Department of Art

Imagine a man jamming out to trap music in his studio as he rhythmically goes to town on a canvas. This is how Stephen Clawson, a senior art major at Brigham Young University, does his paintings in the basement of his grandmother’s home, also known as his studio. That same trap music could be Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby any other day of the week, a song with a slower and more melodic essence to it, but this is how Clawson likes to work. His work over the past seven years culminated into what he called an abstract art experience. The gallery at BYU was packed from wall-to-wall with his work. “Some of these things are horrible paintings, but I still wanted to put them up,” Clawson said. “My teachers didn’t like it, they just wanted me to do eight pieces.” For Clawson, art is somewhat of an escape. He added there is something crazy about painting, a feeling that he — at times — had trouble describing. Sometimes his work just seems to click for him, other times paintings seem flat and dull. The beauty of abstract art is that you can paint over things, or as Clawson likes to do, glue things on to the canvas in a collage style. One instance where a painting fell into place for him was when he had surgery and was still dealing with the pain. He was on some pain medicine to help recovery, and Clawson said he mixed colors to create an orange hue that seemed to fit perfectly on his canvas. He still gets that feeling sometimes, just without the pain medicine. Clawson also uses art as a way of expression. During his time at BYU, he had one instance where he was dealing with depression and he could not seem to get out of “the funk.” Read the full articlewritten by Ryne Williams at heraldextra.com.

Minimalism meets video games in Whiting’s pixel-based sculptures

BYU’s Art Education Club to host seminar focused on museum education opportunities for students

For artist Linn, drawing is more than a preparatory skill; it is a meditative state of mind and a process of trying to slow down time

Growing up on a small farm in Highland, Utah, Michael R. Workman (BFA ’86, MFA ’92) knew just what he wanted to do with his life: “Move to a rural area and paint the land. And I’ve been able to do exactly that.” Workman credits his BYU professors not only for teaching him the elements of art but for helping him believe he could make a living with his brush, which he does from his home in Spring City, Utah. “I approach landscapes with a poetic sensibility,” says Workman, who paints in the early-morning or late-evening light. “I’m trying to subtly communicate the spiritual qualities of the land.” Citing artists as eclectic as Rothko and Van Gogh as influences, Workman feels a special kinship with the tonalist painter George Inness, who felt the world was a profoundly spiritual place. “I never set out to be a tonalist, but that is what I seem to be,” he says. His treatment of landscapes shows a reverence for the places and subjects he depicts: “I hope my faith and belief in something beyond this life come through.” See the full article written by Andrew T. Bay at magazine.byu.edu.

As Thomander’s view of success expands and the lines between art and non-art blur, new creative possibilities emerge

Baird — a native of Garden Grove, CA — will graduate with a BA in art on April 24, 2020

Estrada shares her passion for promoting the arts in the community and inspiring creative confidence in students

The on-campus workshop series resumes in June, with instruction in drawing, intaglio printmaking, mixed media monotyping and screenprinting

The Harold B. Lee Library had some unusual visitors in October. Just inside the east doorways, miniature patrons admired postage stamp–sized art in one of alumna McKay Lenker Bayer’s (BA ’18) latest Tiny Art Shows. She held her first back in 2016 for a BYU art class, hanging self-made bitty art a few inches off the ground on Provo’s Center Street. Bayer added the final touches—a tiny spotlight and magnifying glass—and staked out a spot to watch. “I was amazed by the reaction—people squealed with joy, even lay down on the dirty sidewalk to get a good look,” says Bayer. See the full article by Lauren K. Lethbridge at magazine.byu.edu.

Wish Fulfilment is at the Heart of Art-Making for Ceramist Gian Pierotti

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

In a BYU art class Brandon J. Gunn (BFA ’03) quickly discovered that drawing and painting weren’t his forte. But his wife, Nicole Flores Gunn (BFA ’01), had enjoyed a lithography class from Wayne Kimball and thought Brandon might like it too. He did—so much that he eventually went on to study at the University of New Mexico’s prestigious Tamarind Institute, where he today serves as education director. “I’m half teacher, one quarter artist, and one quarter technician,” he says. Lithography’s laborious printmaking process—involving stone, grease, and chemicals—suits Gunn. “Printmaking gives me time to think,” he says. “The technical part lets me step away to look at things in a new way. . . and add things that I can’t just do by drawing.” Read the article and see Gunn’s work at magazine.byu.edu.

