Artists | NowPlayingUtah.com

Home
Artists
Search

David Sadler

UA&M Teaching Artist; Visual Artist

David Sadler is currently enrolled at the University of Utah studying Art Teaching and Mathematics. In 2018, David will complete his undergraduate edu- cation with a BFA in Art Teaching with an emphasis in Painting and Drawing as well as a BS in Mathe- matics. His work as an artist involves melding the digital with traditional painting and drawing tech- niques, resulting in paintings both highly represen- tational and abstract. David would love to offer a rigorous course investi- gating painting and drawing techniques. Though focusing on developing representational skill, Da- vid also wants to give learners freedom to find their own voices.

Julian Sagers

15 Bytes; Visual Artist

Julian Sagers was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah and is a senior in his last semester, working toward a Bachelor’s of Fine Art in printmaking from the University of Utah. His work emphasizes, in small to medium format, intaglio or relief prints with concepts related to deviations from the expected sexual or gender norms and response to the role society plays in defining normality. His work is highly figurative, emotive and representational with attention to draftsmanship. He has emphasized in mezzotints and aquatints, for their supple nature of value and how well the mediums translate a drafted form while still maintaining an organic mark and somber mood, resonating with aspects of his theme such as isolation, melancholy and figurative and animalistic forms. Julian has organised a portfolio, “Direction”, that was exhibited at the 1st Rocky Mountain Printmaking Alliance symposium, held in Boise 2011. This included students from the Universities of Colorado, Utah, Indiana and Washington State. Recently, he had a print selected for the Bradley International Print and Drawing Juried Exhibition 2013, and in 2012 exhibited work in the “Transgender Education Awareness Month Art Show” in Salt Lake City at the Gray Wall Gallery. Artist Statement My work explores gender and sexual roles, deviations from the expected norms and the conflicts that arise as result. In the present cultural climate a black and white expectation of reality is forced onto the bell-curve of human nature. Our society uses gender similarly to race–As a way to classify humans into easily identifiable groups, then divided into superior and inferior castes. To facilitate the ease of this system, rigid gender roles are set up to define ‘male’ and ‘female’ for easy identification. The more rigid the roles, the easier it is to spot when people deviate from the norms. In reality, the actual, external physical differences between the human sexes is very slight. The only reason it is so easy to tell the difference is because we have so many social clues and if looked at objectively and from a distance, however, the system can be seen as bigoted, illogical and superficial. Individuals are sometimes rejected in spite of their lifestyles, choices, or identities hurting no one. Only those whose identities conform with societal expectations are allowed to freely practice and live without threat of harm, melancholy, oppression, or rejection, but sometimes these people will not allow others the same courtesy, placing their own lifestyle as the only one that’s valid and condemning anything different. In my work I have focused on illustrating a transitive or androgynous figure and have used anthropomorphic characters. The latter, to comment on the sexualizing of such characters in our media and how that leads to fetishizing and to replace a ‘gendered’ human as a way to comment on the superficiality of biological ‘sex’ as a basis for defining gender. Both to illustrate how when we replace an illogical structure with more obviously nonsensical characters or ideas the invalidity becomes more apparent.

Stephanie Saint-Thomas

15 Bytes; Identity: 801 Creative Women; Visual Artist

Stephanie Saint-Thomas lived in Europe as a child before coming to SLC in 1975. She creates colorful abstract work with unique materials.

Natasha Saje

Poet

Natasha Sajé’s first book of poems, Red Under the Skin (Pittsburgh, 1994, 2nd printing 1996, 3rd printing 2004), was chosen from over 900 manuscripts to win the Agnes Lynch Starrett prize, and was later awarded the Towson State Prize in Literature. Her poems, reviews, and essays appear in many journals, including The Henry James Review; Essays in Literature; Kenyon Review; New Republic; Paris Review; Parnassus; Chelsea; Gettysburg Review; Legacy: Journal of American Women Writers; Ploughshares; Shenandoah; and The Writers Chronicle. Sajé is an associate professor of English at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, where she administers the Weeks Poetry Series, and also teaches in the Vermont College MFA in Writing Program.

Susan Sample

Writer

Susan Sample, a Salt Lake City resident, has a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Arizona. Her poetry has won awards in two recent Utah Arts Council’s Original Writing Competitions; her fiction won an award in Redbook magazine’s Young Writers Contest. She has published in literary journals, with her poems most recently appearing in The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Ellipsis, Salt Flats Annual and City Art Journal. Since 2002, Susan has led poetry workshops for the Arts Council at the Youth Transplant Kamp, teaching teenagers who’ve survived organ transplants. She also has taught poetry to children and adults for World Hospice Day at the Huntsman Cancer Center, and to patients with kidney disease and their families. At the University of Utah School of Medicine, where she is a program associate in the Division of Medical Ethics and Humanities, Susan teaches reflective writing to medical students. Not all of her teaching involves health and medicine, however. She has served as a writer-in-residence at elementary, junior high, and high schools in the Salt Lake area, and for the Colorado Arts Council. Wherever she teaches poetry, Susan approaches writing as a process of discovery that is both fun and meaningful. Paper and pencils are essential, but so, too, are students’ senses. She encourages them to use all of themselves—ears, eyes, nose, fingers. How does it taste when you imagine being locked out of your house? She might have students draw maps of their backyards. What do you suddenly hear if you can’t get inside? By focusing on their senses, students, especially older ones, erase the division between mind and body, and their writing process becomes less self-conscious. The results are poems whose honesty often surprises the writers themselves. They begin to see the world and their lives in new ways; they experience how meaningful poetry can be. Language is at the core of Susan’s writing classes. She encourages students to reach for words that are intense and original. She often has writers “warm up” by brainstorming similes for everyday objects in their world: classroom light fixtures look like ice trays; surgical tubing, a noose. To illustrate rhythm, metaphors, and other elements of the craft of writing, she reads aloud from a wide range of poetry: Lucille Clifton to Rumi, Theodore Roethke to Utah’s late poet laureate, Ken Brewer. Since sound is critical in poetry, Susan encourages students to listen to the writing of others in the class or workshop. By sharing their work in an environment of respect and support, students often are motivated to take risks, pushing their creativity to new levels. Susan likes to end her residencies with activities that take poetry off the page and into writers’ lives. These have included: transforming poems about windows into actual windows (using transparencies and markers), which they can display at home; performing poems at a café; and mailing students their “I Remember” poems months, and even a year, later. Susan is available for short-term workshops, extended projects, and residences. She also is available for teacher training with health-care professionals and collaborations with artists in other areas, such as dance or book-making. She prefers to work with special populations, especially teens and adults in the Salt Lake area. Technical requirements: paper, pencils, and access to a computer and printer to copy students’ writing. (

