MILLCREEK — Two years ago, after a lifetime of letting the left side of his brain do most of the work, Rob Chipman decided to finally put the right side in the driver’s seat.
At 64, he told his wife, Laura, he was selling his business and opening an art studio. In their home. With one artist in residence. Him.
You can only hold passion at bay for so long.
The object of Rob’s desire was an art form called reduction block printing. It’s a process that starts with a block of wood and ends in an objet d’art called a woodcut that is “part sculpture and part painting.”
Not a lot of people do reduction block printing. It’s the art road less traveled. “And less traveled for a reason,” says Rob, “because there are easier ways to make art.”
But as far as he’s concerned, none any more satisfying.
He was vacationing in the artist enclave of Carmel, California, 28 years ago when he first saw a woodcut print displayed in a gallery. It was love at first look. As soon as he arrived back home, he went to an art store for supplies, to the library for an instruction book, and got busy in his basement producing a couple of woodcuts after his workday was finished.
That was that until two and a half years ago when he and Laura went to a play at Pioneer Memorial Theatre and during intermission saw a display in the lobby of beautiful multicolor woodcuts by acclaimed Utah artist Brad Teare.
“Seeing that rekindled my interest,” understates Rob.
Fully energized, a few short months later the lifelong entrepreneur consummated the sale of his latest business — an online video-based training company called bizVision — and started buying wood blocks so he could launch the start of his second career.
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The problem — and Rob was hardly the first artist to come to this realization — was getting people to know you are producing things they might want to buy.
“It’s not easy to get your art sold; not a lot of ways for exposure,” says Rob, voicing the artist’s lament. He had his Instagram page (@robchipmanart) but that was about it.
He was mulling this problem over earlier this year when he happened to walk into the new Downeast furniture and clothing store in the Millcreek area of the Salt Lake Valley.
There, along the entire length of the east side of the store, was a 20-foot high mural of Mount Olympus, the iconic mountain that towers above Millcreek.
Rob loves Mount Olympus. For much of his life he’s lived in its shadow. He was raised in Millcreek. He went to Skyline High School. His home/art studio is in Olympus Cove.
And as fate would have it, he had just completed a series of woodcuts depicting the glory of Mount Olympus in all four seasons.
The practical businesslike left side of his brain kicked back in and Rob reached out to Downeast about the possibility of a monthlong show that would feature a variety of artists displaying their images of Mount Olympus, including his.
Downeast, already in the habit of showing off an individual artist’s work every month, was all for it.
The “Art of Mount Olympus” show, organized by Rob, was held throughout September. Some 47 artists displayed 60 images of Mount Olympus. A third of the paintings were purchased, including Rob’s limited edition woodcuts.
That sent the art-road-less-traveled artist back to his studio to produce more woodcuts while plotting yet more ways to get them noticed.
“There’s an inherent satisfaction in creating something that’s pleasing to you,” says the entrepreneur-turned-artist. “But there’s nothing quite like the feeling of creating something that someone appreciates enough to spend their hard, cold cash on.”
That’s both sides of his brain speaking.