Recently Read: Local Artist
At the Height of Her Powers A New Book on the Art of Bonnie Posselli
When I heard that a new book about Bonnie Posselli was available, I jumped at the chance to write a review. I remember taking a week-long painting class from Posselli several years ago where we were challenged to paint en plein air every day. This was my first experience painting out of doors. Posselli made plein-air painting seem easy and more than ten years later I still enjoy wrestling with paint, canvas and easel outside in the wild.
Bonnie Posselli is one of Utah's premier landscape painters who works and teaches out of her Sugar House studio. In the middle of a fruitful painting career, Posselli has self-published a lovely coffee table book with funding from Zions Bank. Printed in China, the 120 page book includes 92 pages of color images of her paintings on nice card stock, with 13 detailed images that give a close up view of the artist's technique. The book also includes two reproductions of her pencil drawings and a pair photos of the artist working on location at her easel with a clear view of her palette.
The book begins with a gentle introduction written by Todd Posselli, the artist's son, sharing some of his early childhood memories of watching Posselli develop a painting at home and also coming across her work in a public building.
Posselli explained to me that she purposefully chose to keep the personal history section in the book short in order to focus on the artwork and the author John Keahey manages to use very few words to give me further reason to respect Posselli. Two things in his essay particularly interested me: as a single parent, Posselli supported her family by painting; and for the last thirty years Posselli has produced an average of 80 paintings per year. She became a painter under tremendous odds and her work ethic sets a tough standard.
In the essay, we also learn that Posselli's art talent emerged while working with a group of plein-air painters organized by Ken Baxter. Painting with this group gave the artist an opportunity to interact with and observe many respected Utah landscape painters whose influence and encouragement nourished Posselli's latent talent. She began to visualize herself as a serious painter, and after a short foray into illustration she put her whole heart into landscape painting.
A later development in her career came when an art patron gave Posselli the surprising opportunity to travel to foreign cities to paint and in the book we see the positive result in her works from other lands.
Connie Disney, the book designer, chose to sprinkle the book with quotes from John F. Carlson (who wrote Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting which is known as the "bible" for landscape painters) and Richard Schmidt (a nationally recognized instructor and artist) alongside appropriate quotes from Posselli: all serve to balance out the text and create a nice intermission between painting images.
It was interesting to discuss the book-making process with Posselli. Our discussion made me think of Sue Martin's article about art publishing in the December 2007 edition of 15 Bytes. For Posselli, publishing the book has been a three-year effort. After an initial attempt failed, Posselli took a step back and re-evaluated. She determined to simplify the book and make it more than just a teaching tool. It became a coffee table book with a plethora of nice images preceded by enough explanation of technique and procedure to satisfy both the student and the art collector. The result is a book packed with full color images and close up views illustrating her technique that will be of interest to both audiences.
Bibliophiles may be disappointed that the book doesn't have a dust jacket and that there are a few misspellings missed by the editor. With only a couple of exceptions, the reproductions are exquisite. The book and the career are quite an accomplishment. Posselli is a generous instructor, willing to share her painting approach with her students. This book will effectively serve as an instructor's aide and also a memoir worthy of interest to the collector.
The paintings in this book demonstrate Posselli's versatility and span her career. Included is a wide selection of her paintings from the past decade. Along with her signature images of standing trees with light and distant landscape shapes shining through reminding the viewer of brilliant leaded glass, there are images of snowscapes, mountain scenes, birds, water scenes, pastoral scenes of sheep, cows and horses, images from distant lands such as Peru and France The book is a treasure trove of dazzling images, presenting an artist at the height of her power. The few words that are included give us just enough to validate what we see with our eyes and to appreciate that Bonnie Posselli is an artist worthy of respect in the landscape tradition.
AoU News
Book Reviews and More at the Bytes Blog
In 2008 you'll find even more 15 Bytes content at the 15 Bytes blog, Extra! Extra!. On the blog, we will post short articles on happenings in the art world, locally and beyond. You won't have to wait for a month for this news, however; we'll post them as soon as we write them, so be sure to check the blog often.
