he is clearly familiar with the places where life is lived in moody atmospheres and decorated with a profusion of bottles, mirrors and polished wood surfaces. A painting of just such a place sits half finished on an easel in his studio, lending a sense of quiet rumination to the studio. This artist has generously allowed me to experience the place where he creates much of his work. This is the heart of Hawkins’ life. Photos of Rembrandt, Fechin, Sargent and other masters’ work are tacked to a wall to serve as inspiration and a reminder of the long genealogy of great art. Beside his easel hangs an original Alvin Gittons’ sketch of a nude, a reminder of artistic mastery and the motivation for continued excellence in the very subject that impassions Hawkins.
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Lest I give the impression that Glen Hawkins is all about nudes and bar scenes, let me draw your attention to the paintings of his children evident on every wall. In fact, there is a huge mirror attached to a movable wall with a dancer’s bar
learn and always improve. And, by the way, it’s never enough to have just talent. You have to work hard—and you have to work hard over a long period of time. You have to know that even if you think that the way you paint is perfect, there’s
A face would make them too intimate, too openly suggestive,... Portraits are about the face, nudes are about the figure. - Glen Hawkins across the front. Here Hawkins’ daughters come to practice ballet and color with the large assortment of art supplies, in this room of huge windows and skylights. A loving father and friend, Glen Hawkins is equally generous to people he does not know well. He uses his talents to teach and to nurture students who might otherwise never have the opportunity to learn from a gifted master. In addition to the gift of time, he generously supports local charities and worthy fundraisers. Sharing his talents and resources is an important part of how he lives his life. When I ask Glen to describe his talent, he says, “Talent is the ability to change. It’s the ability to know you can always
always the opportunity to learn something new and to change for the better.” He says that he was born with a natural love of art. “Without that, you don’t spend the time doing it over and over again. You have to have that drive and you have to be able to be criticized. There’s always something else you can learn.” Then Glen describes an incident that happened in Kindergarten when he learned something else about himself. The class assignment was to draw gloves by outlining hands with a pencil and filling it in with the color of gloves they had brought from home. Glen’s mother had knitted him a pair of gloves that looked blue at first glance. Glen, however, saw more than the obvious. “There were subtle multicolored threads and knobby textures and, even though the gloves looked blue, I saw shades of yellows, reds and other colors in various hues. So I took a handful of crayons with the colors I saw and smeared them all over the handprint. A lot of it was outside the lines, but I drew what I saw. When the teacher saw my work, she criticized it and said I should color more like Liesel who had stayed nicely inside the lines.” Glen did not agree. The five year old boy learned that he doesn’t give in to what he believes is wrong and he doesn’t give up when striving to achieve something that is important Back 24 x 36 Oil on Linen
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to him – not then and not now. Hawkins combines his love of riding motorcyles with his love for art. During past decades he has made countless road trips along the western coastline from Mexico to Canada. With speed and natural beauty to inspire his work, he has produced exquisite renderings of ocean scenes. His compositions, his use of colors and light all combine to make his ocean scenes a pathway to inner peace as well as excitement. When asked how he would describe his art, Hawkins says he strives to paint more like a poet. “I like to describe painting in literary terms. There is the kind of writing that is factual, without imagination, giving bare bones information like a police report of an accident. You’d read it and get the facts of what happened but it wouldn’t be very interesting. Some paintings are like that. Others are like the writer for a newspaper who edits out some unnecessary details and fills the story in with vivid descriptions. Finally, if a poet comes along he will describe the scene with even less detail and use more symbolism, mystery, abstraction and he creates a larger truth. That is painting poetry. It’s really when I saw a Mary Cassatt live that
Dimples 12 x 6 Oil on Linen
I learned about the poetry in painting. And this magical thing happens. It’s that thing which alludes and suggests and lets you create images in your mind. That’s what I try to paint.” So who is this artist who shows his heart on canvas? When I ask Glen Hawkins what he would like to accomplish with his art he says, “To show that the world is beautiful”. Clearly, Hawkins is not a clear-cut man. He is complicated, dichotomous and unapologetic about the fact that he can’t be put in a box. He is emotional and romantic, whimsical and intense, a musician and biker. While he gives generously to people and causes, he is nobody’s fool. Before we say our goodbyes, Glen hands me a leather jacket and gloves. I climb behind him on his Harley and we head out into the countryside of Northern Utah. On empty stretches of road we both throw out our arms and let the wind remind us what freedom feels like. n
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Scot P. Olsen beauty in chaos
by kameron braunberger
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cot P. Olson is an Artist, Sculptor and Designer whose versatility is imminently obvious as soon as one views his portfolio. An expert in color technology with the Les Olson Printing Company, Scot has learned to manipulate color in digital painting to create enchanting limited edition giclées. His repertoire extends from abstract digitals to realist paintings and lifelike bronze sculptures. He is living proof of his own statement: “We live in such an amazing artistic era. New things are being tried every day.”
Q :: It seems that the names of your paintings seem to
coincide with the realistic elements you incorporate into the piece. “Wind,” for example, is abstract, but also has a vague appearance of clouds being driven by wind. When you begin the piece, do you have the intent to name it based on the presence of the realism element?
A : “I actually begin the piece first. I
create a piece that just feels right to me and that has the look I want to portray. After it is completed, I name it based on the overall feeling I get from the piece.”
Q:
One can’t help but notice that you have a unique style in your abstract art. You incorporate realism into many of your abstract pieces. Do you always do this intentionally?
A : “Yes, and I like it a lot. I like com-
bining multiple styles into my artwork. I have a background in realism art and design. Some people think that should be done in only one style or another. But sometimes you have to be courageous, willing to mix the two styles. Something that I learned in my experience Earth 12 x 12 Fine Art Giclée
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creating art is that I became happier as an artist and I got a whole lot better at what I did when I did it my way. I like to put repetition of elements at varying levels in a piece. For example, in my painting “Swan,” there is the main swan face right here. But there is also a less noticeable figure of a swan in flight here, and a third and more vague reflection of another swan here. I also like to have multiple types of elements at work in my art. I like having secondary focal points to create activity. I especially love movement in a piece. A piece has got to keep one’s eyes moving and searching over it, and having multiple focal points really helps to generate that movement.”
Q:
How is it that you combine all these styles, varying elements and repetitions without the piece becoming too busy or cluttered?
A :“It
all comes back to the placement and emphasis given to the focal points, I think. As I mentioned, I like to have movement in a piece, but your eyes need to come back to the main theme in the painting or sculpture. It is important to have other attractive and Cyclone 32 x 20 Acrylic on Canvas
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interesting parts of a piece, but in the end, the attention needs to be drawn back continuously to the main focal point. That’s how I keep it from becoming too chaotic.” One might say the same rule applies well to life. n Nimbus 16 x 36 Acrylic on Canvas
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IntoThe Wild with Luke Frazier – A Look at a Master of Wildlife Art
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By Rebecca Stowers
Nostalgia runs deep along the Blacksmith Fork River near Providence, Utah. Luke Frazier’s art studio is an outdoorsman’s retreat. He proudly shared a few anecdotes of the caribou, deer, and stone sheep mounted on the walls. Most prized however are the buffalo and moose. He explained the creel collection dotted throughout the room and recalled the days when anglers ate what they caught and used the creel to keep their catch fresh. The reflective sentiment shows in his artwork. He spent his youth in the mountains hunting and fishing and he began to draw and sculpt from his experiences. His artistic tendencies come from his father, a sculptor and craftsman. His work ethic he claims from his mother. Much of his work materializes from the yearly outdoor excursions he plans through Alaska, Canada and the American West. His
detailed journal keeping, photographing and filming on site offers vast interpretation of the wildlife and their surroundings. He told me, “If you paint what you love, that is your best work”. It is not hard to understand why Frazier has put himself in the niche of wildlife and sporting art. Equally paired with his passion for hunting and fishing, Frazier is an exceptional student of his craft. At a young age, he searched out the masters and visited museums, studying techniques of Rungius, Terpning, Kuhn and Abbett. He took art classes in high school then studied at Dixie College under Del Parsons who told him that he needed to become an artist. Parsons convinced him to leave his engineering degree to study under the great living artists such as Harrison Groutage,
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Previous Page River Babies 30 x 40 Oil
Luke Frazier fishing on the Naknek Rainbow River in Alaska
your roof before you build the house.
