{"id":28931,"date":"2015-06-09T23:59:59","date_gmt":"2015-06-10T05:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=28931"},"modified":"2024-08-14T14:19:10","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T21:19:10","slug":"claudia-sisemore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/claudia-sisemore\/","title":{"rendered":"Claudia Sisemore"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Teacher, artist and filmmaker Claudia Sisemore was \u201chot stuff\u201d when she was 21, says Layne Meacham of his former Hillside Junior High teacher. \u201cAll the guys would talk about her and her silver Jag XKE,\u201d the Salt Lake City artist recalls. Local artist Trent Thursby Alvey, then an 8th-grade creative-writing student of Sisemore\u2019s, agrees:\u00a0 \u201cShe was single, wore stiletto heels and cashmere sweaters and drove a hot car.\u201d More important than her style, however, was Sisemore\u2019s creative influence. \u201cShe set the tone for my whole life of creativity in that class,\u201d Alvey says.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was not uptight and could relate to all the students, and she was easy to talk to and just hip,\u201d Meacham states. \u201cThe other teachers seemed to be about 20 years behind her in demeanor, dress and having an understanding of the current culture the kids were relating to . . . kids just kind of hung on her and she could connect better than all the other teachers at Hillside Junior High. She didn’t seem to judge me that I was a budding delinquent called down to the office daily . . . she just accepted me as another kid trying to figure out the screwy \u201860s.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Her influence in Utah\u2019s art world has extended far beyond that classroom and those young students (some of whom are now influential members of the art community in their own right). As a filmmaker, Sisemore captured some of Utah\u2019s seminal figures, artists like LeConte Stewart, Denis Phillips, Alvin Gittins, Francis Zimbeaux, and Lee Deffebach, as well as dance teacher Virginia Tanner and Utah Symphony Maestro Maurice Abravanel. She\u2019s also chronicled the artistry of organizations like Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Children\u2019s Dance Theatre and Repertory Dance Theatre. She is working on a film about Phillips Gallery and near to completing one on sculptor Angelo Caravaglia. In total she has produced over 200 films.<\/p>\n

Someone should have turned the camera on Sisemore during those years, as she, too, has been an inventive and prolific artist. You\u2019ll find her abstract work at Phillips Gallery and regularly in the annuals, like the Springville Salon and the BDAC Statewide Annual, and three years ago, Rio Gallery featured an exhibit of her work and those she has influenced, curated by Alvey. Her life in art is being further honored this year at the Utah Arts Festival, where she\u2019ll receive a Mayor\u2019s Award in the Arts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Now 77, Sisemore is still stylin\u2019 — minus the stilettos. She sits across my kitchen table all in black, a cheery red jacket thrown over her shoulders. (Note to self:\u00a0 maybe dress up a bit for interviews?)<\/p>\n

Sisemore says she was teaching English when artist David Chaplin (an equally popular and influential teacher at Hillside) was at Weber and initially got her into landscape painting. \u201cThen he took me to a show at the Art Barn and Lee [Deffebach] was showing there [with Don Olsen and Larry Elsner]. It was when she was with [then- husband] Gordon Bailey, and my first impression of abstract was \u2018anyone could do that.\u2019 But David did abstract, too– figurative abstract.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took a class from Lee at the Art Barn and her approach was, of course, just do whatever you want to do. Lee was a fantastic Abstract Expressionist.\u201d The two showed together at Westminster in 1974, Color Field and Abstract Expressionist work. \u201cShe came up to the house, we were good friends, and she said will you show me how you do [Color Field] painting. I used to paint on the ground outside. I\u2019d go to Utah Tent and Awning to get the canvas because I didn\u2019t have any money, and I think Lee taught me how to build stretcher bars and I\u2019d get unprimed canvas, which she hadn\u2019t done yet, and then acrylic and watered-down stain and rollers, not as big as some of her Alph series, but big, and then brushes and poured and she watched \u2013 we learned a lot from each other. We never had the same style, though we had the same technique. \u201c<\/p>\n

