Wayne Thiebaud is a talented painter made famous for a lifetime of calorie-rich images of cakes, pies, ice cream, cupcakes, and other savory treats. Thiebaud (pronounced like Tim Tebow) is arguably the most decorated Mormon fine artist in history having received numerous awards and accolades including the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton. He grew up in a Mormon home and his mother’s family came from Brigham Young era pioneers. Thiebaud explained to the Smithsonian, “My father, coming from another religion – Baptist, I think, if I remember – joined the Mormon Church, and was eventually an enthusiast, or was a- it’s a lay ministry, Mormonism, and he finally became a bishop. So I was a bishop’s son. But the Mormon community is very, very inter-supportive. And- and so it was a very nourishing environment. I was what you’d call today, I think, a spoiled child.” Thiebaud turned 95 last month and lives in California.
***Note: The Krakens was asked to pay for the right to use the Thiebaud imagery or be forced to take down the images. Our policy is to not pay for image rights so, unfortunately, you will have to Google Image search Thiebaud’s work like everyone else on the Inner-web.
Donna Moncur is a portrait and photodocumentary photographer. Moncur lives in New York City.
Tell us about yourself and your photography. I’ve always enjoyed photography, but hadn’t taken it seriously until a few years ago. The burning desire to create and document the everyday was something that I could not suppress. For a while, I kept comparing myself to others. I felt that my art wasn’t as good as that of other photographers. Then I realized that we all have a story to tell, we all start somewhere. So, for the last few years, I’ve become more disciplined and really tried to execute what I want to convey. My photography has evolved over the years from photographs of my children, to a compelling photo documentary series, to soulful portraits of friends and neighbors. I feel that, more and more, I am finding my voice, my true expression, behind the camera.
You write that you are a “Shepherd of light. Honestly documenting the soulful, fearless and carefree.” Explain. A shepherd is essentially a guide. That is what I do with light. I can’t force it, I have to respect it and guide it to what I want it to accomplish. Light is a very powerful force. When used correctly it can add so much depth and emotion to a photograph. Being a visual storyteller, I start with a general idea of what I’d like to convey, but sometimes that vision changes during a session. During those “vision changes,” when I have listen to my creative voice as it guides me along from my original concept, I’ve produced some of my best work and had some of my most enjoyable times with my camera, searching and discovering. So many times I’ve looked at photographs of myself or of other people and thought, “That is not me, or that is not the person who sat in front of my camera.” I think, as photographers, it is easy to get wrapped up in our “art” and what we expect we’ll see, that we forget there is a subject with a soul in front of us. I document because I love to see your soul, not only with my eyes but with my heart. I want to show you how beautiful and unique you truly are.
Your website and Instagram are very ‘New York’. How does the city shape your art? New York is such a loud and busy city. If you are still enough, you can see different stories being told between the lines. That is my goal. To tell the story amidst the noise. When you step onto the streets of New York, you are immersed in a whirlwind of emotion. This city can chew you up and spit you out. I choose to view the empowerment of what I feel when I walk down the street. New York makes you feel ALIVE! It makes you feel as though you CAN and WILL. That is why I love this city so much. Every day is a new opportunity to slay the concrete jungle. I want you to see things that others may not see, and make you feel things you may not have felt. New York helps me to capture the heart and soul of my subjects, because I feel the heart and soul of New York inside me.
Jordan Daines is an adept painter primarily working with oil on wood panel or canvas. It has been written that, “Her thick painterly style and love of color lends itself to bold renderings within a gradient of semi to overtly representational work.” Daines and her husband recently moved from Los Angeles to Utah.
Tell us about your evolution as an artist. I have wanted to be an artist since I was in 3rd grade when I made a ceramic pig. I was so proud of that pig–I immediately knew my calling! I earned my first ‘art set’ in fifth grade by practicing the piano (which I somehow don’t know how to play anymore) and I would paint in my spare time as a hobby. As a teenager I won the National Art Education Association Student award and was also chosen to show in the Congressional Art Competition in Washington, D.C. That positive reinforcement kept me dialed in and kept me dedicated to work and stress with my art. I went on to receive my BFA in painting at Utah State University. I learned a lot about the craft of painting in school, but I have continued to try and involve myself with theory and develop my content more and more in the decade or so since graduation. I actually credit my husband for a lot of my evolution. He is an architect and a keen observer of contemporary art. He is my #1 critic; no painting is finished until we are both happy with it. His input is invaluable to me. Every artist needs a trusted cohort to honestly critique their work.
