Discovering ruins of a medieval abbey, wandering through it with a strange reverence, awe, one is filled with a feeling of wonderment. Upon exploring a castle nestled along the Rhine, why is it that our thoughts are elevated as we reflect to an age long past, stories recreated in our minds? Why when touring France and upon entering a cathedral, with its towering nave and illumination of light, we enter, not with a cheerful exuberance as we might have felt upon discovering the structure externally, but once inside this immensity, with a sense of solemnity, spiritual contemplation, rejuvenation and inspiration?
When a tourist navigates the ruins of the forum in Rome, the mind takes an imaginative journey to a day when all of this was in its grandeur, when the jagged remnants once housed senators and emperors. Westminster abbey recalls to the mind a sense of a thousand years of English history- kings, queens, stirring our minds and our hearts with a distant past, contrasting the busy streets outside and the flashing lights of the city. Even more so the ruins of Stonehenge in rural England bring to mind strange images and indescribable feelings of an obscure past to the soul- a mysticism is experienced at the mystery of an ancient culture with unseen abilities to create such a structure. The human spirit is elevated to new heights- as at the pyramids at Giza- a tribute to human capabilities and spirituality that is baffling to our modern sensibility.
Such is the same with wondrous contemplations of nature. The cliffs of Dover, on a cloudy day with stormy sees inspire the mind. The sun as it sets over the Pyrenees in the south of France; a forgotten rustic cottage nestled in some wood in the Alps- a sense of pure magic is felt. Even more dramatic are the moors of England, the Highlands of Scotland- they fill us completely with feelings unknown- a fullness and awe at the sublime creations of nature, and a connection with the Earth and that which is eternal.
The glory of the Danube meandering through Salzburg, the Volga, produce a new feeling with every turn and every mile of its continual flow of waters flooding our inner being with a wealth of permanence in the land; in this connection to that which is timeless we feel a security in the present- in our own self. We feel connected with the waters of the Mediterranean, the islands of Greece, the sun over the valleys and vineyards of Italy- a sense of calm repose with what once was and still is and will be continue to be. This sublime feeling of the world, that outward world, physical and natural, gives a greater sense of who we are, the possibilities we possess and the possibility of things to come challenging the anxieties we may have felt before we are transfixed by these revelations.
As we leave behind those things of a more temporal nature and contemplate that which is timeless and sublime, we reconnect with the spirit of humanity. The past and the present become one and for a moment we forget our troubles, feel the minutia of our lives and feel a sense of calm, a peacefulness and repose as we are lost in the wholeness of the universe. All in life is transient: the world seems to move forward at an alarming rate. One moment we are in our youth and the next we are experiencing the signs of age. Those things which connect us with something outside of ourselves, something of a more permanent nature, a timelessness, galvanize us for a moment to the non-ephemeral, the universal.