Glen Edwards and many others at Utah State University. He received his Bachelors in Fine Arts in Painting and Masters in Fine Arts in Illustration. To Frazier, there is no difference between the two art forms; both require structure, apply color study and tell a story. Frazier sought out Bob Kuhn, principally an illustrator and ultimately, an expert wildlife artist. He was a kind mentor to Frazier. He applied Kuhn’s focus on design with certain abstract. Kuhn’s vast experience as an illustrator led him to believe that good painting is learning how to draw. He believed one must draw, draw, and draw to see the shape rather than the detail. Kuhn wanted to see young artists attack their paintings with real vigor. In the beginning, Frazier said, “I painted really tight, but I have become more loose and I let the eye and the imagination do the rest.” Richard Schmid taught him how to “see” in art. Instead of focusing on all the details, you must first create your structure, he taught. Frazier offered his analogy to this: you don’t start shingling
A look into the studio of Luke Frazier
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Frazier recalled one art show when “a few ladies approached his painting. They stopped in front of the painting and exclaimed, “Oh! That is so beautiful!” They moved closer to get a better look and said, “Oh, its just a painting.” Frazier smiled as he shared this account and said. “Home Run! I had fooled the eye.” When asked how he measures his success, Frazier hopes to have a long career like Rungius and Kuhn, who were pioneers in wildlife art and blazed the trail to its rising popularity. The greatest return for Frazier is that his art will leave a lasting impact – a legacy. In the studio, Frazier pulled a painting by Kuhn from the wall - a treasure to Frazier. He explained how Kuhn, with simple and deft drawing and brush stroke, masterfully created the design of the cougar; the paws of the cat come out of the painting with 3D accuracy. Kuhn didn’t fuss with every detail
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but rather with the anatomical accuracy, perfectly capturing the beauty of the majestic animal. I asked Frazier how he develops an image concept. He spends much of his time in the outdoors studying wildlife. He takes thousands of digital images and video, makes thumbnail sketches and keeps a detailed journal. When back in the studio, he reviews his material and comes up with a choreographed idea. Then the drawing begins. In his living room hangs a piece Frazier painted of a few rhinos he observed in Africa. He said, “I’m the choreographer, taking bits and pieces of footage and drawing and piecing them all together in a musical song, creating a strong design that is pleasing to the eye, and tells a story”. Kuhn recognized Frazier’s best work in his angling and hunting dog works because he could tell that best appealed to Frazier. Told once that he painted just like Kuhn, Frazier was
truly flattered. Frazier’s style continues to evolve. He examines the work of his contemporaries and pushes the limits. After 25 years, Frazier finds himself a master in his own right, claiming a quality all his own. Museums where Frazier’s paintings have been exhibited are the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming; the Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles, California; the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma; the Briscoe Museum, San Antonio, Texas; The Clymer Museum, Ellensburg, Washington; the Buffalo Bill Museum, Cody Wyoming; the Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona; the C.M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, Montana; the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery Alabama; and the Kimball Art Center, Park City, Utah. His work is represented by Legacy Galleries, Jackson, Wyoming, and Scottsdale, Arizona; J.N. Bartfield Galleries, New York; Stephen B. O’Brien Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts, and The Gallery at Midlane, Houston, TX. n
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A New Day Has Begun The Seasons of Success of Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller by robert benson m.d., m.b.a.
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isa Hopkins has a gift. Anyone who has heard her sing will agree. She possesses a God-given talent, trained and tempered by the best music pedagogy has to offer. Her voice has been further refined by life’s experiences, and so her delivery of music, whether on Broadway, or in an opera house, or in an intimate venue of 100 guests, has a striking power to touch and inspire a listener’s soul. Known now as Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller, the 2003 Tony Award winner for Baz Luhrmann’s production of La Bohème on Broadway, is a stay-at-home mom. Well, stay-at-home, when she’s not teaching in her booming vocal studio, meeting requests for concerts, shows, operas, or lead performances. Concert venue producers seek her out because they know that when she sings an aria, their audience will be moved and edified. She’s not just a beautiful redhead, but a beautiful coloratura soprano with an agile crystalline voice and a rare ability to cross-over from classical operatic technique into dramatic musical theatre. She’s not only in high demand from producers, casting directors, and music venues; she has two budding stars at home and one on the way.
Juilliard-trained pianist for a mother and a surgeon for a father, Lisa and her brothers were brought up in a home of academic excellence where every minute was directed toward developing their talents. It was clear from a young age that Lisa would be a musician. When she was 14, Lisa sang at her brother’s Eagle Scout Court of Honor. Afterwards, a local opera singer came up and said, “Dear, you are an opera singer.” She started taking lessons at 16 with JoAnn Ottley who told Lisa, “You have more instincts for singing than anyone I have ever worked with.” She had already begun pursuing her love of music. One day, listening to an instructional cassette of soprano arias that Ms. Ottley had given her, she recalls feeling unimpressed with the singers.
Raised by high achieving, demanding, yet nurturing parents, James and Barbara Hopkins of Salt Lake City, Lisa was taught to aim high and given the tools for success. Always playing foreign language tapes, classical music, and demanding practice persistence from her children, Lisa’s mother inculcated the dedication Lisa would draw on later in life. With a Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller in her exclusive home studio with student Hannah Benson Photo by C. Darling
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Baz Luhrmann’s La Bohème on Broadway Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller as Mimì Photo by Douglas Kirkland
Yale College Opera Company. She credits her mother for her obsession with perfection in music, and a compelling desire for lofty goals. Scrupulously developing her talent and preparing for the highest levels of performance on stage became a part of her performing artist lifestyle. Her innate gifts were given even more altitude by influences such as Marlena Malas, who also trained Pavarotti, Trish McCaffrey, who coached singers like Bette Midler and Baz Luhrmann, who taught her the importance of detailed preparation for flawless performance. It was during her final year of graduate studies that she played Mimè in Baz Luhrmann’s production of La Bohème. The role allowed Lisa to demonstrate a rarefied niche as an expressive crossover soprano, and led her to the stage of the 2003 Tony Awards to accept a “Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre” with her ensemble. She performed in both sides of the vocalist industry on many stages. In 2007, Opera News called her “the kind of camera-ready young singer today’s marketing directors dream of… Fortunately, unlike all too many so-termed ‘total package’ artists these days [she] can also sing.”
But when she turned the cassette over she heard a voice that moved her. In the moment that Lisa heard the expressive voice of Cecilia Bartoli, she finally agreed with the exclamations of the women who had encouraged her toward opera – and knew that she must learn to sing like Ms. Bartoli. With strong recommendations to pursue classical opera training, Lisa did just that. She received a B.A. in Theater Studies and Acting from Yale University and a M.M. in Classical Voice from the Manhattan School of Music. During her years at Yale, in addition to being a prolific performer on tour as a concert soloist, she founded the Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller as Donna Anna in David Chambers’ production of Don Juan in Prague Estates Theater, Prague, Czech Republic
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Within a short period of time, her credits, discography and her critical acclaim would make most early to mid-career professional “big house” sopranos jealous. And with a Tony on her mantle, she had the respect of the musical theatre world as well. She was a rising star, glowing within the constellation
of notable artists on either side of the two vocal disciplines. For her 2010 performance as Grizabella in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CATS at the Tuacahn Amphitheatre, she received the kind of review that art critics only offer actors they consider fine artists. Lisa’s rendition of “Memory,” wrote Salt Lake Tribune reporter Roxana Orellana, “seems to penetrate each word of the familiar lyrics, extracting the core meaning of her plea.” In other words, “she gives a beautiful song more than just beauty – she wields art to reveal truth.” Just entering her prime, she decided to put fame on hold and spend eighteen months as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This time spent in Austria was a professional sacrifice that she has never regretted. The mission allowed her to share her message, but also share her musical gifts with countless Austrians. After marrying Washington, D.C. attorney Travis Seegmiller, a native Utahn, the young couple juggled a triangle of New York City music career, Washington D.C. law firm, and Utah family demands for several years. During this time, Lisa continued to perform in famed musical venues all over the world, including a production of Don Giovanni in the Prague National Theatre. Once their first daughter was born, the audition circuit became tiresome even though she still longed to perform on the world’s big stages. She and her husband decided to make some changes in their lifestyle to allow for the best family life
for their daughter. Her inner drive to achieve and her motherly instincts eventually reached a symbiotic balance. However, one secret dream she’d harbored was to be recognized with a Grammy. On her daughter’s 1st birthday, after performing at the Washington, D.C. Festival of Lights, she returned home to receive a message from a friend congratulating her on her Grammy nomination. “Of course I thought he was mistaken,” Lisa said. “But just for fun, I thought I’d get online and check out the Grammy website. So I did, I looked at the nomination list, and sure enough there was my name next to Best Opera Recording!” When asked if a performing artist or any high-level professional can have it all, optimizing a full and demanding career and meanwhile fulfilling the role a mother, she wisely says, “Yes, you can have it all…each in its own season.” So while her current season is focused caring for those at home, watch carefully and you may be fortunate enough to catch a concert or performance, as she answers the call to use her instrument some more. Like a Stradivarius or a Steinway, the voice of this soprano is special and worth the price. To contact Lisa regarding bookings or voice lessons, please visit her website at www.lisaseegmiller.com n Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller as Grizabella singing “Memory” Tuacahn Amphitheater production of CATS
(Above) Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller Photo by C. Darling
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Opera House
excerpts from “images of faith” the pictoral history of st george
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by lynne clark
n 1864, the Gardner’s Club constructed a stone-lined dugout where they stored wine. In 1877 an upper story was built over the wine cellar creating the Social Hall. Dances, lyceums, operettas and dramatic productions were presented there, and it soon became known as the Opera House. The floor was unique; it could be tilted down four feet
which enabled the audience to have a better view of the stage. Curtains and sets from a bankrupt New York Opera Company were acquired which enhanced the productions. In 1900, the LDS Church took over the building in payment of a debt. As motion pictures became popular the use of the building declined. In 1930 it was sold to the Utah and Idaho Sugar Company and became part of the sugar beet seed
A group gathered at the Opera House in conjunction with an event. Dances, lyceums, dramatic and musical productions were held in the building for many years. People had little money, so eggs, vegetables, or other barter was often used to pay the admission fee. Photo d: Nellie Gubler
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Cast of one of the early operas performed in the Opera House included, l-r: Loren Watson, Gorden Riding, Viola McAllister Gentry, unidentified, Dolly Seegmiller, Clare Woodbury, Abbie Atkin, Ed Tobler, Grant (unidentified), Mary Crosby Savage, Bert Macfarlane, Chancey Sandberg, and Ralph McAllister. Photo d: Edna Cloward
(Note: some of the names may be mixed up.)
