The American Association of University Women (AAUW) is the nation's leading voice promoting equity and education for women and girls. Since their founding in 1881, AAUW members have examined and taken positions on the fundamental issues of the day - educational, social, economic, and political. AAUW has continually worked hard for fair pay and recognition for women. Providing the venue for Utah women to display their art and be rewarded and honored for their artistic skills and hard work is a part of that effort.

*This exhibit is not optimized for viewing on small mobile devices. For the best viewing experience, use a tablet, laptop or desktop with the display set to 100% scale.

ARTIST STATEMENTS
- Statements submitted by the artists at the time of entry - 

Lily Havey - Prayers for Peace
Details from a trio of larger art pieces

   "Sadako Sasaki was 12 years old when the A-bomb obliterated Hiroshima; she was burned badly. She told herself that if she folded 1,000 tsuru (cranes) she would recover. She made 644. Since then, there has been a tradition of folding 1,000 tsuru to help a person in difficult situation. Today the tsuru are also used at festive occasions, such as weddings and birthdays.
   The National Japanese American Citizens League had members and non-members fold 120,000 tsuru (the number of Japanese Americans incarcerated in camps during WWII) with the intention of draping the White House fence in June in protest of the immigration camps with the slogan, "Tsuru for Solidarity" but because of the coronavirus epidemic, has been postponed. Some of the castoff tsuru (wrong shape; bad folds) have found their way into my pieces.
   My three panels of tsuru are three prayers for peace. Each one has one tsuru with writing, either in Japanese or English, focusing on a specific topic. The blue/green one has part of a Buddhist prayer which I found in one of my mother's prayer books. The purple/pink one is dedicated to Wakayama and Hiroshima, my father's and my mother's hometowns. This one also relates to the bombing of Hiroshima and a prayer that this will never happen again. The red/orange one refers to Amache, the internment camp in Colorado where I spent 4 years imprisoned behind barbed wire."

Nancy Steele-Makasci - There are Some Things to Tell You But, I Can't...

   "This is an accordion fold artist's book with multiple pages. Each page is a female figure. The multiple female figures within the entire book represent the thoughts and feelings of a single woman. On each figure appear words or sentences from the individual women that cannot be said out loud for fear of being punished or condemned. These are the words that each woman would like to say out loud, however, her workplace, family and community threaten to keep her silent repeatedly throughout her life."

Virginia Catherall - Wearable Maps: SLC

   "Navigating a city can be made easier with an interactive map that also keeps you warm. Why use tech when a scarf is a more tactile way to find your destination? Pin your favorite hangout or mark your starting place. This map of Salt Lake City can be your companion around town and won't run out of batteries. This wearable artwork consists of two maps of Salt Lake City, a color-based map and a texture based map."

Cynthia L. Clark - Broken Winged Bird

   "Since dreams weigh nothing, dreams can fly without wings" is the quote incised on the top of this encaustic painting of a woman holding a bird inside a house shape. The background includes patterns from children's clothes. gears and wheels, suggesting working parts. Layers of encaustic wax and resin and heat build up many textural elements."

Emily Fox King - Time Immemorial

   "Eckhart Tolle explains that the reason we have a human fascination with flowers is because flowers are an "expression in form of that which is most high, most sacred, and ultimately formless within ourselves" (A New Earth, p.2). Recognizing the beauty of flowers as "the other" reminds us of our own innermost beings, the true nature of the self. While my florals are wild and beautiful, referencing the enlightened aspects of ourselves, they are also wildly human: messy in places with contradiction, nuance, layered with interpretation and experiences; not always balanced, symmetrical or predictable. The florals come from the chaos, beauty, and conflict that i see in our world and echo my personal life as I age, trading the naivete of my youth for the more comfortable presence of wisdom."

Anna Zumwalt - She's Got It

   "A cowgirl in action. She has her sights, and her skills, focused on her target. Nothing behind her or around her distracts her attention. She knows what she wants and will get it!
   She's Got It is part of a drawing series Dust, Horses and Ropers inspired by photographs I took on a recent visit to Moab. I saw this cowgirl in action! I was honored to be able to hang out with other artists and local wranglers, ropers. The wranglers showed off their skills, and stirred our hearts (and a lot of dust) - and gave us great photo ops! This piece is a giclée print on canvas, burnished with Renaissance Wax, and signed."

Anita Eralie Schley - Weathering the Storm

   "Six panels framed together in one piece. Weathering the Storm is about standing your ground through the difficulties that life throws at us and the personal growth that comes from that. Withstanding the storm doesn't mean always being in control or grace under pressure, in fact it can sometimes feel like chaos and like we're barely hanging on. But the point is to keep hanging on!"

