Chickens

Chicken: A Provo Story opened on December 5th here. BrightBoy and I met up with his family and strolled downtown and took a peak at the show. I contributed about 50 pieces to the show. It was a great success. The show was built around the concept of consumption. We took the average number of pounds of chicken eaten by an individual each year, divided that by the average weight of a chicken, multiplied that by the populatin of Provo, and divided that by the number of days in a year. The figured that on average, 5,326 chickens are eaten every day in Provo. In light of this, we (as a group of over 100 students and a few faculty members) put together a show of 5,326 chickens that are "5 x 5 1/2" and displayed in plastic baggies. Each chick was sold for one dollar and proceeds will be donated to the Provo Food and Care Coalition.

I got a call two nights before the show was to go up asking if I could do a few more. They were considerably short and so I gladly took on the task of doing 15 additional chickies. Wednesday morning instead of going to my class I spent the AM hours with my brush in hand, thinking about art, my art, and letting the words I have been hearing over the last semester swirl around in my brain for a few hours.

Nearly all the art I make is spiritual in nature to me. It is filled with patterns, circles, parallel lines. . . I think about these symbols as ones that connote eternity, endlessness. I love linking circles, referencing the links between people that stretch forever in both directions. I believe that we are so much more connected than we even realize. I use threes often, or fill my canvas with personal symbols that have taken on a role in my art, like chairs which reference family.

As I was doodling these patterns on the 5 inch square chickens, I was thinking about these symbols and how they apply to me. I was thinking about eternity, spirituality, family . . . and I realized that the margins of my notebooks that have been filled with circles, lines, shapes, and patterns for the last six years of my life is evididence of my contemplating the beyond. I felt really connected to my Savior and His plan as I let my paint brush trace the lines of the Divine.

As I was thinking about this, painting and (true to form as a self-proclaimed multitasking master) listening to this, a program on spirituality and chickens came on. I felt like my morning came full circle. It was almost creepy, in a nice way.

Here are some pictures of the show. Eat up. And if you haven't yet, check out the show in the flesh.