Artists of Utah News
New Year News
The Artists of Utah Holiday party was either the finale to a great year for our organization, or it was the kickoff to an even better year, with plenty of exciting plans. Read below to find out about both.
Holiday Office Party
The Holiday Party, which took place at the Salt Lake Art Center on December 16th, came about in an effort to bring together the visual arts community, taking the artists out of their studios, the art professionals from behind their desks and the art lovers away from their workaday lives, to celebrate the sense of community that is so vital to Utah's art world.
The event
was organized by Artists of Utah Board Member Stefanie Dykes, and was made possible with the help of a number of volunteers from the community and the generous help of the staff at the Salt Lake Art Center. Close to two hundred people brought savory and sweet potluck dishes and liquid refreshment to keep the festive spirit going for three hours.
The kids were entertained by an art activity put on by Bad Dog Rediscovers America. While the children were creating their paper-bag luminaries, Santa arrived with a bagful of artful gifts. The first-time Santa managed to find a gift for everyone, not drop too many kids off his knee, and fool one of his two children (the other had some difficult questions for him at home).
The White Elephant gift exchange was likely the greatest surpise of the evening. Guests were invited to participate by bringing in a wrapped handmade or altered gift. Dropping off their gift they received an elephant-shaped card which they traded in at the end of the evening for another present. Many were delighted to find that the artists participating had wrapped works of original art -- some of them even framed.
New Design
You may have noticed we have made a couple of tweaks to the 15 Bytes design in this month's edition. As we tracked our readership in 2009 we noticed that the vast majority are now using computer screens with greater resolution. We are taking advantage of this by increasing the size of our columns, which means we can put in larger images within the columns (you can always see greater enlargements by clicking on the image's number in the image menu bar) and use a larger font size for our text (which will be helpful since we will no longer publish a pdf version).
Over the next month you'll also see updates to the Artists of Utah website. We'll be changing some design elements, adding some new pages and options, and updating the links within our artist and organization directories. With the new design you'll find a link on our home page to ArtMatch, a new Artists of Utah program designed to facilitate a barter system amongst artists as well as barter between artists and various professionals. If you have ideas for this program or want to be involved please contact Pat Corneli, who will be managing the program.
The Blog
You can follow all our activities by checking in at our blog at least once a week. Every Monday our writers will be posting reviews of art-related books. Throughout the week we post links to articles on other websites, give you information on the latest goings-on in the arts community, and announce special events that might not appear in the pages of 15 Bytes (next week Christopher Renstrom will be reading the fortune of Utah's Art World). You can also follow us on networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Getting Involved
If you want to get involved in producing the news and articles and not just writing them, you'll want to attend our next staff meeting. We'll be having a 15 Bytes Staff meeting on Monday, January 25th at 6 pm at the Rio Grande Buiding. The meeting will start promptly at 6, but at 5:30 we'll have pizza and an opportunity for everyone to chat informally. If you think you'd be interested in joining our group of volunteers -- as a writer, photographer, editor or videographer -- you are welcome to join us at the meeting. Please email 15 Bytes editor (and pizza-getter) Shawn Rossiter (editor@artistsofutah.org) if you plan on attending.
Marketing Campaign
New readers are as important as new writers and in 2010 we'll be launching a new marketing campaign with the goal of adding 1500 new subscribers this year. Why? To help you have better conversations. If we can add more readers maybe instead of sitting around listening to your friends discuss the latest episode of Survivor, you'll be able to discuss the latest show at the UMFA.
Part of the marketing campaign includes a poster program, featuring art posters designed by Utah artists. Look for the first of our artist-designed posters, designed by University of Utah professor Edward Bateman, to appear this month in businesses around the state. If you have a business and you'd like to help promote 15 Bytes please let us know. As always, we are eager for your suggestions for the next great thing to change Utah's art world. Contact us at editor@artistosfutah.org
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Feature: On the Spot
 Millcreek's Mariah Mellus
Mariah became the dedicated art writer for SLUG Magazine over 9 years ago, and continues to produce their monthly Gallery Stroll column. She's been a contributing writer to The New Century Collector and Artists of Utah’s 15 Bytes. She serves on the board of Utah Cultural Alliance and the V.I.E.W Foundation (Vision to Inspire and Empower Women) and manages the Membership and Community Outreach program for the SLC Film Center. Mariah, her husband Derek, and two kids live in Millcreek.
