Studio Art Archives - BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications

Art Alumni Feature: Jen Harmon Allen

admin — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 16:47:18 +0000

After years of perfecting a non-traditional sculpting method amidst personal trial, Jennifer Harmon Allen is ready to be patient with more delicate processes A native of Madison, Connecticut, Jen Harmon Allen first pursued higher education at Wellesley College in nearby Massachusetts in 1991. While she was thrilled to be studying at a prestigious college, Allen was also a fledgling underclassman struggling to discover her strengths. She described her younger self as “lost and intimidated.” But after a series of coincidences landed Allen in an advanced sculpture class —despite not taking the prerequisite course — it didn’t take long to realize she had a natural gift for sculpting. “I started making sculptures very intuitively, which was surprising to both me and my teacher [Carlos Dorrien],” Allen recalled. “Carlos ran a bronze casting system in our teeny school. He became my mentor, and I started doing bronze work.” After graduating from Wellesley with a BA in Studio Art and serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Houston, Texas, Allen searched for MFA programs to further her sculpture training. BYU was one of a few schools with a foundry that still taught traditional techniques. In the ‘90s when Allen started, BYU’s sculpture program was run by Neil Hadlock — who she characterized as “a great fabricator and a real metal genius.” Read the full article written by Abby Weidmer at art.byu.edu.

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PARC Collective: Championing Contemporary Art In Utah

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 15:50:08 +0000

Founded by three BYU art alumni, Utah’s newest contemporary art platform aims to create opportunities for working artists within the state In addition to their status as BYU alumni, the founders of PARC Collective — Utah’s latest contemporary art initiative — all have something in common. After graduating from BYU, they earned MFAs in communities that embrace alternative gallery spaces, including Chicago, IL, Baltimore, MD, and Eugene, OR. Their graduate experiences built on a foundation nurtured during their undergraduate years by then-new professor Daniel Everett, who regularly curated exhibitions for student artists. Upon returning to Utah post-graduate school, Tiana Birrell, Art Morrill, and Ron Linn hoped to perpetuate the same DIY energy they experienced as students. They reconnected in Utah and, after consulting Associate Professor Chris Lynn, launched the curatorial collective that became known as PARC. Since its inception in 2019, PARC’s goal has been to strengthen Utah’s art community and to create opportunities for artists — particularly within contemporary art. While members of PARC commend Utah-based galleries and museums for their work, they view themselves as meeting a crucial need for contemporary art spaces and resources. “We wanted to create something that will grow and afford artists the opportunity to branch out and build their career here in a viable way,” Morrill said. “They don’t have to go to a bigger art hub in order to have a fulfilling experience as an artist.” Last December PARC hosted its first exhibition, “dis/place,” at Provo Studio, which featured 17 Utah-based artists and six writers, and was intended to be the first installment in a quarterly series. But Provo Studio shut down shortly after PARC’s inaugural show, motivating the founders to interview artists around the state in the interim. In conducting studio visits, they connected with Sarah Waldron Brinton, another BYU alum who soon joined the team. Read the full article written by Abby Weidmer at art.byu.edu.

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Art Alumni Feature: Pam Bowman

admin — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 15:16:44 +0000

From fine craft to fine art, installation artist Pam Bowman has always been a maker of things “I’ve always been a maker of things,” said Pam Bowman, who for years worked in fine crafts. “I wanted to do things that were creative and use my hands.” For 20 years after receiving a bachelor’s degree from BYU in interior design, Bowman was primarily a stay-at-home mother to three boys. She was also an accomplished weaver, unsatisfied with the conceptual limitations of traditional basketry. She attended national conferences in the field, where she always sought out the presenter with a background in studio art. Frequent contact with artists working across art and craft elevated Bowman’s creativity, and she started winning awards. Return to BYU When Bowman’s husband retired from the Air Force and took a faculty position teaching mechanical engineering at BYU, Bowman took advantage of her tuition benefit as an employee spouse and returned to school. Knowing she wanted to study 3D art, she planned to earn a BFA. But when she learned that BYU allowed only one bachelor’s degree per student, she decided to get an MFA instead. “I didn’t realize what an ambitious thing that was,” Bowman said, “but it was the right decision.” Read more about Bowman in the full article written by Abby Weidmer at art.byu.edu.

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BYU Magazine: Playing with Pattern

admin — Fri, 15 May 2020 18:34:11 +0000

A solo exhibition in a reputable museum is something that few artists ever achieve, usually only after years of work. But for BYU art student Rachel A. Henriksen (’20), the opportunity found her. The offer came from Jared Steffensen, director of the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA), after he saw one of her drawings in the Bountiful Davis Art Show. “It was a huge honor,” says Henriksen. “That doesn’t happen; you usually have to apply. I was on cloud nine.” Henriksen’s show Knew/New recently closed after several months on display in the UMOCA. Read the full article by Erin Johnston at magazine.byu.edu.

