ST. GEORGE —From woodturners to painters, photographers, potters and more, the Arrowhead Gallery, run by the Southern Utah Art Guild, features a variety of mixed media from local artists who collaborate to achieve mutual success.
St. George News sat down with three local artists who showcase their artwork at the Arrowhead Gallery, including a painter, photographer and a 3D wood artist, each speaking about the history behind their craft and what makes the Arrowhead Gallery so unique.
Painter Ken Church
Ken Church, a local artist and painter originally from Yorkshire, England, said he attended art school at home before receiving a scholarship to BYU at the age of 18. He and his family then immigrated to Utah.
After BYU, his postgraduate studies continued in drawing and illustration at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California. Upon graduation, he worked with many large advertising agencies with national accounts and became a creative director in television. Church said he spent most of his life in L.A. and moved to Southern Utah with his wife after retirement four years ago.
“I love it here and I love the sense of seeing art in different ways,” Church said.
Church said he didn’t start to paint until three or four years ago when he applied his art education to canvas. When looking for studio space to showcase his art, he came across Arrowhead Gallery. In a few short years, Church said he has sold in the ballpark of 60-70 pieces.
“So really, it’s interesting, in my evolution of being an artist, I’m really only at the beginning,” Church said.
To learn more about Ken Chuch and his paintings, visit his website.
Photographer Jack Grosko
Jack Grosko, a local photographer, said he moved to Southern Utah with his wife five years ago from Roswell, Georgia, where he lived for 50 years. He and his wife visited St. George for photography and vacations many times in the past before they moved to the area. Grosko dabbled in photography in the past and began to utilize his skills on a more serious and professional level after his retirement in 2003.
When film photography went out and digital photography came in, Grosko said he took photography courses at a few community recreation centers. He decided to find a place to showcase his art and felt Arrowhead gallery was a perfect fit for the level he wanted to showcase his work.
Applying for the gallery and being accepted in the spring of 2017, Grosko said he has been at the gallery ever since and does not showcase his work at any other galleries in town. Having the unique ability to meet many other artists from the gallery has given him a deep appreciation for oil painting, acrylics, watercolor, textile arts, pottery and more.
“Working with other artists was something I didn’t expect,” Grosko said. “I was just looking for a place to show my art, but meeting other people and seeing what they do is really neat.”
For more information on Jack Grosko and his photography, click here.
Woodturner Barry Gray
Barry Gray, a woodturner and 3D wood artist, said he desired to turn wood for years but found that lack of time got in the way. Beginning with antique wood furniture restoration about four years ago, Gray was inspired by a 1922 brick home he purchased in Cedar City. He would buy furniture on spec as a hobby, completely restore it to be used as pieces in his new home and also create pieces for his friends and family.
Gray said the furniture restoration led to the discovery of the Southern Utah Wood Turners, a club that started 12 years ago when a retired marine/fireman and a retired sheriff met at a Home Depot. He joined the club, which had regular meetings and instructional classes. In a meeting in 2013, he said he was first introduced to the “Metlitzky style,” a form of woodworking created by Hal Metlitzky.
As he began to learn and create different wood pieces, Gray said he initially didn’t consider what he was doing as art. One day he visited Arrowhead Gallery and spoke with Deb Bice, former chairperson of the gallery, who asked what he did.
He said he showed Bice photos and she suggested he apply to showcase his work in the gallery. Gray was nervous to first showcase his work and said it took four or five months for his first piece to sell. Following the initial sale, he then sold seven pieces in just six weeks.
When it comes to the source of the wood he uses, Gray said he mostly uses “FOGwood.” He says that means “Found On Ground.”
Gray was invited to the first Zion Bank art show three years ago. He has also been featured in the Kayenta Spring and Fall Show and was invited to the St. George Art Festival, where he placed second.
“Something I will always find true is that art finds you,” Gray said. “Sometimes something just grabs you and you know it’s yours. You don’t find art, art finds you.”
Gray said he is working on epoxy tables as a new form of art and that he wouldn’t be the artist that he is today without the mentoring from Southern Utah Woodturners, the invitation from Deborah Bice to apply to the gallery and the enthusiastic support from his wife Barb. For more information on Barry Gray and his art, click here.
