Tony Watson is originally from Washington State but has lived most of his adult life in Utah. No one occupation has occupied his working hours but his leisure hours are spent either climbing southern Utah's redrock country or engaging his mind with aesthetic issues.
I’ve been in conversations where artist friends tried to figure out the best way to get into juried shows. I was surprised to learn it’s not simply a matter of what they consider to be their “best” work. Eager to get into prestigious shows, and hopefully win an […]
A review of Gerald Elias’ Danse Macabre mystery novel.
Wading in Context A response to Ernesto Pujol’s Awaiting. On Thursday, April 8th, Ernesto Pujol led dozens of participants through a 12-hour, site-specific performance called Awaiting, a project he discussed in the recent edition of 15 Bytes. I suspect the local Mormon audience found resonance in Pujol’s mission […]
Towards the end of his new book, Talking to Tesla: An Artist’s Dream Journal, Alex Bigny writes: “Imagine me, the consummate dreamer, a painter, encountering a great scientist somewhere in the ethers — to be told that I would carry on his work. I had expected by now that I […]
My wife loves to run the St. George marathon. The route is relatively easy and the weather usually mild. This year, though, the weather proved to be very inclement. Thankfully, that did not hurt my wife’s time, and later in the day it provided me a good excuse […]
J. Kirk Richards is one of a number of talented young figurative painters in the area who, now in their thirties, are beginning to attract large followings, command substantial prices and receive acknowledgment in significant exhibitions. Richards is currently being recognized by the Springville Museum of Art with […]
In the opening line to his new book Modernism: The Lure of Heresy, National Book Award-winning author Peter Gay writes, “Modernism is far easier to exemplify than to define.” In the following five hundred plus pages (as well as a weighty section of notes and bibliographical essays) Gay […]
On a recent visit to the Brigham Young University campus, I was charmed by one of the exhibits in the Harris Fine Arts Center. In the large open space of the Center’s atrium, students from the University’s fine arts program regularly exhibit their work. Being as they are […]
Over the holidays I visited family in the Bay area and while there had the chance to visit the retrospective of Modernist sculptor Ruth Asawa. I was unfamiliar with Asawa before visiting the de Young, but was so impressed with her marvelous sculptures encountered there that I quickly developed […]
The LDS International Competition came down earlier this month but the entire exhibit, including the works cited in this article, is online here. Tom Alder’s recent 15 Bytes article on Henri Moser (June edition) included a comment by Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ apostle L. Tom Perry to […]
I am currently reading the book 1491, by journalist Charles C. Mann, which examines current research into life in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans. One of the main theses of the book is that the continents were much more densely populated with more advanced civilizations […]
I enjoy exhibits at BYU’s Museum of Art. Regardless of the actual pieces shown, the museum almost always manages to create a wonderfully crafted and visually interesting exhibition. The more I visit the museum, the more I am convinced of the curatorial expertise that has used a unique […]
Installation as an art form is a Wagnerian sculptural experience. Light, sound, color, movement, and — most importantly — space combine to create a visceral sculptural experience. In a world of strip malls and strip housing, the ephemeral quality of installation is the perfect sculpture for our […]
For the past month, the Springville Museum of Art’s exhibit Objects of Reverence has presented the work of SUU professor Brian Hoover. On exhibit until the end of October, Hoover’s art is represented by about twenty pieces, hanging in one of the museum’s ground-floor galleries. The pieces cover […]
What’s the deal with jurored exhibitions? Are artists guilty of something? Did they commit a crime? Maybe so. The crime of bad taste. Or being out of fashion: Or being just plain bad. Whatever it is, jurored shows seem to be all the rage: The Utah Watercolor Society […]
