{"id":11420,"date":"2012-07-05T01:28:08","date_gmt":"2012-07-05T07:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=11420"},"modified":"2024-07-01T07:47:35","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T14:47:35","slug":"day-christensen-artist-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/day-christensen-artist-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Day Christensen: Deliberate Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Day Christensen outside his studio. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/p><\/div>\n

Day Christensen has a gift for creating unique, pleasing spaces. A designer by training and trade, Christensen has also become one of Utah\u2019s most successful artists for public projects. His meticulous and creative eye has literally shaped the landscape of Utah, turning a visit to a local park or nearby TRAX station into an experience. It\u2019s a craft he\u2019s been fine-tuning for about half his life, his thirty-year resume resulting in almost as many public art projects around the state.<\/p>\n

The home and studio where Christensen lives and works is a reflection of his deliberate aesthetic: a pleasing place to think, work, relax and receive guests. Designed by the artist, the minimalist concrete structure doesn\u2019t intrude on the wooded landscape of his property, accessible by a short unpaved road. It is watched over by his affectionate dog Thor, a Havanese, who happily greets visitors and settles nearby so as not to miss any of the conversation.<\/p>\n

When Christensen talks he is articulate but never pretentious. He engages listeners with his attentive eyes and warm personality. In his living room an entire wall serves as a bookshelf, and most of its occupants are about art. If the conversation warrants it, he will pluck one off the shelf and cheerfully tell you about its contents. Among his collection you\u2019ll find a handful of the fine letterpress books Christensen made earlier in his career.<\/p>\n

When Christensen talks he is articulate but never pretentious. He engages listeners with his attentive eyes and warm personality. In his living room an entire wall serves as a bookshelf, and most of its occupants are about art. If the conversation warrants it, he will pluck one off the shelf and cheerfully tell you about its contents. Among his collection you\u2019ll find a handful of the fine letterpress books Christensen made earlier in his career.<\/p>\n

From an early age, Christensen was drawn to creative pursuits. \u201cArt was something I gravitated to, and also design. I spent most of my youth building tree houses,\u201d he says of his childhood in Walla Walla, Washington. When the time came to go to college he chose Brigham Young University because Utah was familiar ground. Both his parents are from the Beehive State and he frequently visited extended family in the area.<\/p>\n

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Day Christensen’s home designed by the artist – Photo courtesy of the artist<\/p><\/div>\n

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Initially Christensen was tentative about pursuing a career as an artist. \u201cMy interest was art,\u201d he says, \u201cbut that didn\u2019t seem terribly practical and at that time BYU had a program in design that they were just starting.\u201d He earned a B.A. in Art and Design and true to his practical nature he did it with the intent of continuing on to graduate school for more specific training.<\/p>\n

After finishing his undergraduate degree, Christensen spent a year working in a landscape architect\u2019s office in Billings, MT. He was then accepted to Harvard Graduate School of Design where he earned his Master\u2019s in Landscape Architecture. \u201cI really enjoyed the people I met and I liked being on the East Coast,\u201d Christensen says. The open-minded nature of the people he encountered was something he could appreciate. He was lured back to the opposite coast by a corporate job in Portland, but a year later he returned to Utah. \u201cI enjoy the more relaxed pace of the West, and I\u2019m not a fan of humidity.\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Like Portland, the corporate world proved it wasn\u2019t the best fit. \u201cAfter working in an office for a few years I decided that I would enjoy doing freelance art-related projects,\u201d he says with a telling smile. It\u2019s very clear that art is his passion and he would be unhappy pursuing anything else.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was doing whatever projects would come along whether it was design consulting or letter press work. That\u2019s when the competition for the dome came up,\u201d he says. In the early 1980\u2019s, a violent storm tore a hole in the copper dome of the Utah State Capitol Building. It needed to be replaced but the city didn\u2019t want the copper to go to waste so a competition was held for artists to propose what to do with it. Day was a winner in the competition and with the material constructed a large elegant patina wall out of squares.<\/p>\n

From that point on Christensen gradually moved in to the arena of public art. Along the way he did some design consulting for Red Butte Press at the University of Utah. Most recently he was a guest curator at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts for a Trevor Southey exhibit. But public art has proven to be an enduring part of his career where he can apply his keen eye for detail with creative strokes. \u201cI like the challenge of having to address practical issues but then still having it be an interesting visual experience for people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s looking to create a variety of experiences for the public. \u201cMy primary interest is that I enjoy the aspect of having each project be different. It\u2019s not like I have one way of doing art and I\u2019m trying to find different places to do that. My interest is looking at specific projects or settings and figuring out what would be most interesting for that specific project. That may mean it\u2019s a more figurative piece or that may mean it\u2019s a more contemporary piece,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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“High Water,” a sculptural installation created by Day Christensen in 2011. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/p><\/div>\n

Last year he created \u201cHigh Water\u201d for Popperton Park. \u201cThe challenge there was the scale of the park. What I found interesting was the location, it being high on the bench. There was a question of doing something that would address the scale of the park and its location,\u201d Christensen says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re up there one of your primary experiences is the sense of the valley going out below you and it\u2019s quite wonderful to realize the entire place was covered with water at one time.\u201d The finished work of 12 stainless steel poles is a poetic reference to the height of ancient Lake Bonneville, which once submerged the entire state.<\/p>\n

Christensen\u2019s work often references its surroundings, like his piece \u201cShovels\u201d that stands along the UTA Frontrunner Commuter Rail in Roy, Utah. \u201cRoy had no water and so the first settlers there had to dig wells by hand. And then they dug a canal from one of the canyons to get water,\u201d Christensen explains. \u201cThen I used some quotes about digging the wells by hand that I found in their histories.\u201d Those quotes are etched on to the shovel blades.<\/p>\n

He notes that the historical tributes in his work add a new dimension. \u201cI\u2019m not trying to do history, I\u2019m trying to have interesting, maybe unusual references to it. The idea is to add another layer beyond the visual. It\u2019s for the experience of people as they interact with the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

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“Shovels,” along the UTA Frontrunner Commuter Rail in Roy, Utah by Day Christensen. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Cat sculptures in Salt Lake City’s Steenblik Park by Day Christensen. Image by Kelly Green<\/p><\/div>\n

One of Christensen\u2019s favorite pieces is located in Steenblik Park and offers a unique nod to its namesake, Joseph Steenblik. When Christensen bid on the Steenblik Park project one of the requirements was coming up with something that appealed to children. In his research, Christensen discovered that Steenblik, an entrepreneur who helped develop the Rose Park area, owned a dairy farm. \u201cI thought about how if you have a dairy farm, cats are always waiting around to get some milk,\u201d he says. The result is a cluster of cats that stand four-and-a-half feet tall and wear expectant faces as if waiting for the children at the park to bring them saucers of milk.<\/p>\n

Much of Christensen\u2019s work has a thoughtful simplicity to it. His current project will be part of a senior citizen center in Draper, Utah. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a series of outdoor metal screens that create a courtyard space near the entrance of the building. They\u2019ll have laser cut leaf designs that reflect the vegetation that\u2019s near the building,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The model in his studio is precise and shows the clean curvature of the screens. It\u2019s a small detail, but issues of angles and scale are things Christensen is particularly sensitive to. This comes back to the restraint and discipline it takes to execute a simple piece. \u201cI always liked the minimalist movement; and there\u2019s a certain strength to it, that\u2019s what\u2019s personally enjoyable to me. Because something can be so simple and still create a powerful experience,\u201d Christensen says.<\/p>\n