mill and several other warehouses were added. After the mill was closed the building sat vacant for many years. Then in the early 1990’s Mayor Karl Brooks, Bob Nicholson and John Allen proposed the restoration of the building as a cultural center. Elaine Alder and others took on the project and raised over $700,000 to renovate the building. The restoration began in 1994 and was completed in 1996.
Later, the warehouses were renovated into the Social Hall and the St. George Art Museum. The buildings are presently owned and operated by the City of St. George as the Pioneer Center for the Arts. Zaidee Walker Miles wrote, “The very first drama presented in St. George was witnessed on July 24, 1862, in a busy bowery on the corner of Tabernacle and Main.” “The Red Mill” operetta was performed in 1929. It was a Dixie Academy school production performed in the Opera House. Photo d: Dixie Yearbook, 1929
Scene from a dramatazation in the Opera House in 1917. The only one identified is Mary Woodbury Haven, second from the left. Photo d: Joy Jordan
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Part of the cast and the orchestra who were in the “Mikado” operetta held in the Opera House in 1920. The building was used by the community and schools since it was the best place for performances. Often members of the community and school would combine together in a production. Photo d: Dixie Yearbook, 1921
“Soon after the arrival of the Dixie Settlers in the St. George valley they were entertained by a production of the ‘The Eaton Boy’...The members of the community were shocked to see Caddie Ivins in the lead role wearing trousers!” Plays were performed in the Gardner’s Club building and in the St. George Hall, on the corner of Main and 100 North, until the Opera House was constructed. n
(Above) The cast of a play performed in the Opera House using the sets and scenery from a bankrupt New York Opera Company. l-r: Brig Jarvis, Edith Judd, Effie Judd, Nan Johnson, Effie Whipple and Leah McArthur, made up the cast. Photo d: Rudger McArthur
Right: The same cast in a different pose, l-r: Eddie Judd, Brig Jarvis, Nan Johnson, Edith Judd, Leah McArthur, and Effie Whipple Photo d Rudger McArthur
The Book, “Images of Faith”, the pictoral history of St. George by Lynee Clark is in its second printing and is available online at lynneclark.com
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William Bill Lee Hill A Painter’s Painter by Rhett S. James
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rt is a treasure of the human experience. This historical article is about one man and his treasure. It is about humanity, culture, the land, and its environment in the rural agricultural American Mountain West that influenced and shaped the artist and sculptor William “Bill” Lee Hill. Beyond aesthetics, art is a repository of human meaning stored in symbols. This treasure of beauty has accumulated into a vast reservoir of knowledge that provides insight into the nature of the human condition. Painters and sculptors like William “Bill” Lee Hill make it possible to fully decode these
symbols, their meanings, and the values and perceptions of life that they represent. A Mountain Westerner, Bill Hill was one of the most prominent painters of the American West. His use of color, light, tones, and his philosophy of painting were lasting contributions to field of art. A study of the art of Mr. Hill offers biographer, folklorist, and historian a rich opportunity to understand the human process and the art it creates. Between 1970 into the 1980s, intense forms of realism such as Photo Realism and a resurgence of humanistic
Hills of Galilee 20 x 40 Oil on Canvas
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elements in painting made themselves felt in American art. In these years, ignoring the trends, working to his own vision as inspired by the rural life of the Mountain West, Hill developed his “Humanities Series” of paintings that created “a pantheon of Western characters” he had known in his rural agricultural America between the twenties and the eighties. Bill began his life as a fulltime artist in 1967, at which time he left the pastel tradition of that generation and introduced brilliant light and colors into his representations of the
Remuda 18 x 30 Oil on Canvas
humanity and the environment of the American West. Today, many artists have joined Bill L. Hill, painting with bright light and color, but many still do not yet lay the painterly gifts onto a canvas with Bill’s skill or insight. What were the origins of William “Bill” L. Hill’s painterly insights and visions? In the early 1980”s, Hill explained to me, as his biographer, that it was his life and work to paint Spiritual Light into his paintings, a Light that would reach out to those who saw his paintings and sculptures bearing witness of the reality that he had come to know: the reality of God the Person and of the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth who had become his personal Lord and Savior. The individuals whose commentary is offered here offer a representative spread of the esteem to which Bill Hill was held and still maintains in the artistic community. Foothills 27 x 36 Oil on Canvas
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George Schriever In 1979, George Schriever, past curator of the New York Metropolitan Art Museum, wrote of Bill L. Hill’s “Humanity Series”: “It is said that the production of the bronze doors for the Baptistery to the Cathedral of Florence was both a school and a history of the art of the time for Ghiberti, who made them. Bill Hill’s ‘Humanity Series’ seems destined to serve him in much the same way.’”
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Art critic and historian Schriever believed that Hill was readily seen as a master painter of portraits. He called Hill’s series “a pantheon of Western characters,” and “apotheosis of each type,” and said Hill’s work was “both a school and a history of the art of the time.” Decades after Hill left Wyoming, the sublime would surface on canvas. The product was “a pantheon of Western characters not only of the past but also of today,” wrote art critic and historian George Schriever, “just as Russell and Remington left their mark on the Indian, the trooper, and the cowboy,” Hill left “an indelible impression of each of the people” he portrayed. Schriever also saw Hill’s style changing depictions of the American West from stiff, flat, colorful illustrations in a “spectral realism” painted so freely that they might also qualify as action paintings of the Abstract Expressionism School of New York. Rain Bath #40 of 50 Bronze
Of Hill’s archetypal, universal impulse George Schriever wrote: “He is a painter first of all, and he paints what he knows best--scenes of the West. Schriever believed that Hill’s feelings for life and humanity are more important than the locale of his paintings.” Finally, as an “Easterner,” Schriever saw Bill L. Hill as transcending the circumstances of his surroundings” with the power and skill to present more universal traits and feelings that will strike a responsive chord in all who see Hill’s work.
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Luacine Clark Fox Utah playwright and songwriter Luacine Clark Fox wrote that Bill L. Hill “works restlessly, sometimes with complete absorption, sometimes with impatience.” Hill “has achieved extraordinary success by strict adherence to appropriate discipline, and the dictates of his own genius.” Mrs. Fox observed that Bill L. Hill “follows the promptings of a remarkable talent coupled with superb imagination,” but as many other have observed, “the real voice of this artist seems to become most coherent in his ‘close-up’ humanity characterizations, both oil on canvas and in his sculptures.”