Dalila Sanabria

Visual Artist

EDUCATION 2023 MFA in Sculpture, Cranbrook Academy of Art (Candidate) 2019 BFA in Art, Brigham Young University BA in Portuguese Studies, secondary major SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2022 Without Rise, Roman Susan Gallery, Chicago, IL (Solo- upcoming) Free for All, Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Brought to the Table, Saarinen House, Bloomfield Hills, MI CPU Result, Forum Gallery, Bloomfield Hills, MI Bootleg Show, Forum Gallery, Bloomfield Hills, MI ALTARS, Forum Gallery, Bloomfield Hills, MI 2021 Reconcile, QUAID Gallery, Tampa, FL (Solo) People Places Things, Project Gallery V, curated by Samantha Rippner, New York, NY, online 2020 Make America what America must Become, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, New Orleans, LA Circle, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art Museum, Gimpo-si, Gyeonngi-do, South Korea Home as situation, Bolivar Gallery, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, online Congruence, Summer 2020 I Like Your Work, juried by Bridgette Mayer, online Comforting Discomfort, Rio Gallery, Salt Lake City, UT (Two-person) Bookworks, Utah Cultural Celebration Center, West Valley, UT 2019 Remnants, BFA Thesis Show, Gallery 303, Provo, UT (Solo) Non-Actual, Gallery 303, Provo, UT In Memory Of, 496 N 900 E, Lindon, UT Recollecting, B.F. Larsen Gallery, Provo, UT (Solo) Displacement, Gallery 303, Provo, UT Annual Vera Hinckley Mayhew Show, B.F. Larsen Gallery, Provo, UT 2018 The places without, Gallery 303, Provo, UT (Solo) Interdisciplinary Projects, Gallery 303, Provo, UT Extent of Territory, Gallery 303, Provo, UT and University of Stanislaus, CA

Elizabeth Sanches

Visual Artist

Born in Chihuahua, Mexico. Elizabeth graduated from Brigham Young University, where she earned a BFA in painting. She now lives in Spanish Fork, Utah with her husband and three kids. Her repertoire consists of Portraiture and Figurative works. “My goal is to inspire feelings of compassion and kindness towards ourselves and others. I considered my art a dialogue between the unconscious and the customary mind, embodied in the new spaces and old places that knew me. I want for my art to speak of the conventional days from a poetical and sacred view that emanates from a place where love and irony are intimately entwined and at peace.”

Ana Santiesteban-Johnson

Visual Artist

Plasmo en canvas mis emociones y sentimientos, yo naci teniendo un alma de artista.

Marc Santos

Photographer

Marc Santos is a photographer who infuses motion into his still images. Showing motion in this way allows the viewer to time travel within the frame. Marc started shooting at an early age, learning from his father who was a professional photographer, striving to consistently create emotion-filled images. Marc is known for creating a positive and relaxed space on set that allows artists to feel safe and enable their daring nature. His images have been featured in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Marc has also produced images for music albums and book covers, having worked in legendary venues such as Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.

Mary Sauer

15 Bytes; Identity: 801 Creative Women; Visual Artist

Figure Drawing Instructor, Brigham Young University 2012 Studio Painter, Jeff Koons LLC 2010-2012 Freelance Illustrator, Johnson & Johnson 2010 education Grand Central Academy 2012-present Art Students League of New York 2011-present Apprenticed in the studio of William Whitaker 2008-2009 BFA in Illustration from Brigham Young University 2009 exhibitions Artist Statement For me the connection between my desire to honor what I believe to be true, which is for women to raise children in a stable family environment and yet somehow survive in today’s economy without working full time is a real issue. I portray women who fall on both sides of this issue. Some have a career and choose to give it up in order to spend more time raising a family, while others choose not have children in order to pursue career aspirations. They may even substitute pets for children, while planning on maybe having children in their late thirties or early forties. But many women today don’t have the luxury of making that choice. Some, who at first only want a career, later realize that they desire to be a mother. They then are unable to make that choice because of massive student loan debt and a dual-income mortgage and fear of taking risks in today’s desperate economic conditions. There is a general idea that many women are dissatisfied with their role of mother or do not want to be one at all. This may have held true in a previous time when motherhood was the only option available, but after all the work it took to gain equal rights in the work force today, there is a growing number that are dissatisfied by the lost opportunity of motherhood, as well. These paintings depict women in cold, planned out environments and illustrate how different social institutions dictate our behaviors. They show idealized perfection and reference stale commissioned portraiture as well as the “ideal woman” from illustration of the 1950’s.

