Win a longboard

Here are pictures of the longboards that will be given away at the event! Come to the show and enter the raffle to have a chance to win one!

Mentors: David Moore

David Moore is even older now than he was when he wrote this. That's pretty old, for him. He is definitely not from Provo, but he will be soon. He is virtually impossible to track down, and few have seen him in his natural habitat. Scientists speculate that this may be due to his obsession with elaborate disguises. Try to find him at the show! (Hint: He will NOT be disguised as a member of the hip hop group Rascal Flatts.)


David's Artist Statement:

There is a seldom experienced internal silence that is thrust upon us in certain moments of unparalleled emotional intensity. Lungs filled hesitate before converting gasp of apprehension into sigh of relief, and the impending unimaginable is sentinel, an inexorably approaching solvent to any sense of self. In the void which follows this dissolution of the ego, pain is replaced with peace; confusion, with clarity; fear, with love.

Mentors: Shawn Fritch

Shawn Fritch is an art major with a focus in graphic design and a B.A. from BYU in theater art studies.


Shawn's Artist Statement:

To take a journey in art is to follow a path that is never ending;
you will never know all there is to know or see and discover all there is out there.
You will find yourself 10 years down that path still discovering new things,
getting excited and inspired by the most ordinary of things,
question the media to which we are exposed,
whether it be the design of a C.D. cover, a window display, the layout of a room
or even the shapes and lines of a shoe.
For those of us that choose art, it is not a career or a hobby, but a passion, a way of life.
We all see the world differently.

Mentors: Lauren Stratton

Lauren Stratton is a fine art major at UVU with a double emphasis in photography and illustration.


Lauren's Artist Statement:

I've always been a dreamer, it's the escape that I crave. I dreamt of being a photographer--until something I loved turned to a complete catastrophe, and it made my dreaming cease. And my life that was half bore and half dream turned into a complete reality. All I had ever wanted had changed. So I began to draw again, and I began to dream again. I began to breathe again. And now I know that even if I don't know anything else, I know this is what makes me--me.

Mentors: Rachel Haslam

Rachel Haslam is a photography student at Utah Valley University. She will be showcasing her BFA show in Summer of 2012.


Rachel's Artist Statement:

I never had many friends. Art is my friend. At recess in elementary school I remember figuring out you could draw with bark, or wood chips, on cement. I made beautiful designs on the sidewalk by myself. Art has been my escape. It understands me. I want to see the beauty in the world, seen or unseen, which is why I became a photographer. “Maybe this is what I'm good at?” Art doesn’t judge me. It will always be my friend. The camera accepts anything I see.


Visit Rachel's websites here and here!

Mentors: Danaë Davis

Danaë Davis is a fine art major at UVU and loves print making.


Danaë's Artist Statement:

Creating art comes to me through forms that I feel I can express a distinct facet of my life; I exist, I am human, in nature and in the world, to which everything I am connected. I am so small, and my time lasts but a fraction of a second on the planet I thrive upon. I see beauty in the patterns within nature on the path have chosen to travel. I exist in a constant state of flux, ever winding, unraveling, churning, building up and breaking down. I am forever moving, ever living, ever changing. My work expresses the love for the nature in a place on earth where I find peace, a place where dusk and dawn become one timetable shift in light and darkness and the smallest of life becomes colossal.

Mentee Profiles

Emily H:
I like art because you can express yourself and your feelings in it. I like it because when drawing you are practically making up your own world. It shows who you are. You can make any kind of story with art. That’s why art is important to me. It also gives me something to do. It’s very entertaining and fun. Just think, if there wasn’t art, there wouldn’t be things such as Disneyland. Disneyland started by a man who drew. Disneyland is based off of those drawings. Without art, the world would be boring to me.

Sarah H:
Art makes my imagination come to life. I don’t have to pick and choose with art. I get to create it. One of the best things about art is everyone single person has their own style of it. Art helps me express my feelings. When I don’t know exactly what to say with words, I can say it with art. Art is a part of my life and always will be.

Sarah L:
I love art because I am able to express myself and find a way to enter my imagination and show others what I create. I can tell stories and teach lessons in ways that just words can’t quite describe. A picture is worth 1000 words.

Bruce:
I like art cause it expresses feelings, is creative, and just amazing.

Czar:
There is a lot of power in music. I want to know if what we see is Real.

Jonny M:
Hola my name is Jonny M. and my favorite type of art is music!!!

Kai:
I like to draw. I like to trying to get better when I draw animals, like making them more realistic. It is my talent sometimes. I like art because its really colorful, I love color. I see a lot of color when I paint and I really like it because its pretty. Art makes me feel happy.

