“I’ve had a good run.” My son and I joke about this pronouncement, now, because I’ve said it so many times before, promised to give up poetry cold turkey, only to find half a pack of menthols stashed in the writing desk drawer and start up again. But […]
Repertory Dance Theatre’s Current included five dances presented one after the other, after the other, and yet… after another. Because they were all made recently, they are a reflection of “right now”; they are current. To begin, the silhouettes of Justin Bass and Tyler Orcutt spoke their way across the stage, […]
People tend to see something one way until someone shows them another. —Frank McEntire Anyone who knows the art of Frank McEntire, whether sculpture, mixed media, or assemblage, will have witnessed his technique of bringing together found objects, often in the presence of natural materials like stone and […]
“No one can tell you what you are worth; that is for you to decide. So we hope you’ll decide to be brave. To be strong. To be beautiful.” These words from the home webpage of peculiar literary journal capture the aspirations of the team that directs and curates this […]
Rock Canyon Poets co-founder Trish Hopkinson recently interviewed Beat poet Neeli Cherkovski, who is in town this week for readings in Provo and Salt Lake City, to find out more about who he is as a poet and how he approaches writing poetry.
It may not look like a skydive in the still photographs, but in the Rose Wagner it feels real enough that you easily buy into several jumps in their entirety — preceded as they are by the rich sounds of plane vibrations and actors seeming to shake right […]
The term “Renaissance man” is heard a lot, but Paul Anderson, who died suddenly the night of March 23, certainly ranks among them. An artist, architect, educator, curator and composer, he restored historic LDS buildings; sang in the Utah Symphony Chorus for years; has several songs in the […]
In a 2002 piece for 15 Bytes, art historian and U of U Dean Bob Olpin wrote that the Springville Museum’s Spring Salon contained “one of the finest Bill Whitaker pretty girl paintings I’ve ever seen.” That was saying a great deal, considering the skill of this artist, […]
READ LOCAL First (RLF) is a READ LOCAL monthly installment of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction and memoir by some of Utah’s most celebrated and promising writers. Formerly “Read Local Sunday” and originally “Sunday Blog Read,” 15 Bytes founder Shawn Rossiter and Literary Editor David Pace launched the publication […]
When I picked up this slim chapbook my first impression was how pretty it is to look at. The cover art resembles a map. Not the newfangled digital kind that talks you over a cliff as soon as you let down your guard–an old-fashioned paper map with carefully […]
UTAH’S 15, our program to recognize and honor the state’s most influential artists, RETURNS. And we need your help. It was five years ago. Laura Durham had an idea: ask people to think about who they felt were the state’s most influential artists. At the time, Durham was working […]
“I’m not so sure you have to like art as much as be stirred by it; we’re so easily stirred by something we like, but can we find that emotion inside with something we question?” That’s how artist and gallery owner Bonnie Phillips introduces abstract art to inquiring […]
“What—exactly—are you?” I ask Stephen Goldsmith as we walk through City Creek Park, past an elegant little flume that Goldsmith created when he was involved in the redesign of the park back in the ‘90s. Making sense of Stephen Goldsmith’s resume could be a daunting task for someone […]
Anne Cullimore Decker’s home on the East Bench of Salt Lake City is a lot like Anne Cullimore Decker herself: elegant, gracious, artistic. One of Utah’s premiere dramatic artists, she’s worked in theater, opera, television, and film. Decker’s life is an inspiring journey through a commitment to art, […]
The Salt Lake Tribune reports today that University of Utah professor Terry Tempest Williams has tendered her resignation after a dispute with the University over the nature of her courses within the Envrionmental Humanities Program. This seemed an appropriate time to post Camille Pack’s essay on the acclaimed […]
When she turned 90 in July, Anna Campbell Bliss was, as always, active. She had a show up at CUAC that she shared, as she did most everything, with her husband, Robert, and was hoping to begin new work soon at her west-side studio. I gave her a […]
When an artist writes the title of a painting on its front, it’s a safe bet he wants us to pay attention to its meaning, not just its visual impact. In good art, meaning is metaphorical, so a work can support more than one reading. A recent Brian […]
On April 20, Nox Contemporary opens an exhibition of new works by Frank McEntire, one of the 15 artists selected in 2013 as “Utah’s most influential artists.” McEntire certainly has not been resting on his laurels since receiving that honor, have exhibited in a number of locations in […]
Artists of Utah recently announced the beginning of Round 2 of Utah’s 15, their project to celebrate Utah’s most influential artists (click here to learn about Round 2 of Utah’s 15.).In 2013, Sandy Brunvand was selected by 200 of her peers as one of “Utah’s 15 most influential […]
In 2013, Paul Davis was selected by 200 of his peers as one of “Utah’s 15 most influential artists.” The following profile appeared in Utah’s 15: The State’s Most Influential Artists, published by Artists of Utah in 2014. Click here to learn about Round 2 of Utah’s 15. Paul […]
Figurative artist William "Bill Whitaker died on March 6, aged 74. We remember him with this interview, conducted in 2007 by the late Ehren Clark.
The Ascension of Classical Arts: An Interview With William Whitaker
Many are aware of classical art, but most are unaware of the fullness of the tradition, whose elements are so fundamental to the basic structure of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was a tradition that had its genesis with the Greeks, the Romans, subsequently the Renaissance revival, and a 400-year dominance of the French Academy, only to become obscured, lost amidst the paths of the modern. With limitless forms of contemporary art, are we to find classical art, in its pure and original state, a part of the forefront of mainstream art once more?
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