Gerda Saunders

Identity: 801 Creative Women; Mapping Literary Utah; Writer

Gerda Saunders was born in South Africa in 1949, the year that apartheid became official. She received a BA from the University of Pretoria and emigrated with her husband, Peter, and three young children to the United States in 1984. She received her PhD in English from the University of Utah in 1996, where she also served as associate director of the Gender Studies Program until her retirement in 2011. Saunders’ first book is a collection of short stories, Blessings on the Sheep Dog (Southern Methodist University Press, 2002). In 2011, when Saunders turned 61, she was diagnosed with cerebral microvascular disease, which is a precursor of dementia. Her journal entries processing her changes in memory became the basis for her popular memoir, Memory’s Last Breath: Field Notes on My Dementia (Hachette Books 2017). Saunders’ frank, intelligent, and always compassionate understanding of her dementia, along with her insights into the relationship between gender, race, and memory, has also been the subject of a series of short films produced by VideoWest. Saunders continues to document her dementia on her blog “My Life With Dementia.”

John Schaefer

Filmmaker; Photographer; Visual Artist

John Schaefer, director/founder of the Children’s Media Workshop (www.mediadivide.org), is an artist, educator, community builder who uses innovative media experiences to created macro educational systems. His expertise in designing large-scale initiatives is informed by his grass roots authenticity. One day he is working on major systems (500,000 teachers +), the next he is in an inner city classroom giving cameras to kids while looking for a damn marker that has ink. He is a translator of concepts and experiences. > His photographs are being curated into the Library of Congress Master Photographers Collection > Designer of the Polaroid Education Program, the largest in-service teacher initiative in US History > Over 550,000 teachers in hands-on workshops (1988 – 92), resulting in two White House invitations > Keynote speeches for among others the National PTA, National Art Educators Association, and International Schools In Africa and Europe. > Conducted the first real-time interactive video workshop with President George Bush Sr. and actress Jody Foster for 35,000 educators > Designed one of the first online courses, The Media Savvy Classroom, in conjunction with Columbia Teachers College > Nissan Hometown Hero Award winner on primetime network television, for community activism > Original member of the Sundance Institute and Film Festival > Co-curator of the Temporary Museum of Permanent Change (www.museumofchange.org), an innovative downtown invigoration project > Director of Education for Choice Humanitarian, developing substantive 1st – 3rd World partnership experiences > Global Classroom ConnectED Project – interactive connectivity between US and Mexican schools

Ian Scharine

Gail Schimmelpfennig

Poet

Gail Gunnarson Schimmelpfennig was born in Ogden, Utah, and graduated from Ogden High. She began college as an English major at Weber State College, and completed it at the same place (by then Weber State University) many years later. Her first book, The Frozen Kingdom, was awarded the Pearle M. Olsen Publication Award from the Utah State Poetry Society in 2009, and was a finalist for the Utah Book Award in 2010. She has been published in The Wise Mother, Nine-One-One, Metaphor, Utah Sings Vol. VIII, The Leader, and Let’s Celebrate. Her interests include anthropology, skiing, hiking, basketry, painting on silk, and any kind of needlework except crochet. She is a 25-year volunteer with Girl Scouts of Utah.

Lora Schmidt

Storyteller; UA&M Teaching Artist

Set sail on a joyful journey through the remarkable world of storytelling with Lora Schmidt. For almost 24 years, Lora has captured the imagination and emotions of audiences of all ages in venues as di- verse as the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, youth detention centers, the U of U Girls Transition Unit, the Kari Sue Hamilton School, and classrooms and libraries across the state sharing stories from around the world and close to the heart. Storytelling workshops teach students public speak- ing and organizational skills along with encouraging active listening. The Make-a-play residencies, in which students write and act out a play based on a folk tale, encourages cooperation, team work and poise in front of an audience. Both introduce your students to the universality of story and will enliven any classroom. Stories will set your students’ imagi- nations soaring! Lora has been a UDAM teaching artist since 2000.

Shalee Schmidt

Actor; Director; Musician; Producer; Singer; Storyteller

Shalee Schmidt soprano Blonde / Blue Eyes cell (801)865-4239 5’7” shaleeschmidt@hotmail.com Education: Master of Music, Vocal Performance University of Utah Bachelor of Music, Vocal Performance Magna Cum Laude University of Utah Experience Film Day of Defense Background Actor Nuworlds Productions Industrial Gottasing.com (DVD series) Lead Actor Voce Productions Southwest Benefits Video Actor/Singer Southwest Airlines Southwest Fun Video Actor Southwest Airlines Franklin Covey Product TrainingVideo Actor Franklin Covey Fanklin Covey Presenter Training Video Actor Franklin Covey VoiceOver/Recording SLSPA Radio Spot Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts Peek-a-Boo Time (Book & CD) Brite Music Voice Lessons w/Dave and Shalee (CD series) & Radio Spot InAChord Productions Musical Theatre Hello, Dolly! Dolly Murray Arts Council Nunsense Sister Hubert Bountiful PAC Lucky Stiff Dominique Bountiful PAC Into the Woods Rapunzel Sandy Arts Council Opera/Operetta The Gondoliers Duchess Utah Light Opera The Magic Flute Papagena Utah Light Opera Training Voice Vocal study: Julie Wright-Costa, DMA and Dr. David Power, DMA – Uof Utah. Masterclasses: Jan Prokop, DMA; William Bolcom, DMA; Robert McIver, DMA. Dance Ballet, Jazz, Modern, Tap, and Folk dance – Physical Education Major (Dance/Sports Composite), Brigham Young University. Additional training in Jazz, Ballet, Character, Tap, Gymnastics – San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Fresno, CA. Acting/Movement Actor training – Margo Andersen & Linda Brown – Theater Department, UofUtah. Acting and Movement Workshops for Singers – UofUtah; Fresno City College, CA. Alexander Technique: Jacque Lynn Bell – Theater Department, UofUtah. Dialect/Diction Diction – Italian, German, French, Latin – Julie Wright-Costa & Dr. Paul Dorgan – Music Department, Uof Utah. Dialects training – Standard British, Irish, Bostonian, Brooklyn, Southern, French, Spanish, German – Sandra Shotwell – Theater Department, UofUtah.