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Tom Carson Darrell L. Meyer Past prominent Park City, Utah, Gallery owner Darrell L. Meyer wrote that Bill L. Hill’s art was “totally original,” filled with “incredible beauty,” and was “painfully uncompromising.” Meyer observed, “Hill enthusiasts, not the most traditional fans of western art, are often the most avid in their loyalty. It is because the integrity of the artist is communicated through his works” in the artist’s determination to achieve “incredible beauty.”
Famous western art gallery owner Tom Carson wrote that Bill L. Hill “is as much as piece of art as he is an artist. There is an aura about him, which could be called color. His great depth of character and rich application to life are most harmonious to one’s eye.” Bill Hill’s art “reflects his being: brilliant in color and construction, as only an artist” of Hill’s quality can see it. Mr. Carson saw the artist as one’s “joy of color of life and the complex composition” of man and nature. n
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Doc Utah
envision the world through documentary film by Lani Puriri
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fter Phil Tuckett, Artistic Director and Director of the Dixie State University Film Program proposed the idea of DOCUTAH in 2009, a small group of individuals went to work to create the inaugural event in September of 2010. This year the festival celebrates its fifth year and engages more than 400 volunteers. Over the years, more than 1,100 films have been submit-
ted from 70 plus countries and southern Utah has opened its doors to host wonderful filmmakers as well as many of the subjects of their films. DOCUTAH welcomes the world and provides an educational and entertaining experience to the southern Utah and southern Nevada communities. DOCUTAH provides DSU with an opportunity to reach out to students and the community with filmmaker seminars
DOCUTAH closing gala at Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab
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Award winning New York Fimmaker Helen Whitney poses with DSU VP of Institutional Advancement & DOCUTAH Executive Direcor Christina Schultz, DSU President Dr. Stephen Nadauld and Margaret Nadauld at DOCUTAH opening gala.
ronment and art lend themselves to special events, of which there are many throughout the festival. DOCUTAH isn’t just a film festival…it’s a five-day PARTY and each exciting event is not to be missed.
and panels. Everyone is invited to attend and learn more about the art of filmmaking and also gain insight into the subject matter chosen for the films. Categories like music, envi-
The DOCUTAH tagline – “Come for the films, stay for the scenery”- encourages festival attendees to admire the brilliance of the magnificent red rocks of southern Utah, and visit the nearby state and national parks. Many ask why the Raven is the festival icon. Legend and mythology state that Norsemen believed ravens sat on the god Odin’s shoulders and saw and heard all. Ravens are intelligent, playful, curious, observant and creative. Ravens are also highly opportunistic and have learned to adapt to take advantage of whatever their environment offers. Thus DOCUTAH chose “The Raven Award” because these same traits are also exhibited by many documentarians as they create their films. Documentary filmmakers try to provide “the whole picture” of the subject of their film. Ravens are found throughout the world, thus representing the international scope of DOCUTAH. DSU was recently asked by the Prime Minister of Bhutan for a special Raven statue for his desk as it turned out to be his country’s national bird. DOCUTAH inspires a global connection through documentary films and intellectual discussion which enhance the education of students and citizens of the entire region. n German filmmaker Michael Wende proudly displays his raven award after winning “best music” for his film “The Baton.”
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(Above) The audience is entertained at DOCUTAH Raven Awards Ceremony.
SEptEmbEr 2-6, 2014 Envision the World through Documentary Film
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scan scan for for festival festival information. information.
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Our Love Hate Relationship with movies
by richard and linda eyre
W
e anticipated and watched the Academy Awards, though we chose not to see some of the top competing films. But we admit it — we see a lot of movies.
bed together on first acquaintance is depicted as the norm — portrayed as what everybody does — it can lead kids thoughtlessly into the same behaviors.
Movies are today’s storytellers, and unless you know the stories of a culture or a society, you don’t know that culture or society.
The problem with much of the motion picture industry is that it is a minority masquerading as a majority. The “obviously, everyone does this” messages are lies, but they can become self-fulfilling. And those who create and produce these films are not just “reflecting society.” They are looking for converts to amorality.
We love movies, but we hate them, too. It was Aristotle who said, “When the storytelling goes bad in society, the result is decadence.” Movies, whether we like it or not, help shape our values. We cringe when people from the industry say things like “movies just reflect societies’ values; they don’t shape them.” Talk about a self-justifying rationalization! Of course movies influence values, and, sad to say, usually for the worse. There are movies we love, and there are movies we hate. In our opinion, there are way too many movies about comic book super heroes, about sex and violence and degradation, and about nonsense. And there are way too few movies about real moral dilemmas, about deep, positive emotions like love and loyalty and honor, and about joyous family life. It’s not immorality that we hate in movies, it’s amorality. Immorality, accurately portrayed complete with consequences, is a part of many good stories, including those from the scriptures. But amorality, depicted without context or consequence, is an insidious evil that drags down all of society, particularly its younger members. When dishonesty or violence or especially jumping into
We know so many well-meaning parents who try so hard to keep their kids from seeing “bad movies” or bad media in general, but it is so pervasive and so available that the task is almost impossible. And the movie rating system helps little. It is based on quantitative measurements, such as how many times certain words are used, and it does not rate values or the underlying message of movies. The fact is that many PG-13 movies, with their amorality and the kind of humor that laughs at values, may do much more harm than many R-rated movies. So with that backdrop, how refreshing it was last week to go to a special screening of a new movie, produced by our Logan friend Paul Parkinson, called “Nowhere Safe,” which, for a very modest budget, succeeds in telling an entertaining and compelling story about one of the biggest parenting and family issues of our day — bullying. It is a movie with a message — a good message — and while it is a film about teenagers, it is one you can take young children to. Paul was there at the screening with five of his six kids, ranging in age from 5 to 18. Other good, local film producers are proving the same thing — that you can, for one-hundredth of the budget for a Hollywood blockbuster, produce something that is entertain-
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Movies are today’s storytellers, and unless you know the stories of a culture or a society, you don’t know that culture or society.
ing and that has a timely message and positive values. Another friend of ours, T.C. Christensen, did so recently with “Ephraim’s Rescue.”
And there have been some good “bigger” movies this year, too. We liked “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” we loved “Philomena” and were intrigued with “About Time,” although it had some objectionable and unnecessary parts. And we even liked the critically panned “Winter’s Tale” (though it didn’t hold a candle to the book). And hey, if you can’t find one you like in theaters, you can always watch a classic. Our Eyre classic favorites include “The Black Stallion,” “The Princess Bride,” “Chariots of Fire,” “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” and — if you want to go way back — “Shane.” The best weapon parents can have in this battle is awareness. Know what your kids are seeing and what they want
to see. Watch trailers and use valuesbased movie resources. (The Deseret News partners with OK.com, which is part of Deseret Digital Media.) And if you are still in doubt, see it first yourself. Who knows? You might
learn something. n For the Deseret News Published: Tuesday, March 4 2014 Richard and Linda Eyre are New York Times best-selling authors who lecture throughout the world on family-related topics. Visit them anytime at EyresFreeBooks.com or valuesparenting.com.
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lowly but surely, St. George is growing into a vibrant arts community. The Sears Gallery at Dixie State University hosted its 27th annual art show and sale in February; the Arts to Zion Tour welcomed visitors to 47 artist studios over the course of MLK weekend in January, and the Fibonacci Fine Arts Center and Haven Gallery opened with a week of concerts in December and recently initiated its spring concert series. Here’s a visual recap of some recent arts events in southern Utah.
Founder of the Fibonacci Fine Arts Company, and Haven Gallery Dr. Rob Benson welcomes the audience.
Up-and-coming songwriter and singer Dustin Christensen opened the Grand Opening Concert Series in between recording session in Nashville, TN.
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Heard in the Crowd :We used to live in London before we moved here, and I felt like we were back in London!” – Stacy Wells “You get an immediate connection with the audience [...] in a small setting like this.” – Isaac Hurtado
Master sculptor Jerry Anderson didn’t begin sculpting until he was in his 40’s. He quickly grew to one of the most popular Western art bronze sculptors in the Mountain West. He explains cultivating that talent late in life this way, “I don’t like to do the same thing over and over so I’m always looking for something else.” He has now created dozens of life size monuments, including a six-horse stagecoach in front of the historic Wells Fargo building in Leeds, Utah.
Daniel Gaisford performed an evening of Bach cello suites just barely before Christmas, ending with encore improvisations of “Jolly Old St. Nicholas” and “White Christmas.” The Juilliard-trained cellist now teaches in Las Vegas and lives in St. George, Utah.
(Above) Jerry Anderson leading a Sculpting Workshop.
