Ogden’s Historic Union Station holds a quarterly Community Art Show. Each show has a different theme, giving more local artists a chance to participate depending on a theme they resonate with.
Artists of any and all skill levels are able to enter their work into these Community Art shows. Ogden City’s website for arts, culture and events states, “This initiative is designed to build the confidence and resumes of local creatives.”
This event is free to the public, giving community members and businesses a chance to attend. The free show also provides Ogden community members a chance to explore more forms of art that they might not have otherwise been introduced to.
Ogden City states the “Red, White, or Blue” themed art show, titled “America 250,” runs from June 12 to Aug. 21.
The Community Art Show invited local artists to create monochromatic pieces to include one of the three the event’s theme colors, giving them the opportunity to express their thoughts on America, freedom and U.S. history through any artistic medium.
However, there were restrictions on what the artists could enter. Artwork had to be presentable to audience members of all ages, and many offensive or derogatory pieces would not be accepted.
When participants entered their work into this art show, the call for entries asked them to “explore the creative freedom, interpretation and power of a limited palette. Colors may be interpreted symbolically, emotionally, culturally or purely aesthetically.”
Mary Wells, an artist participating in this year’s art show, created the piece she named “America’s Spacious Skies,” showcasing the skies from A-Z. For each letter she drew different types of clouds and colors the sky takes on. “It stretches over deserts and cities, mountains and plains, witnessing America’s history,” Wells wrote in an accompanying photograph.
For the letter F, she illustrated a gray Funnel cloud. She painted rolling clouds, with different shades of blue for the sky behind them, for the letter R. Each letter and the painting it goes with, is painted on a small section of accordion-folded watercolor paper.
Nicholas Ioan Lazaroae created “E Pluribus Unum,” which comprises two pictures of him: one holding a U.S. passport and another a Romanian passport. His piece explores immigration in America and the question, “What is an American?”
“On the 250th anniversary of this unique experiment, we must remember that we truly are out of many, one,” Lazaroae said.
Another local artist, Kandice Marie Longhurst, created the piece they named “Freedom is not free,” including the colors blue and white. The background is a sparkly blue, with a white snowflake painted on top. The snowflake is made up of four American flags and the phrases “Freedom” and “Let freedom ring” arranged in a snowflake shape.
The snowflake she designed is in memory of Victor Hain Longhurst, her great uncle who died in WWII.
“His platoon was pinned down for several days and needed ammunition. He volunteered, was shot, and killed in 1944,” Longhurst said.
Many local artists interpreted this year’s theme through different perspectives, giving audience members more ways to resonate with a piece they find interesting as well as inspiring other artists to enter their work into future shows.
