- Fortunately, there are artists who refuse to water down their styles to conform with traditional approaches. Rather, they want art exploration to be a kind of metamorphosis as they move from realism to abstract, from conscious to subconscious and from conventional to unconventional styles and media.
- Layne R. Meacham, the featured artist at Dolores Chase Fine Art Gallery, feels that an artist must reestablish lost contact with the submerged levels of his mind.He's an advocate of the philosophy of John Graham, artist and critic of the New York School. According to Graham, "Art departs from reality and nature only to draw far-reaching conclusions about reality." He also said that if mental processes emanated from the subconscious, "abstract paintings could embody meanings as significant as any representational style."
Meacham's abstract expressionistic style surfaced about 26 years ago while he was attending junior high school. He took up to three art classes a day from Park City art teacher David Chaplin, who treated him "like an equal instead of a juvenile nincompoop."
Later, he enrolled in art classes at Westminster College, the Salt Lake Art Barn, the Salt Lake Art Center and the University of Utah.
He records his abstractions in a variety of media - oil stick, acrylic, charcoal, paint stick, pastel, enamel, latex, oil and pencil.
But Meacham's works are not the only ones at Dolores Chase Art Gallery that reflect a metamorphosis.
Take Edith Roberson for example. She moves comfortably between a variety of styles and media. Her ease in capturing realism is seen in her oil "Morning Pause." However, in "Rhinestone Slippers," she introduces a slightly stylized approach. But it's in her acrylic paintings of animals that she reveals her real love for abstraction.
Some of the other gallery regulars whose more abstract styles contribute significantly to the flavor of the gallery are Hal Douglas Himes, Barbara Madsen, Brian Kershisnik and Michael Woodbury.
The current show, titled "Honoring Earth Year: Real and Visionary Views," will remain through June at the Dolores Chase Gallery, 260 S. 200 West (328-2787). New gallery hours are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 2-5 p.m. Saturday.
- Keith Holbrook is another maverick whose works are currently in the spotlight. His mixed-media paintings can be seen at the Atrium Gallery in the Salt Lake City Library, 209 E. 500 South.
Although subject matter is important to Holbrook as he creates his art, it is not the primary concern. Even more important are the thoughts and decisions that accompany the development of each painting.
"I want my paintings to be thought-provoking," Holbrook said. "I want the viewer's curiosity to be aroused." In other words, he wants the viewer to be an active participant in interpreting illusive meanings in his work.
Holbrook enjoys creating in both traditional and non-traditional media. There are passages in his work where he has used acrylic, oil, graphite and chalk. But he also uses lots of tar, beeswax, concrete, wood, etc.
These paintings visually jump off the walls - not only because of artist's contemporary approach but because he integrates three-dimensional objects - clothes, paint brushes, cans, rocks and other found objects.
Holbrook received his bachelor of science degree in 1986 and his bachelor of fine arts degree in 1989, both from the University of Utah.
His paintings will remain on display at the Atrium Gallery through June 19. The gallery is open during regular library hours.
- Two more artists whose distinctive, mixed-media styles form a visually dynamic show are Louise Fischman and Robert Buchar. Their colorful, innovative work fills the main floor of the Finch Lane Gallery.
Like Holbrook, Fischman can be labeled a painter and a sculptor since many of her works are assemblage pieces.
She says that these works evolve slowly. "They often start to form around a found object and then are gradually transformed through an increasingly complex process of growth and change into the completed work."
In both painting and sculpture, the artist is more interested in portraying imagery in an internalized perspective rather than emulating the outward appearance. "I am more concerned with the essence or spirit of my subjects."
I was particularly impressed with her painting "Overlay" and mixed-media, three-dimensional works "Winged Totem" and "Milagros."
Fischman as a BFA degree in drawing and painting from Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, New York. She also has a teaching certificate in secondary school art from the U. She currently teaches art in Utah public schools.
Snapping a photograph is only the beginning in Buchar's creative process. Before he is through, he has combined collage, montage and hand-colored techniques.
He does not use photography to document reality. He says he photographs people and places "to create my own reality - to create the pictures which reflect my feelings and the pressures of surrounding society."
In some of his black-and-white photography of buildings, he enjoys cutting out sections of windows to expose segments of colorful masterpieces. One of his favorites is Bosch's "Garden of Delights."
Many of his photographs "reach out" to the viewer because of thin wires Buchar has attached to the two-dimensional surface. One striking example is his "Blue House in the Void."
Buchar's work is unpredictable. In "Block #57," he tops the statue "Nike of Samothrace" with a head of Donald Duck and then places the it on the top of the spiral parking ramp of the partially demolished JC Penney downtown store.
Buchar received an MFA degree in motion picture and television photography in 1975 from FAMU-Film Academy of Arts in Prague, Czechoslovakia. In 1982 he was employed in Salt Lake City as a KSL-TV News photographer.
The Fischman/Buchar exhibit will continue through June 29 at 54 Finch Lane (596-5000). Gallery hours are 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1-4 p.m. on Sunday.