Fundraising Afternoon for Kayenta Arts Foundation
The Kayenta Arts Foundation is bringing performing and visual arts to the gorgeous neighborhood of Kayenta, in Ivins, Utah. Literally surrounded by red rock mountains, it couldn’t be a more perfect setting for creativity and inspiration. Cellist Daniel Gaisford visiting with patrons of the Haven Gallery just after his concert.
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Patrons of the Fibonaci Fine Arts Center and Haven Gallery admiring incredible works of art. Photo by Scott Jones
Patrons of the Fibonacci Fine Arts Center and Haven Gallery during intermission. Photo by Scott Jones
The technique of digital painting is highly controversial in the art world. While Scot P. Olsen like to explore what can be created with new technology, he also works in oils and acrylics that give originality to his pieces.
It’s not often that one gets to hear a Tony Award Winner perform the music that won her the award...without having to book tickets on Broadway. Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller personally designed a performance that mesmerized the audience during the Grand Opening week of the Fibonacci Fine Arts Center and Haven Gallery.
Scot P Olsen - Artist Leading a Master Class.
Lisa Hopkins-Seegmiller Tony Winning Vocalist performing with Nationnaly Acclaimed Tenor Isaac Hurtado.
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Nationally Acclaimed Tenor Isaac Hurtado performing with Soprano Korianne Johnson and Accompanst Brandon Lee. Photo by Scott Jones
Dr. Robert Benson addresses the patrons of the Fibonacci Fine Arts Center and Haven Gallery. Photo by Scott Jones
After a wildly successful concert during the Grand Opening week, Dr. Isaac Hurtado returned to the Fibonacci for a Valentine’s Concert of love songs from Broadway and Opera with a dazzling soprano , Korianne Johnson, from Orem, Utah.
Brandon Lee Concert Pianist
Josh Wright Bilboard #1 Pianist
Acclaimed pianist Josh Wright not only performed two concerts at the Fibonacci Fine Arts Center, but he gave performances to three local high schools in St. George. During the concerts, he interspersed each number with a story for the audience, offering lessons he’s learned in the course of his studies and career. From his teacher’s advice to make his piano “sound like a singing bell,” instead of just playing fast and furious; to telling the teenagers he was “still waiting for my letter from Hogwarts” before he broke into Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter. He received a standing ovation from 400 high schoolers before they went to 1st period.
Paul Hatch addresses Business Leaders from around So. Utah at their Corporate Alliance Business Luncheon
Among the private events held at the Haven Gallery, the Southern Utah chapter of Corporate Alliance treated its C4 members to a luncheon. Over a fine meal served by Chef Greg, the guests brainstormed business ideas amid a setting of original art. n
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Utah Filmmaker explores paths to spirituality by peggy fletcher stack
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aul Larsen has seen his share of aimless young people — the ones with no inner sense of purpose, no feeling for their place in the universe, or rituals to guide them to the divine.
Uninsured,” “then emptiness follows, which begs to be filled, and oftentimes by the worst of things.”
Larsen has seen them at a youth correctional facility, where he has volunteered for a decade, and in his film classes at the University of Utah. He has observed scores of youths who have no tools to cope with crises in their lives. They are depressed, angry, anxious, isolated.
After he graduated from LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University in the mid-1970s, Larsen recalls in an interview, he went back east with his now-wife, Ann Fluckiger Larsen, and became an agnostic.
They have rejected their parents’ spirituality, he says, and have replaced it with — nothing. They feel disconnected, lost, lonely.
Those are echoes from Larsen’s own experience.
He “threw too much away” of his Mormonness, he says, and, some years later, when he faced a personal crisis, “had nothing to grab hold of.”
Larsen understands all too well their perspective. Forty years ago, he was one of them.
“I started sifting through all the stuff I had thrown off,” the filmmaker says, to discover what he believed about God and the world.
“Sometimes we give too much away,” Larsen intones in the opening narration of his new film, “Spirituality for the
Eventually, Larsen returned to his earlier faith, he says, but with a more expansive view of holiness. This movie, which premiered at the University of Utah’s Museum of Fine Arts in 2014, is Larsen’s exploration of various spiritual paths, with a focus on personal stories of lifechanging moments and long-standing rituals. It’s a kind of visual companion to William James’ famous 1902 volume, “Varieties of Religious Experience.” Worshipers during a church service From the documentary film Spirituality for the Uninsured
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“There is so much talk about reaching the divine,” says Sterling Van Wagenen, a cofounder of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, who also teaches film at the U of U. “I’m tired of the talk. What I yearn for is a connection to the divine and to each other.” And that, Van Wagenen says, is what Larsen’s film captures so well. Two planes of reality. Cracks of thunder. Red rocks of Zion. Native American sweat lodges. An artist’s paintbrush. A cathedral pew. Tibetan Buddhist mandalas. Christian rock... Each of these can be a doorway to another reality, says Larsen, transforming travelers on their way. For 20 years, Craig Keyes fought his drug addiction without success, he says in the film. Then one day, during a Native American spiritual session, the group heard a thunderclap overhead and it started to rain. Someone in the circle began to sing his gratitude to the creator for the moisture.
Autumn Fields Spike Ress 30 x 30 Watercolor
“I held my hands out to the rain,” Keyes says. “It washed over me.” From that moment on, the addict never went back to drugs. “An energy settled on Craig and a profound change happened to Craig,” Larsen, the film’s narrator, says. “I have felt the same emptiness that pushed Craig to the edge and needed to know what can bring a person back from there. I journeyed to find the answer.” Larsen begins his search with panoramic images of southern Utah’s canyons. “In the early 1860s, my family settled in this canyon. They had walked and ridden in wagons for nearly 3,000 miles,” he says. “They felt themselves called here by their God as a vanguard of Zion Study Evening John Collins 5 x 7 Oil on Panel
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like-minded believers willing to go through any tribulation to establish their spiritual homeland.” Despite their physical hardships, Larsen says, “they never cursed [the land], but honored it instead, naming this canyon Zion, which means dwelling place of God.” Modern Americans, though, focus more on their intellectual gifts, producing technological wonders and contemporary conveniences that are impressive and lifesaving. But those advances cause many to feel distracted, disconnected from others, and divorced from their surroundings — and any higher power. That’s where various forms of spirituality come in. Artists, Larsen posits, can often provide a bridge between the rational and experiential aspects of consciousness. “I paint right out of my heart,” says Spring City artist Kathleen Peterson. “I am not thinking about the past, not thinking about the future, not thinking about anything. My mind just goes somewhere else.” To Peterson, and the other artists Larsen features, “the whole thing is ritual.” Mandala Sand Painting From the documentary film Spirituality for the Uninsured
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Buddhist Temple From the documentary film Spirituality for the Uninsured
Next he explores Buddhist rituals, Tibetan and Zen. About 10 Tibetan monks traveled to St. George in 2008 to create a “mandala,” or sand painting. These works invoke “higher deities to come here,” one of the monks explains in the film, “and help us achieve our purpose of helping other beings.” Once the colorful and intricate painting — which provides visual cues for living — is complete, the monks then destroy it, symbolic of life’s transitory nature. Larsen also showcases Christianity, as seen in Salt Lake
Youth participating in Sweat Lodge From the documentary film Spirituality for the Uninsured
City’s Risen Life Church, including its rock hymns that speak of God’s embrace. “Belief in God is far less important than developing a relationship with God,” says Pastor Kevin Lund. “The experience of music helps one get beyond the limits of everyday reality in order to open up a spiritual reality.” And then there’s the youth correctional sweat lodge. Young people who have been in “trouble with the law” crowd into a small, dark tent, which is superheated with rocks and steam. “They will feel as though death were close by,” the narrator says. “To survive, they will have to learn to pray.” Science has “explained much about physical reality,” Larsen says. “But there are aspects of our consciousness that lie outside the realm of science.” Even some avowed agnostics have sensed this. Larsen’s student May Bartlett had never been religious, attending a Christian church only on a couple of Christmases. Then she participated in an exercise in which she practiced being “blind” for a week and had an otherworldly experience in Salt Lake City’s Cathedral of the Madeleine that seemed to confirm the existence of a realm outside of this one. “In that moment, I felt more connected with humanity than I ever had,” she says. “Visually, I saw this vast plane of nothing with just this focused energy going up out into God-knows-where. It was nuts, unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.” Biblical scholar Marcus Borg mentions that years ago he had a “series of mystical experiences that couldn’t be
integrated into the lens that was then operating in my mind.” Borg had to generate a new lens. He and others in the film have few words that can capture what they saw and felt, because, Larsen argues, human language falls short. Direct encounters like these — whether viewed as God or truth or energy — leave participants with an “overwhelming impression that our rational vision of the world is incomplete,” the narrator says. “Existence feels like a miracle.” Spiritual and religious practices are meant to “incrementally bring a person to the same place,” Larsen concludes.”For thousands of years and through numerous generations, practitioners have moved inward to find what is revealed deep inside the heart of being.” The best way to find out which ones are suited to you, he says, “is to try them and see what enriches a life or enlarges a soul.” For Larsen, the film’s title, “Spirituality for the Uninsured,” implies looking for transcendent solace in an uncertain world. When he told it to his brotherin-law, a Mormon stake president, the relative laughed for two minutes, then settled down and commented, “We are all uninsured.” n Written by Peggy Fletcher Stack for The Salt Lake Tribune • First Published February 14, 2014
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Meanderings porch swings and lilacs by dennis smith
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ot long after we moved here thirteen years ago, we planted a lilac bush outside the sliding door on the southwest corner of the house. It is near the edge of the deck where we later hung a wooden porch swing from the overhang above. Sometimes, late at night, I go out and sit on the swing after everyone else has gone to bed. By that time, all the neighbors’ lights are out. Looking north, across the low hills toward Salt Lake, the glow of the city spreads over the horizon with a pinkish glow. On overcast nights like tonight it bounces off the undersides of clouds, giving them a rich iridescence. Sometimes I think of the time soon after we first hung
the swing when Dale and Rachel, who were quite young at the time, were sitting on the swing together. One of them, reaching too far toward the scraggly lilac, caused the swing to flip over backwards, sending both of them sprawling face first into a mud hole by the edge of the porch. As they tried to stand up, their eyes were little more than shocked peepholes in a mass of goo. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and it became a good family story. But that was a while ago. Rachel has been married now for more than a year and Dale became engaged two weeks ago. Somehow, I didn’t notice that time had gone so fast. Just the other day, Veloy, thinking of when we planted the lilac bush, mentioned how strange it was to remember how nice we imagined it would be some day when it would grow large enough to shade the porch. We talked in those days about pruning it so it would curl up over the swing and make a pocket of branches for the swing to swing in. Look at that, she thought, the lilac has grown to the size we talked about it becoming, and its branches Quiet Pier at Sunset 30 x 24 Oil on Canvas
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have curved around the edges of the swing, just like we hoped it would.
