Paige Crosland Anderson has a new series of paintings she calls the White Series.  Most of the paintings will be on display at a duo-show called Two Lines at the Meyer Gallery in Park City, Utah. The opening reception is on Friday, August 28^th, from 6-9:00 p.m. Anderson lives in Utah with her husband and two children and was featured on The Krakens previously for A Bright Recollection.

Tell us about your White Series. In a nutshell it’s all a meditation on creation. I think it all started when a passage from Terryl and Fiona Given’s book “The God Who Weeps” stood out to me. The passage talked about Enoch and creating a Zion society. It postulated that maybe we are forming heaven right now; forming it with the materials around us as we love and serve each other; that maybe “Heaven is not a club we enter. Heaven is a state we attain, in accordance with our ‘capacity to receive’ a blessed and sanctified nature.” This idea resonated with me and I began to fixate on it as I painted. My work is already tied to this notion that we are creating something bigger than ourselves as we engage in the small daily acts that constitute the miracles of our lives. It was a natural jump to think about creation in bigger contexts as well.

I spent some time looking at Hubble Telescope photos and became humbled and amazed once again by the majesty of our Heavenly Father and his creations. The virtual space exploration made me want to paint something heavenly and ethereal. I loved this idea that I could take something geometric and rigid in form and make it read as something soft and inviting. I also really wanted to focus on this idea that we are increasing our capacity for sanctification by working on creating blessed relationships and making our lives a little more heavenly. Thus the “White Series” was born.

As I’ve worked I continued to read and look and take in as much as I could that would fuel the visual aesthetic and the intellectual engine behind the work. Just last night I came across a passage in Romans 1 about those who, “worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator,” a good reminder of who deserves the praise for the beauty in our lives. I hope I translate it well into tapestries that bring us a little closer to our Creator as we ponder what we are doing each day to create—whether it’s meaningful experiences, families, beautiful homes, worthy goals of any sort.

Your work is so connected to your family–do you struggle to title the pieces for fear of making them too personal? I have found that titling is becoming increasingly important to me. I don’t struggle because I’m afraid they’ll be too personal, but I’m anxious about giving the viewer just enough to get them started on engaging with the work without pigeon-holing what they perceive that the work is about. I want to provide the context to have an experience with the painting. Some of them reference a person, usually a “He” in my title is a reference to the Divine. I hope titles like, “The Sum of Our Ceremonies,” or “Slight Inclination of Each Day”  reiterate the idea that we are building, small yet significantly, every day towards something celestial.

What’s next? I have a few commissions to tackle and then I think I’ll take a bit of a breather and get to a few non-art projects that have been on the back burner for a while. The next body of work I want to make will allow me to meditate on prayer. I have a few titles I need to create a visual for. There are so many good visually descriptive passages on prayer just in the standard works alone. I hope to also participate in a winter market of some sort or another sell some small paintings. After making big ones all summer, I’m itching to go small again. It’s good to switch it up.

Visit Paige Crosland Anderson’s website.

Follow Paige Crosland Anderson on Instagram.

Brad Teare is a talented woodcut artist with a background in design and landscape painting. Teare is also a prolific social media experimenter. His YouTube channel passed 1 million views earlier this summer with titles like Getting Greens Right and Glazing and Impasto. Teare and his wife, the artist Debra Teare, live in Utah.

What are the challenges in working with wood cuts? Color woodcut using the lost key method takes an incredible amount of planning which is a challenge (the lost key method creates a more painterly looking woodcut without the conventional dark outlines containing flat color). But despite the hurdles the results of this technique are so rewarding I’m constantly returning to it. Color woodcut has phases–the design phase, the color planning phase, the carving phase, and the printing phase. Lots can go wrong at any phase so you have to stay organized.

The biggest challenge of being a woodcut artist has been connecting with collectors. Two decades ago most cities had print galleries and people knew what fine art prints were. That’s no longer true. But I recently started an Instagram feed where I explain the woodcut process. I intend to post every day about block printing until my show in April 2016. It’s my first one-person woodcut show and I’m very enthused about it. I have a link to the feed on my blog as well. So far people seem to be enjoying it.

