One of the things I enjoy doing is art around town, mostly because I live in a town that really needs it.  We have an old-timey Main street with very old buildings, many of which have old fashioned wall adds that have long since worn away with the passage of time.  So, once in a while when things are slow,
(more often than I'd like) I'll do something around town in the way of redesigning and painting something true to period.

This is on the side of what the town now calls the "Pyramid Building".  Home of the town paper.  When first built it was...well isn't it obvious.  The bricks in this wall were in awful shape so I stuccoed it first and painted bricks back in around it.

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This and the next one are on an old garage in Fairview

You see them coming and going.

We actually have a Luthier in town.  (Violin Maker)  I've always wanted to do something like this on his shop and finally asked if he'd donate a wall.  I started this one last fall and got snowed out before I could finish it.  I'll get back and finish it when the weather cools off.  I can't wait to see it finished.

...he went out and began to publish it much...

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This is a piece I did this winter and I was pretty pleased with the results.  I've been thinking about the natural reaction some must have had to the savior's miracles.  I think we forget that miracles were as rare then as they are today and especially in the case of the healing of a leper, a man you might have passed many times on the street must have been a disconcerting thing.  Let alone what it must have been for the leper, to be redeemed from a literal death sentence physically and socially.

     As always, I probably bit off more than I can chew and there are a bunch of different reactions and stories in here if you look for them.

I started off with this very simple color sketch I did in the computer, working out the perspective, relationship of the main figure and the savior and other figures in the design, a basic color pallet.  yeah, those are photos of me on the left and my friend Dean Kleven on the right.  I don't develop things very far before I've made up my mind and just get started.

Then I photograph each of my models individually and place them in the composition.  If you look around I use the same people several times.  I figure that while I have them in the studio it's a good time to exploit them.  Anyway, this is where I work out a lot of the details and why I love photoshop so much- it probably saves me days of work.  

I then drew the piece on canvas from this finished composition and started painting.  In all I probably have a couple of months in this piece.

She's Crafty

My sister-in-law, Tanya, has begun a craft services business here in Utah.  She's a master chef, having been through UVU's culinary arts program and a successful actress as well, so it was a natural place for her to place herself;  catering for film production.  The only thing she needed to validate her as the premier craft service company in the area was a kick but corporate design.  I get a big kick out of creating new characters, so, I did this for her birthday.  The girl is modeled after Tanya with just a smidge of my mother.
     "Crafty" is the term people in the film industry use for whoever is providing the catering service on the set..."Who's crafty?" someone might ask.  "Oh, she's crafty." would be the reply.  So that's the name of her company.

Here's her business card.

So, at the completion of my job with ADP I was asked to bid another job that was very interesting to me.  It was based on an idea of their general manager, Roger Sybrowski.  He was eager to emphasize the importance of each individual member of their large team at each location and had always liked the imagery of a puzzle; each piece representing a person.  Just as in a puzzle if a single person was missing the missing piece leaves a very big hole.... you get the idea.

      I liked the idea and immediately began putting together photoshopped mach-ups for Roger, to see if we were on the same page.  Here are a few examples of what I imagined he was talking about.  

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The text at the top reads: "Every Person Counts"

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I tried it with different complimentary colors.

Anyway, in the end he really like an idea I added at the last minute that was a little more contemporary, making the point that ADP was a modern company that necessitated modern design.

The reason for the round shape was to hint at ADP's global presence.  

    This was just a rough idea, so after he chose to go with this idea I went back to the studio and refined it quite a bit.  I redesigned the entire thing on a carefully measured grid with a forced perspective to emphasize  a globe shape.  I then contacted several fabrication companies about the cost of some of the design elements I didn't want to mess with, like the electrical, (it will be lit with LED's because they don't get hot) and the neon which goes around the perimeter to add a very space-age finish to the whole thing and hides the wiring inside.  Approximately 56 portraits will be rendered on the individual white puzzle pieces.  I would love to see this in real life and think that anyone would be astounded as they passed such a collection of portraits.

This was the piece I think sold the idea to Roger at ADP
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Final proposed design in it's proposed place at the main employee entrance.

It's the nature of the business to have invested a ton of time into a proposal and bid, and while I think they liked the design at ADP it's hard to say whether or not they will finally order the project, so for the present time the project is shelved till further notice and I'm going to work on a couple of personal "spec" pieces.

  The Wasatch Legacy Mural  or  "Honoring the Past While Looking to the Future"

This mural was definately another favorite. It was also a very unique challenge because of the deadline.

 I was contacted in October of 2009 by a committee in Heber City, Utah responsible for the building of their new $63,000,000 High School.  It was to be the finest high school in the state and they were looking for an art project that could be the "crown jewel" of the new edifice.  They talked about doing three murals in what is the very grand enterance, or commons, each mural of one of the three schools that has been the home to Wasatch High over the past 100 years.  Each mural was to be done by a different artist.  I was excited to be considered as an artist for one of the murals but quietly mentioned to  one of the board that having three murals displayed immediately next to one another in different styles and in different "pallets" or color schemes might not be as successful as they might hope.  I wondered how I could talk them into doing something different so I went home and did a couple of sketches.