 Describe something you remember hanging on the wall in your home growing up.
The piece I remember most was a sculpture. My Mother was a graduate of BYU with a degree in art. While there, she sculpted a nude bust which always had a place of honor in our house, usually the front room facing the large picture window. Later, after mom noticed the shock and awe over what she, and us kids, saw as just a beautiful female form, she turned the bust around as if to moon those who found the art offending. This bust taught many important lessons about life and art to us kids.
What is the most memorable exhibit you've seen recently?
The Oyster Pirates Show at Kayo Gallery. I've always loved Sri Whipple and Jason Wheatly's work but when they collaborated with the other five Oyster Pirate artists they put me in a trance. I never wanted to sell my car for a painting before but these paintings transported me to a place where up is down and my car wasn't important but the sole thing that came between me and this poetic
world they created. I just recently saw another piece born of that collaboration and I immediately started calculating how long and what credit card I could use to make it my own.
If you could choose someone to paint or sculpt your portrait (living or dead) who would it be?
Cassandra Barney, she makes people look fun and quirky and can make even the biggest noses look beautiful and delicate. Cassandra if you're out there, I'm available anytime for a sitting.
15 Bytes: About Our Editorial Contributors
This Edition
 Tom Alder left a 30-year mortgage banking career to become a partner in Williams Fine Art, where he specializes in early Utah art. He received his MA from the University of Utah in art history and wrote his thesis about Henri Moser. He serves various boards in the cultural community.
 Ehren Clark received his BA in Modern and Contemporary Art History and Critcism at the University of Utah and an MA in the art of the Renaissance at the University of Reading, UK. He currently writes for the The City Weekly, as well as being published in other journals in Utah.
 Shalee Cooper, who holds a BFA in photography from the University of Utah, has curated multiple international photography exhibitions. She is an associate instructor at the University of Utah, an art consultant at Alpine Art and the photo editor for 15 Bytes.
 Melissa Hempel works for museums. Especially interested in visitor experience, she completed degrees in Museum Studies and the History of Art and Visual Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area. A California native, Melissa is ready to explore the artistic community in Utah, and learn how to live in the snow. She currently works at UVU's Woodbury Art Museum.
 Jay Heuman, a native of Toronto, holds an MA in Art History from York University. He is the Salt Lake Art Center's Curator of Education.
 John Hughes is an award-winning artist and teacher who has been painting the landscape both in and out of the studio since 1983. He maintains a studio in Taylorsville and teaches students in private workshops and in a course at Salt Lake Community College.
 Hikmet Sidney Loe teaches art history at Westminster College and runs the literature program for Utah Humanities Council. In her spare time she writes and herds a bunch of animals around her house.
 Sue Martin holds an M.A. in Theatre and has worked in public relations. As an artist, she works in watercolor, oil, and acrylic to capture Utah landscapes or the beauty of everyday objects in still life.
 Shawn Rossiter, a native of Boston, grew up on the East Coast. He has degrees in English, French and Italian Literature. He dropped out of a Masters program in Contemporary Literature to pursue a career as an artist. He founded Artists of Utah in 2001 and is editor of its magazine, 15 Bytes.
 Geoff Wichert has degrees in critical writing and creative nonfiction. He teaches writing at Snow College, where he also taught Art History for six years.
 Cristin Zimmer is a ceramic sculptor originally from Denver, who came to Salt Lake City in 2003, drawn to the University of Utah and the opportunity to ski. She received her BA in Studio Art with an emphasis in ceramics from Pitzer College in Claremont, CA in 2001. She is now pursuing a MFA in ceramics at the University of Utah.
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