My Father’s Orchard 24 x 48 Oil on Canvas
Somehow, when we weren’t looking, our lilac-shaded dream swing had crept up and become reality. Somehow, we had entered a period which might be called, for lack of a better word, “maintenance”.
things the way they are. It seemed nice to recognize that things are the way we imagined they might be someday, and that it is
When she first said it, the term “maintenance” didn’t seem quite right. “Realization” seemed more accurate, or maybe “fulfillment”. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that she had to be thinking of something else. So I asked her about it. “I think,” she said, “What I was feeling with ‘maintenance’ was the sense of maintaining----not looking to the future all the time, but just taking care of Hidden Garden 24 x 30 Oil on Canvas
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okay just to enjoy them.” Before, she had always felt that you hadn’t arrived as long as there was work to do. Consequently, since there was always work, you never arrived. Maintenance doesn’t mean the work’s all done, but that you have reached a plateau---a place where it doesn’t have to be more than it already is. Even if it isn’t perfect. Since then, the porch swing has seemed more special. The idea of maintenance has taken on a more comfortable fit. Because it is so natural to focus on the dream of what we want, it is easy to get stuck there, so infatuated with the image of the dream that we never settle. If I were honest, I would acknowledge that I really don’t sit under our canopy of lilacs as often as I could, especially considering the vision of what we pictured we wanted it to be for us someday.
Rocky Mountain Pastoral 12 x 16 Oil on Canvas
Too many dreams never get used. Why, for example, do I only get there late at night? Somehow, I am running a bit too fast, still, to just maintain. Could I still be putting a bit too much emphasis on becoming----a little too much stress in the race for a place I saw in an ad for the American dream? I guess I got so busy planting that I forget to notice the columbines blooming in the garden, or to smell the hints of lilac as they curved around the borders of our fondest expectations. Maybe it is time to recognize the virtue of “maintenance”. n
“Meanderings” are excerpts from the book Meanderings: A Place to Grow, A Collection of Writing and Drawings, by Utah artist Dennis Smith
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THE Artful Detour the unexpected art of travel by taylor Steelman
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have been known to study guidebooks like a textbook before I leave for a trip. I could picture myself strolling along the Seine in Paris, praying quietly at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and ordering my Caribbean meal of lobster with my toes in the sand well before I ever packed my bags. I would chart my course and plan to soak in the essence of a city enough that everyone around me would, naturally, start taking me for a native.
has attracted and harbored the 20th century’s most famous writers. Tucked into the left bank of pre-war Paris, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James Joyce used it as their office and social hub. The store continued to serve as an artist’s haven for beats and bohemians from its new location on the riverfront. That much I knew from the guidebook; what I couldn’t know is that I might stumble into one of its legendary gatherings.
Yes, I’m guilty of desperately wanting to be mistaken for a local… while doing all the most tourist-y things.
I had fit myself into a corner of the bookstore and started reading the messages that past visitors had posted on an oxidized mirror mounted above a plush couch. People were taking pictures, taking books from the shelves, and taking their time admiring first editions in glass cupboards. The shop smelled of paper.
But a curious thing always seems to happen, after I learn my guidebook enough to be quizzed on it and settle my things in the hotel. I set out for Tourist Target #1, as planned, camera charged and walking shoes donned, and proceed to...do nothing else according plan. It’s happened so many times now that I can start to sense what might draw me off course and into the uncharted adventure. Sometimes it’s the hint of music playing down a little alley. It might be a menacing sky that lures me indoors for some refuge. Regardless the source, it leads me to meet new people, it exposes me to art in a way I hadn’t expected, and it unfailingly teaches me more about my destination than the guidebook.
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed visitors slipping through a slight opening into a wall of books. Curiosity piqued, I followed them up a tiny stairway to a second floor salon, where every inch of wall is covered with clippings and more books. A small group of people were serving tea on a wooden table in the middle, and a jolly old man looked my way and smiled: “Welcome.” Within minutes, I was listening to the gentleman – who looked surprisingly like a French Santa Claus – share poems
I wish the same unplanned detours for all travelers. To encourage you to get a little lost during this vacation season, here are some of my favorite detours through the art of my host cities. * The Poet in Paris * The bookstore Shakespeare and Company Room full og Books Picture source: http://travellingbookjunkie.files.wordpress.com /2013/06/shakespeare-and-co-inside-1.jpg
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with younger expatriates. There were side conversations and discussions but he was obviously the patriarch of the group. He signed a book and handed it off to someone, and in a glance I saw that the signature belonged to Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The famous poet, friend of Kerouac and Ginsberg, poet laureate of San Francisco, winner of the Author’s Guild Lifetime Achievement Award and the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award – was having tea with me in Paris. In an instant, the founder of City Lights Bookstore helped me see this old romantic city in a new light. Of course Paris is synonymous with fine art, and the Musée d’Orsay, the Rodin Museum, and the Louvre are treasure troves of the best art ever created. But the encounter reminded me that art isn’t already hung in museums, rather that it’s being imagined and
out, I stopped and bought a wooden figurine of a donkey, a simple memento of a complex place. My guidebook hadn’t directed me to the shops alongside the square in front of the church. I wouldn’t have Mary stopped if not for by Bill Hill 30 x 24 the strange title of Oil on Canvas a small boutique: Santa’s Ghetto. Inside were paintings and prints and maps and the recognizable works of legendary street artist Banksy. Banksy is one of the most provocative contemporary artists in the world, having grown from an elusive graffitist in London to an artist whose work fetched over $150,000 at a Sotheby’s auction. His art confronts people with difficult subjects (pollution, crime, war) in the most public places. The show was “hung” on the walls that encircle Bethlehem, separating Israel from the Palestinian territories. Banksy and others had depicted faux cracks in the wall, an elevator leading figures above its top edge, and a wooden sculpture of Jerusalem with gray watchtowers. Typical of political art, it was ironic, controversial and incited fierce emotions in its viewers.
