{"id":35767,"date":"2018-03-10T08:12:39","date_gmt":"2018-03-10T14:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=35767"},"modified":"2023-11-20T15:42:52","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T21:42:52","slug":"peter-everett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/peter-everett\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Everett and the Zen of Donkey Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Tacie Hoffman<\/p><\/div>\n

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Peter Everett, 48, is far more than the soft-spoken professor of first impression. His paintings speak to a remarkably powerful inner core of human spirituality that most people are either unaware of or choose to ignore. His current show at Ephraim\u2019s Granary Art Center demonstrates this through powerful, center-focused, nearly symmetrical compositions that channel energy through vibrant colors and fluid mark-making. In his statement, Everett describes his show as \u201cforms that have an immediate visual power, a physicality and sense of urgency emerging from a place just beyond sight.\u201d His interest lies in liminal spaces, the area between sleep and wakefulness, the slippage between a painting\u2019s subject matter and content, the difference between what an image shows and what it embodies.<\/h4>\n

Though the idea of liminal spaces in between ritualistic action aligns well with Eastern philosophy, one of Everett\u2019s strongest influences is something much more mundane \u2013 Donkey Kong. \u201cI was in my formative years during the golden age of video games in the early 1980s. I would play Donkey Kong in arcades, trying to rescue the princess, but because of a glitch in the game, the cycling levels break down at a certain point and you just die,\u201d he laughs. He describes Donkey Kong as a sort of \u201clow-culture Western back door into Eastern philosophy\u201d; a repeating cycle with no destination other than the erosion of self and the death of the hero. It was, he says, his first experience with a sort of meditative space. \u201cIf you play it enough, Donkey Kong is repetitive, reflex-based and very physical leading to a trance-like state of play.<\/h4>\n
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Photo by Tacie Hoffman.<\/p><\/div>\n

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When Everett wasn\u2019t playing video games, there was a good chance he was packing up his room. For Everett, childhood was a constant flurry of new locations. \u201cI was an Army kid,\u201d he explains. \u201cMy father was trained as a linguist and worked as a code breaker during the Cold War.\u201d In his early childhood, Everett would move as many as three times a year to different parts of the United States. When he reached high-school age, his father left the Army to become a lawyer in Cleveland, where Everett attended high school. Though frequently uprooted during his childhood, Everett discovered early on a strong preference for physical learning\u2013he liked to create and explored the world through making things. \u201cI have always made objects and drawn and often create and test my own materials,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I was young I would make my own pastels out of clay bodies I found outside and test which ones worked best. Choosing to become an artist was a very natural choice for me.\u201d<\/h4>\n

After high school, Everett attended Brigham Young University, where he completed his BFA and met his wife, Leah. They then moved to New York, where Everett attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, completing an MFA in 2000. Though Everett has completed some sculptural and new media pieces, he approaches these challenges from the standpoint of a painter. \u201cI did my MFA in painting at Pratt. I also was involved in printmaking, but in a very painterly way. My training has definitely influenced my work in other media,\u201d he says.<\/h4>\n

After graduation, Everett was hired as a professor of visual arts at BYU \u2014 this year marks his 18th\u00a0there as a university professor. Everett says one of the perks of being a professor has been the opportunity to travel frequently. Recently he has spent time in Berlin, where studio space is relatively inexpensive. \u201cI help students find internships and direct study abroad programs,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s a great place for making art.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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In Germany, Everett worked on a series of ink drawings but was again drawn to painting because of its physicality and color. \u201cI like paintings that have a generosity to their aesthetic and colors,\u201d he says. His color palette tends to be warm, dynamic colors with neutral tones on top, acting as screens or occlusions. \u201cI like to have layers in my painting. I like some information to be redacted,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve always really liked the choir screen of Catholic churches, how they block the view and objects and forms are seen through them.\u201d His works tend to be centered, like an icon or talisman. Pulling from a rich history of centered compositions, this focus gives his work a spiritual credibility, a familiarity, and urgency.<\/b><\/h4>\n

