Education 2002-2014……………………….............BFA Painting and Drawing, University of Utah 2008………………………..……………………..Weber State University, B.A. Candidate Business 1999……………………………..….Ricks College, B.A. Candidate Illustration and Graphic Design
Residencies 2014………Recipient Undergraduate Rio Mesa Center Residency and Fellowship, University of Utah
Exhibitions 2018* (Upcoming July)............................."Exegis", Solo Exhibition, Emy Frentz Gallery, Mankato, MN 2017....................................."Art of Yellowstone and Grand Tetons", Idaho Art Lab, St, Anthony, ID 2015......................................"Squared", Group Exhibition, Alpine Art and Frame, Salt Lake City, UT 2015.............................."Box Show", Group Exhibition, Utah Artist's Hands Gallery, Salt Lake City, UT 2015.............................."Contemplation", Solo Exhibition at the Ruth Vine Tyler Library, Midvale, UT 2014.......................................Local Colors of Utah, Plein Air Competition and Exhbition, Sugarhouse, UT 2014..........................Midvale Harvest Days Art Show and Competition, Midvale Arts Council, Midvale, UT 2014...................................................2014 BFA/ALT Show, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 2014.......................Perspective Realia: Ten Years of Urban Art, Finch Lane Gallery, Salt Lake City, UT 2013......................Midvale Harvest Days Art Show and Competition, Midvale Arts Council, Midvale, UT 2013.....................1,000,000,000 Miles from the Sun, University of Utah Alt Show, Salt Lake City, UT
Public Works and Professional Loans 2014……….......................................Set painter for Midvale City Arts Council’s Production of Into the Woods, Midvale, UT 2013...Collective Momentum, 50’ x 8’ painted mural, University of Utah Hospital, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Salt Lake City, UT 2013…Falling into Place, professional loan, The Grand Theatre production La Cage Aux Folles, Salt Lake City, UT
Awards, Societies, and Leadership Opportunities 2014.....................Sixth Place, Remembering Mother, Utah State Fair Visual Arts Amateur Division 2014................................Honorable Mention, Local Colors of Utah Gallery Plein Air Competition 2014.........................Best of Show, Midvale City Harvest Days Visual Arts Show and Competition 2014..........................................................................BFA/Alt Show Committee Member 2014...........................Recipient CFA Emerging Leaders Award, Department of Art and Art History 2014..............President of Perspective REALIA (Research Engagement for Associative Learning in Arts) 2013...................Third Place in Midvale City’s Harvest Days Photography Exhibition and Competition 2013..................................................Secretary in the Painting and Drawing Student Association 2013...............................................................................Howard Clark Scholarship Nominee 2007-2008..........................................................Epsilon Rank and member of Sigma Phi Epsilon
Artist Statement
I am not so sure one would call the experience of discovering my identity pleasurable. I was desperate for an escape from my problems and in desperate need to find an identity. I dived into a pattern of self-destructive behavior in an attempt to find a glimmer of happiness or peace. The decision to pursue spontaneous pleasures in attempt to change my identity proved to be in vain as it broke my psyche. I felt like I had hit rock-bottom where I had shattered into a thousand pieces. I was wrapped up in a mad whirlwind of self loathing where the need to feel accepted by someone or anyone jeopardized my very sanity. I loathed the person I had become. I felt I was running out of options and the only way to fix thing was the need get away from it all. So I tried. I got in my car and drove away. I didn't know where I was going or if even going anywhere would solve anything. I knew I couldn't escape from my problems by driving away, but it was better than a darker alternative that had been frequenting my thoughts.
Several hours later I found myself sitting on the trunk of my car staring out over a frost-covered meadow in Yellowstone National Park. I sat in seclusion in the early morning cold hours, miserable and depressed from trying to drink away bad finances, failed romantic relationships, and the feelings that I had become a failure at life. The brisk temperatures and swirling grey mists matched my broody mood as they moved through the quiet valley. I closed my eyes and did something I had not done in several years. I offered a prayer to my Heavenly Father whom I was attempting to ignore.
As the sun came up, its penetrating rays pierced and burned away the morning fog. The valley began to stir to life. It filled with bison, elk, and pronghorn antelope. A grizzly bear appeared from out of the trees and slowly made its way to forage and play across the meadow. The scene was perfect. Nothing in my life had ever felt so pure, so tranquil and pristine. I was immediately enraptured by the beauty of nature in full force. I felt my soul embraced in a loving hold of energy that soothed and comforted my troubling heart. It was as if my soul transcended the physical plane and moved into a spiritual realm as my conscience awakened to a deeper sense of self inquiry and examination. I felt my soul connect with the rawness and naturalism of place. I became one with the land and animals around me. To experience this connection with nature was to experience God himself and witness the manifestation of his power. I submitted to nature’s will and surrendered myself to its balancing power as it soothed my soul. I began to resolve the problems and questions for which desperately needed answers and solutions. This was the day I found myself and began my process of spiritual and mental healing.
Because of this experience, I have often thought about the spiritual power that landscape and nature can have on our lives. This power of place is something that I like to explore in my art. I am greatly interested in how place influences our identities, culture, and even emotional or physical health. There is a natural dichotomy to place and landscapes that is of great interest to me as an artist. Place does not only heal and bring comfort, but it can destroy or maim. The landscape can give life and take away. Place can offer security and peace, or threaten and cause chaos. Place can be familiar and constant or unnerving and changing. Place can be simplified into concrete and tangible forms or it can be abstracted into an idea that transcends the physical and becomes something else entirely. Archaically place served to become a spiritual realm where divinity, magic and mysticism occur where in modern times, place becomes a resource to be exploited by human greed. The intense wildlife encounters and power of landscape, I often experience serves as the influence of subject matter in my art. Animals serve as totems or spirit guides, teaching me how to live better, how to move forward, and how to obtain true happiness. Landscape transcends the physical and becomes spiritual. I paint and draw them as if I were a shaman or mystic exploiting the magic and spiritual properties that the land and animals possess. I am a product of the American west, as my own culture has been woven into its history. Through this exploration of nature in its fullness, I afford the development of my own spirituality and politics while paying tribute to place, history, and time. I pride myself in an attempt to be sensitive to historical contexts and cultural differences by owning my own visual language and creativity. It is deeply symbolic of my ideologies.
In the end my art is for both the consumer and the art connoisseur. The consumer enjoys the simplicity of its design and aesthetic elements while the art connoisseur strives for the deeper conceptual meanings. As my work is highly symbolic, I recognize the viewer may never understand the deeper meaning of my work because of different cultural and life experiences. I recognize their rights to interpret my work as they see it and hope that my art serves to inspire them to look inward and make positive changes in their own lives.