BYU art professor Mark Graham was named a Fulbright Scholar, which has allowed him to work with faculty and students from Kathmandu University (KU) in Nepal Department of Art professor Mark Graham was placed on the Fulbright Specialist Roster for a tenure of three years. Currently, Graham has a Fulbright scholarship to travel to Kathmandu, Nepal to help implement STEAM education in conjunction with efforts from students and faculty from Kathmandu University (KU). “STEAM combines art with math, engineering, science and design,” said Graham. “It provides advocacy for the arts, access to STEM subjects, new approaches to teaching, curriculum and opportunities for underserved populations.” While STEM education is more widely known, STEAM education takes the previous education system focusing on science, technology, engineering and math and adds art to the equation. Many educators see STEAM education as an exciting opportunity to more fully engage their students in interdisciplinary topics in a hands-on experience. Graham has already traveled to Nepal once for the STEAM project but will return on various trips for the next two years. His purpose is to help math and science teachers in Nepal understand how they can more fully integrate the arts into the curriculum, learn about art education trends in Nepal, develop a long-term collaborative research relationship with faculty at KU and open the door for future educational exchanges between BYU and KU students. “Being a Fulbright Scholar has given me the tremendous opportunity to work with scholars and students from Nepal,” said Graham. “We will hopefully involve BYU students in a project that will have a lasting impact for teachers and children in Nepal. This is the culmination of over five years of planning.” Graham was nominated as a Fulbright Scholar by the Peer Review Panel and was awarded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and World Learning. The Fulbright Program, established by Congress in 1946, gives grants to U.S. citizens for the purpose of studying, teaching and doing research abroad. Since its creation, more than 390,000 students and teachers of art and science have been able to participate in international education exchange programs in over 150 countries worldwide. His roster tenure as a Fulbright Scholar began on October 12, 2018 and will end on October 12, 2021. In addition to his trips to Nepal as a Fulbright Scholar, Graham is working on another STEAM education project in collaboration with the BYU McKay School of Education. Through this project, Graham and the McKay School of Education hope Utah elementary schools will embrace integrated arts learning. The three-year project consists of Graham visiting local schools and helping teachers properly implement the curriculum. This project has been funded by the BYU Center for the Improvement of Teacher Education & Schooling (CITES).

Art education grad devotes career to serving the most underserved students

Heidi Somsen grew up in British Columbia, where she played regularly in the ocean and gathered items from along the coast. Her innate interest in the earth and materiality drove Somsen to become an artist, but it wasn’t until she took her first foundations class at BYU that she recognized her love for 3D mediums. When Somsen graduated with her BFA in 1995, her oldest child was three years old. Determined to keep making art in the midst of raising young children, Somsen created wherever she found space—“whether the kitchen table or my little basement studio”—and continued to participate in one or two shows each year. Years later, Somsen said her artwork is a form of spiritual practice, as well as a way for her to process life “and all the big ideas in our human existence.” Read the full story at art.byu.edu.

Students from BYU and the University of Utah came together to create art that tackles complicated issues currently facing society. The students’ drawings took the sentiments that surround the problems and represented the concerns and fears visually.

Every fall and winter art education students in their final semester of the program complete student teaching in local schools. Paired with innovative mentors who offer authentic full-time teaching experiences, students have the opportunity to practice the theory they have learned in their coursework over the years. Chloe Welch, one of six student teachers this semester, gradually assumed responsibility for Bart Francis’ high school art classes until she became the primary teacher. Outside the classroom, however, they continue to meet regularly for coaching, assessing and brainstorming lesson plans. Early in the semester, Welch shared an idea about visualizing data as art, inspired by the project Dear Data, and Francis made the connection to a lesson he had previously taught on routines. Together they researched other artists who incorporate data collection and routines into their work and designed a lesson plan. For the assignment, students collected data for seven days on one aspect of their life, then documented that data in an artwork that included a legend to help viewers decipher their image. In February, Welch and Francis presented their experience at the Utah Art Education Association conference. One outcome that resulted from the data collection project was that students were able to make meaningful connections between their art and their life. Read the full story at art.byu.edu.