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Rachel Henriksen on Exploring through Art, Building Relationships

Anelise Leishman — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 17:51:49 +0000

Henriksen — a native of Provo, Utah — will graduate with a BFA in studio art on April 24, 2020 Rachel Henriksen came to BYU confident that art was her calling. “I’m one of those lucky people that already knew what they were going to do,” she said. Henriksen was drawn to art because it allows her to engage with a wide variety of other interests, including philosophy, psychology and sociology. “Some of the most amazing art I’ve seen is interdisciplinary, where an artist will explore scientific concepts abstractly through art instead of trying to explain them with data, numbers and logic,” said Henriksen. After being accepted into the BFA program, she left to serve a mission — but upon returning home, she began to feel lost. “I felt like I didn’t know how to do art anymore,” said Henriksen. “It felt like a selfish pursuit when I had just been serving so many other people. Art felt like an indulgence.” It wasn’t long, however, before she felt at home in the art program. “The faculty and students in the art program pulled me in,” said Henriksen. “They’re really special people, and I think that’s what drew me to the major.” Her most memorable experiences in the program include an advanced art summer intensive in 2017, during which she and her peers traveled around Utah and LA, visiting land art installations such as the Spiral Jetty and Sun Tunnels and drawing inspiration from museums and landscapes. Henriksen also interned as an art assistant in Berlin for a summer. Henriksen’s most challenging — and rewarding — experience while at BYU was her solo show “knew/new” at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, inspired by time she spent with her grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. She found out about the opportunity in mid-September of 2019, and was tasked with creating a full show of her own work by the end of October. “It was a short turnaround, and really intimidating being invited to do this at a notable museum,” said Henriksen. “But it really pushed me — I knew I could do it if I put my mind to it, and so I did.” Henriksen is currently applying for residency programs and is planning on taking some time post-graduation to experiment with her art. “I eventually want to go to grad school, but I want to take a few years off and see what I make without the influence of academic critique,” she said. An independent person by nature, Henriksen has learned throughout her college career how to reach out and ask for help from professors, friends and the Savior. “I’m a stubborn person when it comes to doing things on my own; I feel like I have to prove to people that I can carry everything by myself even though it’s way too heavy for me,” said Henriksen. “But there have been so many times in this program where I’ve needed to reach out. I recognized it as giving other people an opportunity to serve by asking for help, instead of selfishly denying them that opportunity.” Henriksen’s advice to prospective art students is to get to know their faculty and peers and to take advantage of opportunities to build a network of strong relationships. “You can take those relationships beyond school and have a network of people that you can turn to after college. Being an art major is not necessarily something that leads you to a lucrative job right away,” said Henriksen. “You have to work your way through the world and figure out your own path. Having people to turn to is a good thing.” Q&A WITH RACHEL HENRIKSEN, BFA ‘20 ART | STUDIO ART What did you want to be when you grew up? “My mom said I always used to tell her I wanted to be a street performer who played guitar or danced for money. And then that turned into wanting to be on Broadway, until I realized I really can’t dance or sing.” What was your favorite class that you took at BYU? “I think most of my favorite classes were the art theory classes for my major — the ones that were less about technique in art, and more about ideas and concepts and theories.” Is there a specific work or practitioner in your field that has had a particularly strong influence on you? “There’s a contemporary artist named Felix Gonzales Torres who passed away only a few years ago. He’s a conceptual artist who creates really powerful works in really simple ways. He uses a lot of universal themes that we all experience and feel, like love and loss.” Do you have a hidden talent? “I’m unusually good at finding really cool stuff at yard sales and thrift stores — just funky stuff that is hidden in weird places. That comes in handy, especially as an artist.” What is your favorite snack for between classes? “I usually have some sort of dried fruit with me. Right now I really like apricots.”

