{"id":26240,"date":"2014-08-07T14:55:43","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T20:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=26240"},"modified":"2019-08-02T10:39:23","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T16:39:23","slug":"brian-blackham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/brian-blackham\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Blackham"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Brian Blackham was planning to leave his Guthrie studio early last Friday \u2013 heading home to paint the bathroom as a surprise for his wife (seems an artist\u2019s work is never done). He did, however, make time for an interview with\u00a015 Bytes<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The couple will open their Elizabeth Street residence August 22 for the Art Access Artists\u2019 Home and Studio Crawl, to help raise money for an essential presence in our community. Because Blackham is represented only by Dolby Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco and Prographica in Seattle, the Studio Crawl is a rare chance to see his work locally. Designer Sonja Blackham will have her vintage-style clothing on display; potter Ben Behunin and artist Nathan Florence are participating. Take the self-guided tour, ask questions, have refreshments, buy art.<\/p>\n

I learned about Blackham from artist Carolyn Coalson a few weeks ago. She admires his paintings (he also sculpts in his two-room studio) and wanted me to find out more about him (it\u2019s handy knowing a writer when you\u2019re curious). The art crawl came up, and the time seemed exactly right for a story.<\/p>\n

Blackham paints still life compositions of subjects such as a blue marble or a glass of water; often just a solitary image in the center of a canvas or panel. He did a whole series on water \u2013 he has a fascination with the stuff, which he says has no negative connotation (unlike \u201cguns or naked women in various positions\u201d) and is essential to our being. \u201cIt\u2019s such a beautiful subject matter, the way that it interacts with the environment so it\u2019s reflecting colors from its surrounding area and then the way that it captures light; and when water starts to get a little bit dirty it captures more light\u00a0. . .\u00a0and so I revisit it and try to get better at painting it.\u201d
\nHe paints it beautifully.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHis method is impasto,\u201d says Coalson, \u201cbut it\u2019s not thick. It\u2019s just raw paint. Every stroke counts. It\u2019s about paint. What he does with it and how far he carries that.\u201d Some of his works are small, maybe 11 X 9, \u201cbut will hold the whole wall,\u201d Coalson states. They do have a mesmerizing impact. Undeniably, quietly, they draw the viewer in. There\u2019s a stillness to them that is irresistible \u2013 it\u2019s quite difficult to look away.<\/p>\n

His groupings of objects, the way he plans them out, the shapes of the vessels, suggest Morandi to some, and Blackham is quick to acknowledge the influence.
\nBut his sensitive minimalist work in general is most reminiscent of David Dornan, and it turns out it should be \u2013 Blackham was a student of his when he taught at the University of Utah and also apprenticed under him for two years, from 1996-98, even helping to build the studio and living quarters in Helper where Dornan teaches his well-known workshops. It was the weather, however, that was the trigger to make him want to try still life, Blackham says. It got cold when he was painting landscapes in Helper and Dornan suggested he \u201cthrow something up on a table and stay in.\u201d The artist found it all very intriguing and that was that.<\/p>\n

Blackham, 47, grew up in Salt Lake City, left for graduate school at Arizona State University in Tempe where he taught drawing for a couple of years, and then was away for eight or ten years but stayed affiliated with Helper in the summers.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s had a studio at the Guthrie for at least a decade, where he works Monday through Friday and sometimes a half day on Saturday. He arrives as early as 7:30; tries to be home by 6:30 for dinner with his wife and two \u201cawesome\u201d kids.<\/p>\n

He listens to a variety of jazz while he paints, but only for a couple of hours each day.\u00a0 \u201cI like to wait until I desire to hear something and then I\u2019ll turn it on. The focus for me happens when it\u2019s quiet and then the music sounds awesome, but if I have the music on it takes so long to get that focus. So I try to be aware of that as much as I can,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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Lately Blackham has been working on four to six images in a series at a time. He uses them to influence each other on almost a competitive basis: \u201cI\u2019ll push one where I really like it and resolve it to a point that I like it much better than another one I just started, so then I\u2019ll push that one until I like\u00a0it<\/em>better and then the next one I\u2019ll push until that one\u2019s better. And then sometimes I\u2019ll do something where I really like that but I won\u2019t leave it and then I try it on the next one \u2014 so they kind of seesaw. It enables a different way of working with layers, too, because of the time required for the paint to set up.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a wonderful clean finish to Blackham\u2019s work \u2013 it\u2019s non-glossy and appears not to be varnished, but still has a profound depth. \u201cI use a brush and a palette knife and I use a palette knife often to smash out the texture but then also to apply a swath of color where I\u2019d like it to be. Sometimes I use Liquin or I\u2019ll thin my paint with Turpenoid, but I\u2019ll use it really stiff and use multiple thin layers and then after it cures I will seal it with a wax medium so it stays flat because I like the sheen of satin flat,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

He was offered a teaching job after graduate school, but after spending a summer in Helper painting he decided to just keep painting instead \u2013 that was fourteen years ago. \u201cIt\u2019s a business, you know, you have to navigate those waters and try to understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

His first gallery was Tivoli, and that was way before college. He had done a sculpture of a telephone stand for the phone in his apartment with his house-painting supplies \u2013 plaster and mud and sheetrock \u2013 sort of an upside-down robot\u2019s leg \u2013 and friends kept telling him it should be in a gallery. Finally, he drove around town looking for one of those. And stumbled on Tivoli, where they took a look and offered to take the piece on commission \u2013 even asked for more work, which Blackham didn\u2019t have. So he started messing around with plaster at home and then decided to study sculpture at the U where he later also became enamored of drawing and painting. He got lucky, he said, \u201cWe\u2019re talking top-tier art school.\u201d Dornan, Tony Smith, John Erickson, Sam Wilson, Paul Davis . . . the list went on. \u00a0Best part of the story? Given all the exhibits Blackham can boast, from New York to Santa Fe, Tivoli Gallery in 1992 is still proudly listed on his resume, even though the piece didn\u2019t sell.<\/p>\n

Now, he works at getting better at what he does, which he says is skill as much as art. \u201cI\u2019m practicing my golf stroke every day \u2014 showing you the significance of balance and placement and the way that objects look in light . . . I am trying to get better at presenting the thing that I find beautiful, and what I find beautiful is trying to re-create what already exists, and that\u2019s light on a surface in space. It\u2019s really that simple, but it seems so complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

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You can view more of Brian Blackham\u2019s works on his\u00a0Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Art Access Artists\u2019 Home and Studio Crawl, August 22, 5-9 pm. Artists: Ben Behunin, 1150 E. 800 South; Brian Blackham and Sonja Blackham, 729 S. Elizabeth St.; Nathan Florence, 817 S. 800 East. Admission: $10. Start at any address. Questions: 801-328-0703.<\/p>\n

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