Some of your work is like a more protein-rich Wayne Thiebaud. I’ll accept the comparison to Thiebaud! His work is definitely a significant precedent for me. He was known as a ‘happy artist’, which I feel an attachment to as well. I find great pleasure in coming up with new color combinations and interesting subjects. I have a large range of content that I paint, but the meat does stand out. It’s not that I’m a huge carnivore, and there is really no significant critique attached. It’s color, texture and organic nature is quite abstract, but it is also recognizable as a banal item of life, which I suppose Thiebaud concerned himself with as well. My impasto application of paint also lends itself very nicely to meat. I use oil paint only. No thinners or mediums. Over the last 10 years I have transitioned from brushes to knives. Brushes frustrate me. Knives are so much more candid in their application. I used to mix with a knife and paint with a brush, however, over time I decided to just cut out the middleman… or the end man rather.
What’s next for you? Right now I am working on a series of large abstracts for a solo show in May 2016 at the Wall Gallery in Dallas, TX. Getting ready for this show has been a great experiment for testing my painting efficiency and brain power in regard to the scale of my work. With the nature of my process of mostly wet on wet paint, I have to work fast and focused. If the paint dries just a little it gets tacky and disrupts the whole feel of the painting.
Brian Olson has spent more than 10,000 hours modeling, digitizing, and photographing Mormon temples with an extensive YouTube channel to show for his efforts. His photographs, models, and videos are an ever-expanding virtual library of temple design. From the San Diego California (above) to the Provo City Utah, Meridian Idaho, and Philadelphia Pennsylvania (below) his models show an excruciating amount of detail and dedication.
Olson’s work on the history of the Angel Moroni statues has been documented in part here at The Krakens including a rendering (below) of the difference in scale (yes, these are to scale) and the design of the Los Angeles Moroni (left) and the Salt Lake City Moroni (right).
Where did you grow up and how did you get started working on the temples? I grew up in a little town in Utah on the south side of Utah Lake named Santaquin and then moved to Pleasant Grove, Utah for a few years prior to serving an LDS Mission in Macon, Georgia. My fascination with the temple goes back a long way. There was a point in my life where I was struggling. I was in a bad relationship I was afraid to leave, and a bad job that I also could see no way out of. I was not, at that point, able to enter the temple. The temple became a representation of what my life should be, but was not. So I used temples as my North Star, my fixed point to work towards. At the same time, one of my duties at work was working in a photo lab, which got me into photography. As a reminder of where I wanted to be, I decided to make the temples one of my photography subjects, with a plan to take photos of as many temples as possible. This was back when there were only 50 temples. It would be my luck that a few months later President Hinckley would announce the new small temples, making that plan farther out of reach than I had previously guessed. I have kept up with the temple photography, having now visited 79 temples (some under construction.) In December 2005 I downloaded the open source software Blender. Someone had suggested I check it out, so I picked it up and decided to see what I could do with it. I did this:
I was so impressed with what I was able to accomplish, I decided to see how detailed I could make it:
I moved on from one temple to another, redoing temples over and over with newly learned techniques.
(It’s hard to believe, even for me, that those are the same model, ten years apart.) I realized early on that I would never be able to photograph every temple, but I can model it. In the end, this is one way for me to visit them all. Here are three images of the Rome Temple, a work in progress. The first is a wire-frame, showing the basic structure that makes the model up. Second is the basic material layout. Third is a sample render.
What software do you use to do the work? Most of my work is done in Blender. It is an open source modeler, but can also be used for video editing and game creation. It has a very difficult interface to learn (though it is better than it used to be,) but is very capable with features similar to pay programs that have wider industry acceptance. I have also used most of the Adobe Products, especially Photoshop and Premiere, and trained on Maya (industry standard 3D software) in college. Most of the software I use is open source, like X-normal (texture generator) or GIMP (Photoshop alternative.) This is not always because the software is good; so much as it is free!
What is your day job? What success have you experienced with this project? I am a stay at home dad for a living. I am both enjoying it and working the hardest I have ever worked. I do get enough time to work on this project most days, which is nice. The project has led me some places I never expected. I have had the chance to talk to people involved in Temple Design and Construction, have had portions of one of my Provo City Center Temple videos broadcast on TV, and have learned more about Temple Architecture than I thought there was to learn. That’s what led to me writing the Moroni Book. I’m also working on 3D printing, cake toppers, statuettes, and so on.
Richard G. Scott served for 38 years as a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He may be more well known for his work in nuclear engineering, but he was avid painter and liked to work in watercolors. He was born in Idaho, grew up in Washington, D.C., and also lived in Tennessee and Utah. He passed away in September of this year.
Jeanene Walking Toward the Light (above) is based on a photograph taken at Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri. He painted the scene after his wife, Jeanene, died in 1995. Scott told the Deseret News that it is a reminder to him that she was ahead of him on the path walking toward the light.
Scott’s son explained, “My father loved painting. We would be driving down a road and he would stop, pull over and say, ‘Look at that; that would be a great painting.’ Then he would take three or four photos. He saw the physical world through the eye of an artist, always looking for light, shadow and interesting themes. He loved painting.”
Images courtesy Richard G. Scott, Deseret News, and MormonNewsroom.org.
The Krakens is a digital gallery featuring art and design created by Mormon artists.
