Artists' Biographies

Trent Alvey has exhibited in many significant one-person and group shows, including Out of the Land, which traveled to The National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. Toaster Worship, Alvey’s sculptural piece that was included in the national exhibition is now in the permanent collection of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts at the University of Utah. Her work is also included in the Salt Lake County Art Collection, Springville Museum of Art and Westminster Collage collection and she is a recipient of the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Artist Award (2011) and Distinguished Alumni in the Arts award by Westminster College (2016). Additional accolades include being chosen as one of Utah’s “15 Most Influential Artists” by Artists of Utah, publishers of 15 Bytes: Utah’s Art Magazine, and she is included in both editions of the book Artists of Utah and Utah Artists Dictionary ‘23. Alvey most recently had a neon work at Benrimon Fine Art in New York City for an exhibit entitled Rethink America.

Kenn Anderson Equal parts maker and nerd, Kenn has always been drawn to the world of art and craftsmanship. As a child, he spent his days sketching and exploring the outdoors in his home town of Heber Utah. Kenn's particular love for insects and birds has driven much of his artistic endeavors. Along with painting and drawing, he also creates metal sculptures, wood carvings, and stained glass.

Cassandra Barney received her MFA from BYU. Her distinctive portraiture is well-known nationally. She says, “I've had a passion for the craft of the portrait since I was a child. As a young girl, I visited museums around the world with my father, collecting postcards adorned with 16th century art. Exploring these simple images captured my imagination, unlocking a world of discovery. I love the art of storytelling, the layers of symbolism, and would create my own stories of these quiet women, making the paintings my own. Today I paint portraits that share my passion for storytelling while revealing my personal journey of transition and discovery.”

Brian Bean is an artist residing in West Jordan, Utah. He studied at BYU and the University of Utah. His whimsical artwork has been shown widely in the state.

Susan Johnson Beck was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. She received her BA, MFA, and Teaching Certification from the University of Utah. Her teaching career has spanned five decades and includes Artist in Education through the Utah Arts Council, Rowland Hall, and the University of Utah. Her work has been exhibited in a variety of museums and galleries. Her most rewarding learning experience came from working with children and young adults who always find it so easy to be themselves when making art.

Erin Westenskow Berrett is a Salt Lake City painter and graduate of the University of Utah, BFA. "I push myself to be abstract in the details while still achieving the perception of reality. When I paint, I never blend. Instead, I layer thousands of marks side-by-side, swaths of color that are then translated by the observer. Two inches of canvas viewed from a few inches away might have a hundred brush strokes that seem to form nothing, but when the piece is considered as a whole, the effect is highly representational.”

Connie Borup is a professional artist living in Salt Lake City. She received her MFA from the University of Utah in 1992. She says: “Oil painting suites me because of its flexible nature, and layering ability. I paint aspects of nature where there is a sense of quietude and calm.” She won the juror’s selection award in the Utah AAUW show in 2023 and has been featured in Phillips Gallery exhibitions 2018, 2020 and 2022. Her work was included in The University of Utah featured alumni exhibit.

Valori Boss paints fine artwork on canvas and fingernails in Salt Lake City.

Carel Brest van Kempen is best known for his acrylic paintings of the natural world. He is a nine-time recipient of the Society of Animal Artists’ Award of Excellence and is currently working on a comprehensive field guide to the birds of Utah.

David Brothers’ multi-disciplinary practice encompasses painted and constructed installations, as well as photography, film, video, radio, and printed publications. Recently, he mounted a solo exhibition at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, and won the Joan Mitchell Foundation Emerging Artist Grant, as well as a Visual Arts Fellowship from the Utah Division of Arts and Museums. Brothers’ work is published in Hant, Dear Dave, Rolling Stone, Popsmear, Maxim, Stuff, and Slug magazines. He says, "I am a painter and builder who fabricates sets on a stage. By populating these sets with actors and situations, I create a scene and theme. The final product, documented through photography and film, helps to unravel a narrative mystery."

