{"id":39525,"date":"2018-10-10T00:02:43","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T06:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=39525"},"modified":"2018-10-10T00:34:29","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T06:34:29","slug":"brian-kershnik-looking-for-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/brian-kershnik-looking-for-something\/","title":{"rendered":"New Book on Brian Kershisnik Explores the Artist’s Three-Decade Search for the Metaphysical in the Physical"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Brian Kershisnik Looking for Something<\/p><\/div>\n

[dropcap]Brian[\/dropcap] Kershisnik could be called the Mormon Norman Rockwell \u2013 if Rockwell had painted like Chagall and Mormons were still called Mormons \u2013 they aren\u2019t supposed to be, I know, but can\u2019t for the life of me recall what replaces the term so recently declared out of favor by the LDS Church First Presidency.<\/h4>\n

The talented, witty and beloved Utah artist paints a variety of souls and situations with humor and\/or pathos but nearly always adds a vital grain of salt to any drama he portrays. My own fascination with Kershisnik\u2019s work began in the mid-1980s at the now-closed Dolores Chase Fine Art located in downtown Salt Lake City. Even then he had a unique style \u2014 one that has remained consistently beguiling. I have continued to value his increasing depth \u2014 as well as his often-daring whimsy \u2014 along with a continually growing technical skill. One never had to be a believer, in anything at all, to appreciate this artist\u2019s message.<\/h4>\n

In an introductory essay to Looking for Something: Selected Paintings<\/em>, the first published collection of Kershisnik\u2019s work in 15 years, the artist starts off with the tantalizing words, \u201cI make art because\u201d \u2013 and naturally you stop right there. Artists sometimes can talk about why<\/em> they paint what<\/em> they paint, but answering simply why they paint<\/em> is more revealing than they usually choose to be (or perhaps can be) about themselves.<\/h4>\n

Kershisnik, however, does not disappoint. \u201cI make art because I am searching for things,\u201d he writes, a statement that appeared on his blog some time back. But here he continues: \u201cThis looking teaches me, and teases thinking out of me, and precipitates conversation between my internal and external worlds in ways that do me a great deal of good.<\/h4>\n

\u201cMy job is to paint, and I believe to paint very well. For me, that means I must utilize, manipulate, and combine physical materials with metaphysical materials in ways that are significant and vital.\u201d (Can\u2019t you just hear William Blake? \u201cI must create a system, or be enslaved by another man\u2019s. I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.\u201d) The essay provides profitable insight into the intention of this artist as he paints.<\/h4>\n

An extensive essay, \u201cGravity Lessons,\u201d by art critic and writer Geoff Wichert (whose apt words so often grace the pages of 15 Bytes) offers several pages of worthwhile perspective on Kershisnik, his life and work. One of several sons of a petroleum geologist, the artist grew up in a variety of places overseas, the last being Islamabad, Pakistan, where his high school education ended in an early diploma due to an emergency evacuation. He ended up at the U of U where he studied architecture and ceramics, then served an LDS mission in Northern Europe.<\/h4>\n

While studying ceramics at BYU on his return, he met Joe and Lee Udall Bennion \u2013 she put one of her paintbrushes in his hand and that, Wichert tells us, was Kersishnik\u2019s bridge between his student days and becoming the artist he is today.<\/h4>\n

We learn more esoteric things, too: that if events in a painting \u201cappear perplexing it may be because [Kersishnik] often prefers to paint the moment just before or just after something happens.\u201d That is one of many revelations from Wichert the critic that proves extremely helpful in viewing paintings in the book, but I should let you read the rest.<\/h4>\n

The artist\u2019s accomplished wife, Faith Kershisnik, a systems therapist before becoming artist, illustrator, writer and business partner with her husband, contributes the third and final essay in the book, \u201cThe Hard Part.\u201d She describes, in her first published piece of writing, the dream of an artist, of her<\/em> artist, of how it feels when the show is over \u2013 or more to the point, has just opened. It\u2019s lovely.<\/h4>\n

This is as much a storybook as an art book \u2013 every picture tells one, of course, and they combine easily into parables each time you thumb through, as you often will. You might prefer that this volume be larger: it\u2019s about 9 x 10 1\/2 inches, but it settles nicely into one\u2019s lap and the pages turn readily.<\/h4>\n

The book was printed in China for Latitude Press and the more than 200 reproductions are superb \u2013 the colors deep and rich and resonant. Can\u2019t say as much for the text \u2014 it may be the typeface, the grayscale, or the spacing, but it doesn\u2019t quite make for comfortable reading. The classy attached black ribbon bookmark atones for any perceived sins, however.<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>Kershisnik will be at King\u2019s English Bookshop<\/a> for a discussion and signing on Saturday, Oct. 13, at 7 p.m. Books are available there now for purchase or pre-signing if you hate standing in lines. The artist is represented by David Ericson Fine Art in Salt Lake City, where you\u2019ll find a selection of new works through October 18; Meyer Gallery in Park City; and New Vision in Orem and has a vast online presence.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Looking for Something: Selected Paintings
\n<\/em>Brian Kershisnik
\nUnicorn Publishing Group, London<\/a>
\nOct. 2018
\n224 pp.
\n$40.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[dropcap]Brian[\/dropcap] Kershisnik could be called the Mormon Norman Rockwell \u2013 if Rockwell had painted like Chagall and Mormons were still called Mormons \u2013 they aren\u2019t supposed to be, I know, but can\u2019t for the life of me recall what replaces the term so recently declared out of favor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":844,"featured_media":39526,"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":[30,6,14],"tags":[362],"class_list":["post-39525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-current_edition","category-visual_arts","tag-brian-kershisnik"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-10-09-at-4.43.35-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 15:35:51","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\/39525","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=39525"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39549,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39525\/revisions\/39549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}