Fletcher Booth, “I’m as Disappointed in Myself”

Fletcher Booth, an artist who lives in Salt Lake City and says he enjoys “hot rods, beer, Jayhawk basketball and, sometimes, art” took time out from this busy schedule to tell us who he loves, or rather doesn’t:
“Love is such a strong word. I have difficulty saying I love any inanimate object. I could say I love an actual person who makes art, but if I don’t know them, how do I know? I think I love Sri Whipple but maybe I just really like him. So I settled for admiration and influence in my own work: Raymond Pettibon.
“Growing up in the early 1980s I listened to punk rock, Black Flag and the Minutemen. Pettibon’s drawings on their albums influenced my view of art and its role. The humor that ridiculed popular society through what might seem naïve drawing is actually an aggressive stance taken on any subject: hard-edged, black and white, almost a comic book on real life and all its pathetic outcomes.
“Art is as much about the experience and the statement as it is about a well-made pretty object in a frame. If art makes me laugh, I don’t care how it makes you feel. Pettibon’s art informed how I wanted to approach my own work, and the magnitude of the intellect in his work inspires me through intimidation.”

Ann Poore

A graduate of the University of Utah, Ann Poore is a freelance writer and editor who spent most of her career at The Salt Lake Tribune. She was the 2018 recipient of the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Artist Award in the Literary Arts.