Pippi

Pippi Explores Place
Ehren E. Clark

Seasoned artist Anne Watson, Utah native who has lived in New York City for the past 18 years as a professional artist and has recently moved back to her home, has expressed her anxiety that “I cannot make sense of place very well, or time, or sense or nonsense”. In the upcoming exhibit Pippi Explores Place at the Art Access Gallery, the artist uses various media to initiate a search for truth, her truth, a confrontation with reality, and trying to make sense of that “place” she has been searching for- her “place”, her sense of identity, her oneness with the world. This accomplishment is achieved through a very unlikely source: through the eyes of the fondly remembered mischievous, tenacious and lovable childhood icon Pippi Longstocking.
Watson’s canvases are angelic, whimsical, surprising, naive, clever, aggressive, and never predictable. Painted by the hands of an expert who has left traditional painting behind and abandoned herself to forms of pure meaning, Watson’s work in the exhibit is a series of paintings linked together by common elements. She explains “I don’t do work which stands alone...it is a narrative, a story, a series.”
But it is Pippi Longstocking, childhood misfit, who is the star of the show, and she leads the narrative -as Virgil leads Dante through Purgatory and Paradise. Watson, who remembers and cherishes memories of Pippi from her childhood, owns the books and shares them with her daughter, has an interesting relationship with the icon- “muse”, “misfit”, “her voice”. “She speaks to me and helps me understand things- takes me through the ‘landscape’...she is the voice.”
Watson grew up in the west coast, left for college and subsequently received her MA in fine art at NYU. She has lived in New York City for 18 years as a successful artist, and in returning to her native Utah, has come full circle. She and her daughter have lived now in Utah for 3 years and her integrity as an artist has led her to this exhibition- “trying to understand place”. As she has returned to America’s heartland, she has sought truth in places of thought, places of landscape, places of environment, and places of self.
Using Pippi, Watson is able to explore her “landscape”. Pippi wanders capriciously through the hinterlands of the Western USA (which Watson rediscovers from her childhood), in a way that is honest, unprejudiced and unbounded, allowing for a free flow of thought. A motif which runs through the cycle is a flow words, randomly placed, arbitrarily positioned, seemingly autonomous and express innermost thoughts and feelings of Pippi her discovery of the “landscape”. These words are free form -the voice of Pippi: childish ramblings- but prophetic.
These flows of thought are most predominate of war- a theme pervasive in the cycle - that reality which forms an integral part of “place” so relevant to the “landscape” in which we all exist. When Watson was asked how Pippi feels about the war, she quickly responded that “she hates it! She hates the war, she hates violence, she hates stupidity.” When asked of her own feelings on the war, she stated; “I don’t have answers, but that is truth- facing uncertainty about what we are doing.... and the harm being done”. Watson uses Pippi’s honesty to discover “place” through the eyes of a child, which are susceptible and sensitive to injustice and the subtle inhumanities we are so inured to.
Watson is “grappling with place” and hopes that others will embark on a similar search. What Watson gives inevitably is honesty, and “the more honest the work, the more universal it is”. Watson wonders, when the public see the show, if “she (Pippi) will see you and talk to you, or maybe some will just walk by and yell, or some will simply say -‘dumb puppet’.”
Maybe after seeing these works some may go back to their attics, dust off their books of Pippi Longstocking and reminisce on that crazy rambunctious youth we all read and relive those memories, thought, ideals, and hold on a bit more to that which so often seems lost.

Michael and his Tricycle

Michael is a dreamer. Some young boys want to be firemen, or cowboys; Michael wanted to be a world class cyclist. This dream began when Michael was only three. While he watched television, he saw something that made him dream big. Michael saw on the television an amazing group of men, racing down a hill on something that Michael had never seen before because he was just three. Michael loved his toy cars and the machine that he saw on the television with men going fast down a hill was a little like a car but it was not. It had wheels and went down the road, fast, very fast, but this was something different and new. This machine had two wheels, not four, and, like a car, went fast, very fast. It was the speed that really caught Michael’s attention. This made Michael very excited. Michael had a new dream now, to be like one of these men, speeding down a hill with the world flying by him. He asked what that amazing machine was and his parents told him it was called a bicycle.
It was only a few weeks before Christmas and all that Michael could think about was what he asked, and asked and asked for- a bicycle like the one he saw on the television. Then he could go as fast as the men he saw on the TV. When Christmas morning came, racing downstairs to see what Santa had brought them, who do you think was first to see his presents. Michael because Michael ran fast, as fast as he could down the stairs, knowing that when he got there he would see that wonderful new shiny bicycle that would let him fly down the hill like the men he saw on the television. But, when Michael went into the living room, he saw something that looked a little like the bicycle, but it definitely was not like the one he had seen on TV.
What Michael found next to the Christmas tree had three wheels, not two; it was the same color as the one he saw on TV, had a handle like the one on the TV, but it had three wheels! Michael was confused. How could he go fast on that? Michael started to cry. He had wanted to be that man so much, to feel what he felt, and to go fast. Michael did not want to even look at this “thing”, which was definitely NOT a bicycle. His parents called it a tricycle and Michael did not like what Santa had brought him.
Day after day, the tricycle sat outside the back door. Michael became, day by day, little by little more and more curious till one day Michael thought he would look closer at the “thing” brought by Santa. He looked closely at it, the three wheels, the red frame, the shiny handle bars; Michael started to like his new present from Santa. His heart started to pump a little faster and then faster still. Faster till he touched the handle bars, then grabbed them, and as he grabbed those strong handle bars, he threw his leg over the seat and get on the new tricycle.
The first thing Michael saw, like the man on TV, was that his legs were long enough to turn the pedals. Then he noticed his arms reached to the handle bars like the man on the television. Maybe this tricycle was not such a bad thing after all. Michael suddenly had an exciting thought. “Maybe, maybe, with three wheels I can go even faster” he said to himself! He called to his mother to see if she would let him drive along the sidewalk. He did not even notice that because it had three wheels he did not have to learn how to ride this tricycle, but suddenly he felt his dream might come true!
Michael started slowly and then peddled harder and then harder and even harder till he felt the wind on his face, saw the world go by and he felt he WAS that man on the TV! But for Michael, he thought he could go even faster. He had THREE wheels, not two! He did not know that the next year he would get a two wheeled bicycle with training wheels. The year after that the training wheels would be gone. Who knows, maybe someday Michael really will race down the hill with the world flying by him, going fast, very fast.