What do you enjoy about the medium? I love the raw, emotional energy of woodcut. Paradoxically woodcut can also have symbolic and intellectual power as well. All art forms can have those qualities but you almost have to try to excise those traits from woodcut. It’s like the medium wants to occupy a certain metaphysical space. It’s that paradox that keeps me coming back. Despite the challenges I always had a certain knack for woodcut. I discovered the art of Rockwell Kent as a teenager and loved the power he evoked with his work. When I had a chance to buy an antique press for $60 during my last year in college I jumped at it even though I knew next to nothing about block printing. I ordered some tools and blocks and shortly thereafter printed my first wood engraving. The print went into the portfolio that landed my first illustration job in New York City. I also enjoy the physical act of cutting the blocks. Once I have a design transferred to the block it’s relaxing to carve. The process is almost a form of meditation. Ideally I like to sit outside while I carve. I’m building a new studio with French doors and a porch so I can work outside when weather permits.

Five years ago you started uploading instructional videos on YouTube. Explain your motives, your experience, and the reward. Several years ago my brother, who is a web designer, repeatedly told me I needed to write a blog and if I didn’t I was missing a huge opportunity. To placate him I started the blog. I had no expectations for it. My only intent was to give a few artists seeking practical knowledge a resource to move their creative projects forward. I grew up in Kansas where there was little access to art information. Because of that I’ve always felt behind in my career. It’s not a good feeling and I wanted to help fellow artists get early access to artistic fundamentals.

The videos were a complete fluke and I can’t remember why I started them or how I managed to overcome my introversion to make them. With the first video I remember thinking, “dozens of people are going to watch this!” and feeing quite terrified. If I had known that over a million people would watch the videos I probably would have had a heart attack. Usually I made the videos late at night when I was approaching exhaustion so the quality suffered. But people didn’t seem to mind and I started getting emails from all over the world. It’s especially gratifying to get email from artists in developing countries that might not have access to art books, workshops, and DVDs. My blog is translated into 50 languages, which is extremely satisfying. I’ve grown too. I’m more relaxed on camera. I think my videos have gotten better over the years. I’ve grown artistically as the process of sharing ideas has clarified my own vision.

Visit Brad Teare’s website.

Follow Brad Teare on Instagram.

Watch some of Brad Teare’s YouTube Videos.

Elizabeth Thayer is a portrait painter and illustrator who recently returned to the United States after an extended time in England and Germany. I knew Liz as a classmate of my wife when they were in the BYU Illustration program under Bethanne Andersen and Robert Barrett. Thayer, her husband, and her six children live in Utah.

Tell us about where you are living and what you’ve been doing with your career. I have just moved back to Utah after nine years in Europe – five in England and four in Germany. Living abroad has been a great opportunity to get to know different cultures, do some traveling, learn another language, and see some great art. Most of my time since we left school has been devoted to making and raising six little people. I have managed to squeeze some drawing and painting into kitchen corners, extra bedrooms, and late night hours. Hopefully all that will add maturity and depth to my artwork. That’s the plan anyway. Since graduating from BYU, I have done some book and magazine illustration as well as portrait work. Since having children and moving abroad, I have focused more on portrait commissions and studio painting. I have also been able to participate in some exhibitions in London, including the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, and annual exhibitions of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and The Royal Institute of Oil Painters. (The fun thing about being in London is that Royal gets added onto a lot of things and it sounds important.)

You studied at BYU, Syracuse University, and UNC Greensboro. I studied illustration at both BYU and SU, and painting at UNCG. Both illustration programs were very good and have dedicated faculty who are dialed into the industry and committed to helping students achieve. It was a privilege to work with teachers at both schools. The main difference between my two experiences was that at Syracuse, being a graduate student, I was given more autonomy and was able to teach undergraduates (figure drawing), which I really enjoyed. And I saw a lot more orange. I also attended an MFA program in Painting at UNC Greensboro for a while. That was a completely different take on art, its purpose and meaning and I felt out of place for a while there. However, looking back I truly feel that I grew and was stretched in different ways at each school I attended. In each place I had mentors that were willing to spend time and effort to help my work progress.