Amy Schmidt

Visual Artist

I’ve worked in fashion for over 20 years and while I love coaxing fabric to take a desired form I enjoy coaxing metal into shape even more. I took my first class in jewelry fabrication 20 years ago and was hooked. That first class led to many other classes in many different techniques. I’ve worked in ancient, traditional and modern techniques and like how they can compliment each other. Moving to Utah seven years ago from the east coast, I spent many hours on the internet looking for more classes to take here. They were few and far between and none were offered in a space that was dedicated to jewelry making, which prompted the idea to create a studio in Salt Lake where classes and workshops in jewelry making and other fine crafts could be held and jewelry making community could form. I have finally brought the dream to fruition and opened my studio, with the hopes that locals and non locals alike will find a comfortable place to come, create and build friendships. http://thesilverschmidt.com

Jeremy Schwartz

Identity: LGBTQ; Photographer; Visual Artist

On a mission to put beautiful things into the world. Order fine art prints that tell stories of nature from Salt Lake City, Utah and beyond.

Gilmore Scott

Visual Artist

The mediums which I work with are watercolors, acrylics and color pencils. I do at times like to mix all three mediums to complete a piece of work. My use of colors are strong and bold. My images and subjects are interpretations of how I view my culture, my Dine (Navajo) heritage. My subjects are of the high desert southwest landscapes and Navajo culture. I enjoy incorporating geometric designs that Navajo rug weavers are known for and also paint the open landscape vistas of my home area. These are just a few subjects which inspire my imagination. I’ve studied art at the College of Eastern Utah and at Utah State University. Just Short of a degree in Fine Arts, I started a career as a wildland firefighter. After 9 years with the U.S. Forest Service I have now put my efforts back to into my passion and love of art. I thank you for your time and consideration.

Seasoned Amnesia

Performing Group; Classic Rock Band

We are a Salt Lake City band comprised of several old farts who love 70’s music. We play classic rock plus some soft rock seldom heard anymore. Come join us at our next gig and let the songs bring you back to your happiest years. I started this band about three years ago with Dan Janssen. We had a vision that a classic rock band mixed with soft rock, would fit a growing market of people aging like ourselves. Dan took some convincing since his favorite band is Boston. Nothing wrong with that, but who can sing Boston? lol After going through several musicians who didn’t really agree with the vision, we have finally have a group of musicians that are sure to please. The name came from Dan and I trying to come up with something to express how we felt at this stage of life. The Amnesia part is easy, since everyone knows what starts happening in your fifties. The Seasoned part can take on many different meanings, left for you to decide.

Chauncey Secrist

Visual Artist

Chauncey Secrist is an American artist, born in Salt Lake City, UT in 1980, who works in a variety of mediums including oil, acrylic, watercolor, ink, collage, and assemblage, and is primarily self-taught. His work has been exhibited in many galleries in Salt Lake City, including Art Access, Patrick Moore Gallery, Contemporary Design & Art Gallery, Palmer’s Gallery, and the Springville Museum of Art; and in THAT Gallery in Hong Kong, and the APW Gallery in New York. His style is constantly evolving as he experiments with new mediums, finds inspiration in new places, and delves more deeply into his own psyche. Chauncey lives and works in Salt Lake City with his daughter.

Lisa Seegmiller

Actor; Musician; Singer

Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller, a 2010 GRAMMY Nominee for Best Opera Recording (Musto’s Volpone, Wolf Trap Opera Company), is a TONY Award Winner for her portrayal of Mimì in Baz Luhrmann’s production of Puccini’s La Bohème on Broadway. A graduate of the Theater Studies department at Yale University and the vocal program at the Manhattan School of Music, lauded by Opera News as “the kind of camera-ready young singer today’s marketing directors dream of,” Lisa occupies today’s hottest niche where Hollywood meets Broadway meets opera. U.S. and European credits include: Grizabella (Lloyd-Webber’s Cats), Amore (Monteverdi’s Return of Ulysses), Corvina (Musto’s Volpone),The First Lady (Mozart’s The Magic Flute), Sofia (Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino), Donna Anna (Mozart’s Don Giovanni), Mimi (Puccini’s La Bohème), Elle (Poulenc’s La voix humaine), Cleopatra (Handel’s Giulio Cesare), Polly Peachum (Weill’s Threepenny Opera), Casilda (Gilbert & Sullivan’s Gondoliers), and Mrs. Nordstrom (Sondheim’s A Little Night Music). Concert credits include multiple performances of Bernstein’s Mass, Händel’s Messiah, Monteverdi’s Madrigali Amorosi (Eighth Book of Madrigals), Mozart’s Requiem, and Exsultate, jubilate K. 165. Lisa resides with her husband and manager, Travis M. Seegmiller, and their daughters, Ellie Felice and Anna Nesha, in Washington, D.C., where Travis is a Partner at Patton Boggs LLP, a global law and public policy firm. Between singing engagements, Lisa enjoys being a wife, mother, and homemaker and likes to travel, teach, and spend time with her family at their home on the Seegmiller farm in St. George, Utah. She is passionate about performing sacred music and served as a volunteer missionary to Vienna, Austria, where she performed in over twenty spiritual concerts and collaborated with the renowned Szabó Quartet during the Carinthian Arts Festival. She is on the roster of Sing for Hope, as well as an active member of the Relief Society, in which capacities she enjoys donating her time and talents to performing music that uplifts and edifies. Lisa teaches voice and acting in her private studios on the east and west coasts and at the university level.