Alyson:
Curiosity is the reason why I choose to study art.
The exciting little journeys art takes me on when creating,
the little stories that make up the ordinary of life.
Studying art has made me more aware of the world around me.

Jacob:
Creative activities have always drawn my attention,
from a young age I would draw, colour, cut and create!
I'm still very much like this, I find myself losing track of time and working into the small hours.
I enjoy the challenges which design presents and communicating my ideas as solutions.

David T:
I like to draw things with pens or on the computer too,
because it is cool to make something out of nothing but your ideas. I
hope art is fun when I take art classes, I think it should. So far I
like it lots!

Mentors: Megan Morton

Megan Morton is an art major at UVU with a focus in graphic design.


Megan's Artist Statement:

To me graphic design is another medium used to communicate and idea through imagery. Everything we see makes an impression on us. I use graphic design to convey a concept using which ever medium, style, colors or format that I see fit. i love the freedom it gives me to expand on other, more traditional mediums to show my point of view. I love how good design can make a lasting impact.


Visit Megan's website!

Mentors: Sara Herrera

Sara Herrera is a fine art major at UVU with emphasis in painting and watercolor.


Sara's Artist Statement:

I am from the Northeast coast of Mexico and I enjoyed being surrounded by the colors of the green tropical vegetation, the blues of the sea, the warm colors, and the vibrant colors of fruits and flowers which helped me to grow a sensitive soul toward nature.

Its beautiful colors have had a profound effect on my inner sensitivity; creating a strong attraction toward representing them by painting. Painting is my voice through which I express the beauty I see around me.

Mentors: Derek Hegsted

Derek Hegsted is a fine art major at UVU. He teaches fourth grade through twelfth grade.

Derek's Artist Statement:
Reflections of Passion
Heartbreak and Hell
Solitude in Solace
Conduit of Emotions
Lover of Life
Defender of Faith
Risk Taker
Different Drum
Defying the Odds
Thought Provoking
Ever Learning
Tenacious
Hope
Joy


Visit Derek's website!

Mentors: Thomas Tholen

Thomas Tholen did animation story boards and layout for 20 years and is getting a second BFA from UVU.

Thomas' Artist Statement:

Some of my first memories are art related. I remember being amazed about how things looked and asking my dad about shadows when I was very young. I would have had to have been about three years old at the time based on where we lived. I entered contests when I was in elementary school and won some of them. I am still fascinated by shadows and how they effect our perceptions of form and the three dimensional space around us. In particular in figure drawing or figure painting, what separates one space from another and creates the image we see as a human being on a 2-D surface? To me it is incredible.

Mentors: Alisen Abney

Alisen Abney is a fine art student at UVU. She plans to study art history in graduate school and hopes to teach.

Alisen's Artist Statement:

I love the strength of the unanticipated in an abstract shape. I find beauty in the uncontrolled flow of colors interacting with one another, blending and retracting. I enjoy the subtle textures that form as values change. I sense the atmosphere that light introduces. I feel the honesty that comes from the experience as the shape, light, color, texture, and space layer upon each other.

T-Shirts

Identity t-shirts will be on sale at the event on April 9th. These stylish t-shirts cost just $10 each and will help you show your identity and support for this great art show event and Identity events in the future!

Mentors: Jorge Rodriguez

Jorge Rodriguez is a fine arts major who is emphasizing in Painting and Drawing. And political activism. And action figures. And...

Jorge's Artist Statement:

My love of art could be traced back to the days of my childhood when comic book superheroes held all of my attention. During these years, I would fill pages detailing the adventures of my favorite superheroes represented in simple stick figures. As I grew older, my father showed me a new way to draw figures, based on circles, squares, and rectangles, and explained that the human figure could represented with these basic shapes. Soon, this developed into a full-blown love of art. It all finally came together when a friend told me I was “like a really cool action figure”.

Visit Jorge's website!

Mentors: JD Hawkins

JD Hawkins is an art major at UVU with a focus in graphic design.

JD's Artist Statement:

To be completely honest I just don’t give a f#@% about impressing most people, I do art because I have to. Drawing, Painting and Designing are some of the most important things to me. The ability to express the unseen and unheard emotions that dwell within me, that otherwise would eat me up inside become manifest through my art.

Visit JD's website!

Mentors: Erica Hamilton

Erica Hamilton has spent 21 years of her life growing up in Orem, Utah. She loves family, traveling, anything vintage, Disney, and art. She is a full time student with the goal to become a professional artist.