Walk us through your approach to a new painting. I think a lot about a painting before I start. I think about composition and color and size. I think about whether I want to capture a moment or somebody’s essence, or something else. I usually do sketches and a color study. I have been working either on home-stretched linen canvas or gessoed board. I don’t usually mind preparing my own surface because it kind of clears my mind. I have been using water-soluble oil paints (clean up is easier), and have used a number of different brushes. I prefer sable brushes. I like Royal Langnickel, and have recently been using their new range of Sabletek brushes, which I understand is a blend of natural and synthetic hairs. Winsor & Newton also makes a good brush to go along with their Artisan brushes. For drawings I use charcoal, conte or nupastel. I feel like my process is still evolving, but currently I tend to do a light drawing in pencil or charcoal and fix it before adding paint. I like to use washes of thin paint, and slowly build up opacity. I work in snippets of time. A couple of hours here and there, a glance as I walk past on my way to the laundry room, a few minutes before dinner, and maybe a half hour before bed.( A few months ago I painted for almost seven hours straight for the first time in a very long time and it was both exhausting and exhilarating.) And then sometimes I scrap all that prep and just paint to have some fun making marks on a canvas.

You have said, “the human soul is infinitely more awe-inspiring than the most famous city in the world.” What do you like about painting portraits? Every so often I try to get into painting landscapes or still lifes, because I have seen so many beautiful ones, but I always gravitate back to the figure. Creating a portrait of somebody is a challenge and I like challenge. I find people fascinating. I never get bored of them. Each one is complex and unique. They can change by the minute in expression, mood, and gesture. Their stories are all different and it is interesting to see how much is manifest or hidden in their appearance. I like to discover those stories. I find the human body beautiful in its many forms, and I find the human story (both individual and collective) compelling. I want to help tell it.

Visit Elizabeth Thayer’s website.

Susan Krueger-Barber‘s series Postpartum Provocation is an interesting analysis of a little understood phase of life. She recently returned to Utah after studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She explains Postpartum Provocation: “While pregnant, a new person grows inside of us, and we ourselves metamorphose into new people; creatures full of fresh, intense feelings previously unimagined–mother bears with acute alertness, full of fierce protectiveness for our child, facing the enormity of every decision. Nature pulses through us, buzzing as the transfiguration takes place. We run with awkwardness while our body reshapes itself as though trudging through a shallow pool.  Our lives become dreamlike, full of penetrating hyper-realism.  We literally transform while we navigate our brain-shrinking, breast-leaking protectiveness. Motherhood is a delicate shift in our existence as we learn to embrace our new baby and our new body while reconstructing ourselves to be stronger, more complex women.”

Tell us a little about yourself. I am a community organizer, mother, and artist, and I also love collaborating with my husband and best friend. I enjoy creating different takes of an accepted narrative. To reveal the truth through the cracks

Describe your creative process. An image phrase or thought comes into my head in the form of a flash, a phrase, or a laugh. I often try to solve something. I am on a constant journey of following an idea to as many possibilities and solutions that I can think of and then when I get bored, I move on to another project and/or journey.

What has been the reaction to Postpartum Provocation? I think that there isn’t very much art about motherhood that exposes the nitty gritty and complicated aspects of the experience. Most art places it on a nostalgic pedestal. When I gave birth, I felt so lost. There were all kinds of books preparing me for the birth process, but not much information around to describe the postnatal experience. I think Postpartum Provocation helps fill the gap. Many women and men have thanked me, nodded, laughed, and sometimes cried when seeing that work. I think it helps normalize the actual experience that so many of us are having.

Visit Susan Krueger-Barber’s website.