Joon Bae - Dancing Crane

   "Traditional Korean ink style painting; ink on rice paper. The subject of crane's flying away is based on a Korean folk tale of a crane that transformed into a beautiful woman to repay a debt to a woodman and returned to her original crane form upon repaying her debt."

Carrie Call - Faces of Strength, "Ada"

   "My Faces of Strength series are pastel portraits of women who inspire by their strength in the face of great adversity. They represent refugees, immigrants, generational pioneers, or many who struggle against unfair societal and gender biases. They survive and learn to thrive in spite of their circumstances using the power of their dreams and determination."

Bailey Hatcher - Mother and Child Still Life

   "This painting depicts two dolls painted roughly fifty percent larger than life. I did not allow myself to use black paint, which resulted in highly saturated, velvet shadows. The texture of the panel was achieved by using a paint roller to spread sand and gesso."

Rebecca Johnson - Mohe a Pepe, Mohe a Tama (Lullaby Baby, Lullaby Dear)

   "Mohe a Pepe, Mohe a Tama, is Tongan for lullaby baby, lullaby dear. This mother and infant represent one of the strongest relationships available to any human or creature. This painting was created with watercolor and accents of gold acrylic on the mother's dress."

Kay Hale - Snow Globes

   "Snow Globes is a result of my experimentation in my studio. Starting as a watercolor, changing as I add texture and acrylic paint. I use collage to cover the "precious" parts to challenge myself to continue on to a better result. This painting features wildlife placed with snow globe-like surrounds. The landscape becomes a dreamlike place. The depths of pattern and shape carry the eye around the landscape. Watercolor, acrylic paint, collage of found items and exotic painted papers on Arches Paper."

Kody Bundy - Red Rocker & Medicine Hat

   "This is an India Ink Etching of two bachelor stallions that reside in the Teton National Park in Wyoming. The panel is an Ampersand Scratchbord that I airbrushed the background, to give it a mystical starry night which brings depth and tone to the piece. I then used razor blade/x-acto knives to draw the hair and coats of the stallions. The white showing is the color of the China clay beneath the black ink, the colored coats are painted colored India Inks."

Linda Dalton Walker - Yellow Bird of Paradise

   "The Yellow Bird of Paradise is part of a series I have been working on over the past year. I paint two different images of the same flower - one we would see with our naked eye, and one that is a macro section of that flower. I paint the macro section on a large scale and invite the viewer to observe a closer look at nature that we often overlook. Oil on wrapped canvas, the large one is 30" x 40", the small one of the pair is 8" x 6", I would like them shown as a pair to give bigger impact." Both images included in the slideshow above.

Karen Kendall - Two Pods

   "Two Pods is a creation in oil using a contemporary, abstracted palette knife technique. The piece is inspired by the dried up weed pods found along the trail when hiking in the fall. It is open for interpretation for each person, as it will speak to each differently. Beauty can be nontraditional, it can be aged, it can be unexpected. Two pods in a field may speak to lifelong friendships, connectedness or the simple act of standing side by side as our lives move along."

Kandace Steadman - Madonna of Better Homes and Gardens, 1953

   "This piece was created with images from Better Homes and Gardens magazine from 1953, plus a nimbus created from a doily. It is a homage to women who were working in the home, the use of their talents, and the near-religious way they managed their homes. It also has a slightly stained-glass approach to the background."

Kindra Fehr - Fortune Telling

   "Fortune Telling - We ask spirit for guidance in so many different ways... My great-grandmother read tea leaves, something I didn't know until recently. My memories of her were a joyful smiling little lady who spoke in a gibberish that couldn't be understood...was she speaking to the spirits?"

Julie Berry - Woman Warrior

   "My Woman Warrior was painted in acrylic and collaged with layers of found fabric, trim, tissue, paper, including handmade papers. She represents strength and beauty. She combines a renaissance woman and bright contemporary colors. It represents to me building on the history of strong women that are moving toward a bright future."

Brittanna Roberts - Ibtihaj Muhammad, Olympic sabre fencer

   "My inspiration for this piece is Ibtihaj Muhammad. She is an Olympic sabre fencer, black American, and Muslim. She is most known for being one of the first American women to wear a hijab while competing in the Olympics, winning a bronze medal with the US fencing team in 2016. She also started her own clothing business with the goal to offer fashionable modest clothing to all women, helping them feel comfortable and confident in themselves. Ibtihaj is such a wonderful example of achieving your goals and not being afraid to stand up and represent who you are. I used materials such as fabric, acrylic paint, cut paper, and pencil for this piece; each with different qualities that would help me to highlight her fencing career, work as an author, and fashion designer. Although she is an Olympic athlete, I feel that the general public doesn't know Ibtihaj Muhammad and her incredible story, which is why I chose to highlight her in this piece." (Images based off photographs by Andrew Medichini and Ezra Shaw)

Hilary Swingle - At Your Own Peril

   "My submission At Your Own Peril is a self-portrait that represents my personal frustration with the constant underestimation of women and their true strength. I was inspired to paint this after reading a Rathour quote, "She is not fragile like a flower, she is fragile like a bomb." I designed and created the headdress to be worn for my self-portrait reference. The painting is done in oils on aluminum panel."

