{"id":32022,"date":"2016-02-12T01:22:14","date_gmt":"2016-02-12T07:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=32022"},"modified":"2016-02-17T10:50:42","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T16:50:42","slug":"painted-sky-book-on-artists-of-the-rocky-mountain-west-gives-14-utahns-lots-of-ink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/painted-sky-book-on-artists-of-the-rocky-mountain-west-gives-14-utahns-lots-of-ink\/","title":{"rendered":"Painted Sky: Book on artists of the Rocky Mountain West gives 14 Utahns lots of ink"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Painted-Sky_sm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Factoid: White men can\u2019t dance.
\n(Well there was Baryshnikov, Nureyev, David Bowie. . .) But this has nothing to do with our book review\u2014just an attention-grabber.<\/p>\n

Factoid: Most artists can\u2019t write about their own work . . .<\/p>\n

Fact: It\u2019s much easier to write long than short.<\/p>\n

So why would an author ask \u201c106 Artists of the Rocky Mountain West\u201d to write all about their stuff in 200 words or less?<\/p>\n

Some, like Salt Lake City\u2019s Ed Bateman, were terrific at this task; others much less so, veering off into autobiography; or \u201cWhy are artists asked to write statements about their work? . . . it is what it is,\u201d and other equally unhelpful off-point commentary.<\/p>\n

But once again, pictures prove to be worth their weight and this is a superbly designed and photographed book of enjoyable and varied artwork.<\/p>\n

Still, one wonders, why 106 artists? Previous books by E. Ashley Rooney\u2014covering New England, the Midwest, and the Northwest\u2014include precisely 100, so this latest coffee-table tome Painted Sky<\/em> is a bit of an anomaly. Does 106 represent good feng shui, something like that?<\/p>\n

Accompanied by a 2 \u00bd x 3\u201d image of the artist in the left margin of a two-page spread, leaving considerable space for excellent representations of their work on the remainder, this 232-page book (including gallery listings) is filled with everything from painting to mosaics from cities in California to North Dakota (but mostly Colorado).<\/p>\n

Included Utahns are Joseph Alleman<\/strong>, Logan, watercolor and oil; Edward Bateman<\/strong>, Salt Lake City, pigment print from 3D digital construction and CDV; Doug Braithwaite<\/strong>, Sunset, oil; Carel P. Brest Van Kempen<\/strong>, Holladay, acrylic; Lloyd Brown<\/strong>, Fillmore, acrylic and oil; Kip Christensen<\/strong>, Springville, various woods; Glen Lyman Edwards<\/strong>, Smithfield, oil; Mark England<\/strong>, Salt Lake City, oil; Edward J. Fraughton<\/strong>, South Jordan, clay and bronze; Lauren Gallaspy<\/strong>, Salt Lake City, porcelain, china paint, terra cotta, gouache; Beth Krensky<\/strong>, Salt Lake City, bronze, brass, gold leaf, crab shells, steel, olive leaves; V. Kim Martinez<\/strong>, Salt Lake City, oil on aluminum; Jim Morgan<\/strong>, Mendon, oil; Andrzej Skorut<\/strong>, Draper, oil.<\/p>\n

You have your landscapes, your representational creatures (horses and not-at-all), your sculptures, your turned-wood pieces, your re-imagined digital images, your so-called \u201ctypical\u201d Western bronzes and paintings \u2013 we have manifestly talented artists here in our state.<\/p>\n

Author Rooney acknowledges that she grew up watching \u201cGunsmoke,\u201d \u201cRawhide,\u201d and \u201cHave Gun Will Travel\u201d \u2013 none of which will be familiar to most of our readership. Her next sentence may explain: \u201cThe American cowboy was larger than life as was the wild open space where they roamed.\u201d Sigh . . . She even wonders if there is a Moran, Bierstadt or Remington among the artists she has included in her book. We wonder if any of them really care.<\/p>\n

In her foreword, Rose Fredrick, longtime curator of the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale, takes a more prosaic view:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether playing off themes of the West, postmodernism, photorealism, pop and abstraction, or incorporating traditional materials to make environmental statements, the artists in this book give audiences a well-rounded view of contemporary Western art as it should be considered: uniquely American.\u201d<\/p>\n

Painted Sky: 106 Artists of the Rocky Mountain West<\/span><\/em>
\nE. Ashley Rooney
\nSchiffer<\/a>
\n224 pp.
\n$50 <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Factoid: White men can\u2019t dance. (Well there was Baryshnikov, Nureyev, David Bowie. . .) But this has nothing to do with our book review\u2014just an attention-grabber. Factoid: Most artists can\u2019t write about their own work . . . Fact: It\u2019s much easier to write long than short. So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":844,"featured_media":32023,"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":[26,30,14],"tags":[909,207],"class_list":["post-32022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-15-bytes","category-book-reviews","category-visual_arts","tag-by-ann-poore","tag-ed-bateman"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Painted-Sky_sm.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-25 23:48:17","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\/32022","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=32022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32024,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32022\/revisions\/32024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}