Sisemore wanted to go to graduate school in painting at the University of Utah, but because she had no undergraduate work in art (her bachelor\u2019s from BYU was in English) she was offered a place in a new program, filmmaking, which would allow her to take art classes as well. And many of the greats were teaching there: Doug Snow, Roger DesRosiers, George Dibble, Ed Maryon, Don Shepherd.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDown the line, Ed Maryon suggested I go out and film LeConte Stewart — and I was just learning to use 16mm.\u00a0 He said, \u2018You can do that. Come out with me to Kaysville. And of course the two of them were very close.\u201d Stewart at first said no. And refused again. \u00a0\u201cFinally Ed said, \u2018LeConte, let her go with you.\u2019 And LeConte said, \u2018OK, one time, no more. \u2018So my sister and I went up there and he got into his work and in 3 seconds I snapped the film.\u00a0I told Connie to go to Ogden and find some 16mm film somewhere. I played like I was filming him and somehow she found the film and I got some footage and he never noticed because he was so involved in his painting. I asked if I could come again and he said sure and we became the best of friends, we became very close. He loved the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was then asked to do a short film on Tony Rasmussen. \u201cSo I shot him. And then I had to do a master\u2019s thesis and they said, \u2018Do Alvin Gittins.\u2019 I was scared of him, but I asked and he wanted to be filmed and we became very good friends, too. I loved him. He used to come up and watch me edit.\u201d<\/p>\n

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She started getting grants \u2013never making any money, but usually getting enough to pay for the film she used. There were only three people in her film class, but Sisemore resents that the university sent out a book a couple of months ago that said the film department started in 1982 with Brian Patrick and Tom Sobchack. \u201cIt started in \u201972 with Mort Rosenfeld [who was murdered in 1979 while visiting the Telluride Film Festival] and that\u2019s the group I was in.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduate school (she received an M.F.A. in filmmaking and painting in 1976), Sisemore went to work for the Utah State Office of Education as producer-director-writer for educational films and programs for classrooms, educational programming for KUED and National Satellite Broadcasting. There she met digital artist and U. assistant Professor Edward Bateman.
\n\u201cI was fresh out of high school and working part-time as a\u00a0graphic designer to put myself through art school,\u201d he says. \u201cClaudia was part of the talented crew that made movies and other educational media (that she would occasionally let me help out on). She had a sensitive and modest way of encouraging people and helping them to discover their talents.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was actually several years before I knew that besides\u00a0being a filmmaker, she was also a gifted painter and artist \u2014 and for years had shown work at Phillips Gallery. Even after I left for new challenges, Claudia continued to play a supportive role in my life. \u00a0She was always there for me and encouraging my explorations in art. In many ways, she was one of the first people to believe in me \u2013\u00a0and her example is perhaps one of the reasons that I, too, became a teacher,\u201d Bateman says.<\/p>\n

Born and raised in Salt Lake City, mostly in rural areas, Sisemore\u2019s first artistic love was music. She was trained as a classical pianist and hopes to take up the instrument again. \u201cI can\u2019t play classical music now, but I can play other things.\u201d She also enjoys writing poetry and is reportedly quite good at it.<\/p>\n