Sue Martin - They've Got My Back

   "My mother and two grandmothers were always my greatest supporters and I imagine they still are. They taught me how to pick peanuts and cook them; to pick beetles off the rose bushes; to "watch" the music go from one stereo speaker to the other; to cook collard greens and purple hull peas; to dress nicely for church; to gather eggs and fee pigs. Best of all, they let me grow up to be me, always cheering me on, never trying to force me into a mold. I am very fortunate to have this legacy even though my world is so different than the one they left behind. Through the continuity of patterns in the figures, this painting celebrates the special traits that are woven through these three generations of women."

Alyssa Hood - It Lives in the Heart

   "My painting demonstrates the separation of environments between the observer, and a fixed-reality dreamworld. this particular threshold permits public access to gaze fully into the forbidden realm. It Lives in the Heart contains the masked woman embodied as the sex-symbol. her Venusian presence appears almost within grasp, but we are reminded of the outside world that conflicts with her domain. This shop window has been digitally manipulated from its original state to further distort dual environments and challenge the appeal of want vs. need. I've used a variety of viscous acrylic paints that allow em to apply with paintbrush and airbrush, creating varied marks that describe and transmit the image."

Michelle Bonner - The Moment of Change

   "Paper mache, watercolor, acrylics, inks, cold wax, a found fish trap, a mother's vintage dress, a working floor lamp, and foil butterflies all come together in this assemblage piece. Symbolic of a woman on the cusp of a change, loosening the ties that keep her rooted in place, as butterflies swarm in the stomach, which seems an imposing wire trap, but one with an operable trap door. When plugged in a small light within illuminates the moment."

Kristi Grussendorf - Signs, Uniforms & Labels

   "People try to communicate who they are with uniforms. In this painting there are three different kind of female religious "uniforms." I guess I just want viewers to notice similarities instead of differences and to resist the urge to sort and label. As always, I don't want to tell the viewer what to think but I'd love for my painting to start a conversation."

Katrina Madsen Berg - la premier bonheur du jour

   "This piece is named after the song by Pink Martini and the Von Trapps ("the first bonheur of the day"). In early 2019, after spending a year saving up together as a family, my husband, five kiddos and I spent a month together in the Southwest of France. the charming farmhouse we rented sat amidst the rolling hills and farms of the Garonne region. As we spent time with the locals: playing at the parks, attending the tiny branch at church, getting to know our hosts, and having new friends over for dinner...our family began to taste the "bonheur",  or happiness, the French describe: not a fleeting moment of pleasure, but the sustained state of being that connects these moments, intensifying the overall experience. Truly, it's something that is cultivated, curated, and savored." A detailed close-up of this work is included in the slideshow above.

Kimberly Jackson - Jerusalem Dome

   "As we walked through the Holy Land, we took many pictures. The layers of civilization are excavated before our eyes. the shining Dome rose up from the layers of earth and rock. Born blind, and now legally blind...the colors and impressions of layers unfolded in a beautiful array. Pastel from a photograph."

Rebecca Peery - Bringin' in the Dogies

   "This is an oil painting I did from a photo I took when my husband and I were on our way home from a camping trip. As we were driving between Elberta and Goshen we came upon a herd of cattle blocking the road. As we slowly drove past, I snapped a photo of this cowgirl. I liked the idea of a woman doing a man's job and this picture expressed it beautifully."

Janna Jensen - Far Afield

   "By using film cameras I am required to work slowly, one frame at a time. The resulting negative is only halfway to creating an image. To complete my artistic expression, I create one contact print at a time using various 19th century photographic processes. For me there is a painterly feel within these techniques that makes each print essentially a monoprint, each exhibiting slight variation, each one distinctive."

Jeanne Hansen - Fluted Wall

   "The beautiful Fluted Walls of Capitol Reef in Southern Utah are carved by the rain. When I am there painting, I always feel the Spirit of our Native American Indians and their soulful flute music."

