Karen Andrews . . . from
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Moffett was traveling the Harvard/Yale area of Salt Lake when
he stopped at a home where Ron Andrews was manning his garage sale.
After looking through some furniture that was for sale, Moffett asked
Andrews if, by chance, he had any artwork. Andrews responded by saying,
"Yeah, I've got a whole house full of paintings, but no one ever gets to
see them." Andrews peeked in the house and called to his wife, "Karen,
can this fellow come see your paintings?"
Moffett was suddenly hesitant, wondering what he had gotten
himself into. Would he be stepping in to look at the work of some
Sunday painter? Karen Andrews came to the door, looked Moffett over and let him in. He was bowled
over. "I thought 'Wow, these are great,'" Moffett says. He came back with
his wife to take a look. "I knew we'd like one for ourselves, if
we could afford it, and I knew that there would be a market for Karen's
work."
To Moffett's delight, Karen Andrews was no Sunday painter.
For almost twenty years during the seventies and eighties she had
painted and exhibited professionally in Utah. She had shown at
the Springville Museum, the Salt Lake Art Center, the Art Barn and
the Utah Arts Council's state shows, where she received a purchase
award, an honorable mention, and was selected for a number of traveling
exhibitions. George Dibble had written about her a number of times in the Salt
Lake Tribune.
All was going well. In March of 1985 she was even
given a One Woman show at Sylvester's in Salt Lake City.
But then, abruptly, she stopped exhibiting. She basically disappeared.
When Moffett came knocking on her door last fall, she had not
shown things publicly for almost twenty years.
When Moffett, who
is a board member of Artists of Utah and has an avid interest in the
visual arts, discovered Andrews was not exhibiting her work, he was
eager to see it get into the public view. With her permission, he began
asking around, trying to find the best place for her to show. He introduced
Andrews to Pam O'Mara, owner of Utah Artist
Hands Gallery
. O'Mara jumped at the chance to begin showing Andrews' pieces.
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She also
has an affinity for night scenes, when darkness has taken over and she
uses the lights of an old mill or a train yard to create her dynamic compositions.
She likes the winter and night for painting -- times when few people
are around.
Of her painting "Night Shift" she says, "It's people in there working
and I'm just out there alone looking at the beauty of the building.
The windows looked like stained glass to me."
The building in "Night Shift" was near Garfield but it has been
razed since. "I had no idea
it was going to be razed. I kept driving out there while I was working
on it. I went out there one day and it was gone -- while I was still working
on it."
Andrews was an outdoor painter for a long time, working on site for
her paintings. A favorite location was a family cabin built near the Uintahs. Her father, a carpenter, and her mother (who, Karen says, called herself the first hippy) built it and even lived there for a time with no heat or electricity.
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SUMMER 2003:
UTAH'S ART FESTIVALS
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June 19 thru 22
Admission Prices
Adults $7.00
Seniors (60+) $3.50
Lunchtime Special: $3.50
(noon – 3:00 p.m. Thu/Fri)
Kids 12 and under free
Festival Hours
Thursday June 19 through
Sunday June 22
Noon – 11 p.m.
Festival Location
Library Square
400 South 200 East
Salt Lake City Utah
Utah Arts Festival
artsfest@xmission.com
In The Gallery at Library
Square
SLC Public Library, 210
East 400 South- level 4
Opening Reception
June 5, 7:00 - 8:30 PM
The Utah Arts Festival
annual exhibition will feature the artists represented
by members of the Salt Lake Gallery Association (SLGA). A UAF ticket is not necessary. The exhibition may be accessed through the library's main entrance.
August 1 - 3
The 34th annual
Park City Arts Festival
features jewelry, pottery,
crafts, fine art, food and fun.
September 19 and 20
Bluff Community
Center in Bluff, Utah. The Fair will open on
Friday the 19th at 12:00 noon and go till 5:00 p.m., and on
Saturday the 20th from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The Bluff County Arts Fair will be on the same
weekend as the Sand Island Bluegrass Festival that
takes place west of Bluff at Sand Island Campground
in the evenings.
For information
about Bluff go to
http://www.bluffutah.org
interested artists
contact:
Bluff Community
Arts Fair Committee
PO Box 407
Bluff, UT
84512
435-672-2424
sundog@frontiernet.net
The SUGAR HOUSE MERCHANTS
ASSOCIATION presents the fourth annual Sugar House Arts Festival on Friday,
July 4, 2003. Boasting Salt Lake City's premier artists and craftsmen,
festival-goers will enjoy perusing booths to live music and delicious
food. Located in the heart of Sugar House, the festival is designed
to enhance 4th of July activities traditionally held at Sugar House Park,
where 100,000 visitors were in attendance last year.
Artists are encouraged to apply for a booth. For
more information or any questions, please call Molly Campbell
at (801) 487-4138, Tuesday through Friday 9 am - 5:30 pm and Saturdays
8 am - 5 pm. .
August 16 - 18
The
9th Annual
Helper Arts Festival
will be held in downtown
Historic Helper. The festival will be August
15-17, 2003, with exhibition space provided Saturday,
August 16, and Sunday, August 17th.
The Helper Arts Festival
will feature a working Children's Art Yard, a youth
Art Exhibit and a Plein Air Competition. The festival
features performing art stages and entertainment
that includes: country, pop, jazz, live theatre groups,
and poetry/book readings. The festival is an outdoor event
that is free to the public with attendance averaging
5000+.