Elena Sepulveda

Visual Artist

Elena Sepulveda is a multidisciplinary sensitive artist. Throughout her life, she has developed a true passion for painting with acrylics and oil on canvas, ceramics and wood. Elena grew up surrounded by art. Her passion started at an early age, selling small “art work” for a few pennies after school in Chile, her country of birth. Later, she moved to Venezuela, where she showed and sold her artwork at her own gallery. There she had the opportunity to interact with many customers from different countries and cultures such as Norway, England, Italy, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Japan and U.S.A. Throughout her life, Elena has been recognized with various awards and prizes. Elena has a degree as a history teacher, which has giving her an understanding about the different schools and art movements throughout history. This knowledge allows her to understand the passion and formation of a true artist and helps her to recognize the individual needs and potential of each student

Kim Seward

Graphic Designer; Visual Artist

Shahravar Belly Dance

Choreographer; Dancer

SHAHRAVAR began studying Middle-Eastern Dance styles in 1993. My dance Background follows Classical Cabaret, Tribal and Folklorick Middle Eastern Dances. I am also well versed in Flamenco & Zahmbra, Turkish & Rom "Gypsy" (Proper term is Rom or Roma), American Tribal, Saudi Folk & Khallegy, Tunisian, Egyptian Cabaret & Lebanese Debke(Line dances)". TECHNIQUE Rhythms & Drumming: Doumbek & Tar, Zills–Finger cymbals (zagat),Veil-Performance & the meanings beneath, also Veil History Khallegy–Saudi Gulf region dance performed with ornate Thobes. Fans-Oriental & Flamenco styling. Cane-Styled from traditional Taktib "Raks Al Assaya". Basket-Various styling & Jug-dances for Tunisian. Skirt-Traditional Spanish, American "Gypsy", Turkish Rom "Gypsy". Sword-Raks al Sayef "Scimitar, Ghurka, Sabre, Dagger. 10 year Principal dancer & associate director for Desert Orchid dance company 3 year founding member of Troupe Shah Sitara. Please visit my website to download my full resume: www.shahravarbellydance.com www.shahravarbellydance.com.

Denae Shanidiin

Visual Artist

Diné & Korean | @mmiwhoismissing @restoringancestralwinds @navajommdr

Eugene Shapiro

Musician; UA&M Teaching Artist

Eugene Shapiro is the bandleader and manager of the jazz group the Shapiro Project. The band has released two CDs and has played all over Las Vegas and beyond. Shapiro has won two NAC Artist Fellowships ad an honorable mention in the Billboard Songwriting Contest. He is the published author of the Beginning Guitar Book used as the text book for guitar classes at College of Southern Nevada. Shapiro is a jazz guitarist, composer, bandleader, and educator. He holds a Master’s Degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Neveda, and has been teaching music as CSN since 2000. He is passionate about promoting jazz, through teaching and presenting to audiences of all ages. His approach is based on fun and easily grasped explanations and demonstrations of how jazz works, what the instruments do and how to listen to and enjoy this original American art form. His workshops include: How Jazz Works, a demonstration of the rules of jazz including the instruments used, their roles, how they communicate with each other, and how combined they create the magic that is jazz. Styles of Jazz, A musical journey through the main styles of jazz including Dixieland, Swing, Be-Bop, Cool, Hard Bop, Latin, Modal, Free, and Jazz0rock Fusion. The main characteristics of each style are explained and demonstrated, and the differences between the styles are revealed. Jazz is Exciting, how to listen to and enjoy jazz. The basics from instruments to forms and styles, layouts, and basic jazz vocabulary are presented in a fun way to help the novice understand and appreciate jazz. Great Jazz Musicians, a lecture and concert featuring the music of prominent American jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter and Wes Montgomery

David S. Sharp

Composer; Graphic Designer; Musician; Poet; Singer; Storyteller; Writer

Travel back in time for an evening as Glastonbury Duo plays music from the Celtic countries, Tudor England and Renaissance Europe. Carol and Dave Sharp play many kinds of music, including haunting Harp and Flute, Songs of long ago, and rousing dance tunes. Glastonbury duo includes period costumes, hand carved instruments, and storytelling, with elements of culture, history and language. (Stories written by us include: David of the White Rock, The Glashan’s Flute, The Jackdaw’s Ring, King Halvar’s Cat, Tom the Tailor, Donald and the Changeling Child, The Spear of Victory, Donald and the Water Kelpie, and the Fairy Tinker.) Instruments include a hand carved Celtic Harp, Bowed Psaltry, Irish Flute, Whistles, Recorders, Flute d’Accord, Alto Cornamuse, Rebec, Zils, Bodhran, Tambourine, and Eppinette. Vocals are sung in Gaelic, Cymrig, Scottish lowland dialect, Latin and old English. You can even see a Unicorn percussion toy used in Medieval and Renaissance plays and music. For willing participants, we might pass out percussion instruments and teach a simple dance or two from the villages and courts of Europe. Glastonbury duo is comprised of Dave and Carol Sharp, founding member of the Celtic and Traditional group Idlewild, which has toured and played in many festivals throughout the western region of the United States. They have sixteen albums released through Idlewild Recordings L. L. C. and have performed at many of the Renaissance festivals throughout the western United States as well.