Everett likes to work large, commenting that the larger scale allows for more freedom and rhythm in his movements. \u201cWhen I make work, it\u2019s important for my brushstrokes to be synced with my movements, connected to my body,\u201d he says. To achieve this, Everett usually paints when he exhales and uses his shoulder rather than his wrist to make marks. A few of his works include a particular mark: short, straight lines, grouped together in teardrop patterns. He calls this particular mark an exhale tally, each line marking one breath. \u201cI once heard a poet talk about how every word spoken is an exhalation and a step toward death, so in a way, when you are speaking poetry, you are giving up some of your life,\u201d he says. \u201cI found that an interesting thought\u2026I also have a lot more control when I exhale than when I inhale. More energy goes into the painting when I breathe out.\u201d Each line is either one, short, outward breath, or a long line for one long exhalation.<\/b><\/h4>\n
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Similar to his childhood experiences with Donkey Kong, Everett\u2019s painting state is a meditative one, focused on the loss of individuality in favor of extending his energy into his work. The centered compositions offer a feeling of suspension to the work, the main patterns rarely engaging the edges. This suspended feeling plays into the idea of liminal spaces, unused power transferring from one object to another, from artist to canvas, from canvas to viewer.<\/h4>\n

Everett\u2019s process is a complete focus on materiality, a freeform series of physical events. \u201cI like that painting is a slow way to make an image,\u201d he says. \u201cNow it is so easy to make images quickly. We snap pictures on our phones, we use Photoshop, there is an immediacy and an ease with technology.\u201d He continues, \u201cPainting is a very primitive and inefficient way to create an image and that\u2019s something I really like.\u201d Though he plans parts of his paintings beforehand, he considers them \u201cmeditative diagrams,\u201d a record of bodily movement instead of a conceptual map.<\/h4>\n
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Photo by Tacie Hoffman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Gestural painting is a newer field of exploration for Everett. \u201c10 years ago my painting was very geometric,\u201d he comments. \u201cThere are patterns I make by geometrically folding squares in on themselves. I use a compass making these forms, but they change and mutate as I go along.\u201d This establishing of a pattern or set of rules that are transgressed is still part of his gestural work. \u201cThe Granary has an interesting history and visual arrangement,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a curious space, but a great one. I\u2019m excited to have my work there.\u201d<\/b><\/h4>\n

For Everett, the very concrete nature of the painting preparation process is also important to his work. He likes to slow down the process even more by grinding his own paint with historic or found pigments, stretching his own canvas, and, more recently, designing his own workspace. Next to his house in Spanish Fork Canyon, Everett has been working with an architect in Salt Lake City building a two-story studio. Large and open, the space features a multitude of large windows looking directly out at a sea of photogenic scrubby maple and oak trees. He jokingly refers to his neighborhood as the \u201cpoor man\u2019s Sundance\u201d absorbed by nature without some of the nicer trappings of a resort town. Commenting on the size of the structure, he says, \u201cI wanted enough wall space to accommodate large canvases and paper.\u201d The airiness of his new studio, combined with the abundance of soft sunlight pouring through the windows is a dream, Everett\u2019s dream, which he hopes will be the location of years of future work.<\/b><\/h4>\n
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Everett\u2019s work touches on a powerful in-between space, a Neverland space, which speaks to a very central earthly experience. His painting reflects the feelings of questioning spiritual power and divine elements in a physical space. The large size of his canvases creates an all-encompassing, visually magnetic experience, exploring the deep connection that we have with visual objects and the processes of making.<\/h4>\n

At one time during his grad school education, Everett seriously pondered why he chose to paint. \u201cI wondered why I should make another painting, there are so many paintings in the world. Why should I make another?\u201d His questioning led him to reflect on his experiences in an apple orchard. Apple trees, he realized, just keep making apples, that\u2019s their purpose. It doesn\u2019t matter if the apples rot on the ground or are eaten, they are going to make apples because that\u2019s what apple trees do. \u201cI realized that I make things like an apple tree makes apples,\u201d he says. \u201cI navigate the world through my hands and my body, understanding and exploring things by making things\u2026I am a maker of objects. Whether someone wants one or not, I make things. That\u2019s what I do.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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Photo by Tacie Hoffman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. Peter Everett, 48, is far more than the soft-spoken professor of first impression. His paintings speak to a remarkably powerful inner core of human spirituality that most people are either unaware of or choose to ignore. His current show at Ephraim\u2019s Granary Art Center demonstrates this through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1567,"featured_media":36712,"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":[968],"class_list":["post-35767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artist_profiles","category-visual_arts","tag-peter-everett"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/PETER_EVERETT.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-01 07:49:30","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\/35767","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\/1567"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35767"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36713,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35767\/revisions\/36713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}