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The cabin had a big influence on her development and she painted the
area often. She and her husband purchased
it from her parents in 1987. "It was the perfect composition of hills,"
she recalls.
"A friend of mine who's
an artist says 'I think I know where you get all the bigness from in your
paintings. You walk down the yard and here are these big beautiful
hills and they just zoom over you.'"
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"When I first saw Karen's work," O'Mara says, "I was excited because
it was so unique. It feels like she paints with a lot of emotion."
Her fondness for the artist is as strong as it is for the work. "Karen
and I immediately hit it off. I've enjoyed knowing her immensely."
Andrews is
equally grateful to have met O'Mara. "I really think the world of
Pam. It seems like back when I was showing people didn't treat
artists with respect the way she treats her artists. And I think that's
really important."
The issue of how she and her work are treated is important to
Andrews because it is central to the reason she stopped exhibiting twenty
years ago. While her One Woman exhibition at Sylvesters was up, an artist
acquaintance of Andrews came to the gallery one day along with his girlfriend.
The girlfriend told the gallery staff she was Andrews' cousin and was there
to photograph the work.
Soon after,
Andrews saw an advertisement for an exhibit at the Kimball Art Center which happened to feature the work of that particular artist acquaintance. When she went to the show, she realized that his paintings
were identical to hers. He had used the same colors, employed the
same design, painted the same scenes. The only difference was that he had
painted in watercolor rather than oils, Andrews' medium.
Andrews
was surprised and hurt. A naturally shy person, she felt her personal
life had been invaded, her ideas burglarized. Then she found out
that it was a good friend of hers that had suggested the artist (i.e.
thief) take the pictures. "When I found out my friend was kind of behind
it, it was devastating, and I thought, "Oh, I'll never show my stuff again.'"
So, for nearly
twenty years she continued painting, giving her work to friends and family
but not exhibiting them publicly. Andrews does not necessarily regret
her time in seclusion. "It was kind of a big relief, not showing for a
while. It was good to do it on my own. My paintings got so much better."
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Because of her training of painting en plein air Andrews was suprised when she took a class from Earl Jones and he taught them
how to paint from photographs. In the end, though, she was happy
for the instruction. When she developed back problems she found it
difficult to paint on site. And she has found that the studio experience
fits her style better.
"When I'm starting a painting first I like to brown them in. I take a long time drawing my painting.
My "New Yorks" can take me three months sometimes, just getting it the
way I want it. Nothing's perfect in nature, so when I used to paint
out I might paint it and then I would turn south and see something I
like and throw that in. That's the beauty of painting, making it yours."
Andrews has come out of hiding to show us what she has made her
own. Currently in a two-woman show with M'lisa Paulsen at
Utah Artist Hands she is exhibiting both old and new works. All of
it is recent, however, to those outside of her intimate circle.
Andrews is very happy with the exhibition, with her meeting Moffett and
O'Mara and her steps back into the art community. This year has been a time
of closure and new beginnings for her.
Moffett's encounter with Andrews could not have come at a more opportune
time. Andrews was at a turning point in her life, which just needed a
little nudge to get her back into the art community. The garage sale furniture
which had attracted Moffett was from the Andrews' cabin. They were in the
process of selling it when they met Moffett. "I think selling the
cabin was good for me. It helped me to learn to just let things go. Now
I'm more comfortable with having my work out there."
The sale of the cabin has helped pay for a new studio, which will
help get more of her work "out there."
Andrews used to paint in an attic, accessible only by a pull down
ladder. The space inside was tight and the descent precarious.
"One time I was stepping down on the very top step. I had my
hands full of dirty brushes and I thought of one I'd left behind. And
so I turned, lost my footing and fell. I thought, 'This is all over for me.'"
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On the other hand, she is also happy to be exhibiting once again.
O'Mara began hanging some of Andrews' pieces last fall. "The response to her work has been really, really positive," O'Mara says. "Most particularly her trains. Men seem to gravitate towards her trains. And people are really interested in meeting who painted these, more so than other artists."
Which is ironic, since Andrews is by nature a shy person. "I'm more
comfortable with alone time, being in isolation," she says.
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When she jokes to a friend that she's just waiting for her ship to
come in, he tells her "You'd just torpedo it out to sea."
Andrews' works do seem to have a very solitary quality to them.
They are not lonely paintings, but they are scenes viewed by a person
alone. She often paints that magical time of twilight when the
sun has set but darkness has not yet taken over. She may paint the back of an old building at dusk. No figures are seen. Everyone has gone home for dinner. What is unique about her pieces is
that she doesn't seem to "show" the scene, as if it's meant to say, "Hey,
look at this." The scenes are done for herself and the viewer is almost a
voyeur into her personal moments.
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Luckily there were no broken bones. But the Andrews knew it was time for a new studio, especially now that Karen would be exhibiting. The studio, an addition to her home with access to her former
attic space, is full of light and room. It's a perfect place to paint, which
she is eager to do.
"Painting's just
a part of my life. When I went through that devestating experience after
the show I really felt it was the painting that was getting me down.
But, really, I was painting too much. I was painting for shows and
stuff. Even though it seemed like I was successful, it was hard for
me. So really, that kick in the pants turned out to be a good experience
for me. Because I really started painting for myself, purely for the joy
of painting. Your paintings really start to get better when you paint
that way."
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"Karen Andrews and M'lisa Paulsen" can be seen at Utah Artist Hands, 61
West 100 South, SLC through July 16th.
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