built and exhaled into the city every day. And some of these creations will become significant contributions to the history of art and our understanding of the world. * Street Art in Bethlehem * I stepped into Bethlehem on a chilly day in December. I would soon be home with my family for Christmas, and the timing had me even more excited by the idea of touching ground where Christmas all started. The Church of the Nativity was built on the supposed birth site of Jesus, and I passed reverently through it, feeling in awe of the place’s history. On my way Above Image Picture source: 2010 Greg Tozian
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Street Art Image Picture source: Ammar Awad, Reuters
I wouldn’t say that this art added beauty, per se, to the city and my experience there. Rather, it jolted me from an idealized notion of a holy place, and forced me to think about a deeper and ongoing story of Bethlehem. I was disturbed
Amid that sensory overload, it might come as no surprise that my most poignant art encounter was with a quiet old troubadour of Haitian folk music. Manno Charlemagne has a soft but piercing voice, and has been called “the vocal conscience of Haiti.” His style evokes peasant songs and romantic Cuban cafes, with a simple acoustic guitar rippling under a smooth tenor baritone. His activist lyrics led him into exile twice and then into the mayorship of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. On the evening I heard him at Les Palmiers hotel, I expected a great singer but found someone the small audience seemed to regard as a close friend they had never met. In a country where nearly half the citizens are illiterate and the culture is underpinned by mystic beliefs, music is the clearest way to people’s hearts. It helps explain why one of the most famous singers was elected President in 2011. Within seconds of Manno starting a song, the crowd would close their eyes, tilt back their heads and sing along. The connection was palpable.
and I was moved, but ultimately grateful for a more nuanced appreciation of the land I was visiting. * Ballads in Haiti * Of all the popular notions we have of Haiti, rarely do music and art make the top of the list. The more prominent stereotypes are “corrupt,” “dangerous,” and “the poorest country in the western hemisphere.” But for its residents, the country’s art and music both define the country and reflect its political history in a truer way than do news headlines. Haiti is colorful in every way. Public buses are painted with wild scenes, buildings are splashed with bright shades and letters, and at night one hears the long tones of a traveling band meandering through the streets. Iconic Haitian paintings depict flamboyant crowds of people, trees and birds, in a postmodern mash-up of Gauguin and cubism. Picture sources: “Mother and Child” by Patrice Piard, Painting by André Normil, from the Rodale Family Collection at the Allentown Art Museum
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I had been to voudou ceremonies, had dined with the Prime Minister, and had danced kompa in the countryside. But it was in this moment that I felt most connected with something essential about Haiti. A group of people singing together into the night about struggle to a beautiful melody. It was impossible not to feel the deep love Haitians hold for their country, tinged with disappointment, and their spirit of resilience that keeps them rooted in the land is best witnessed and fully expressed through its art and music. This is my takeaway. The more we consume art, the more we learn about the places we visit. Sometimes it exposes an ugly truth, sometimes it makes a place even more beautiful, but in all cases we gain a richer perspective on our surroundings by interacting with its artists. Shaman Ridge Kayenta by Gary Collins 20 x 16 Oil on Panel
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Aspens and Evergreens by Roland Lee 21 x 29 Watercolor
And doesn’t that make perfect sense? The artist’s vocation is to communicate their view of the world in a compact and creative way. They are more sensitive to the world around them and to its representation than most of us. Who could tell a more intimate story about a place than a musician, a painter, or a poet? The best works express what can scarce be understood by reading a dozen books… the best tourist guidebook included. n
The Creative Life by janice brooks
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hat a brilliant idea. I wish I had thought of that. Oh my goodness I painted that in my mind the other day.
This creative spark, according to several noted scientists, is believed to be a “field of creative intelligence” spiraling around, Fibonacci-style, looking for a place to land. Even Mark Twain maintained that “all ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources.” Having experienced and felt this creative magical spark personally, I wholeheartedly agree. From Graham Wallace’s 1926 expose on the “Four Stages of Creativity” to Tiffany Shlain’s famous 2010 documentary “The Creative Process in 10 Acts,” there are many philosophies on how we access the creative spark. Over the past few decades I have been intrigued with what ignites people to produce a masterpiece. I have sought to blend an exquisite balance of the practical, the philosophical and the poetic into my personal daily life and my executive coaching practice. Here’s what I consider to be the four essential elements to creating, and living a creative life. 1. The dozing of the waking mind or what scientists call creative sleep shapes our creative ability by releasing our subdued imagination; this happens most often in the process of daydreaming. This is the space where creativity manifests as “ah ha” moments. Images falling out of the sky, musical melodies rising up through your bones, brilliant ways of handling complex problems, and words, like floating clouds landing on paper or dancing over your keyboard. From the captivating power of Galileo’s perspective and relational discoveries, to the rich images of Cezanne’s painting, to J.K. Rowling’s pageturner masterpieces, daydreaming pays off in the long run.
2. Powerful observation, the art of paying attention or what I call living with presence, activates and increases the creative energy inside you. Cultivating the power to keenly become aware of nature, our surroundings, our relationships, our thoughts and actions is the portal to heighten sensory awareness. 3. Mental agility, in the form of humor, laughter, emotional flexibility and courage can help to unleash a wellspring of creative ideas and break a blocked perspective. Creativity surges with excitement and sometimes seems to drop away. Learn to ride the artistic rollercoaster with light-heartedness. 4. Living a creative life demands a daily dose of creative nourishment. For the painter, writer, poet, and musician whose creative passion is often tossed between a “real” day job, care-taking children or an elderly parent. Your creative mojo is fed by carving out time everyday to “show-up,” pen at the ready, paint brush in hand, business plan sprawled over your kitchen table, or fingers on the musical strings. Answer the creative call when it knocks and sit down at your creative table to enjoy the feast. Creativity is a flash of insight that motivates purpose, be it colors on canvas, increasing the revenue of a failing company, managing a challenging work dynamic, career change or personal transformation. It just takes a little prep work on your part to seize it. n
Janice Brooks Author St. George, UT
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haven G A L L E R Y
SELECTED WORKS ON DISPLAY
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Pathway to the Angels by Roland Lee 29 x 21 Watercolor $4,500
Trio
by Glen Hawkins 30 x 24 Oil on Linen $4,000
Voices From the Desert
Colors 3
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by Marty Ricks 24 x 18 Oil on Polyflax $3,200
Canyon Reflection
by Bill Hill 30 x 60 Oil on Canvas $75,000
by Carlos Reales 24 x 24 Oil on Canvas $1,600
Contemplations
by Darrell Thomas 40 x 60 Oil on Canvas $10,000
Alter Ego
by Angela Bentley Fife 30 x 30 Oil on Canvas $3,000
Mediterranean Blue by Carlos Reales 36 x 36 Oil on Canvas $4,000
Nocturn Sanpitch River
Mood Lighting
Pelican Point
Snow Canyon Sunrise
by Frederick Stephens 12 x 20 Oil on Canvas $1,600
by Gregory Stocks 24 x 26 Oil on Canvas $3,400
by Jason Bowen SOLD
The Delay
by Carlos Reales 30 x 40 Oil on Linen $10,000
by Roland Lee 14 x 29 Watercolor $2,500
Spring Profusion by Darrell Thomas 72 x 48 Oil on Canvas $12,000
The Player
by Jason Bowen 20 x 30 Oil on Canvas $3,200 A Fine Arts Company
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Thunderhead Over Desert by Frank Huff 48 x 48 Oil on Canvas $6,000
Something in the Air by Gregory Stocks 48 x 48 Oil on Canvas $5,900
From All Directions by Lindey Carter 12 x 12 Watercolor $975
Alpine Serenade by Darrell Thomas 20 x 60 Oil on Canvas $4,700
Still Life - Bag of Apples by Carlos Reales 30 x 24 Oil on Canvas $3,000
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Antonio
by Jason Bowen 12 x 16 Oil on Canvas $1,500
Her Boot Size
by Stewart Seidman 14 x 11 Acrylic on Canvas $3,000
Dawn Break
Patriarchs
by Marty Ricks 16 x 12 Oil on Polyflax $1,450
by Frank Huff 48 x 36 Oil on Canvas $9,500
Sippin’
by Diane Cliff 25 x 14 Acrylic on Canvas $2,900
Volga Grass Gatherer by Steve McGinty 6 x 12 Oil on Panel $1,000
Coming of Age by Jason Bowen 38 x 30 Oil on Canvas $6,500
Ho, Ho, Ho
by Stewart Seidman 18 x 24 Acrylic $4,000
Red Mesa
by Gary Collins 9 x 12 Oil on Panel $2,500 A Fine Arts Company
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Blue and Gold Reflections by Spike Ress 34 x 34 Watercolor $7,600
Natural Flare
Balloon Man
by Lindey Carter 6x6 Watercolor $500
by Stewart Seidman 18 x 18 Acrylic on Canvas $4,000
A Family Portrait
The Model
by Angela Bentley Fife 24 x 36 Oil on Canvas $3,000
O Solo Mio
by Jason Bowen 12 x 16 Oil on Canvas $1,300 70
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by Carlos Reales 35 x 31 Oil on Canvas $6,500
Pacific
by Glen Hawkins SOLD
Waiting
Gold Rush
by Carlos Reales 30 x 24 Oil on Canvas $5,000
by Gregory Stocks 36 x 48 Oil on Canvas $4,500
Top Hat
Tuscan Farmhouse
Aspens in Spring
Hills Near Gunnison
by Lonni Clarke 11 x 14 Oil on Canvas $2,000
by Gary Collins 14 x 20 Oil on Panel $2,750
by Jason Bowen 11 x 14 Oil on Canvas $1,200
by Marty Ricks 30 x 40 Oil on Polyflax $950
Rainy Ride
by Steve McGinty 12 x 6 Oil on Panel $1,000 A Fine Arts Company
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Jordi Savall
Spring
by Stewart Seidman 24 x 24 Acrylic on Canvas $6,500
by Skylar Chang 17 x 17 Watercolor $1,000
Simplicity
by Frederick Stephens 12 x 24 Oil on Canvas $1,750
From Buffalo to Bread by Bill Hill 36 x 48 Oil on Canvas $50,000
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Lucien’s Apple
by Stewart Seidman 12 x 12 Acrylic on Canvas $3,500
Back
by Glen Hawkins 24 x 36 Oil on Linen $5,000
Cliffs by Green Springs by Frank Huff 48 x 60 Oil on Canvas $8,400
8:00 A.M.