Makia Sharp

Visual Artist

Makia Sharp is a visual artist living and working in the Bay Area. Education 2017 MFA, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. 2014 BFA, Studio Art, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. Solo Exhibitions 2017 Sight Lines, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. 2014 Passing, CUAC Contemporary Art Center, Salt Lake City, UT. 2014 Impermanence, Gallery 303, Provo, UT. 2013 Transience, Gallery 468, Provo, UT. Collaborative & Group Exhibitions 2021 Street View, Gallery 3E, New York, NY. 2018 Velvet Ropes, R/SF Projects, San Francisco, CA. 2017 Recognition by Components, Microscope Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. 2016 Tuff Ghost, Tuff Crowd, Tuff Love, Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence, RI. 2016 A Sponge and a Sigh, The Museum of Human Achievement, Austin, TX. 2014 Finality, The Wye, Berlin, Germany. 2013 Of Other Places, Harris Fine Arts Center, Provo, UT. Where Dreams Meet, Gallery 303 Foyer, Provo, UT. International Inquiry Conference, Kennedy Center, Provo, UT. 2012 Shared Ground, Williamson Art Gallery, Liverpool, England. Shared Ground, Wirral Metropolitan College, Birkenhead, England. Awards, Grants, & Fellowships 2017-2019 AICAD Post-Graduate Teaching Fellowship, awarded at California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA. 2017 Graduate Project Research Grant, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. 2015-2017 Sylvia Leslie Young Herman Scholarship, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. 2014 Oscarson Discovery Endowment Grant, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.

Pauline Shaw

Katie Sheen Abbott

Choreographer; Dancer; UA&M Teaching Artist

Katie has been dancing for her entire life! She grew up in West Jordan, Utah where she studied ballet, tap, jazz and hip hop. When she moved to Baltimore Maryland for grad- uate school she fell in love with Flamenco! Since then she’s studied Flamenco in Balti- more, Zurich, Switzerland and in Utah with Solange Gomes. In 2014 her passion for Flamenco took her to the birthplace of the art form, the beauti- ful city of Sevilla in Southern Spain. She and her husband lived in Sevilla for one year while she studied with the best dancers in the world. She studied at the famous Fundación de Cristina Heeren with Luisa Palacio, Milagros Mengibar, Javier Barón and El Choro. She also studied with Angel Atienza at his school (Ados Escuela de Flamenco) in the famous Flamenco neighborhood of Triana. She studied technique, repertoire, history and music intensively. Katie continues her professional development by attending the largest Flamenco festi- val in North America each year in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dance, music and history classes are taught for six days each year and professional artists from around the world offer the classes. Katie offers Flamenco dance classes for all ages and abilities. Her classes focus on all of the elements of Flamenco including palmas (clapping), rhythms, zapateado (footwork), braceo (arm placement and movement), turns and hand flourishes. Since she studied in Sevilla, she is an expert in the Sevilla tradition, which incorporates different complementos (props) into Flamenco. Therefore, she teaches classes in castanets, shawls, fans and the bata de cola (the long Flamenco skirt). Katie also teaches dancers and musicians how to work together in a ‘tablao’ (or improvisational) setting. Improvisation is a key aspect of Flamenco and she teaches these techniques to dancers and musicians. Katie speaks Spanish and she offers workshops in Spanish and/or English. She also incorporates Flamenco vocabulary into her workshops.

Steven K. Sheffield

15 Bytes; Visual Artist

Steven K. Sheffield is a Salt Lake City artist who works in watercolor and acrylic in both abstract and figurative styles.

Shaina Shepherd

Musician

Shaina Shepherd is a singer, songwriter, vocal teacher, and community organizer in Seattle, WA. Known for her pervasive style as front-woman to soul-grunge band BEARAXE, her notable vocal stylings have brought her into various creative spaces — from collaborating with Duff McKagan, Chong The Nomad and Acid Tongue to sharing stages with rock stars like Dave Matthews and Thunderpussy to being a soloist with the classical ensembles around the country. Inspired by the parallels between gospel and garbage metal, Shaina Shepherd is not your average vocalist. Living in the city where both Soundgarden and Quincy Jones cut their teeth, Shaina lends her soulful voice to projects of all genres.

Shelby Margaret Shields

15 Bytes; Identity: 801 Creative Women; Visual Artist

I am an artist and art teacher based out of Salt Lake City, UT. I draw inspiration from life and my personal experiences – whether it’s from the places I have been, the people I’ve met, the people I love, or the highs and lows of my life journey. My subjects range from portraits, landscapes, and scenes from life. Artist Statement Painting has been a way for me to express things that are difficult for me to do with words. I lost my mother when I was young and she suffered from mental and physical illness. I have carried the grief and pain with me my whole life, but have somehow been resilient. I feel the void and the loss heavily, but I still find I am still reaching and striving for a joy and peace in my life. My hope with my art is to articulate feelings associated with grief and resilience.

James and Ginette Shimanek: Violin + Cello = Love

Musician

James and Ginette Shimanek perform together as a duet called Violin + Cello = Love. They mostly perform original duets composed by James. He has written a series of duets called The Events which he continues to add to, over 70 and counting. They have released a single, Benedictus which is an original composition by James and are currently working on a full album of original duets. They met when they were members of the Utah Valley State College Orchestra and were later married. James Allen Shimanek is a composer and cellist who grew up in Eugene, Oregon. When he was 9 he was inspired to write music after watching the movie Amadeus. James was so impressed by Mozart’s ability to write music that he felt he had the ability in him too. He studied piano for 2 years before he started with the cello at age 11 which became his primary instrument. He has written over 100 compositions from cello solos with accompaniment to symphonies. James has released singles and an album of his music which is available on iTunes and many online music sites. Ginette Jeppson Shimanek is a violinist who grew up in Bluffdale, Utah. She was born with a great love and appreciation for music. At the age of 10 she began playing the violin with the local elementary orchestra. Her love for music continued to grow and she has studied and played with many different orchestras. Ginette is a former student of John Chatelain, who is a retired member of the Utah Symphony. Ginette has had many great musical experiences and opportunities throughout her life. She received a music scholarship at Utah Valley State College, was a former concertmaster and also had the privilege to perform in New York City at Carnegie Hall. Ginette has also taught private violin lessons and elementary orchestra. She continues to make beautiful music with her husband James and she enjoys every minute of it and hopes that you will too.