Joe Carter was born in Montana and raised in Sandy, Utah. He graduated from Murray High, was in the Navy for a couple of years, then attended the U.of U. and received a BSEE in '81. He was married to his wife Jane in 1984 and they have had three wonderful daughters, Nancy, Alice and Mary. He worked as an Electrical Engineer until '98 then completed a BFA at the U. of U. in 2000 and has painted and managed rental properties since then.

Trent Call was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is actively involved in a diversity of ongoing projects. His work combines formal academic painting, comics, graffiti, and popular culture. Trent currently works out of CAPTAIN CAPTAIN Studios in SLC.

Craig Cleveland is an interdisciplinary conceptual artist who uses new and traditional mediums, including multi-media, painting, drawing, installation, sculpture, design and performance.

Sam Collett received his formal education at Westminster College, followed by graduate study at the University of Utah Art Department. He has more than twenty years of teaching experience in objective (realism) painting and drawing. He currently lives in Joseph, Oregon. He says: “ART, my birth star gave me a gift, visual acuity with an open path to my visual intelligence and though many times far from studio and easel I never gave up art. Now at eighty-two I’m still a producing artist and will remain so till I can no longer function.”

Darrell Driver was attracted to graffiti on trains parked along the Interstate 15 in the mid 90’s. Entertaining that form of expression has led him to being an oil painter today.

Mike Fahl is a visual artist based in Salt Lake City specializing in oil painting. His surrealistic art, sometimes dark, often whimsical, can be seen in collections throughout the state.

Kindra Fehr has spent a large portion of her life painting, traveling, and working in a variety of seemingly unrelated jobs. These included: contact lens technician, flight attendant, bookseller, waitress, or in what seems to have become a career, the teaching of art to all ages and abilities.  She was born in Salt Lake City, spent her elementary years in Arvada, Colorado then returned to her place of birth with frequent sabbaticals to places like Europe, Asia, Nepal, and the east coast. She began painting at age 15 under the direction of Bonnie Posselli, Dan Baxter, and Ken Baxter. She earned a BFA in drawing/painting from the University of Utah, has studied at the Lacoste School of the Arts in France, and has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. In her current incarnation, Kindra paints out of her studio in Sugarhouse,  teaches art privately, at the Visual Art Institute, and through a variety of outreach programs. She is married to musician/composer John Hancock and has two children.

Grant Fuhst is a mixed media artist living in Salt Lake City. He has worked in various venues including comic-books, CD art, film, graphic design and illustration, concept art and on several collaborative internet projects.

Susan Gallacher enjoys painting rural Utah landscapes on location, often with farm animals or figures. An occasional portrait or still life are also favorites of hers. She studied oil painting at the U of U, primarily from Paul Davis and watercolor from Ed Maryon. Both professors became lifelong friends. She established Kings Cottage Art School where she taught along with other professional artists for forty five years. Several books have articles and images of her paintings in them. She has been written about in several magazines, published in calendars, pamphlets etc.

Jeffrey Hale studied drawing and painting at the University of Utah. He specializes in abstract portraiture.

Aria Hancock is an artist working in a variety of mediums, primarily digital drawing and animation. She has illustrated two books, animated three music videos for the band Late Night Alumni, exhibited in multiple group shows, and sells her artwork through online shops and at local art events and venues. She loves cartoons, books, video games, and animation. She frequently creates art based on these interests, as well as her own original work. Aria is working towards becoming a professional animator while attending the University of Utah for a BFA in Animation.

Trent Harris is the mastermind behind cult film classics Rubin And Ed and Plan 10 From Outer Space.  His film Beaver Trilogy was listed by the London Guardian as one of ”Fifty Lost Masterpieces” and hit the "Top Ten" list of Art Forum Magazine.  Harris has had three films at Sundance plus major screenings at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Lincoln Center in New York.  He has also been honored with retrospectives at the Raindance Film Festival in London, the Lausanne Underground Film Festival in Switzerland, 92 Y Tribecca in New York City, and Mar del Plata International Film Festival in Argentina.