Dian Levi - Fantasia Hydrangea

   "The medium I have been concentrating primarily for the last thirty years is hand painting silk. Silk is challenging, unforgiving and unpredictable, which provides me endless opportunities to express my visions in ways I had not thought conceivable.
   Nature is so abundantly inspiring, with shapes, shadows and light, endless textures, hues, and compositions possible. My potted Hydrangea was coming to a close in the fall, the petals thinning and leaves darkening. I wanted to capture a version of fantasy in its fight to live as long as possible. 
   Hand painting silks can be many months, and multiple procedures. I use and mix shades of quality dyes for their rich concentration. And, because I like vibrant colors that dance. I then draw with water-based gutta resist to the silk, the important shapes that define the subject and composition. Most of the painting is freehand, as in painting watercolors, layer upon layer and the fun begins. The final steps are drying the final colors for 24 hours, then steam setting the painted silk for permanence, multiple washings to remove excess dyes, and finally pressing and stretching on a canvas for display, a labor of love completed."

Jessica Drake - Kaze

   "My co-worker has a very photogenic blue healer dog and so I decided to try my hand at painting him. I have never painted an animal before, so it was definitely a challenge, especially being a legally blind artist, but I think it turned out pretty good."

Patricia Legant - Melted

   "I somehow missed the exhibition theme Celebrating Women: Vibrant and Equal, but suppose that my pursuit of printmaking exemplifies vibrancy of a sort. During many years of an all-absorbing career in healthcare, I dabbled in art as an antidote to burn-out. Now retire, I find that one of the unexpected delights of age is the sheer realization that one is still alive and kicking. I continue to find joy in creation and satisfaction in trying to portray images on the page. The submitted print "Melted" was inspired by morning frost melting on a window. The image was enlarged, made into a stencil, and then superimposed, via light-sensitive screen print, onto cloud-like forms. the resulting collagraph plate was inked first by intaglio in yellow and second by relief with a rainbow roll of blues. Happily, the sunny yeloow shows through the surrounding gloomy blues."

AWARD WINNER CERTIFICATES

JUROR & GRAPHIC DESIGNER STATEMENTS

Susan M. Anderson, Juror

   "I moved to Logan, Utah, with my family almost a year ago. Since then, I have been periodically traveling back and forth to California, where I am still organizing museum exhibitions. I am grateful to the AAUW for asking me to jury the 19th Biennial Juried Exhibition of Utah Women Artists as it has given me an opportunity to become better acquainted with the art and artists of this region. While few of the submissions directly addressed the theme Celebrating Women -- Vibrant and Equal, many did speak to issues of women's empowerment. Also evident were other matters pertinent to the lives of women:  nurturance, family, companionship, and generational support. I found a confessional quality in some of the work, expressing a poetic and nuanced approach to issues of identity. There was also angst and anger among the beauty, which must be acknowledged and expressed as well. However, there were very few works of art that took a critical stance in relation to the culture at large. A focus on landscape, flora, and fauna, and a connection to the natural world did not surprise because of the stunning scenery and outdoor way of life in Utah. Fiber art also made a strong showing with many outstanding submissions. No matter the medium, subject matter, or date of the work, perhaps what I look for in a work of art is a clear search for authentic, personal expression coupled with an aesthetic approach that communicates that search. i want to strongly encourage all of you who submitted art, whether selected for the show or now, to continue to create and to believe in your work."

Brianna Molitor, Graphic Designer

   "It has been so great working with AAUW this year on the catalog design. Although I live in Kansas on a farm now, my roots are in the beautiful mountains of Utah and my Grandma has been involved with AAUW for several years. Graphic design is its own kind of art and I'm so glad I got to add my own flair to this year's catalog. My goal in the design was to keep it clean and simple to let the artworks within really shine. If you would like to see more of my work, visit:  www.farmhousestories.com or www.behance.net/BNDesigns." 

ARTWORK SALE INFORMATION

If you are interested in purchasing one of the items in this exhibit, please contact Michael Christensen at michael.christensen@wvc-ut.gov.
The items available for sale are listed below, with their sale price.
Broken Winged Bird
Cynthia Clark
$1,200
26" x 26"
Fantasia Hydrangea
Dian Levi
$4,000
33" x 38.75"
Fluted Wall
Jeanne Hansen
$360
​13.5" x 15"
la premier bonheur du jour
Katrina Madsen Berg
$13,655
4'10" diameter
​Custom Frame
Monarch Epiphany
Cara Koolmees
$900
​11" x 30"
Receiving/Releasing
Ramira Alamilla
$300
​22" x 18"
Yellow Bird of Paradise
Linda Dalton Walker
$1,400
30" x 40"

EXHIBIT SPONSORS