{"id":66819,"date":"2023-02-07T16:44:33","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T22:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=66819"},"modified":"2023-02-09T17:13:44","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T23:13:44","slug":"dennis-stott-finds-inspiration-all-around-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/dennis-stott-finds-inspiration-all-around-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Dennis Stott Finds Inspiration All Around Him"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_66821\" style=\"width: 857px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screen-Shot-2023-02-09-at-3.59.10-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-66821\" class=\"wp-image-66821 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screen-Shot-2023-02-09-at-3.59.10-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"847\" height=\"636\" srcset=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screen-Shot-2023-02-09-at-3.59.10-PM.png 847w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screen-Shot-2023-02-09-at-3.59.10-PM-350x263.png 350w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screen-Shot-2023-02-09-at-3.59.10-PM-768x577.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 847px) 100vw, 847px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-66821\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dennis Stott, &#8220;Red Door,&#8221; oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The first real art Dennis Stott encountered was a drawing he discovered as a young boy while rummaging through an old, roll-top desk. That small artifact set him on a path that took him first to Butte College then CSUC in northern California. It was at Chico State that he encountered another inspiration: Ken Morrow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a very physically fit and visually dominating man (he ran and worked out daily) [Morrow] received immediate attention when walking into a room,\u201d Stott says of the Chicago native who taught at Chico for 30 years. Stott was impressed by his teacher\u2019s humility and his devotion to craft. \u201cI eagerly desired to visit him while he built life-sized metal statuary. His knights, jesters, horses and other imagined figures were a delight.\u201d Morrow was equally adept in the two-dimensional. His paintings, dealing with many of the same themes, where created using \u201cgold, copper and silver powder mixed with Elmer&#8217;s Glue and blended into his acrylic paintings with a gas welding torch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 1985, just as he was planning to embark on an early retirement, Morrow and his wife Donna died when their car slipped on an icy road and crashed.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ken Morrow 2006 Memorial Art Show\" width=\"1250\" height=\"938\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_pxmZAtVJGA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><em>Video of a memorial exhibit of Ken Morrow&#8217;s work, from 2006<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Stott recently retired from his own career in graphic design, and has since devoted himself to his fine art craft. Like Morrow, he\u2019s primarily a figurative artist, and he\u2019s been dealing with issues of aging and mortality. He\u2019s been seeking out old cars, trucks and farm machinery, in the rural part of southern Utah County where he lives and works, for his subjects. \u201cBeautiful landscape backgrounds, ground cover such as weeds and the like growing up encroaching on machine identity as well as the machinery itself which is aging, decomposing becoming useless, is a bit of self identification. Aging is a hard invasive time of life which I am now processing,&#8221; Stott says. &#8220;But, there is a beauty, a symmetry as well as appreciation for those who designed, making come to life their concepts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stott\u2019s work, while rooted in the realistic, is concerned with symbolism. In addition to his art degree, Stott minored in religious philosophy in college and has returned to many of those concerns in his paintings. \u201cI have been trying to explain through paintings some of the hidden symbolism that is so prevalent throughout Biblical writings,\u201d he says. \u201cThe figure becomes important in these paintings as well. I have found rekindled joy with the human form.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_66820\" style=\"width: 657px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screen-Shot-2023-02-09-at-3.58.48-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-66820\" class=\"wp-image-66820 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screen-Shot-2023-02-09-at-3.58.48-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"647\" height=\"639\" srcset=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screen-Shot-2023-02-09-at-3.58.48-PM.png 647w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screen-Shot-2023-02-09-at-3.58.48-PM-350x346.png 350w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screen-Shot-2023-02-09-at-3.58.48-PM-120x120.png 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 647px) 100vw, 647px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-66820\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dennis Stott, &#8220;Garden Choice,&#8221; oil on hardboard, 24 x 24 in.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>He&#8217;s also inspired by the landscapes near his Spanish Fork home. &#8220;I live in an area surrounded by these magnificent mountains,&#8221; he says. &#8220;This area is blessed with changing seasons producing scene after dynamic scene. A visual banquet is prepared for the observant artist inside each of us. So, I take myriad photos while strolling through these gigantic monuments. I then come to my studio, using modern devices such as computers, monitors, programs and the like, choose those shots I enjoy and sometimes combine, sketch and then prepare to paint.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He currently has an exhibit of 22 paintings at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.davisarts.org\/snowhorseartgallery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Snow Horse Art Gallery<\/a> in Layton.<\/p>\n<p>You can view more of the artist&#8217;s work at <a href=\"https:\/\/drstottartist.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">drstottartist.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first real art Dennis Stott encountered was a drawing he discovered as a young boy while rummaging through an old, roll-top desk. That small artifact set him on a path that took him first to Butte College then CSUC in northern California. It was at Chico State [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1600,"featured_media":66820,"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":[14,2238],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-visual_arts","category-who-do-you-love"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screen-Shot-2023-02-09-at-3.58.48-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-16 06:22:22","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\/66819","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\/1600"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66822,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66819\/revisions\/66822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}