Paul Heath is a life-long Salt Lake City resident who graduated from the U. of U. with a BFA in Drawing and Painting in 1985. He describes his work as “Pop-Nostalgia.” He says, “I draw inspiration from the awesome neon signs we have around us. I see my work as playful documentation, looking at objects and neighborhood niches through a lighter lens. I also paint images of older antique toys... to elicit a smile or friendly smirk.” Since 2013, Paul has also been an elementary Visual Art teacher with the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program in the Salt Lake City School District. He received a master’s degree in education from USU in 2018.

Willamarie Huelskamp was born in a hollow in Kentucky in 1959. Through her love of swimming, hours of hard work, and Title 9 she landed a swimming scholarship at the University of Utah. Miraculously, she catapulted that scholarship and untold numbers of hours swimming into a degree in Civil Engineering. She has been painting ever since. Does that not make perfect sense?  Requiring passion, focus, hard work and smarts, Willamarie continues her pursuit of the answerable through art.

Shilo Jackson has loved art for as long as she can remember. She says, “Painting, for me, is pure joy. The smell of pigment is a little bit of heaven. Art supplies make me happy. The first time I picked up a paint brush and seriously contemplated making a painting was in high school. I was lucky to have great and supportive teachers who encouraged me to find my own style.” She graduated with a BFA in painting from the U of U in 2009 and had a stint owning Kayo gallery, where she worked with incredible local artists and had the most fun of her life. 

Susan Jarvis likes to transform ordinary objects into elegant subjects by painting them with rich color, fascinating texture and tempting sensuality. Sometimes she captures the essence quickly with loose strokes while other times she pays attention to every little detail.

Gailon Justus has been a Salt Lake City-based painter and tattoo artist since 1999.

Sandy Kerman’s painting journey started at a young age with oil paintings of sad dogs with big eyes (from pictures found in the Sunday magazine). She discovered watercolors in college, but majored in graphic design. After school, she went down the rabbit hole into a corporate graphic design career in Chicago for 7 years. Shortly after her 30th birthday, she left the big, bustling design world—for Utah—to fill her soul with art and the outdoors. She has run her own graphic design business for 37 years, continues to stay creative, and finds inspiration in art and wilderness. Her design sense influences her artistic style, with its whimsical, illustrative look. 

Susan Jacobsen Kirby lives in Salt Lake City, where she was born, but she’s lived in Idaho, Connecticut, California, New York, France and Mexico. She studied French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu and sewing and design at La Chambre Syndicale de La Couture Parisienne. She attained a Licensed Practical Nurse degree and a black belt in Shorin Ryu karate. She worked for Williams Sonoma in San Francisco and for fashion photographers in NYC. She began painting upon returning to Salt Lake, and exhibited her work widely, including a 1992 one-woman show at the Salt Lake Art Center (now UMOCA). She moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where she lived for ten years, painting, studying Spanish and dancing tango. In 2019 she had open heart surgery at the brand new Hospital Mac, becoming their first open heart surgery patient. She and her two Mexican Cats, Brigitte and Frida, moved back to Salt Lake City in January 2022.

James Kirkland left Utah in 1993 for Manhattan, where he was a successful and sought-after commercial illustrator for 12 years, working for such prominent clients as Grey’s Advertising, Merck Pharmaceutical and Ford Motor Co. He returned to his home state in 2005 to focus on his fine art and plein air painting, while taking the occasional commercial job, including painting 15 murals. Some of James' Salt Lake City murals have become local icons, such as the Wasatch Touring and Positively Fourth Street murals and the Kimball Building mural along the Sugarhouse Trax Line. His work resides in the collection of the Smithsonian in Washington, DC.