Heather Shimmin

Graphic Designer; Photographer

People ask me all the time what “type of photography” do I do. And I never really know how to answer them. I don’t consider myself a landscape photographer, although I do have a collection of landscapes. In my mind, landscapes are either Ansel Adams or Arches at sunset. Honestly, do we really need another photograph of the Delicate Arch? I don’t consider myself a portrait photographer, either, although I shoot (I mean photograph) people all the time. I guess I don’t fall into any category because I don’t think of myself as fitting into any stereotyped genre. Often, I answer that I am a commercial photographer with a fine art feel. In my heart, I am a fine artist. I am deeply influenced by the history of art, especially paintings. I believe all of my work has a fine art feel to it. I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography, graduating Suma Cum Laude. I have worked as a freelance and in-house photographer, a producer, art director, and creative director.

Judy Shoemaker

15 Bytes; Identity: 801 Creative Women; Visual Artist

Judy Shoemaker graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art. After teaching for fourteen years she now divides her time between painting the peaceful pastures of Heber Valley and painting the rugged coastline of Sunset Cliffs in San Diego.

Ryan Shoemaker

Mapping Literary Utah; Writer

Born in Murray, Utah on June 2, 1976, Ryan Shoemaker received a BA and MA from Brigham Young University-Provo before earning a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Southern California in 2014. At USC, he worked closely with novelists and short story writers T.C. Boyle and Aimee Bender. Shoemaker works mainly in the short story form. He is the author of the short story collection Beyond the Lights (No Record Press, 2018), which was a semi-finalist for the St. Lawrence Book Award and a finalist for the Association for Mormon Letters Award for Short Fiction Collection. He has published short fiction in the Santa Monica Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Juked, Booth, Gulf Stream, and Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, among others. Much of Shoemaker’s fiction explores contemporary Mormon life and culture, and has been published in many non-LDS venues and LDS venues like Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Sunstone, and Irreantum. Shoemaker has taught at Brigham Young University-Provo and at the University of Southern California. In the summer of 2018, he was Writer-in-Residence at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. Currently, he is an assistant professor of English at Southern Utah University. He lives in Cedar City, Utah with his wife and three children.

Raymond Shurtz

Actor; Musician; Producer; Singer; Writer

I have been performing for the last 25 years primarily as an actor and playwright. I am also a musician and singer. My most recent play Bohemian Cowboy about the disappearance of my father into the Nevada desert was well reviewed in Los Angeles and in Austin, TX and is currently on tour in the southwest. I just completed a run of my play "Under the Desert" which I wrote and produced at the Spring Theatre on the top of the Thompson Ledge in the heart of Boulder, UT. I play guitar and sing in a variety of venues in Southern Utah throughout the tourist season. I am one of the directors of the Boulder Heritage Festival held each July in Boulder, UT.

Anthony Siciliano

15 Bytes; Photographer; Visual Artist

Anthony Siciliano is a native of SLC, graduate of Weber State and Arizona State University, and currently teaches photography at the university level. His photographic work has appeared in a number of publications and exhibitions.

David Sidwell

Director; Graphic Designer; Musician; Photographer; Poet; Storyteller; Writer

Hello, I’m David Sidwell! I have told stories at festivals, conferences and other events all over the U.S. I will tell stories for you, too. I have directed over two dozen children’s theatre productions. I will direct one for you, too. I have planned many large events, including the beloved Baby Animal Days. I will plan your amazing event, too. My band, Whoa Molly!, has played all over Utah and in the region. We’re a fun band! We’ll play for you, too! Hi I’m Dr. David Sidwell. Most people call me "dr. Dave" with a small ‘d’ and then a big one. I’m a storyteller, photographer, poet, and event planner, but I’ll try just about anything creative and artistic. I have deep directing experience and specialize in children’s theatre and Interpreters theatre. I’m an adjunct professor in the Theatre Arts Department at Utah State University. I’m also the Program Director at the American West Heritage Center in Wellsville, Utah. It’s a living history museum with lots of nifty and fun activities and events, including the very well known Baby Animal Days, held during Logan and Cache School Districts’ Spring Break. As a professional storyteller, and have told stories all across the U.S., including many places here in Utah. Check out my storytelling website! In my spare time, I do a little work for the Utah Festival Opera as a drama instructor and educational consultant, something I’ve been doing for many years. I helped them start their program and it has been very satisfying. I’m also a writer and a photographer. You can see my writings (stories, poems, essays, cooking essays, rants) and photos at dsidwell.gather.com. That’s a great site if you’re a writer, by the way. To see an extensive list and description of my photos, you can visit my photo website: davidsidwell.smugmug.com. My personality profile is an INTJ (check it out with a Google search!), so I’m a MASTERMIND, which means that I’m a creative genius and you should do everything I say.

Samantha Simpson

Actor; Singer; Visual Artist

Samantha plays the character Aida in Terrace Plaza Playhouse’s production of Aida , in Washington Terrace, at the young age of 18. She was on KUTV 2News to promote the show on October 10, 2008 with two of the other stars, Ashley Schmidt Davis and Parker Solum.