Erica's Artist Statement:

Inspiration can strike at any given moment. From these bursts of inspiration artists have produced masterpieces of emotion and intensity. But what is inspiration with the anchoring drive of imagination? Imagination drives an artist to capture their thoughts and feelings into tangible, visual works. History, fairy tales, family and nature set my imagination like a wildfire, images and thoughts set ablaze in my mind. Whether it be by the use of a camera, paintbrush, pen, or pencil, I strive to thoughtfully and carefully place my world of imagination and inspiration onto canvas and paper.


Visit Erica's websites here and here!

Mentors: Amanda Bronson

Amanda Bronson is a fine art major at UVU with an emphasis in painting and drawing.

Amanda's Artist Statement:

The artist makes things concrete and gives them individuality- Paul Cezanne. I express and define myself through my artwork. My personal tastes, ideas, values, beliefs, and desires are revealed and may therefore become shared via the viewer! The things I value are diverse. Yet connection is everything! Physical connection with the earth, connection with our carnal being, our spiritual desires, connection to others. I am a steward and a protector, I stand for agency and development. As others grow and reach new heights my heart sings. I love service and nurturing all beings. Adventure, discovery, and to live this fascinating life is my desire. There are puzzles, hidden meaning, and endless possibilities to be explored. What better way to achieve these objectives than through art. My intuition guides me. Connection with my senses, connection with others. My art work expresses the universal truths that what is is and this world is our play ground. What connects us, we share a world, but this world it is interpreted differently within us all. Does my interpretation resonate with your being. Do you want to cry or sing? Are you touched? Are you alive? What do you see within your eye?

Mentors: Sherry Murdock

Sherry Murdock is an art major at UVU with an emphasis in oil painting and sculpting.



Sherry's Artist Statement:

pas-sion:

an intense desire or enthusiasm for something

The first feeling of passion I can remember was in Charleston, SC, where I moved to at the age of seven from Roswell, New Mexico. The feeling I had of utter wonder and joy at the abundance of flowers and sweet fragrances Charleston had, has stayed with me throughout my life. The beauty is palpable, and my passion for beauty started there at a very young age.

I was an adult before I realized I had an ability for drawing. Upon entering UVSC in 2006, I started taking watercolor, oil painting & drawing classes, along with figure drawing and painting. Through time and experience, I discovered my love of the vibrance of bold colors. They speak to me and help me speak to all who view my work. I seek to bring a sense of joy to the viewer as putting color down on canvas or paper brings to me. I have also since found a love for sculpting and ceramics, something I hope to perfect in the future.

Visit Sherry's website!

Mentors: Larissa Norman

Larissa Norman is an illustration student at UVU. Her BFA show, called In Transit, will be taking place in fall 2011.


Larissa's Artist Statement:

To me, art is the process of digestion. The inevitable result of a source of food that has been masticated, consumed, and filtered in the body of the artist. Art is the unavoidable excretion of everything taken in and sifted through the body. Art is life scrutinized in the stomach. Bathed in bile and distilled in acid. It is expelled from the intestines and displayed with fascinating humiliation.

My value as an artist and human being is not in flawlessness or beauty but in bringing a distinctive perception to all I devour and filter through myself. Something amusing and awkward is fermented inside me. I most love the figure, in every shape and size. I scrutinize with angular shapes of paint the shadow and light on a body, a situation, or a concept. I expel the digested material of my environment into blissfully embarrassed existence.

Visit Larissa's website!

Provo Town Square

The event will be held at Provo Town Square located in beautiful downtown Provo!


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Holy Water Buffalo

Our entertainment for the eventing will be provided by local band Holy Water Buffalo.

Check out their music video:


Come and check out this great band while you enjoy the artwork!

Identity Art Show

I am Utah. I am UVU. I am a mentor. I am a student. I am art. I am Identity.

“Open Your ‘I’”

Join us on April 9th, 2011 at 7:00PM at Provo Town Square for the exciting opening of this show. As you stroll through the gallery of works, listen to the engaging tunes of the band Holy Water Buffalo, appreciate the talent of local artists, and enjoy the night life of Historic Downtown Provo. We as students have been encouraged to “open our ‘I’” and discover who we truly are. We hope that the artwork displayed will not only showcase our talents, but our personalities as well. So please come and enjoy a night of art, entertainment and discovery. “Open your ‘I’” and be identified!

Francis Moore said “I’ve grown certain that the root of all fear is that we’ve been forced to deny who we are.” The Identity art show is a project designed not only for the senior Visual Art students at Utah Valley University to identify who they are as artists, but to also help provide youth within our community with the opportunity to work with artists to discover their own identities.

We as artists and students will display not only our own artwork, but artwork created by local youth in a professional art show. The Identity show will be sure to gather attention not only for the historic downtown Provo area, but more importantly to art as well.