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Department Of Art Faculty Connect With Local Educators In First Of New Workshop Series

Anelise Leishman — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 18:41:27 +0000

The on-campus workshop series resumes in June, with instruction in drawing, intaglio printmaking, mixed media monotyping and screenprinting At the center of a circle of local art teachers, BYU ceramics studio manager James Robertson sat at a wheel demonstrating how to teach students to form a clay cylinder with uniform thickness — no easy task for first-time ceramicists. “I ask everyone who is a beginner, ‘what is something you’re really good at?’” said Robertson. “It could be a musical instrument, a sport or even video games. When you started, were you really good? No. But did you spend a lot of time practicing it? That’s what this takes.” On Feb. 7–8, the Department of Art hosted a two-day ceramics workshop for local high school teachers, the first of a series of workshops and events for art educators. Through demonstrations, presentations and hands-on coaching, workshop participants were able to work with faculty in the Department of Art on skills such as hand molding, sculpting faces and throwing basic forms on a pottery wheel. The workshop fostered an exchange of knowledge in which local educators and BYU faculty shared how they approach teaching different techniques to their students. “I loved interacting with lively and vital teachers and artists who have many of the same goals for their students as we have in the Department of Art,” said professor Brian Christensen, coordinator of BYU’s 3D studio area. “Getting your hands in clay and solving problems on the spot in a group of peers is an invigorating and collaborative experience.” Apart from honing their skills and cultivating connections with the community, these workshops offer local teachers the opportunity to help their students forge a path to a degree in art at BYU. “There are many misconceptions about having a career in art,” said professor Jen Watson. “While it is difficult to change perceptions, we would like to educate our local and regional high school students about art, about its importance within communities and the fruitful careers that come from majoring in it, especially at BYU.” Plans for future workshops and events for teachers and students also include tours of department facilities, classroom visits and regional information sessions. In February and March, representatives from the Department of Art will host department information sessions in Arizona and California. At these events, educators will have the opportunity to ask questions about the Department of Art, the art major, scholarships and even options for non-majors who want to continue making art at BYU. “We want to inform high school educators in particular about the strengths of our department, and to develop a relationship of trust that will encourage them to recommend BYU’s Department of Art to their best senior students seeking higher education,” said Christensen. “We are getting the word out that BYU admissions has a new emphasis on personal essays, which can be inclusive of some art-inclined students who would not have been as competitive with test scores and GPA as the overwhelming admission criteria.” Four five-day workshops will be offered in the spring and summer. All workshops will have a reasonable place-holding fee and some material costs, but will otherwise be free of charge. Teachers participants can use the workshops for Utah State Board of Education licensure points. The next workshop in the series, which will take place in the first week of June, will focus on figure drawing, sketchbook development and mono printing. Art professor Fidalis Buehler is developing the workshop with other faculty members. “The Department of Art wants to engage with local art educators, as they have the potential to impact futures one way or another,” said Watson. “Ultimately, we want to hang out with them, we want to generate enthusiasm about art, creative thinking and careers in art for their students.”

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Seeing with the Eyes of an Artist

admin — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 17:00:34 +0000

Greg S. (BFA ’17) and Jean Mcfarland Bean (BA ’17) were BYU dropouts. After a baby and an illness derailed their studies in the 1980s, they decided to leave BYU and head to Washington state. Greg, who had been working nights in Utah with the Springville Police Department, got a job as an officer in Bellevue, Washington, and was eventually promoted to detective. One day his lieutenant ordered him to a weeklong forensic-art class. Then a self-described “art imbecile,” Greg hadn’t put pencil to paper since middle school; this class began a lifelong journey into art. The teacher began by saying that art isn’t about the pencil in your hand, but about what you can see. Those words “literally changed my life and changed the way I saw people,” says Greg. By the end of the week, he could draw “a decent-looking human head,” and by the end of his career on the force, he had become the foremost forensic artist in the Seattle area, helping apprehend scores of criminals with his composite sketches. Meanwhile, Jean developed her own native interest in art. Thirty years after leaving Provo, the Beans received a clear prompting that, even though it was early, it was time for Greg to retire from the police force, and even though it was late, they needed to return to BYU. Read more at magazine.byu.edu More About the Beans “We work on commissions in our home studio together, we go out and paint together, we go to museums together,” says Greg about spending time with his wife, Jean. Their mutual love of art has provided a way for the Beans to grow together, including getting their art degrees at BYU as older students after early retirement. They’ve traveled to galleries all over and spent countless hours discussing artists and paintings. View some of their work at magazine.byu.edu

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The Strength of an Art Major: Annelise Duque Talks About Graduation, Looks to the Future

Mason Graham — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 19:03:21 +0000