Lenka Konopasek is a Czech-born painter and mixed media artist. She received her BFA from the University of Utah and her MFA from Maine College of Art. Her work has been exhibited widely throughout the United States and internationally. She also completed several large public art projects in Utah. Her work has been featured in the New American Painting, Studio Visit Magazine, Southwest Contemporary and in other publications. She was awarded the 2018 Visual Art Fellowship. Konopasek currently teaches studio art at the University of Utah and Westminster University.

Chuck Landvatter was born and raised in Salt Lake City. He holds a BS in Interpersonal Communications from the University of Utah (2008), and an MFA in Drawing & Painting from Utah State University (2013). Between USU, Weber State, and SAU, Chuck taught art and design for nearly a decade in various capacities including Assistant Professor. His work comments on changing perceptions in a digitally social landscape, is informed by his experience growing up in the Intermountain West, and is executed with a hybrid approach involving traditional techniques, contemporary design, illustration, and graffiti aesthetic.

Jamie Love’s art has progressed through watercolors, children’s portraits and now oils, continually using her design background. She likes to experiment with mediums and materials. She is inspired by simple graphic images discovered from travels throughout the world and in her own backyard. She invites the viewer into my paintings and oftentimes, you may even find a place to sit. Love’s work has been shown in several Utah Watercolor Society shows, Art and Soup, the Loge Gallery at Pioneer Theatre Company, the Utah Arts Council Traveling Exhibit, the Zions Bank Artist’s Reception, Local Colors Gallery, the Sandy City Library, the Cottonwood Club, and Evergreen Framing Co. and Gallery, Inc..

Chris Maggio is a Salt Lake City-based artist, illustrator and designer who specializes in medical illustration and book jackets.

Vince Mattina received his BFA in Illustration from Columbus College of Art and Design. Mattina’s work combines his own photography, digital collage, and assemblage techniques to create elaborate, mixed media images focusing on spiritual, environmental & technology issues. One of the main themes in his work is climate change, crafting pieces that reveal a post-apocalyptic vision of a future that may not be too distant. Mattina is also a multidisciplinary artist who works in digital, mixed media, photography and assemblage art. His richly detailed work transports you to an alternate reality where science, nature and spirituality evolve. His distinctive personal style emanates a surreal and mysterious quality that evokes an atmosphere from another realm.

Marlee Mitchell is an Upstate New York artist now based in Salt Lake City, Utah. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a triple major in painting, sculpture and darkroom film photography from the State University of New York at Albany. Beyond her studio practice, Marlee is a producing commercial artist working with local and national agencies in the sportswear/activewear industry. She has also dedicated her time to public arts education and community engagement. She actively participates in local exhibitions and collaborative projects, fostering connections within the artistic community.

Michael Murdock is a self taught artist, illustrator and muralist from Salt Lake City, Utah. His artwork often consists of painting on reclaimed wood and using found materials. The subject matter often contains elements of humor, solitude and trying to find one’s own special place in the universe. He draws inspiration from his home state of Utah, discarded objects, skateboarding, magic, railroad hobos, folklore, life, death, outer space and everything in between. His work consciously aims to fall somewhere between fine art and a knock knock joke. He also has a hard time referring to himself in third person.

Josh Murano is a Utah native who has a passion for creating all things creepy, dark, and whimsical in his artwork. His latest projects include fantasy and horror zodiacs, a book cover, and a kids’ book.

Socar Myles is a Scottish artist, illustrator and writer. She left Great Britain for Bountiful, Utah in the 1990s. She currently lives in Vancouver, BC, in a chaotic ninth-floor apartment with three noisy rats and an even louder bird.