Southern Utah Art Guild and the Arrowhead Gallery
Ilene Bandriga, Arrowhead Gallery chairperson, and Deborah Bice, former chairperson for the gallery, spoke with St. George News about the history of Arrowhead Gallery and the Southern Utah Art Guild, along with their own artistic backgrounds that led them to the positions they hold.
Bice, who showed her first photography piece in 2000 at a gallery in Ohio, said she has been involved heavily in the art scene most of her life. Once the chair of Arrowhead Gallery, she is currently the director of the Washington City Arts Council as well as the president and public relations officer for the Southern Utah Art Guild.
Explaining the history of the Southern Utah Art Guild, Bice said it first started in the 1980s when artists such as Mel Scott, Glen Blakely, Roland Lee and other members of the art community joined together to create it, as reported previously by St. George News. The guild changed through various names over the years and ultimately became the Southern Utah Art Guild. Once they received their 501(c)3 nonprofit status, Bice stepped into the picture.
The Southern Utah Art Guild met in various locations, Bice said, such as the opera house and other businesses in town that would allow them to use their space. At that time, the entire side of Tabernacle Street was being renovated. The city put in around $3 million to renovate the Arrowhead department store and theatre, which were both in poor condition. Once the spaces were renovated, the city decided to take bids to sell the property and that’s when the Southern Utah Art Guild joined the bidding process.
“We weren’t quite sure what we were going to do with it,” Bice said. “We just knew that we wanted to bring art, teach, have workshops and grow the art community in St. George through meaningful memberships.”
Before securing the bid, Bice said the Southern Utah Art Guild hosted its first show at Red Cliff Gallery, a space the city had donated. That space inspired them to set plans for a co-op gallery if they won the bid. The Art Guild worked with the city and submitted its plans along with its mission statement, which ultimately won them the bidding process.
As the guild sat down with the city, Bice said they decided to name the gallery after the city’s Arrowhead Trail, a famous historical trail that ran from Southern Utah to Salt Lake, with the current street in front of the gallery, which once was a part of the actual Arrowhead Trail route.
The Arrowhead Gallery officially opened its doors to the public on Jan. 13, 2015. Bice said they currently have 32 artists in Arrowhead Gallery and around 166 artists featured at Red Cliff Gallery.
“The bottom line is that we provide a voice for artists who otherwise would never have a voice in this community,” Bice said.
To explain how the entities work together, Bice said if you look at the Southern Utah Art Guild like a giant umbrella, underneath you’ll find Red Cliff Gallery, with no overhead expenses, Arrowhead Gallery, which has profit and loss, and the other side of the umbrella being Washington City Arts Council, which the Art Guild currently sponsors.
Taking artist submissions year-round, Bice said they keep a very well-rounded art experience by allowing only a certain amount of specific artists, such as photographers, oil painters, 3D art and jewelry. She said it’s the only gallery in St. George with multimedia of all kinds.
Bandriga, the new chairperson for Arrowhead Gallery, said she moved from California to St. George six years ago and has been a photographer since 1998 and began getting into it on a professional level around 2006. She and her husband, both photographers, joined a camera club in St. George, where they initially heard about the Southern Utah Art Guild.
They decided to join as members of the Art Guild. Around that same time, Bandriga also started volunteering at the Red Cliff Gallery.
“What I love most about co-op galleries is that the artists are all equally invested in the gallery’s success,” Bandriga said.
After applying and being accepted as an artist at Arrowhead Gallery, Bandriga said she began attending their meetings, which later led her to volunteer as chairperson when Bice was overwhelmed with the workload.
“Our guild is very, very lucky to have the board that we do right now because they are a board that loves what our mission statement is and what our goals are,” Bice said. “They’re retired and could spend their time doing anything, but they choose to help this organization.”
Bice said she is so thankful to Bandriga for volunteering to take over the gallery. She is a fabulous photographer and has a true appreciation for the arts. She said she is invested in the organization, just like she was invested in Red Cliff Gallery.
“There aren’t many people who would step off the street and step up to something like this,” Bice said. “She’s done a lot for Arrowhead Gallery and the board.”
As the chairperson for Arrowhead Gallery, Bandriga writes and oversees checks, balances books, manages employees and runs the entire operations of the gallery, a position which is completely voluntary and unpaid.
For more information on the Southern Utah Art Guild, along with the membership benefits, click here. For more information on the Arrowhead Gallery and featured artists, click here.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.