{"id":64511,"date":"2022-07-17T12:53:57","date_gmt":"2022-07-17T18:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=64511"},"modified":"2022-07-19T14:36:59","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T20:36:59","slug":"john-hess-1939-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/john-hess-1939-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"John Hess (1939-2022)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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John Hess, taken from our film of the artist in 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

John Hess, 83, was reportedly a patient sort, a mandatory virtue in a successful weaver or, as he put it, \u201ca mixed media textile artist, concentrating on folded, double woven cotton reliefs.\u201d He\u00a0died Friday night, July 15, at a cousin\u2019s home, of causes related to age, after having spent years in a care center.<\/h4>\n

He devoted his life to two pursuits, says Jeff Juhlin<\/a>, a fellow artist and friend of more than four decades: \u201cJohn was a master at working with color and geometrical fiber art and one of the most committed and dedicated artists I know. He lived like a monk and did only two things almost every day of his life: John always walked to the U of U gym from his apartment to work out for an hour or so in the morning and then back to his apartment, which was also his studio, to work all day every day seven days a week. That’s pretty much all that he did,\u201d Juhlin recalls.<\/h4>\n
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Work by John Hess from his 2016 exhibit at The Gallery at Library Square in Salt Lake City.<\/p><\/div>\n

Hess was born in 1939 in Ogden. He spent three years studying color and design in San Francisco in the early \u201860s at the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design after receiving his bachelor\u2019s at the University of Utah in 1961. In the late \u201880s, he studied independently at the Salt Lake Art Center and the U of U, simultaneously teaching as an adjunct professor in the textile department at the U and the art department at Weber State College. He later was an instructor in beginning and advanced weaving at both Westminster College and the Salt Lake Art Center. Hess’ work was part of the 67th Spring Salon at the Springville Museum of Art. He was the invited artist at the Utah Arts Festival in 1995 and his public commissions include works that appear at the St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Heber City, the Rose Wagner Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Salt Lake City, the College of Eastern Utah and the Salt Lake City International Airport.<\/h4>\n

Hess exhibited at Salt Lake City’s ‘A’ Gallery<\/a>, where they write about him: \u201cWeaving begins as a slow, meditative process for Hess, starting with counting threads, measuring, and setting up a grid then moving towards greater freedom and improvisation.\u201d Hess also showed at the Pierpont Gallery and at Phillips Gallery<\/a>. Bonnie Phillips says, \u201cWe are sorry to hear about John. A very dear and gentle fellow. We often spoke about the difficulties in planning the weaving to then be shaped into the many 3 dimensions his work explored.\u201d<\/h4>\n

As Hess once described his artistic process: \u201cThese reliefs are shaped by inserting acrylic modules into double woven pockets for stability and folding in various geometrical configurations. I then plot a grid, upon which I apply a variety of patterns with metallic paints and other media. These geometrical patterns take on a variety of forms, often referenced to Islamic tiles, Roman floor mosaics, fractals, and especially patterns from nature.\u201d<\/h4>\n