{"id":9332,"date":"2012-02-20T10:22:56","date_gmt":"2012-02-20T17:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=9332"},"modified":"2021-09-13T15:20:46","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T21:20:46","slug":"steven-fawson-makes-a-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/steven-fawson-makes-a-comeback\/","title":{"rendered":"Steven Fawson Makes a Comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Steve Fawson at the Gallery at Library Square<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s not that Steven Fawson has been gone. He\u2019s been making art ever since graduating from the painting and drawing program at the University of Utah in 1977. He paints commissions. He enters group shows. But his current exhibition in the fourth floor gallery at the Main Salt Lake City Library is his first major exhibition in 17 years.<\/p>\n

Filling two gallery walls are ten 30 x 30-inch portraits of his artist friends, those he sat in with at Alvin Gittins\u2019 classes at the U, and those he has met since. All are about his age, and, despite their varied life experiences, they\u2019re all still making art. Because of Fawson\u2019s accumulated memories and knowledge of these friends, he is able to include personal symbols, or \u201cinside jokes\u201d in some cases, that make these paintings mysterious and intriguing even for viewers who don\u2019t get the symbols.<\/p>\n

Though he would normally ask a subject to sit for at least 10 sittings for a commissioned portrait, Fawson worked from photographs for this series. He took five or more shots of each person in their personal workspace, studio, or office. Then he exercised his artistic freedom to change the background to include the symbol or narrative that personalizes the painting even more than the captured likeness.<\/p>\n