Traci O’Very Covey is a visual artist who creates art in a variety of media including paintings, murals, and metal sculptures. Her art is inspired by nature’s flora and fauna, and “the grace and joy of everyday” which highlights the things in life that are welcoming and universal. Traci’s paintings have been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums, including the Springville Museum of Art and the Utah Museum of Fine Art, and in Salt Lake County’s permanent art collection. Traci’s metal sculpture installations enliven city streets and her monumental murals are on the exteriors and interiors of corporate spaces and public buildings in Salt Lake City, Utah, including the Eccles Theater, Mountain America Expo Center, Jordan Landing Shopping Center, in the new Salt Lake International Airport, and in Asante Hospital in Medford, Oregon. Her biography appears in The Dictionary of Utah Fine Artists. Aside from her fine art career, Traci has been an award-winning graphic designer and illustrator, and has taught at University of Utah, Salt Lake Community College, and The Art Institute of Salt Lake City. She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Utah.

Stacy Phillips has lived in Utah since 1987. She regularly teaches workshops in portraiture and other art disciplines, and works out of her studio at Poor Yorick in Salt Lake City.

Bonnie Posselli is a native of Salt Lake City and a founder of Plein Air Painters of Utah. In addition to painting on location all over her home state, she has painted throughout South America, in Alaska, Italy, France and England. She was named a “Most Honored Artist Of Utah” and received the Grand Canyon Purchase Award in the 2002 Arts For The Parks Competition.

Andrew Rice has always called the Rocky Mountain west region his home. Born in Aspen, CO, he received his BFA in printmaking from the University of Colorado in Boulder and his MFA in Salt Lake City at the University of Utah. Rice is currently Lecturer, Printmaking and Printmaking Studio Manager at Weber State University in Ogden, UT. He also runs the pop-up gallery Erosion_SLC out of his private studio.

Bruce Robertson received a BFA and MFA in drawing and printmaking from BYU. He is the director of the Visual Art Institute in Salt Lake City and an associate instructor of art at the University of Utah.

Glen Rollins is an artist residing in Orem, Utah.

Chauncey Secrist is a mixed media artist and curator from Salt Lake City. He has exhibited in galleries and museums across Utah, including the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Bountiful Davis Art Center, the Springville Museum, and Eccles Community Art Center, amongst others. He has won numerous awards for his collage and assemblage works. Chauncey has served on a number of committees for galleries and art centers, and worked as the Exhibitions Director for the Bountiful Davis Art Center in Bountiful, UT before leaving to pursue an education and career in archaeology.

Kelly Edwards Seim was born in Denver, CO, received a BFA in 1997 from Calvin University in Grand Rapids, MI, followed by an MSW in 2004 from the University of Utah, College of Social Work. Seim’s work as an artist and psychotherapist are interconnected: through painting and therapy she brings attention to specific as well as universal images and themes that guide and enrich, and she invites fantasy and play which add archetypal and lively aspects to her work. Her figurative paintings are stylized, vividly hued studies of emotion, relationships, and the unconscious. Seim currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.

Lori Shields, raised in Nebraska, settled in Salt Lake City after walking across the US with the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament. She has a family she loves and a cat she doesn’t care for. She enjoys watching Gerda Lipski paint on YouTube. To celebrate turning 60, Lori had a solo art show at the Marmalade Library where she sold several pieces. She loves to paint.  She loves the smooth, gliding feel of it. She loves inviting others to paint. She has dreamt of wallowing naked in paint and rolling around on canvas but she is too cheap to actually do it. (She also dislikes writing about herself in third person.)

Brad Slaugh received a BFA and MFA in drawing and painting from the University of Utah. He is the administration director of Poor Yorick Studios in Salt Lake City and is an adjunct instructor of art at Salt Lake Community College.

