Dilleen Marsh is an illustrator and painter who worked for many years as a designer for the LDS Church. She has illustrated 10 children’s books and exhibited her work in various shows and galleries. Illustrations from her book The Bamboo Cutter and The Moon Maiden were selected to appear in the Communication Arts Magazine Illustration Annual.  Her Instagram is an intriguing series of daily sketches (see below). Marsh lives in Utah.

Tell us about your career as an artist. When I was 8 years old I drew a baby chick with pencil on lined notebook paper. It was a wrinkled mess, but I distinctly remember thinking, ‘That was FUN!’ From that earliest art memory, I engaged in every art opportunity that came my way through elementary and middle school. In high school I was privileged to have an art teacher that really knew how to draw and taught us an academic approach to art. With that realistic approach to portrait and figure drawing I chose to be an illustrator, attending Utah State University for three years. Learned strong design and began painting the figure. Spent four years illustrating and designing in Studio City, California. I then returned to Utah in 1979 to be a designer for the LDS Church magazine, The New Era. I spent the day creating page spreads and art directing photographers and illustrators. At night I took drawing and painting classes, workshops, and did illustrations on my weekends and holidays. After 14 years I went home to my own studio to continue illustrating for Church magazines and others on a free-lance basis. All together, I have had more than a 30-year career in illustration. For 11 years while our children were young, I volunteered at their elementary school creating art committees, projects, and curriculum. For a season I taught some beginning illustration classes at BYU and illustrated 10 children’s books for Deseret Book, Thomas Nelson, and Leatherwood Press. Having moved to the southern part of Utah in 2006, I continue to oil paint figures and landscapes.

You once wrote, “I am the possibility of clearly, boldly, and joyfully communicating an idea through art.” Explain. “The emerging picture from…studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert—in anything,” writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin, from the book, Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. I have put in the hours and like a musician, writer, scientist, sports figure, or whomever, who has become competent at their craft, I can actually do the work. That means that if you want something produced in my sphere of expertise, I can do that. I am that possibility. The three descriptive words that follow are: clearly, boldly, joyfully. These are to keep me on track. Am I CLEARLY communicating an idea through my art rather than being so obscure that only a small group of art critics or elites will ever “’get it’? I’d like my art to communicate to the vast majority of humanity, at many levels. BOLDLY is with a bit of an edge, pushing creative and imaginative boundaries, but not abrasive. Primarily, BOLD is in a strong design. I do not want to dwell in shocking dark topics or misery to engage the viewer. Therefore, I chose to be JOYFUL in my art. This sometimes comes off as humorous, a celebration of beauty, or a poignant moment.

You are very active on social media. Does the Internet motivate you, support you, unnerve you, or something else? I am trying to find my way in an always shifting landscape of connecting with other people. I am grateful I live in a technological age. I WANT my art ideas to be seen by and inspire many people. Social media is a perfect platform for artists because it is so visual. Yes, it unnerves me a little to tap ‘update’ on a program because there may be annoying changes to adjust to. But I am amazed at the reach of the Internet. I am sharing art ideas with people in France, the Netherlands, Australia, Africa, Brooklyn, China… I am a better painter and designer because I have the privilege of viewing so much great stuff. It helps me sort out the mediocre. Over a year ago I started doing and posting on Instagram an ink drawing a day. I added a written commentary with each sketch. Had to economize my words. Began to look for “concepts”, not just any scene or subject. The original intent was to improve and maintain my drawing skills. Now I’m improving as a writer as well. As my ‘following’ grows, so does the structure of providing something of worth every day. It has required me to think and helps keep my eye/hand coordination tuned up. When I hashtag a topic or thought, my image joins a global community of similar intentioned individuals: fun, thoughtful, eye-opening. What a great education, but I haven’t figured out how to manage it all consistently across all the different media.

What’s next for you? Since this art thing is a self-generated endeavor, that question is always on my mind! I toy with self publishing children’s books that I write and illustrate, entering art shows to build a brand and finding galleries that love to sell my paintings online or off, ‘paying it forward’ by mentoring, blogging, and teaching, inviting the neighborhood kids over to mess up my studio with an art project, still doing an occasional illustration job, maybe turning my daily Instagram posts into little coffee table books, writing a novel…it is “a miracle to be anywhere in this vortex of art” (thank you, Robert Genn) and something will evolve if I continue to do the work and consider the possibilities as they come.

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Jarom Vogel is an illustrator and digital artist from the BYU Illustration program. Although an aspiring dentist, he will not be following in the small footsteps of Hermey the Elf. He lives in Utah.  

