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UTAH'S ART MAGAZINE
November 2016 Edition |
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Artist Profile: Maureen O'Hara Ure
Maureen O'Hara Ure shares her truth, however whimsical, however wrenching, in mixed media on panel.
The incident in "The Night of the Fire," which is part of Love & Work, her fascinating solo show at Phillips Gallery through Nov. 11, actually occurred in 1978, when the timeworn apartment building in which she lived with her small family burned to the ground, with one fatality among the residents. The artist still can't shake the events of that cold and terrifying January night: fire frequently makes an appearance in her dreams and in her work, often as, in "Smoke, There's Fire," an active volcano. And no wonder: she, her husband and 4-year-old daughter escaped with little. After the fire, she says, "I owned clogs and a bathrobe and a necklace and my husband owned an old ratty parka and loafers and slacks and our daughter owned underwear, a blouse and a baby blanket."
She recalls the Red Cross being on scene with beverages and doughnuts and refusing the hot cup of coffee husband Lincoln Ure offered because she would never get back to sleep if she drank it and "I had an early class." Crazy, she says, how our minds work in a crisis, adding that as life goes on, "more disasters get sent your way."
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Mapping the Territory
A year before he went to Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau burned down 300 acres of forest in its vicinity. An accident. During a fishing excursion to nearby Fairhaven Pond, Thoreau's campfire sparked a grass fire that quickly spread to the surrounding woodlands and almost engulfed the town of Concord, proving that even in escaping the hurly-burly of civilization we can't help but leave our mark on the landscape. Novelist John Pipkin suggests Thoreau's escape to Walden the next year was spurred by his guilt over the accident.. . .
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Stephanie Leitch
C.C.A. Christensen painted his most important work, the "Mormon Panorama," in the mid-1870s. Even though as an immigrant he hadn't witnessed the persecution and violence central to the stories he gave visual form, it was his dramatic images, in which nature herself seemed to recoil in horror, that came to represent the experience of the Latter-day Saints. After Christensen's death in 1912, his cabin was moved to the historic block in Ephraim, where it has since served as an auxiliary gallery space. Recently, Stephanie Leitch chose this structure, with all its associations, as the site for her latest installation. . .
Read the Review
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Mike Lee's Digital Mirror
Mike Lee describes himself as a product of two world cultures, having split his childhood between rural Japan and Utah. His work bridges these two separate geographical and cultural regions with reference to an elusive third: the young culture of the Internet realm. In Digital Mirror: Selfie Consciousness, Japanese and American symbols from separate times and places come together with the help of vintage electronics and neon illumination. Lee references images and stories from feudal Japan and the ancient Shinto religion, but also states that he "draws inspiration from amassing information, both visual and non-visual, through obsessive Internet searches."
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Jimmi Toro
Jimmi Toro's fluid line work lays itself gracefully across his paintings. Even in moments of disruption, where the ink spatters or skips, the faces and forms of his creating stare back at us, inviting us into their world. While his work uses a variety of techniques, it is the dripped ink that we might think of first; the result of years of experimentation with application and mediums. However, Toro's work extends far beyond that and his upcoming solo exhibit at the Urban Arts Gallery, in Salt Lake City's The Gateway Mall, is a bold demonstration of his expansive creativity. . .. . .
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Carel Brest van Kempen
In the paintings of Brest van Kempen, neither science nor art yields primacy to the other. Instead, they collaborate to show how much more each can accomplish in tandem, and how a holistic approach can exceed the limits imposed by narrow perspectives. . .
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It's Not All Bad News
Yes, galleries regularly close their doors in this town. But the good news is new spaces open. Or reopen. Take a look at the Downtown Artist Collective and the return of Nox Contemporary.
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Go Out and Play!
The phrase "go out and play" refers to the oft repeated admonition to children to go play outside, something many of the artists feel is being lost as children spend more time playing indoors on electronic gaming devices. Go Out and Play! at the Sears Gallery illustrates the timeline of the shift in the way we play over the last century.
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Ben Behunin @ The Hive
With "The Hive Series," Utah filmmaker Quincy Boardman has created an outlet for his lifelong passion to "document and aggregate thoughts, opinions, ideas, and inspiration on living a more creative life." For the first episode of Quincy Boardman's documentary series The Hive, the filmmaker steps into the house and studio of Salt Lake City potter Ben Behunin, who discusses his struggle with arthritis and the lessons learned living the creative life.
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Mary & Myra
Catherine Filloux's play, Mary and Myra, currently being staged by Pygmalion Productions and directed by Fran Pruyn, examines the role of PTSD in the life of Mary Todd Lincoln, whose bad behavior and eventual insanity were public knowledge during her lifetime, but are largely forgotten today. Also on hand is Myra Bradwell, often described as the first American woman to become a lawyer, whose struggles have also been largely deleted from history. . .
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The Mundi Project
Everybody deserves a piano. Or at least access to one. That's the basic idea behind Mundi Project, a Utah non-profit which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this month with a live music-and-art-making performance at the Visual Art Institute.
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