Utah Arts Festival
Art • June 25th, 2006If it wasn’t because of those three happy ladies who got on the train with a yard sculpture, I would have never known that the Utah Arts Festival was going on this weekend in downtown Salt Lake City. We went yesterday… Too early to see any performing art, but late enough to catch the full fury of the sun and a few new artists for my list of admired, truly inspiring visual art.
Joseph Alleman
Gorgeous representation of people, architecture and landscapes in watercolor paintings that express so much with absolute simplicity. My favorite piece was 90% clean pencil drawing with only a few small fragments painted in watercolor. Mr Alleman’s talent has been vastly recognized by professional artists, so I won’t even attempt to write anything further. Enjoy his paintings at Joseph Alleman.
Seung Lee
Happy vibrant “quilt-like” paintings on wood. If I understood right, Mr. Lee’s process begins by carving his theme on a large piece of wood. The wood is used as a stamp, as we he applies different colors of ink to it and stamps the paper layer by layer, building a wonderful mix of color that preserves the original two-dimensional look. The images in this page don’t do any justice to the boldness of his work when you see it personally.
Valerie and Jonathan Nicklow
Although a little creepy at first sight –evident by the look of the older man rushing out of the booth as we were approaching– I found their two-dimensional creatures so enchanting, and somewhat reminiscent of Mexican mural art. I don’t know who exactly… I just find the style intriguing and familiar. This is a couple of husband and wife working together on tiny oil paintings on ceramic slab. She carves and sculpts the ceramic, and he paints it. I specially loved their “Bug Buddy” pieces (“Bestest”, “Most Precious”, etc), unfortunately not available at their web site, and understandably I wasn’t allowed to take a photo. See their art at Booty Mountain Arts.
Steve Nowatzki
His printmaking pieces get even better as you understand the artist’s purpose. In his own words:
“The work presented here represents my attempt at stripping away the veneer of commercialized packaging that disguises the stresses put upon the planetary environment. The easiest way to accomplish this task would be to bluntly illustrate the damages done. Unfortunately, this easier route is not necessarily the most artistically gratifying. In my images, I’ve attempted to cerebrally challenge the viewer and also educate them with different view points on how they make their lifestyle choices.”
My favorite piece: “Why The West Was Won”. Joey’s favorite: “Adrift”. Admire his work at Steve Nowatzki.
Holly Stowell
Beautiful, moody watercolors representing dusk and night scenes with amazing skill.
Dale Walters
Mr. Walters creates photography with a painterly look by printing his photos on vellum and manipulating them with water media, pencils, and other art techniques. Each composition is split in several tiles. Truly beautiful! See his work at Dale Walters, and before you attempt to try this at home, know that it took him one year to tinker with his printer in order to perfect the technique. He says the colors run a mess, and he can’t use this printer for anything else.