Martin Stensaas combines classical realism with the modern experience of mystical consciousness. His distinctive technique combines deep and colorful glazes, subtractive maneuvers, and fine line work to build up enchanted figures and their psychedelic, otherworldly surroundings. His works are unique painterly experiences from across the room or a few inches away. Luminous colors and glazed effects evoke translucent evolving shapes that congeal into suggestive mythical forms. Originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, Martin grew up interested in art and science and the rugged landscapes of the West. He studied under David Amico and Earl Jones before receiving a four-year full-tuition scholarship to the University of Utah Art Department, where he received his BFA. His imagery explores a mythic zone populated by dreamlike animals and figures. Martin enjoys working collaboratively with other painters. The mashup of styles involving other artists working together in tag-team fashion evokes a thick, sensual, and morphing atmosphere.

Tracy Strauss is an artist and full time elementary art teacher. She enjoys creating mixed media art typically of people and primarily executed in acrylic, ink, collage and interesting found materials. Her intuitive process of art making can best be described as a series of corrected mistakes, and by the Joseph Campbell quote, “Follow your bliss.”

Scott Tuckfield was born in Sandy, Utah in 1985, and from a young age loved to draw and create worlds from his imagination. In high school he realized that painting was a way for him to express parts of himself that he had no other way to express, and he fell in love with creating surreal, psychological, otherworldly art. His work is at once a love letter to the beauty of life and nature, and a testament to the pain of depression and struggle. His goal is simply to add more love and beauty to his heart and the world.

Kevin Wasden has created imaginative artwork for books, games, and comics for over 25 years. He earned his bachelor's degree from Utah State University and his Master's in Education from Southern Utah University. Beyond his work in illustration, he teaches high school art and enjoys writing poetry and short stories.

Sri Whipple  is an American visual artist, born in Los Angeles and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. He received his education from the University of Utah, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2000. He is currently based in Salt Lake City, with his wife and eleven year old twins. Sri is recognized for his distinctive style, be it painting, drawing, silkscreen printing or mural work. He is well versed in virtually any medium, but his true love is oil paint. From youth Sri has had a keen interest in art history. His obsession with the masters from around the globe is balanced by a love of pop culture, animation, comic books, graffiti, hip hop and punk rock.

Demaril Whitaker was born in 1984 in Ocala Florida. He began his journey through art as a kid drawing in class and has always been distracted by imagination. As he got older he learned how to draw by looking carefully and capturing what he saw on paper.  In his 20s he was hired at Universal Studios as a Face Painter, and since 2018 has extended his work into pastel, ink, watercolor and acrylic paint, which is now his primary medium.  He’s now 40 years old and still loving it, and looking forward to future projects.

Clinton Whiting received his BFA from the University of Utah and his MFA from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, in Rome Italy. Recent exhibits include Landscape in the Background, Solo Exhibit BDAC UT (2024), 99th Annual Spring Salon, Springville Museum of Art, UT (2023), Our Valley Speaks, Granary Arts, Ephraim, UT (2021) Abiding Embrace, Rome Italy (2019). He is a multi-disciplinary artist, influenced by conceptual and modernist practices. His works describe the intangible connection people share between one another, through representation of the human figure, and the materiality of the medium. Clinton’s work has been exhibited in solo and group shows across the United States and Internationally. He lives and works in Holladay Utah.

Elise Zoller is a classical realist painter, specializing in plein air work.  She is a graduate of Princeton University in architecture and has studied drawing and painting at the Academy of Realist Art in Boston and Masters Academy in Springville, UT.  Elise’s landscapes were finalists in the landscape and plein air categories at the International Art Renewal Salon in 2016, 2019, and 2020 and received an honorable mention in Southwest Art Magazine’s Artistic Excellence Contest in 2018.  As Artist in Residence, she has accompanied Academic Arrangements Abroad trips to Russia, Belgium, Holland, France, and the Caribbean in 2018 and ’19.  Elise is currently painting the towns along Route 66 from Santa Monica to Chicago. 

Matalyn Zundel was raised in Draper, Utah and received her Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Painting and Drawing from the University of Utah. She is interested in the figure and the lives lived by the women that surround her and the women that don’t. She primarily uses oil paints.