Duque will speak at the Department of Art and Department of Design Convocation at 12 p.m. on April 26 Annelise Duque knew she wanted to be an artist from a fairly young age. Having been raised by two professors — one of whom was a ceramic artist — Annelise decided on her career path early on. However, she originally planned on studying illustration, since she thought it would help her on that journey. “I had a professor in a non-major watercolor class I took for fun, and she had gotten her BFA in the studio art program here at BYU,” Duque said. “She said, ‘Annelise, do you know what illustration really entails?’ Because I thought that it was all kids books, but it turns out it’s a lot more commission-based.” Wanting to make more of her own artistic decisions, Duque decided studio art was closer to what she was looking for in a major and career path. “The art program, compared to the design and illustration programs, is more about individual artists and what they want to do and their own path,” Duque said. “They’re still great, just different. So, I started making art more about myself.” Her experience in the Department of Art has been overwhelmingly positive, she says. She found her professors to be very caring and personally invested. The biggest standout moment to her was when her professor, Joe Ostraff, offered to give her the shirt off his back. “He was wearing this really cool long-sleeve white t-shirt with these graphic letters hand-printed onto it,” Duque said. She told him she liked the shirt and he asked if she’d like to have it. “I said, ‘Joe, I’m not going to take the literal shirt off of your back. I don’t need your shirt,’” Duque said. “Then the next day in class he just gave me the shirt all laundered and everything. I’m going to keep it forever.” Duque is hopeful looking to the future. While some see art degrees as less-than-useful, she insists that they are versatile. “When people ask you what you’re going to do once you graduate, a lot of people say, ‘I’m going to be an artist,’” Duque said. “A lot of people think that you just want to be an artist or you are going to try to be a high school art teacher or something, but our professors tell us all the time about students who have graduated in our program and now work as content creators or design consultants. An artistic background can help you get into new jobs.” Duque plans on working toward becoming an art professor. Having been raised by two professors, she says it runs in her blood. “I’ve always wanted to be a professor,” Duque said. “I think because of that, my professors have made an effort to find me teaching opportunities or jobs that could help me get to that point. They’ve provided me with so much resume material that has really made me confident.” The word of wisdom Duque would leave other students, particularly women, is to stop selling themselves short. Though the art program is mostly composed of women, there aren’t many women that go on to study in graduate school and there are even fewer female professors in the program. “You have to just keep going,” Duque said. “Follow your path, follow your dreams, even if it feels stupid.” Q&A with Annelise Duque, BFA ’19 Art | Art When you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up? “I was all over the place. I wanted to be an opera singer for probably the first eight years of my life, but then I wanted to be like my mom. She was a ceramic artist, and growing up she let me play around with clay and with paint and with all these different tools.” What’s your favorite snack to eat between classes? “I get the cheese sticks and the flaxseed tortilla chips that are shaped like hexagons. Our art classes are three hours long during lunch and nap time, so a little bit of protein and salt helps wake you up in your classes.” Who or what is your inspiration? “I am inspired by my advisor. Her name is Jen Watson and she is the coolest person in the world. She got her BFA here, her undergrad here, and then she quit art for ten years or something. She became a snowboard instructor and really got to know herself and what she wanted to do. After that long break she realized, ‘I can be an artist on my own terms.’ And so she went to grad school and then she got hired here.”

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Pearl Corry | Art: Studio Art | Honolulu, Hawaii

Rebecca Sumsion — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 16:09:48 +0000

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Design student teaches creativity through art

Bailey Fruit — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 21:24:58 +0000

Two-dimensional studio art major Emily Holt loves painting, cooking, four-wheeling and plans to become a teacher after graduation. Holt will speak in the April convocation for the Department of Art, where she will discuss the importance of creativity in day-to-day life. Holt grew up on a farm in Enterprise, Utah with her five younger brothers. Holt and her family grew hay, potatoes, corn and raised dairy cows. From a very young age, Holt loved art. “I used to get in trouble when I was only three years old, because I would draw on every surface,” Holt said. “The chairs, tables and walls—I used everything for art.” Holt now prides herself on pushing her limits in her art. Holt feels that actively creating gives her the ability to become someone new. “I enjoy the discomfort of doing things outside the norm, just pushing boundaries through art and teaching and making people think in new ways to see things they never expected before,” Holt said. In her time at BYU Holt attended the BYU Jerusalem study abroad, worked as a TA, co-curated an exhibition at Alpine Village, worked as an artist’s assistant for Irish artist Joanna Kidney and received both a grant and scholarship for art projects. While at BYU Holt has been a part of the licensure program, giving her the opportunity to student teach for nine weeks at Providence Junior High as well as nine weeks at Harvest Elementary School. Holt will speak in convocation about the intersection of the creative process of finding oneself. “We aren’t going to figure out who we are during our first day at BYU, we become that through a process and once we graduate we continue that process,” Holt said. “Everything we do in life is a becoming process.” For Holt, art has been integral in that becoming process. Click here to the view the graduation live stream.

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