Special Feature: SLC
The Duality of Africa
a personal essay by
Trent Thursby Alvey
I spent February and March of this year in southern Africa.
Round River Conservation Studies, an international wildlife conservation
organization, invited me to their research station in Namibia. The project
splits its three-month semester in Namibia between the Cheetah work near
the Waterburg Plateau and the Rhino research in Dhamarland in northwestern
Namibia.
Part of going to Africa was to reconsider my life. To let
go of certain things. In letting go, I hoped that I would find my truth.
Letting go is the reason I chose Africa. It was about as far away as I
could get from Utah and still remain gravity bound. I felt I had completed
a creative era in my life and needed to move forward. I was becoming tired
of my graphic design business. I felt like I was too involved in my daughter
and grandchildren's lives. I felt bound by old ties. I needed some time
alone. I wanted to paint. I craved simplicity. I knew that the healing would
have to do with the passing of time. I decided on being away two months.
The two months began with a week at Cheetah View Ranch, my base camp.
Before I could paint, I had to go through what I call the "Africa Learning
Curve." To survive in Africa you must become proficient at carrying extra gas and water, having
a compass or global positioning system with you, carrying at least two spare
tires (and making sure you have the expertise to change them), learning to
go to town and not get anything stolen, develop a search pattern for snakes
and other wildlife, obtain a mosquito net, learn to understand the Afrikaners
English dialect, and basically stay alert.
In preparing to paint, I try to
obtain the art materials that I haven't been able to take on the airlines.
I need Liquin, gesso, turpentine and boards. The last two are easy. The
first two more difficult. The Liquin is an absolute necessity for painting
in such heat and wind; without it the paint won't paint. It takes a week
and fourteen phone calls to Windhoek (Namibia's largest city) to get it..
I can't find gesso. I'm using an acrylic house paint primer, which I find
I like better than gesso because I can sand it lightly and get a very smooth
ground.
Deciding to go to Namibia to practice plein air painting,
in retrospect, was absolute insanity. Plein air painting should be done
in the South of France, where figures sit at cool and shady tables, with
warm dappled sunlight spilling over everything. Impressionism could never
have taken place in Africa.
| Trent Alvey's work from Africa will be on display at the Artspace Forum Gallery, 511 W 200 S thru July 16th.
| |
|
|
Artist Profile : Salt Lake City
The Art of Artist Restoration
Karen Andrews Comes Out of Hiding
by Shawn Rossiter
Aaron
Moffet likes to go garage-saling occasionally. Usually, he is just
looking for a good book to read or maybe a toy car for his young son.
But in the back of his mind are the urban legends of finding an art treasure
being sold for a pittance. Maybe a Maynard Dixon sketch or an unknown
Minerva Teichert.
Moffett was thinking just
this as he went trolling the streets of east side Salt Lake City last
fall. But instead of finding a lost painting, Moffett rediscovered
an artist.
Public Issues: Salt Lake City
Park Your Art
Is there something
rotten in the park of pioneer? Or is that just the toilets?
by Lisa
Oliver & Linda Bergstrom
Are you looking for a place to "park your art" in the beauty
of the out-of-doors, and take advantage of the summer crowds?
As the weather warms, a unique transformation is quietly
taking place just west of downtown Salt Lake City in an elderly plot
known as Pioneer Park. For the last few summers, individual artists
-- not commonly part of any one organization -- have increasingly come
together and transformed the ordinarily seedy south side of the park
into a cohesive menagerie of artistic expression. They have grown
steadily alongside the Farmer's Market, known for its powerhouse of
produce, as well as arts and crafts.
But all may not be well in Parksville. As the Farmer's
Market continues to expand and thrive, so do the numbers of artists
in the park, both within and outside the Market.
|