Kira Sincock

15 Bytes; Identity: 801 Creative Women; Visual Artist

Kira Sincock was born in Park City, UT, and has had a pencil in her hand since childhood. She is currently at the University of Utah studying Game Design and Fine Arts in an attempt to pursue her passion for art at the collegiate level and beyond. Kira enjoys working with mixed media, including a combination of acrylic paint and colored pencils. Her stylized conceptual approach to art-making is reflective of her current academic position and upbringing. Artist Statement As an artist, I am interested in exploring how and why I make the work I have been pursuing for the last six years. Last year I found myself at the edge of what I had been doing and wanted to push into a new territory in terms of visuals, composition, narrative, technique and overall process. I treated this body of work as a vehicle to investigate why I am drawn to certain art aesthetics. I tend to emphasize heavily on the exploration of different mediums through use of combinations of acrylic paint, colored pencil, and ink. Whether it be through pulling from imagined pasts or crafting alternative worlds, I have come to further understand how my own past has influenced my current self.

Mary Boerens Sinner

15 Bytes; Identity: 801 Creative Women; Visual Artist

Mary Boerens Sinner has a BFA and an MFA from the University of Utah. She lives in Salt Lake City with her husband and two children. Artist Statement “I embrace my sense of curiosity and am interested in iconic symbols that migrate through the cultural strata.”

Jennifer Sinor

Identity: 801 Creative Women; Mapping Literary Utah; Writer

Born in Kingsville, Texas, to a Naval officer, Jennifer Sinor arrived in northern Utah in July of 2000 and has lived there ever since. She received her PhD from the University of Michigan in English and Education in 2000, and her work initially focused on women’s life writing, specifically personal writing like letters and journals. She began her career at Utah State University in the fall of 2000 and has taught thousands of students by this point. She currently chairs the creative writing emphasis and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in creative nonfiction. The author of several books, her first book, The Extraordinary Work of Ordinary Writing: Annie Ray’s Diary (U of Iowa P), is a crossgenre exploration of the diary of her great, great, great aunt, Annie Ray, a woman who homesteaded in the Dakotas in the late nineteenth century and who kept a diary that most would consider useless. Jennifer named Annie’s writing ordinary and developed a way to read the kind of writing many would dismiss. Although she would leave scholarly writing within a few years and turn entirely to creative nonfiction, Jennifer’s reverence for the ordinary tethers her work. In 2017, she published a memoir, Ordinary Trauma, which tells the story of growing up as a military child in a world where the possibility of war was made ordinary every day. In that same year, she published a collection of essays that take inspiration from the letters of the American modernist Georgia O’Keeffe. The essays in Letters Like the Day move in, out, and around the personal correspondence of O’Keeffe to think about the relationship between art and the ineffable. In the fall of 2020, Jennifer will publish the essay collection Sky Songs with the University of Nebraska Press. That collection is dedicated to her time in Utah and begins with essays that wrestle with western landscapes only to move to essays that wrestle with inner landscapes. They cover the last fifteen years of living in Utah and focus on raising sons who have never lived outside the state. In some ways, Sky Songs, with its attention to the West and to place writing, has its roots in a book Jennifer co-authored with Rona Kaufman in 2007 entitled Placing the Academy in which writers consider the place of the university as a force shaping their creative work. A military brat, Jennifer has no real sense of home, other than the one carried inside. But she has lived in Utah four times longer than any other place. Her children call Utah home. And that is close enough. The recipient of the Stipend in American Modernism, Jennifer has published essays in many literary journals. She has led workshops around the country and enjoys teaching the students at Utah State. A certified yoga instructor, her current creative project involves a collection of essays that rise from the study and practice of yoga. Jennifer is married to the poet, Michael Sowder. They have two teenage sons and live at the edge of Logan Canyon.

Matthew Sketch

Visual Artist

Matthew Sketch is a painter and draftsman based in Salt Lake City, Utah. His motifs vary widely: from animals, and celebrities to interiors and abstractions, Sketch’s practice finds its coherence, not in content, but in approach. His works grow out of his personal relationships, his sensitivity to the objects and spaces memories attach themselves to, and a particular kind of intimacy that he achieves in his solitary encounters with nature. His gestures sprawl across the canvas in strong colours and thick strokes as if arranged by magnetic force. These dynamic surfaces draw the viewer in – an invitation to see the world from inside Sketch’s eye: wild and complex and full of emotion. Matthew Sketch grew up in Houston, Texas, where he since worked as an industrial designer in the oil industry. Since 2012, he has practiced full-time as an artist. Solo presentations include Affinity for Grace 2021, Wax Lyrical 2020, False Arabesque 2020, Snow Carte Blanche (2019), Obligatory Consent (2018), and Simply Complicated (2017). Sketch’s work is also to be found in several private collections in the United States.

Matt Slack

Composer; Musician; Producer

Matt Slack 7428 University station Provo UT 84602 760-450-6393 For audio recordings, video and pictures, visit: www.mattslack.com or www.youtube.com/themattslack Currently a percussion performance major at Brigham Young University Private instrument training includes: 12 years playing experience on drumset. Playing styles include Jazz, Rock, Latin, Hip-Hop, blues/shuffle, etc. Played/recorded/and toured with artists: Ivy League Truman Nicole Sheahan Grand Cross Salsa de Cacao Grupo en Fuego 14 years classical training on concert snare, timpani, marimba, vibraphone, xylophone, piatti 17 years private piano lessons Drum captian of Carlsbad High School drumline ’99-’03 Also marched BYU drumline in 2006 Latin/Ethnic musical knowledge including: Congas, Bongos, Djembe, Timbales, Guiro, Shekere, and anything else you hit. Currently the vice president of the BYU Drum Circle Club Band leader of the BYU International Latin band called, Salsa De Cacao Xylophone soloist with Wasatch Winds Has toured both nationally and Internationally in Utah, Idaho, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Japan, and Korea.

Sue Slade

15 Bytes; Visual Artist

Find An Artist

Search by Keyword

Search by last name:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z