{"id":83279,"date":"2024-07-06T16:29:49","date_gmt":"2024-07-06T23:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=83279"},"modified":"2024-07-18T12:13:55","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T19:13:55","slug":"trees-become-storytellers-in-colby-sanfords-meyer-gallery-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/trees-become-storytellers-in-colby-sanfords-meyer-gallery-exhibit\/","title":{"rendered":"Trees Become Storytellers in Colby Sanford’s Meyer Gallery Exhibit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Painting<\/a>

Colby Sanford, “I Will Hold You High Above the Treetops,” acrylic, 36 in x 24 in<\/p><\/div>\n

In a painting titled \u201cI Will Hold You Above the Treetops,\u201d a parent standing on the crest of a ridge embraces and lifts a child. A viewer might casually assume this is a father, but on closer approach, the pair could just as well be a mother and child. The artist makes many choices, but he leaves some for us to make. Either version could be right.<\/h4>\n

The only consistent subjects in the 16 new paintings by Colby Sanford at Meyer Gallery in Park City are trees. Occasionally, like in \u201cSunset Swings,\u201d we see only a part of the trunk, which may well support the pair of swings on which two children, their backs to us and their bodies wreathed in light, can be seen. In the shady hollow of \u201cWhere the Creek was Still,\u201d a child hunkers on her heels on the bank to place her hands in the water, while we spy on her through an overhanging tree we might have climbed. More often, though, trees are the occasions for the stories these richly detailed pictures tell. Never just settings, they perform essential tasks in them. Sanford has said, in effect, that while another painter might surround a formal portrait with props or scenery that inform viewers about the sitter, he creates elaborate places into which he inserts his figures.<\/h4>\n

There are several possible reading of some of these scenes, more than one of which may be simultaneously true. In \u201cThe Bridge,\u201d three youths cross a creek by walking along a downed tree. It could be a lesson shared by siblings or friends, even a parable of cooperation, or a tale of adventure remembered. \u201cPlanted in the Shade\u201d might be set in a park or a school, while the figure \u201cplanted\u201d under the tree both invites and discourages approach. In \u201cFrom Under the Heartwood,\u201d the virtue of solitude moves to a farm and the idyll becomes more private, more personal. Perhaps the conclusion is that it doesn\u2019t so much matter which reading the artist intended, or which the viewer takes away; what matters is that we realize the potential is always greater and deeper than our first impressions.<\/h4>\n
\"Gallery<\/a>

Works by Colby Sanford at Meyer Gallery with, from left, “Climber,” “Ladybird Branch,” untitled sculpture, “Sweet Ones,” “Planted in the Shade” (above), “Giving Back.” Image by Geoff Wichert.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\"Painting<\/a>

Colby Sanford, “If I Were a Tree,” acrylic, 48 in x 96 in<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In a few extreme cases, the figures are so distant and small they require, and reward, seeking out. In \u201cTogether Under the Willow,\u201d they are almost in another world, so remote they might be overlooked but for the title, and the window through which they\u2019re seen adds to that special feeling of inaccessibility. All this climaxes in the centerpiece of the show, \u201cIf I Were a Tree.\u201d Here an entire grove is illuminated and captured by the setting sun, creating a deep perspective of shadows that converge toward the invisible sun, which may be responsible for the golden dots that are apparently in the viewer\u2019s optics rather than among the trees. What is among them is the \u201cI\u201d\u2014the speaker\u2014who stands as still as a tree and evidently watches the sunset we cannot see. What else do trees witness in the long years in which they must only stand and watch?<\/h4>\n

It may gradually dawn on a viewer to ponder: are the people in these scenes there to justify the existence of nature, as the people of the Old Testament seemed to believe? Or does nature contribute to making these farmers and rural dwellers worthy of our attention? Close study suggests something else, which is that we are in the presence of a unity of life, a natural world that excludes or diminishes no legitimate part of the web of being. It\u2019s a deeply, profoundly spiritual view, one that could equally belong to an LDS family or an environmental activist, and perhaps to those who are both. It\u2019s not only the world inside the wooden frame that he wants to show complete and unified, but the wider world in which the artwork exists.<\/h4>\n
\"Painting<\/a>

Colby Sanford, “Sunset Swings,” acrylic, 11 in x 14 in<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

If I Were a Tree: Colby Sanford, Meyer Gallery<\/a>, Park City, through July 15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a painting titled \u201cI Will Hold You Above the Treetops,\u201d a parent standing on the crest of a ridge embraces and lifts a child. A viewer might casually assume this is a father, but on closer approach, the pair could just as well be a mother and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":847,"featured_media":83284,"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":[19,14],"tags":[3026,308],"class_list":["post-83279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts","tag-colby-sanford","tag-meyer-gallery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/cf35b0-ifiwereatree-w806-0.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-03 08:03:16","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\/83279","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\/847"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83285,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83279\/revisions\/83285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}