The blog will also feature a weekly book review. The selections reviewed will come from large publishing houses, University presses and local independents. You'll find historical analysis, art instruction, artist monographs and more. If you are a local artist who has published an art-related book and would like it considered for review, contact editor Shawn Rossiter at artistsofutah@netzero.net.
To access the Extra! Extra! blog visit the 15 Bytes home page and scroll down.
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Gallery Spotlight: Salt Lake City
IAO Gallery's Creative Spark
by Sheryl Gillilan || photos by Steve Coray
The sleek font and strictly vocalic content of the marquee above one of Salt Lake's newest galleries has more than one gallery goer scratching their head. The IAO Gallery (pronounced ahy-oh) opened in June 2007 at the corner of 200 South and 500 West in the Artspace Bridge Project's space formerly occupied by Palmers Gallery. The name is an old Gnostic word that invokes the creative drive of the gallery's owners and the artists whose work fills the space. Meaning wisdom and creation, iao is believed to be the word the female emanation of God, Aeon Sophia, pronounced and brought into being the material world. It is also related to the biblical phrase "I am Alpha and Omega . . . "
Co-owners Shadna and his brother, James Sieger, opened the gallery with the goal of nurturing artists and giving them the opportunity to show their work in a supportive setting. Specifically, the brothers wanted to offer artists "unique and poetic ways in which to express themselves, their ideas, feelings and opinions."
The road to opening IAO Gallery is long and twisted, beginning in Shadna's childhood. He was always drawing when he was a kid, he says, and remembers a trip to the library as an eight year old when he discovered Michelangelo's drawings for the Sistine Chapel. Shadna says he was amazed to discover someone could take a pencil to paper and create something out of nothing. He realized then that an artist really puts him or herself into the art, and that the finished work is truly "an echo of the soul."
Shadna grew up in a family of, originally, eight, and later, fifteen, when his parents adopted seven additional children. They moved frequently due to his father's occupation as a computer programmer. Because he grew up in multiple states, Shadna was exposed to a myriad of art that fueled his interest in all types of artists and their work. After attending high school in Bountiful, studying visual arts at Weber State, and quitting an unsatisfying job as a paralegal, five years ago Shadna found himself in the art world, where he thrives and has remained ever since.
Concomitant with his move to the artists' realm, Shadna experienced a different transition when he changed his name from the one he was given at birth. He felt strongly that his spirituality was growing, and he wanted a name to reflect his new self. He therefore consulted a mystic who, in a trancelike state, "read his Akashic Record," essentially the universe's super computer system that is believed to contain the entire history of every soul since the dawn of creation. The mystic proposed the name Shadna as a suitable reflection of his new being. Although there is no particular meaning associated with it, Shadna believed the name felt right and his friends agreed.
In February 2007, Shadna's brother Eric was killed in Iraq. He left an inheritance to another brother, James, who wanted to financially back Shadna's dream to open a gallery. Although Shadna is the day-to-day operating partner of the gallery, both brothers share the goal of creating something lasting and finding "the creative spark in artists" that they can share with the public.
The IAO Gallery is filled with eclectic art from a variety of artists that Shadna hopes will appeal to all sectors of the public. Each artist usually shows for three months, but may have work continue on consignment if demand is high. Currently, the work ranges from large sculptures created by Utah State University professor JinMan Jo, to contour face drawings of Julie Danson, to varied landscapes of Darrell Thomas and jewelry made by the owners' sister, Sabrina Sieger. There is also a section in the front of the gallery dedicated to poetry books and smaller, less expensive pieces of art.
Shadna has a real commitment to doing more than just showing the work of artists. He wants to help them build a national base of support and expand their own artistic creativity. Sydney Bowman is one of the first artists Shadna "collected" because he loves the spiritual nature of her work. Painted in a hyper-realistic style, Bowman usually creates each work in shades of one major color and titles each piece after the different energy chakras. Shadna hopes to broaden Bowman's exposure to the public by carrying some limited edition giclee prints of her work because he believes that "everyone deserves to own art, not just the wealthy."
Future plans for the gallery include investigating the possibility of featuring art films (à la Andy Warhol) and hosting a juried show sponsored by the Utah Pride Center as part of their Winter Pride Festival, February 8-17.
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