Home-Grown Artistry at Utah Fair

The Utah Arts Festival, an outdoor celebration in Salt Lake City from June 21 to 25, enables visitors to see and buy some handcrafts from across the country. Held downtown in the Triad Center, the event is a showcase for about 70 top artisans and crafts people.

The Triad Center is about a block from the Doubletree Hotel, where many of the artists stay.

Some of the most interesting offerings are works by the following:

Rick and Brigid Anderson (from Arizona) produce tiny hand-tied, hand-dyed macrame earrings ($12 and up), some of which contain shining crystals or gold and silver strands.

Wind Instruments

Michael Graham Allen (from Oklahoma) makes four types of wind instruments ($60 to $125), including sweet-sounding flutes and easy-to-play pan pipes ($40) with two-octave G-minor pentatonic scales, modeled after instruments played by Andean Indians in South America. Under the Coyote Oldman Music label, he also produces cassette tapes ($10) of flute music.

Lori Mehan (from Salt Lake City) is a sculptor whose ceramic coyotes (around $150) are dressed as people and perform human activities.

Paul and Patricia Goodspeed (from Arkansas) are leather workers who create handsome suede shirts patterned with varicolored earth-tone stripes and lines with lamb suede (about $300), as well as suede scarfs ($45) and small pouches ($25) that attach to ranger belts ($30).

Kolene Kumpfer (from Salt Lake City) weaves delicate baskets out of straw and twigs, fills them with subtly colored dried flowers and wires them so they may be used as wall decorations ($35 to $40).

Californian Michael Kelly’s contemporary furniture handcrafted of hardwood has a sculptural look.

Pieces include rockerlike bentwood chairs and coordinating work tables, as well as roll-top desks ($2,500) that have numerous drawers and hidden cubbyholes and are painted a brilliant yellow and other bright colors. Also file boxes with sliding tops ($50), tape dispensers ($22), compact-disc holders ($42) and cassette holders ($20).

Michael Thiele (from Arizona) sculpts musical instruments out of hardwoods, including rosewood, walnut and teak. He has adapted Aztec designs to create drums ($60 to $325) with harmonic tunings.

Jeweler Stuart Porteous (from Washington) uses pieces of agate and jasper and stones yielded from small, independent digs in the Northwest, set in silver ($40 to $100) and gold ($300 and up) to create pins and pendants.

Walter Kirkpatrick (from Arizona) is a jeweler, etcher and sculptor who works with copper, bronze, silver and gold. He calls his work South American Lizzard Research and uses lizards as a source for many decorative objects, including belt buckles ($150 to $175). Kirkpatrick also makes silver and bronze earrings shaped like lotus flowers ($50) and pins that look like futuristic bugs from outer space ($25).

Briant Matheson (from Salt Lake City) is a mixed-media man who uses ceramics, metals, paper and other materials to create decorative home and personal accessories shaped like fish--fish as bolo ties (about $45), fish as toys and mobiles ($20 and up) and large collectible papier-mache fish ($100 and up) that have no function other than to be beautiful and amusing.

June Rettig (from Arizona) makes custom-designed leather shoes (from about $250 and up), many of which are shaped like native American moccasins and hand-colored with geometric patterns.

Glen Richards (from Utah) is the creator of wooden toys, including parrots and clowns ($25 and up), and pull cars and trains ($30 and up) hand-painted with original cartoon characters.

Barbara Ellison and William Fickinger (from Arizona) hand-paint one-of-a-kind T-shirts ($20).

Cynthia Henrie (from Salt Lake City) produces colored clothing, including stylish pedal pushers ($36), flowing full circle skirts ($32) and tank-top T-shirts ($19) out of tie-dyed cotton cloth.

In addition to the show and sell stalls the festival organizes fine art exhibitions in other venues, large environmental art projects and a Children’s Art Yard in which youths can enjoy face painting, labyrinth construction, storytelling, dance workshops and other activities.

This year’s demonstrations and workshops include Michael Lortsher’s instruction in brush and ink Sumie painting, Coy Mooso’s class in Ukrainian Egg Decorating, Jim Tuttle’s hand-painted clothing techniques, Cami DeRosa’s hand-built pottery, Kolene Kumpfer’s basketry and others.

The festival also presents performances in open-air venues on the festival grounds. This year’s list of well-known international artists includes American avant-garde musician Morton Subotnick (June 21), the Texas-based musical funsters known as Brave Combo (June 23), Brazilian jazz pianist and singer Elaine Elias (June 24) and Danceafrica (June 24), a celebration of African and Afro-American dance. Local musical and dance ensembles are also featured.

The festival charges $3 admission ($1 for children 12 or younger or seniors 62 and older), which guarantees entry for the entire day of purchase. Family passes ($7) admit two parents and up to four children (12 years and under). The grounds are open daily from noon to midnight (until 6 p.m. on Sunday).

For free programs (available at the end of May) and more information, contact the Utah Arts Festival, 168 West 500 North, Salt Lake City, Utah 84103, (801) 538-1030.