by Carlos Reales 24 x 30 Oil on Canvas $3,500
Summer Vistas by Gregory Stocks 24 x 48 Oil on Canvas $3,750
Torrey School House by John Collins 12 x 16 Oil on Panel $1,200
Passages
by Dennis Smith 24 x 30 Oil on Panel $2,900
Sunshine and Snow by Spike Ress 30 x 40 Watercolor $6,400
Sun Over Painted Desert by Gary Collins 11 x 24 Oil on Panel $2,300
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Sunlight
by Skylar Chang 31 x 22 Watercolor $3,800
Morning Garden by Steve McGinty 21 x 37 Oil on Panel $4,700
Streaming Through by Gregory Stocks 30 x 40 Oil on Canvas $3,750
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Red Rock at Kayenta by John Collins 8 x 10 Oil on Panel $600
Danish Farmhouse by Dennis Smith 30 x 40 Oil on Panel $4,800
Late Afternoon by Spike Ress 16 x 20 Oil on Canvas $3,600
Grand Wash Morning by Glen Hawkins 30 x 48 Oil on Panel $5,000
No, I Am Not the Waiter by Stewart Seidman 24 x 48 Acrylic on Canvas $10,000
Nostalgia
by Bill Hill 24 x 36 Oil on Canvas $50,000
Autum Aspens by Gary Collins 9 x 12 Oil on Canvas $2,300
Grand Canyon Grandeur by Frank Huff 48 x 60 Oil on Canvas $7,800
November Rain
by Frederick Stephens 20 x 30 Oil on Canvas $2,400 A Fine Arts Company
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By the Beekeeper’s Place
In the Studio
by Steve McGinty 24 x 27 Oil on Panel $4,200
Hampton Harvest by Stewart Seidman SOLD
by Carlos Reales 24 x 20 Oil on Canvas $2,200
Twilight Flare
Dancing Color in Zion Canyon
by Gregory Stocks 36 x 48 Oil on Canvas $4,500
by John Collins 18 x 24 Oil on Panel $1,800
Desert Encore by Spike Ress 20 x 30 Oil on Canvas $6,200
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West of Town
by Steve McGinty 24 x 30 Oil on Panel $4,400
Snow Canyon
Garden in Shadows
Reflections at Sunset
Out of the Line Light
by John Collins 12 x 16 Oil on Panel $1,200
by Steve McGinty 30 x 48 Oil on Panel $8,700
by Gary Collins 8 x 10 Oil on Panel $2,000
Rain Bath
Bill Hill #40 of 50 Bronze Sculpture $20,000
by Dennis Smith SOLD
Drifting
Dennis Smith #11 of 12 Bronze Sculpture $15,600
The Artist
Edward Hlavka & Kate Starling #10 of 36 Bronze Sculpture $7,500 A Fine Arts Company
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The Flutist
Dixie
by Scot P. Olsen #1 of 50 Bronze Sculpture $15,000
by Jerry Anderson SOLD
Monkey Business
Karma
by Dennis Smith #3 of 30 Bronze Sculpure $5,900
by Cheryl Collins #3 of 30 Bronze Sculpure $5,000
Quail Family
by Edward Hlavka #10 of 36 Bronze Sculpture $1,965 78
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The Mariner
by Dennis Smith SOLD
Under Her Wing by Dennis Smith #2 of 30 Bronze Sculpure $5,900
Magnum
by Jerry Anderson #3 of 22 Bronze Sculpure $6,000
Einstein
Listening
by Jerry Anderson #1 of 200 Bronze Sculpure $7,000
by Dennis Smith #8 of 30 Bronze Sculpure $7,100
Small Wonder by Dennis Smith #4 of 30 Bronze Sculpure $6,900
Drummer Girl
by Edward Hlavka #3 of 36 Bronze Sculpure $3,450
Last Reign
by Jerry Anderson #6 of 30 Bronze Sculpure $18,000
TO VIEW ADDITIONAL WORKS VISIT US AT THE GALLERY OR ONLINE AT FIBONACCIFINEARTS.COM
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THE WORKS OF
STEVE MCGINTY FEATURED IN HAVEN GALLERY St George, UT JOE WADE FINE ARTS Santa Fe, NM SOUTHAM GALLERY Salt Lake City, UT Morning Garden
THE WINDOWBOX GALLERY Provo, UT
Garden in Shadow
West of Town
5996 South 200 East Murray, UT 84107 801-560-6334 www.stevemcgintyart.com steve@stevemcgintyart.com www.facebook.com/stevemcginty.art
Jerry Anderson “Incredible Artist & Master Sculptor”
Texas Potholes
Einstein
Magnum
Visit: Jerryandersonstudioandgallery.coM Bronze Works of Art Maquettes & Life Size Monuments
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fawn@centurylink.net (435)-619-1153
G L E N H AW K I N S
Pacific - Oil on Panel
Trio - Oil on Linen
Apple Frame Gallery Bountiful, Utah www.appleframegallery.com Gallery Mar Park City Utah www.gallerymar.com Crowley Gallery Ogden Utah www.crowley-gallery.com Haven Gallery St. George, Utah www.fibonaccifinearts.com
I WA N T
www.glenhawkinsart.com
F r e d ri c k S t e p h e n s The Moon in Lonely places 14x20 Oil Simplicity 12x24 Oil
MORE RINGS!
“I like to play off colors and tones, and evoke a mood in people.” - F. Stephens artworks Featured In:
HAVEN GALLERY, UT Jack Meier Gallery, TX LaFave Gallery, UT
Mountain Trails Gallery, WY Painted Pony, UT elizabeth marie art, WI
“ T h e M o m e n t I Wa l k e d I n T h e S t o r e , I K n e w I Wa n t e d J o n n y R o x x To D e s i g n M y E n g a g e m e n t R i n g s .” Tay l o r Park City | Utah
2 4 5 R e d C l i f f s D r. S t G e o r g e , U t a h M o n d ay - S a t u r d ay : 1 1 A M - 8 P M w w w. j o n n y r o x x . c o m
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Marty ricks Fine art
The Player 20x30 Oil
Garden Gallery Half Moon Bay, CA Selby House Menlo Park, CA Repartee Gallery Orem, UT Haven Gallery In the West Field
St. George, UT
1474 Springdell Dr., Provo Utah 84604 (925) 323 0664
JASON BOWEN
Atherton Fine Art
Jack Meier Gallery
Menlo Park, CA
Huston, TX
Banks Fine Art
Reflection Gallery
Dallas, TX
Santa Fe, NM
Haven Gallery
Thomas Kearns McCarthey Gallery
St George, UT
Park City, UT
jasonbowenart.blogspot.com
mricks7@gmail.com • martyricks.com
Jasonbowenart@att.net
The Art of the Canyons Oils on Canvas by
Frank Huff www.frankhuff.com
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HAVEN GALLERY
F. WEIXLER GALLERY
1495 S Black Ridge Drive St George, UT 84770 435-656-3377
132 E STREET SALT LAKE CTY, UT 84103 801-534-1014
FibonacciFineArts.com
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