by Kim Burgess

The Patrick Moore Gallery’s floor-to-ceiling windows look out at the blinking lights of Gateway Megaplex and a hip Mexican restaurant. Valets stand on the corner, waiting for the Jags and SUVs to pull up.

Despite these corporate surroundings, Patrick Moore Gallery avoids consumerism, supporting emerging artists and unconventional mediums. This month features the second annual Salt Lake Assembled Printmakers show. Stefanie Dykes and Sandy Brunvand of Saltgrass Printmakers organized SLAP, which allowed 16 artists to submit three prints of their choice.

To learn more, I call printmaker and BYU art professor Wayne Kimball. Kimball’s artist bio reads, “Wayne Kimball is a right-handed Caucasian male artisan who makes lithographs in a subterranean chamber situated near the mouth of Battlecreek Canyon.” His voice is as deep and slow as an NPR poet.

Kim Burgess: How did you get into printmaking?

Wayne Kimball: I was aware that printmaking seemed to be where people who were serious about drawing got their work more exposed. In order to get the drawings shown, it’s easier to make a print. Printmaking is more of a drawn kind of thing than a painterly thing. I felt weak in drawing, and I wanted to strengthen it.

KB: What prints are you planning to have in the show?

WK: The one I know I’m putting in is called “Prologue to a Melodrama.” The idea is that it has several objects in it that may or may not normally relate, but have a potential for someone to construct a narrative.

KB: I found this quote on the Springville Art Museum Web site: “His idiosyncratic preferences for small scale and high finish seem to derive in part from a boyhood of viewing art in reproduced form in books and magazines rather than in actuality on gallery and museum walls.” Talk about that.

WK: When I was young, I wasn’t exposed to a lot of original art. My parents took Life Magazine, and I would see Picasso things and Matisse things, and they would intrigue me. Having contacted them with that scale and with that surface, I think that convinced me that art is small and precious.

KB: Do you feel there is a strong printmaking community in Utah?

WK: It’s a pretty obscure subculture. You must have a sense of delayed gratification. The making of prints goes through several stages. That print that’s in the show [SLAP2005] took a long time. It’s printed from fifteen different printing elements. After I had all the things drawn, I did trial proofs before it was actually finished. It requires a pretty strong commitment. But it’s interesting because there are always people who love paper and ink and love the surprise of when it finally comes together.

I say good-bye to Kimball and call vegan erotica queen/artist Camilla Taylor. Her phone is crackly, but she sounds happy on the other end.

Kim Burgess: How did you start doing printmaking?

Camilla Taylor: I did printmaking all through high school. My high school art teacher had this crappy little letterpress that we used totally incorrectly. I used to make little prints on that. Then I went to college for printmaking.

KB: What are your artistic influences?

CT: A lot of my work, I think it deals with basic human experiences like misery, how we react to that. Many cultures have these mythologies of demons and fairies—personifying certain aspects of life—lost childhood and things that we are afraid of. We don’t have these demons anymore, so we don’t have these ways to anthropomorphize these problems. These doll images in my prints are kind of like contemporary demons.

KB:How would you describe your aesthetic?

CT: I think my work is kind of folk art in its aesthetic.I think with printmaking, that’s really common because the medium is rooted in craft. When I see a print, I look at the craftsmanship before I look at the image. I think there’s a folk art quality to that. Also, I strive to make my work very immediate. I want people to see it and have a visceral reaction to it. It was exciting when I found out my friend had nightmares from my dolls because few people get that kind of reaction.

KB: What do you think of the SLC art scene?

CT: The SLC art scene is cool. Wayne Kimball was one of my favorite artists in high school, and now I’m in a show with him. In many other cities, I would never get that experience. But then the problem is that it’s not really economically developed, so no one really buys art.

KB: You make vegan erotica stuff. Does that influence your prints?

CT: I think it’s made me more vicious in a way because I’m trying to help people have better sex and be really friendly and cozy about BDSM. Then with my work, I want to be less friendly and cozy with people.

In addition to Taylor and Kimball, the following artists are participating in SLAP 2005: Gary Barton, Ryan J. Bench, Paul Vincent Bernard, Fred Brayman, Sandy Brunvand, Justin Diggle, Stefanie Dykes, Paul Heath, Lisa Hubbert, Veera Kasicharervnat, Martha Klein, Robert Kleinschmidt |6|, Karl Pace and Koichi Yamamoto |7|.

This article originally appeared in the October edition of Artspeakslc, a print publication which can be found across Salt Lake City. A PDF of the publication is available here.

Kayo Gallery will be holding a special fundraising event on November 17th for Artspeakslc.

artspeakslc presents: box paper scissors at the kayo gallery

This event is a silent auction of commissioned artwork by some of Salt Lake City’s most revered artists. Each artist has been given a cigar box upon (or within) which to base the foundation of their project. There are no rules or regulations, suggestions or prototypes. Upon completion, each cigar box will be sealed and auctioned off, only to be re-opened by the winning bidder.

All proceeds of this event will go to support ArtSpeakSLC in an effort to broaden the magazine’s circulation and keep the Salt Lake art scene informed and entertained.

There will be a pre-opening party Thursday, November 17 from 6-9pm with live music. The show will open during Gallery Stroll on Friday, November 18 from 6-9pm. Please join us!

This article originally appeared in the November 2005 edition of 15 Bytes

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