The Square Life

FOR AN ARTIST, THERE IS NOTHING MORE EXCITING THAN A BLANK CANVAS IN WHICH TO EXPRESS AND CREATE. IT IS WITH THIS THOUGHT THAT WE ASKED FIVE LOCAL ARTISTS TO SEE WHAT THEY COULD COME UP WITH USING A BASIC WHITE T-SHIRT AS THEIR CANVAS. USING SUCH MEDIUMS AS PAINT, MARKER, NEEDLEWORK, AND EVEN CHARCOAL PENCIL, HERE IS WHAT THEY CAME UP WITH.

DAN BARNEY

“I have been working with concepts of dress and clothing artistically for several years. Clothing is wrapped up in so many aspects of my life, from my spirituality to my profession as an art educator. I like to play with language as much as I like to play with media, processes, and techniques. I wanted this T-shirt to be marked by the artist’s hand, to show the traces of its making. This piece also marks or maps my physical and emotional body. The title of the work should provoke meaning, along with the bound slits that mark the location of a scar on my back and the placement of my heart.”

CRYSTAL THOMAS

“For my T-shirt, I wanted to make something whimsical and personally nostalgic that would give me an opportunity to experiment with some materials that I associate with child’s play. I’m fortunate enough to work in art education, and lately I’ve been very interested in children’s perspectives. I wanted to create an image that was somewhat ambiguous, that could shift between being lighthearted and sinister."

ALLEN EDWARD LUDWIG

“Planet Hoth, spirit prison, cloud city, that monster yeti that captures luke and puts him into that ice cave, the death of painting, the ghosts of painting’s past, playing D&D as a kid, wanting to play D&D as an adult, ‘The Ambassadors’ by Holbien the Younger, ‘The

Hunters’ by Bruegel, the sundance moonlift ride, and the Beach Boys. The main message I want to get out is only going hiking if there is a waterfall, ice cave, or castle at the end. The other message I have for you is “Go to church.” Thank you.”

COLIN NESBIT

“I am interested in the history of spaces and the overlapping stories that occupy the same space. Researching Provo, I discovered that there were several cemeteries around the city that were later moved to Provo City Cemetery after it was opened in 1853. The disinterment and reburial of the bodies was the responsibility of the families of the deceased.
The children of Mary Blake Peay believed they would be able to identify their mother because she had been buried wearing white gloves; they found five individuals buried wearing white gloves. As a result, the family moved all five bodies to Provo City Cemetery and placed them in one large grave marked only with the name Mary Blake Peay on the tombstone.”

RUEL BROWN

“Space-shooter games that had crazy spaceships flying in formations
trying to blow you up and Big Bad Bosses capturing your ship with
tractor beams. Oh, and of course Monsters of all shapes and sizes.”