Tell us how you became an artist. I’ve always liked drawing – I think my earliest memories of it would be drawing during church (I’m sure I’m not alone in this on this site). I took art classes in junior high and high school and they were always some of my favorite classes. People seemed to think I was good at it (although looking back at some of that stuff, I’m not really sure why). I actually started out at BYU doing pre-dental courses and just took a few illustration classes on the side because I thought they would be fun. Gradually I ended up declaring an illustration major, got into the BFA program, and somewhere along the line decided I would hate being a dentist and gave up on that.

What do you think about ‘Mormon Art’? I have mixed feelings on this – on the one hand, I love the idea of my culture, heritage, background etc. informing my art. I mean, that’s a part of who I am, and I want that to show through in my artwork. On the other hand, I don’t really like the idea of being labeled as a ‘Mormon Artist’ because it seems like that limits what kind of work people expect from me. Not that I’m opposed to doing religious work – I would be really interested in exploring that at some point – I just don’t like the idea of always coming from that angle. I think it works really well for some people, but it’s probably not my thing. So I love the idea of Mormon artists, and I don’t think we should shy away from letting people know who we are, but I also don’t think that needs to define our artwork.

Talk about your Phantom Tollbooth project (set in India). I really love working with traditional paint media, but I’m also kind of a huge computer nerd so I end up doing a lot of digital work. The Phantom Tollbooth project was meant as a way to blend the feeling of acrylic paints with the benefits of digital art (below). I think there’s a certain impact of art that you lose when you move from traditional to digital, so the motion part was a way to try and compensate for that. You lose some color and vibrancy, but you gain motion, interactivity, things like that. I don’t know how successful it was in that sense, but it was fun to do. I had never really done anything with motion before, so it was a really great learning experience. The subject matter, the Phantom Tollbooth, is a book that I’ve loved since I was a kid and just wanted to do something with it. If anybody hasn’t read it, you really should. It’s super clever and funny.

What are you working on next? I’m really good at starting projects and not finishing them, so I have a few different projects kicking around that maybe I’ll finish someday. I’m currently working on a stop motion project with some people (Trisha Zemp, Spencer Bugg, Ginger Dall, Madeline McKell and Chelsea Dalton – all very talented people). It’s a cut paper thing and is going to be really cool. That should hopefully be done by the end of the year. I’ve also been playing with the idea of making a children’s book app with some interactive illustrations and have a few bits and pieces of that floating around. I haven’t done much actual painting since graduating, so I’d really like to spend time getting some cadmium on my hands again.

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Sarah Keele is an illustrator and graduated from BYU with a BFA in the Concept Design Track of the Illustration Emphasis and received the Outstanding Senior Graduate Award from the Illustration Department. She represented the Design Program by giving a speech at convocation. Keele and her husband live in Utah.

Tell us about your background. I was born in California and lived all over the place until I finally settled in Utah. With purchasing a nice big home and a little one on the way, I think we’re here to stay. However, a little piece of my heart will always belong to Virginia where my grandparents reside. They live in a woodsy area with about a dozen acres of land. I went there every summer growing up and it’s where some of my fondest childhood memories were made. A lot of influence from my fantasy style artwork comes from there too. Shortly after graduation I had a brief internship with Origin Studios until I was hired on as a full time contract artist at Wahoo Studios here in Orem. Now that contract has ended and so I’m working from home on various freelance projects, home remodeling and preparing for a baby to join our family.

Describe your art. I have heard it described as Disney style with an edge. I am not actively trying to emulate Disney artists, but I suppose that if that’s what comes naturally to me, I might as well roll with it. That said, I do on occasion try elements of styles that do not come naturally to me, but that I consider to be beautiful, in an effort to continually broaden my ‘style spectrum’ so to speak. My goal is for one day, people won’t look at my work and see a strong ‘Disney’ influence, but rather they’ll be able to immediately put my name next to my style.

How do you think art fits into our worship in the Church? How could we use it more effectively? This is a great question. In D&C 25:12 it says: “For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.” This scripture can be applied to visual art as well. A painting of the righteous is a prayer unto God. This doesn’t mean that every painting an artist does has to be a painting of Christ or some religious sentiment, but rather the state of mind he or she has while creating a work of art. “For my soul delighteth in the painting of the heart.” For me, I have to have gratitude and thanksgiving for the Lord always. I wouldn’t have got as far as I have without him. And, it’s not because he gave me a talent, it’s because he gave me the opportunities and encouragement I needed to develop it. Another thing to remember is that art is a defining feature in culture and has been for centuries. That’s a huge and awesome responsibility to artists of all sorts. A childhood friend once asked me, “What’s so great about art?” This childhood friend’s life did infact revolve around the latest video games, her favorite movies and Saturday morning cartoons. There is an artist behind every pop culture icon and yet, it’s so subtle and so powerful, children don’t recognize it as art. To them, it’s reality. Recognizing this as you create art, especially art that children will be exposed to, you can have a positive influence on how people see the world, what kind of person they become and how they in turn impact the world.