When I brought them back I suggested that in addition to the actual buildings we might tell the story of Wasatch High through the people and programs.
Fortunately they loved the idea and before I knew it I'd been contracted to produce the entire project, now one monumental mural 50 feet wide by 10 feet tall.
     Unfortunately, this proccess actually took several months and by the time I received the green light there were only 5 months left until deadline and the open house of the new school.  This was a project that I would have usually taken 9 months to a year to complete.
Another challenge was finding studio space big enough to stretch out a 50 foot by 11 foot canvas.  I looked all around the valley and finally found an amazing old building on old main street here in Mt. Pleasant that was 51 feet long; just barely long enough to house the giant custom "easil" I had to build for the canvas.

I worked around the clock, 6 days a week to get it done and literally finished it 2 or 3 days before it need to be installed.

Here's the finished piece

Here it is installed

Detail 1

Detail 2

Detail 3

Detail 4
Me on the right holding the edge of the canvas back

This was the letter of recommendation Principal Paul Sweat wrote for me following the project.
Pretty glowing, huh?

"Satisfaction"
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I know this old guy who's always saying "I love work.  I could watch it all day long."  I kind of think that in this day and age, an information age when most of us go to an office and push ones and zeros around a screen all day long, many have forgotten what true labor is.  When it comes to actual labor, the kind where you get your hands dirty, dust is stuck to your sweat and you sleep well at night, that it's  become something of the past.  I'm a firm believer in the cleansing effects of work that makes you sweat and appreciate the opportunity I have every once in a while of stepping away from the canvas to do something dirty.
     A couple of hundred years ago art made a shift where artists started painting fewer of the aristocracy and choosing to paint the "noble peasant or farmer".  I don't know if the peasant felt all that noble but the people buying the art definitely had a way of romanticising the peasants role in society.
     I think it is much the same today.  Few enough people labor for a living that the idea or memory of labor can often generate feelings of nostalgia for a bygone era.  What does it mean?  I don't know.
    But in an effort to remind myself that there still are people who work hard and sleep without the use of medication I'm going to paint a dozen or so pieces dedicated to those "noble" few.
     So,  why the teacher?  My wife, Kay, teaches first grade and she insists that nobody works harder then she and her compatriots, and she insisted I do a teacher first.  And who am I to say she doesn't.  However, the next piece will probably be a coal miner.

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      A few years ago our town's veteran's memorial had fallen into disrepair and was also so heavily vandalized that the city finally dismantled it.  Efforts were made to raise money for a new memorial but there wasn't enough cash raised to do anything of significance so the project kind of fizzled.  A friend and I finally went to the city and recommended painting a memorial; something we could do for a tiny fraction of the price of actual sculpture.  The city was very supportive of the idea and gave us this wall  on what was originally the National Guard Armory and is currently the city's rec. center at the center of town.

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      This is what we produced for them.  There were seven large "windows" in which we decided to paint a tromp-loei' sculpture of 1 soldier from each of the conflicts that our city had men involved in. We chose to paint the entire thing with automotive paint because of it's light fastness, or, ability to keep from fading in the sun, especially as it's on a south facing wall.  It took about a month and was a very rewarding experience.  We'd usually get started pretty early in the morning to stay ahead of the heat of the day, a time when many old veterans would be out for their morning walks.  Over the first few days they would walk by and look at what we were doing rather dubiously.  I think they were disappointed in the communities efforts to do anything real in memory of their sacrifice.  But as it began to take real shape they would stop and take a longer look, chat with other old soldiers about it, and as it began to reach its finished state they clearly became very pleased with the result and were very vocal with us about their great satisfaction with the project some of them even tearing up as they expressed their gratitude for the beautiful dedication.  It is one of the projects that has brought me the most satisfaction, though it was almost entirely donated, and something I think my dad, a vet himself, would have been immensely pleased with.

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Everything you see is painted.

WWII Soldier Detail
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Blackhawk War Militiaman.
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Corporate Set Design

Take a look at the corporate set that we designed for ADP in Salt Lake City. Their management team wanted a set that would transport their employees to a restful, verdant place; even chase away the winter blues. They wanted a space at their facility, that the team members would look forward to visiting. They loved what we designed, constructed and installed. We would love to hear your thoughts abut this project. Jason

This was the cafeteria at ADP before we painted it.  They described what they wanted to do as far making the environment more inviting, especially to a group who spend most of their day in cubicles.

I got on the computer and designed different knots based on reference from nature. 

This was the photoshopped version I sent ADP to explain what I would try and do.

And this is the finished tree...that is to say, one of them.   All the other pictures I took of the room are corrupted.   I'll have to get a few more the next time I'm in Salt Lake.