Utah painter wins grant

David Linn has a problem. A so-called "symbolist" painter known around the nation for the quality of his monochromatic, heavily symbolic images, Linn, who lives in Elk Ridge, has ordered four custom panels for an upcoming exhibit at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art. Each hulking panel is the size of a bay window -- and each costs about $500. But after Linn moved one completed painting into his home-based studio Thursday night, he woke up Friday morning to find the heat had caused the glue joining two sections of the panel to expand overnight, leaving a crack through the center of the art.
Linn examines the damaged panel. In the foreground of the sepia-toned image is a path leading through a stony field. Engulfing the horizon, however, is a dark and massive cloud of roiling dust reminiscent of the debris clouds generated by the collapse of the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001. "I hope I can fix it," he said, pointing to the crack. "My work is about heading toward a goal, what you think is your goal, and then there is this imminent event that arises and you think there is no way to get through. This painting now has a direct connection to the picture."

Of the eleven Utah artists recently awarded $1,091 grants by the Utah Arts Council, Linn was the only Utah County artist and the only painter chosen. Linn used the money to pay for two of the four custom canvases he will use for the BYU show. After the show, the paintings will tour the country with other museum exhibits. Tay Haines of the Utah Arts Council said only one in eleven applicants was chosen for the grant. "His imagery is very powerful," Haines said of Linn's work. "It has spiritual characteristics and this holy light, and he is technically very good in his composition."
Linn said he is grateful for the grant. "The Arts Council does a ton of work to promote the arts in Utah, and most of it is done pro bono, benefiting not only the artists but the general public," he said. "Good art in a community has an energizing, uplifting power. Unfortunately, many communities are not well connected to the arts."

Linn should know. His work has been seen in 13 solo exhibits and 36 group exhibits ranging from New York to California and has been reviewed by the likes of The New York Times and National Public Radio. He has received 23 awards for his work, which is sold at the Turner Carroll Gallery in Santa Fe, N.M., and the Frey Norris Gallery in San Francisco, Calif.

Linn, who completed a bachelor's and a master's degree in visual arts from BYU said he hopes his paintings both warn and encourage people dealing with life's spiritual and physical challenges. "My philosophy is the result of the intersection of life experience with my natural need to create, combined with my spiritual upbringing and my unique way of seeing things," he said. "I see the world symbolically." His work is done in sepia tones because the absence of color adds power and honesty to the image, he said. "Color lies on the surface," he said. "When I strip away the color, I get to the object and it's relationship to other elements in the painting. Color for me carries a lot of psychological baggage." The four-panel exhibit at BYU will be part of a larger exhibition of artists from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that focuses on the metaphorical language of art, he said. "The whole installation is designed as a meditation on the necessity of affliction," he said. "I think passing through certain essential afflictions is part of our mortal schooling."