Salt Lake City artist Willamarie Huelskamp On the Spot . . .
1) What are you reading lately?
-I am reading "Wicked, The life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West", by Gregory Maguire. And hoping to read, "Son of a Witch" its sequel next.
2)What hangs above your mantel?
-Hanging over my fireplace is a new painting called "Girl Friends"
3) If you could choose any artist (living or dead) to paint or sculpt your portrait, who would it be and why?
-If I could have any artist paint me I would choose Alice Neel because she captures the essence of her subjects.
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15 Bytes is published monthly (well almost), by Artists of Utah, a non-profit organization.
We will not be publishing a January 2006 edition but will resume publishing in February 2006. 15 Bytes is published on the first Wednesday of the month.
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Recently Read
Holiday Gift Suggestions from our Readers
We asked some of our artists to give us suggestions for Holiday Gift Giving. If you have an artist or art lover on your list, these books might be a great gift these year. Click on the links to buy from amazon.com and you will be helping to finance 15 Bytes.
The most timely consideration for an art book this year would be Painters of the Wasatch Mountains, co-authored by the recently deceased University of Utah art history professor, Robert S. Olpin and in local bookstores this week. Published by the Museum of Utah Art and History and co-authored by its former director, Tom Rugh, as well as Ann W. Orton, the book is an examination of the distinct regional artists who have painted along this Utah mountain range. The scope of the book's essay begins with the early white settlers in the area and follows artistic developments through the nineteenth century. The essay is equally strong in historical detail and artistic insights and is delivered in the conversational tone for which Olpin is known. The majority of the book consists of a series of color plates, almost three hundred in all and at least half of them full page images. The quality of the paintings and the reproductions is not always the best but the small inconsistencies in quality are made up by the quantity of the plates. The plates represent, nearly in equal quantity artists from all time periods up to the present day. Considering the essay's 19th-century focus, this makes the book feel somewhat disjointed as a whole and I can't help but feel that it is a "beginning" rather than a finished product.
Other books you might consider by Olpin are Waldo Midgley: Birds, animals, people, things, ; the encyclopedia style directory of artists, Artists of Utah; and, of course, Utah Painting and Sculpture, the authoritative book on Utah art written with Bill Seifrit and Verne Swanson. -- Shawn Rossiter
::I’m reading Dan McCaw,s new book titled A Proven Strategy for Creating Great Art. It’s not just about technique, but thinking about what you are doing and incorporating the mental end of the whole process. But the best part is all the color reproductions of his paintings! -- Debra Russell
::I suggest My Name is Red, a murder mystery in a community of miniature artists in Constantinople in the 1400's. -- Joanne Smith
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::I would recomend Art & Fear by David Bayles & Ted Orland. Art and Fear explores the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way.
Also, N. C. Wyeth: A Biography. by David Michaelis very well written and full of details, about the man that started the famed Wyeth art tradition. -- John Berry
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::The Optical Unconscious, Rosalind Krauss. I can’t get enough of Krauss’ American philosophical art criticism. Krauss presents a semiotic theory of art that I find fascinating. Her whole discussion of figure and ground, and if a figure exists then its counter “not figure” exists,” which means there is a “ground” and a “not ground” too. Figure, Not-figure, Ground and Not-ground mirror each other creating a visual tension, but her premise reaches beyond the surface of any image. Krauss’ heavy theory is worth wading through to get to her presentation of this semiotic relationship between Pollack, Picasso and Luna.
Return of the Real, Hal Foster. Foster points out how Krauss gets it wrong.
Just to balance out Krauss and Foster, More than Words, Illustrated letters from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, Liza Kirwin. -- Stefanie Dykes |
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::In the Making, Creative Options for Contemporary Art by Linda Weintraub. It has six sections titled: Scoping an audience, Sourcing inspiration, Crafting an artistic "self," Expressing an artistic attitude, Choosing a mission, and Measuring success -- Jim Frazer
::I am really enjoying my subscription to Plein Air Magazine...a beautiful magazine-- L'Deane Trueblood
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