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Robert T. Barrett is perhaps Mormonism’s most accomplished illustrator. He has been a fixture at BYU for 30 years as a professor in the illustration program with much of that time as the department chair or area head. He is prolific with a long list of books, commissions, murals, and sculptures. Barrett has had a number of one-man shows including those at the Society of Illustrators, Springville Art Museum, and the Busam Gallerie in Berlin, Germany. Barrett received a BFA in Painting from the University of Utah in 1973 and an MA and MFA in painting from the University of Iowa in 1975 and 1976. He lives in Utah with his wife and is the father of ten children.

Tell us about your art career these days. I more recently completed a 5′ X 11′ mural for the School of Education at BYU on the theme ‘Children’s Celebration of the Arts’ to celebrate Beverly Sorensen and her support of arts education for young people. It was permanently installed in the McKay Building on campus earlier this year. This experience incentivized me to start doing larger, more substantive work including a few religiously themed paintings.

I love history and traditional art so am often chosen to illustrate stories related to historical events. I am continuing to do editorial illustration assignments including recent stories on Abigail Adams and the Underground Railroad as well as children’s picture books. I continue to find ways to use the human figure in my work including dancers and a Steam Punk figure that was included in the Springville Salon this year. I am traveling to the Kendall School of Art and Hillesdale College later this month to lecture about my work including some drawing and painting demos from live models.

You have been associated with the BYU Illustration program for a long time and it has developed into quite the program with a roster of accomplished graduates. What do you think has set this program apart? Thanks, yes, I noticed you had posted many former students on The Krakens as well as several full and part time faculty members teaching in our program. I think our faculty are excellent and have had a large impact on the success of our students. Many of our adjunct faculty members have received numerous recognitions for their creative work and bring tremendous industry experience into the classroom.

Our program is also very competitive and we accept only the best students who have proved their ability to be successful through class performance and portfolio reviews. They continue to foster a culture of healthy competitiveness. We have also been blessed with endowed funding to assist students with scholarships and internships. We are able to bring several top-notch artists and illustrators to BYU every semester and sponsor annual field trips to LA and NYC as well as study abroad opportunities to Italy, France, and England. Exposure to great art and other successful artists has proven to be very beneficial to our students and faculty in the Illustration Program. We have excellent ties with alumni working in major studios as well as those with successful freelance careers. Next year we will sponsor a high school design camp to attract and recruit promising students.

You have written about the Church’s history with Harry Anderson. Many of his images have become canon within the Church and adorn meetinghouses around the world. How do you feel about balancing our art history with introducing new works into the Church art repertoire? Harry Anderson continues to have an influence on the art and artists in the Church. Two guest lecturers this semester (Fall 2015) referenced his influence on their work. Our guest Steve Rude is a comic book artist but traveled to Connecticut four times during his career to visit Harry and talk about his narrative paintings. At Steve’s request, we went to the visitor’s center on Temple Square to see several originals last month.

I believe the Church will always embrace traditional story-telling art but there seems to also be a culture developing in the Church for art that is more symbolic and personal. I believe there is room for all forms of expression as long as it is appropriate and supports the best parts of our belief system.

What’s next for you? To some extent, continue what I am doing including the completion of more monumental work. A few years ago, I authored and illustrated a book on Life Drawing which has become quite successful and is now published in five different languages. I have begun work on a painting book as well and would love to see that completed and published in the near future. I have become fascinated with sculpture and would like to spend some time doing figurative work in that discipline at some point.

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Heather Dixon is a writer, illustrator, animator, and storyboard artist. She is currently a storyboard artist for Disney Interactive. She graduated from the BYU Animation program and is a story person for several studios—including directing some Mormon Messages on YouTube. She lives in Utah. Dixon maintains a very funny blog at story-monster.com.

Describe yourself as an artist. I’m primarily a story artist and writer, though I do illustration work as well. Usually my stuff is quick and sketchy. I also love it when I have time to flesh out a piece, though, and I love to try different styles. Girls in big poofy dresses are my muse. And of course Mary Poppins! She’s my favorite thing to draw. She’s so glam.

Talk about your work at Disney. What are the pros and cons of working for a huge company? I help make the Infinity video games, which are a kick! I do a lot of boarding of the cinematics in between the gameplay, and writing for the stories and characters. There are a lot of great perks to working for Disney–not the least of which is free entrance to Disneyland and Disneyworld! I like that part 🙂 The downer of working at such a large company is the approvals process–the story snags on a lot of things before it sees the light of day.

What do you think about art and the Church these days? I’m not well versed on the art scene, but since I’ve worked as a board artist for the Church, I can relate my experience from the inside. I’m really impressed with what the Church has been doing lately–they’re pushing the envelope with animation, going for more artsy and conceptual, so the projects have been quite a lot of abstract fun to work on. There are so many talented LDS artists who contribute, and I only see that growing as the Work moves forward.

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