This November, Eccles Art Center, arguably the premiere venue for visual art in Ogden (perhaps northern Utah) is hosting “Relative Truth” in their main gallery.  Let me share a bit of my truth.

The very first time I publicly showed work, it was in the Eccles Art Center (EAC).  It was the biannual “Black and White” competition.  I showed up just before the 5pm submissions deadline with a barely dry painting called “Ogden Control”.   I hadn’t known how to mount it, or frame it, or transport it, and so the glass broke on the way.  I removed all visible shards and submitted it anyway.  Somehow, the merciful juror let it in, and even though it was displayed upstairs in an out-of-the-way corner, I felt as if I’d won a prize. 

Skip ahead.  EAC announced their first “Traces of the West” competition in 2013.  It was a new idea and they weren’t sure how many submissions they might receive, so they didn’t limit the number of submissions from any single artist.  I shamelessly submitted 5 or 6 large watercolors, and one enormous one.  All under heavy glass.  All in concrete covered frames.  The Executive Director, Pat Poce, couldn’t figure out how to hang most of them, but somehow found enough easels.  On opening night, he smiled at my expression as he handed me my first prize-money check.

Skip ahead.  My daughter asked me to have a local show in November 2018 to coincide with her wedding.  I went to Pat.  “I could use a show in November.”

“Sure.” 

Within days I went back to him.   “How would you feel if I brought others in for something a bit different?”

“Sure.”

Months later I said to him.  “It’s coming along.  It’s going to be pretty different.”

Pat asked, “Can you create a program, so people get it?”

“Sure”.

This is the kind of generosity, freedom and faith that many artists dream of, the sort that inspires both gratitude and a nervous sense of responsibility. 

And now, it’s about to happen.  The paintings and prints are framed, waiting to be delivered and hung.  The installation components are gathered and awaiting assembly.  The statements are written.  Programs printed. Signs stacked.  Soon Pat and the EAC staff will finally see it all.  Soon after that, everyone else can.   Ogden City’s November 2nd “First Friday Art Stroll” will include the opening reception of the exhibition Chris Miller, Mark Seawell and I titled “Relative Truth”.  And at that point, in some ways, it won’t belong to us anymore.  It will belong to this place, and this time, and these people, and then within our history, memories and opinions, as both a minor collection of facts and a bunch of actual relative truth.