A World Without Art
The concept seems frightening when it is considered. What would the world be like without art? What would the world be like without music, without film and other media, without literature? Yes, this would be frightful, a desert. This is not simply rhetoric, but a reality which is averted by artists who are responsible for making the world vibrant, cultural, colorful, interesting, enjoyable as well as provocative, meaningful, insightful and interesting.
When the artist is not patronized, what is the result? The result is that society falls short of where it could be- a place where free expression is allowed to prosper and grow. The world is not only beautified but new ideas are allowed to cultivate and challenge norms; in short…progression. The arts allow a society to progress through painting, sculpture, video, song, performance, film, all creating a dialogue, a forum by which those whose calling it is to be an artist might be understood and heard while making life worth living, through beauty.
When a community gravitates around a few select “celebrity” artists who are revered and paid mass sums, where do others, countless others with as much to say through their art as their abundance of talent, find an outlet where their art might be seen and “heard?”
Sadly, in most communities this is the case. There is a monopoly on art by the few and a recession for many. This by no means implies that those monopolists are anything greater than the others, they are not. Art may be compared to a corporation where the “giants” leave main street deserted. In our community there are giants and they need not be mentioned as they are so well known. But as galleries such as OneTen are faced with closure and the spectrum of quality art is ignored as degenerate, there is something wrong with this situation.
The exhibition, “A World Without Art” was created to challenge the thinking of a community who sees little or no value in art aside from that which they are accustomed to and feel comfortable with. This show is a pro-active statement against such norms in our community. It is an opportunity where many artists have been given the chance to say what they think about the inequality which is the art world in our town. We will not sit lazily around and complain, but show the population of this area that there is more out there, there are more artists worth considering than the few that monopolize the attention and revenue which could be more evenly dispersed…if only the public is willing to stop, consider and think!
Much time and talent has gone into this exhibition, placed directly on Center Street in stores that have closed down due to similar circumstances. Many members of the community pass by this location every day. Many will notice it, and sadly many will not take even take a first look. Regardless, this is an opportunity for those who have worked on the show, artists with much talent and creativity who center their lives around art, live and breathe by it, to show what they can do. This is not fantasy art or fairy tale art which belongs in children’s books, or art that should be used for religious purposes.
To patronize such art is fine, but don’t stop there! There is more to see, more to think about and experience. If the world were left only with the Walmarts of the art world, people might stop and realize what they have missed out on. If the world was left without art, it would cease to be.