A year ago, we were busy at Finch Lane Gallery installing our 35×35 exhibit, a showcase for Utah’s young artistic talent. Then the closures hit. (The exhibit only opened to the public, in a limited way, in June.)  A year since the closures, we have decided to check in with the artists from 35×35 to see what they’re working on now in our WIP feature.

Bountiful artist Alison Neville has gained a statewide reputation for her small, politically charged diorama, like the ones featured in our 35×35 exhibition last year, staged in found containers like sardine tins. Recently, she says she has returned to her foundation in drawing, “Most recently this has been fungi, probably a venture in escapism, spurred on by an artist residency gone virtual I attended last fall.”

The drawings pictured here, on the desk in her studio, are only days or weeks old, but they belong to a stack of small, quick work spanning almost fifteen years. “Initially they started as a low-anxiety response to keeping a daily sketchbook which I could sketch or doodle on during lunch or other downtime,” the artist says. “The newest problem I’m taking baby steps towards addressing is my fear of using color. Cue sharpies, looking at retro ’60s floral sheets, and slightly bigger paper. I imagine I’ll continue to add to the pile until a conceptual piece gets my attention again but I will always return to drawing as a sort of home base (forgive the sports metaphor, please).”

Neville has a BFA from Weber State University and is the Education Director at the Bountiful Davis Art Center.

You can find more of her work at alisondneville.com and on Instagram.

Work in Progress

This 15 Bytes feature talks with artists about what is on their “easel” right now.