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Which medium does she prefer? \u201cPainting. It\u2019s relaxing and wonderful. I need a studio because I paint in the kitchen. I used to have a studio and I painted big and I loved it. Film can be demanding and I\u2019m not physically as able to do it as I used to be. I was in a bad automobile accident and completely tore my rotator cuff and broke my sternum and my neck and I don\u2019t have the energy to do it now and also I don\u2019t have the patience. Painting is never upsetting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Entering Sisemore\u2019s home, which she happily shares with her little cat Toby, you are immediately impressed by the productivity of this artist over many years. An Abstract Expressionist oil, from the show she shared with Deffebach in \u201974, hangs in the kitchen, dark and moody and many-layered with a couple of slashes of red drawing the eye to the left side. Two small and excellent landscapes that Sisemore painted with Ed Maryon, his notes scribbled on the back, hang nearby. A long kitchen island is clearly perfect for painting even fairly large canvases \u2013 Sisemore simply walks around it. She shows me that, however, she recently has begun painting much smaller works, on linen in acrylic, which she says \u201cgives the feeling of oil without the mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In the living room Sisemore is surrounded by her friends \u2013 carefully selected and very fine paintings by Francis Zimbeaux, Randall Lake, Don Olsen, LeConte Stewart, a small Tuscarora landscape by Deffebach and works by favorite artist Denis Phillips hang along with her own. All of Sisemore\u2019s work here is in the Color Field style for which she is best known. An enormous canvas above the fireplace is done in stain with a roller — vertical bands in lovely soft colors, burgundy, green, and then, surprise \u2013 an ochre stripe containing a stack of patterns \u2013 then another band of color in Prussian blue. Beautiful. Another work has horizontal color bands and is more like a landscape, the colors earthy, muted and done with a brush \u2013 still the edges are crisp and well-defined. Standing on the floor nearby are what the artist simply calls her \u201cwood pieces\u201d \u2013 reminiscent of shamanistic paint sticks, these tall, narrow, square blocks are painted in multicolored stacks of patterns. Other works hang along the stairways; sometimes the colorways are appealingly divided by brown string. \u00a0Many of Sisemore\u2019s paintings are more free-form, some without her notable edges, but all address pure color.<\/p>\n

Sisemore\u2019s success as a filmmaker is likely because she\u2019s working from within the community. She\u2019s one of its members, knows the works and the artists intimately.\u00a0 \u201cI never met an artist I didn\u2019t like,\u201d she says. They are fascinating people. There\u2019s not one I haven\u2019t gotten along with. \u201c<\/p>\n

The only artist who was reluctant to be filmed was her friend Lee Deffebach. That is, until she became gravely ill.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sisemore says, \u201cI didn\u2019t know I was going anywhere and I had a camera but not a mike and I had one light with me when I stopped by so it wasn\u2019t very good quality and I didn\u2019t get a whole film of Lee, but after she walked out with me and said, \u2018I\u2019ll probably never see you again\u2019 and she had big tears in her eyes.\u201d The short film was shown at Deffebach\u2019s memorial at Phillips Gallery but Sisemore hopes to make a longer film on the famed abstract artist one day. \u201cLee was such an inspiration to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says she doesn\u2019t really have a favorite film, \u201cbut LeConte Stewart was my first film and I\u2019m glad I have him but there were some mistakes. And then Ririe-Woodbury, my equipment broke in the middle and I had to work with digital and I could do razor sharp with Betacam but there are some things with Ririe-Woodbury that bother me \u2013 you know, I start picking everything apart. But as far as subjects, I like them all. I loved RDT. I\u2019d love to do Mary Ann Lee.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut see, you know what\u2019s going to happen: I\u2019m going to retire. But I really want to do Trent, she does exciting work. And perhaps David Maestas, he\u2019s a fantastic young painter. It\u2019s going to go on like that, I know it. And why not?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Claudia Sisemore will receive the Mayor’s Award in the Visual Arts, along with fellow recipient Tony Smith, at the Utah Arts Festival, Friday, June 26, 7:45-8 p.m. on the Festival Stage. Some of their work can be seen at\u00a0Phillips Gallery<\/a>, 444 E. 200 South, Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Teacher, artist and filmmaker Claudia Sisemore was \u201chot stuff\u201d when she was 21, says Layne Meacham of his former Hillside Junior High teacher. \u201cAll the guys would talk about her and her silver Jag XKE,\u201d the Salt Lake City artist recalls. Local artist Trent Thursby Alvey, then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":844,"featured_media":28932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,14],"tags":[1074,869],"class_list":["post-28931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artist_profiles","category-visual_arts","tag-by-zoe-rodriguez","tag-claudia-sisemore"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/claudiath.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-17 08:49:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/844"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28931"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85351,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28931\/revisions\/85351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}