{"id":101222,"date":"2026-01-22T07:43:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T14:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=101222"},"modified":"2026-01-23T08:23:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T15:23:51","slug":"certain-womens-brave-like-eve-revisits-eden-with-fresh-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/certain-womens-brave-like-eve-revisits-eden-with-fresh-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Certain Women\u2019s “Brave Like Eve” Revisits Eden With Fresh Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Beitler, “Celestial Strip”<\/p><\/div>\n

In the 21st century, it\u2019s not necessary to be a feminist in order to see how the deck is conventionally stacked against women. While some of these inequities are right up to date\u2014pregnancy, contraception, autonomous healthcare among them\u2014others date all the way back to the beginning of Time. Scholars now mostly agree that the Old Testament consists of many anecdotes stitched together. In one, the universe is created in six days. Turn the page, and instead, Adam and Eve are created in the Garden, a dramatic set piece that seems to have been created in order to fix the blame for all the ills that beset them, and all humanity, entirely on Eve.<\/h4>\n

Certain Women<\/a> conceived Brave Like Eve<\/em> as an opportunity for about one hundred Latter-day Saint women artists to share their thoughts and feelings, in the form of visual art, about the use Christian cultures have made of Eve over the millennia. They present a great many alternate, overdue, and welcome explanations for Eve\u2019s alleged part in the origin story. The collection will be together at BDAC until the last days of March, annotated with lectures, performances and poetry readings. The works fill the gallery with images that often strike the eye boldly, transcending the often moderate call on the viewer\u2019s eye and conveying just how vitally important the subject is for the artists.<\/h4>\n
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Mya Cluff, \u201cEve Mourning Abel\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cCain and Abel\u201d is one of the stories loosely connected to Eve\u2019s. In spite of its being one of the most oft-told of Biblical tales, its relation to what happened before remains a mystery, taken for granted. Not by Mya Cluff, though, whose \u201cEve Mourning Abel\u201d captures the pathos of any parent who has lost a beloved child, whether forever or even if for a few hours. The fragmentary scene is roughly drawn in pencil, the most immediate connection between an artist\u2019s impulse and the image she eventually creates, so giving it great power.<\/h4>\n

On the opposite extreme of scale, Pamela Beach\u2019s 29-square-foot canvas, \u201cSorry\/Sorrow,\u201d argues Eve foresaw the effect her thoughtful\u2014however often described as mindless\u2014choice, would have on her descendants. Beach does this by presenting what appears to be an as-yet-unfinished painting. Details like her children, shown in an early stage of rendering, and the transparency of the foreground, remind us that the primary event occupies only a moment in time, but will have additional consequences.<\/h4>\n
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Pamela Beach, “Sorry\/Sorrow”<\/p><\/div>\n

Another painting among those that remind us that Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, and knowledge was what she received in exchange, Lena Phillips\u2019s \u201cPaper Crown\u201d reminds us that it is a physical image, rather than a spiritual conduit to the absolute. Despite its scratched and cracked surface, and what that may well say about the indifference of the adult she became to her childhood photos, the work still conveys how the subject remains precious to her mother, who valued its power to remind her of lost innocence and anticipation.<\/h4>\n

It comes as no surprise that the artists\u2019 statements, which form a substantial part of Brave Like Eve<\/em>, tend to run longer than those accompanying other shows. Elizabeth Thayer\u2019s comments on \u201cPossibilities,\u201d a kitchen portrait of a mother and three children, may help viewers to observe its ascending levels of self-presentation. The infant, as might be expected, registers indifference to being posed. Her slightly older brother calls attention to her with a sibling\u2019s pride and desire to contribute appropriate to his age. His big sister grooms her mother\u2019s hair attentively, and perhaps a bit possessively, while Mom\u2019s hurried state of preparation echoes the harmless chaos surrounding her. Among the statements, many display specific elements of faith, while the art they accompany expresses more preverbal truths.<\/h4>\n

The choice to begin Eve\u2019s story in a garden is underscored by the many works that feature close observation of Nature. On a planet tortured by engines of war and other machines, Eve\u2019s choice to partake of the fruit of a tree seems like the option of a lesser evil. Brekke Sjoblom\u2019s \u201cBrave Choices\u201d and Shelly Coleman\u2019s \u201cRemnants of Choice\u201d both achieve remarkable symbiosis with the optics of ripples through water. Other visions, far too many to mention them all here, include butterflies, flowers, and of course, trees. Two equally captivating, but diametrically opposed visions demonstrate the invaluable ability of women not to dominate, but rather to collaborate. In \u201cEve\u2019s Portrait,\u201d Sabrina Squires places Eve in a densely-woven vision of Creation, while in \u201cCelestial Strip,\u201d Kirsten Holt Beitler places a neon tree, serpent, and apple between real palm trees on a rain-slick and reflective, alternative version of a gambler\u2019s paradise. Does no one remember thinking God took a chance on us, or that He still does with every free soul He creates?<\/h4>\n