What's the Peteetneet Art Council Up To?

The Peteetneet Art Council (left-right): Neva Christensen, Doug Huff, President Donna Corno, Lanay Brinkerhoff, Jennie Ruth Alvey, and Claudette Woods.  (Not pictured: Dorothy Argyle, Dona Brian,  and Marian Wilson)

Each month brings the promise of a new art exhibit at the Peteetneet Art Gallery. Now the very group tasked with overseeing the Gallery's exhibitions are stepping out from behind the scenes to display their own creative work.

“Doug Huff has some wonderfully carved wooden vessels,” explained Donna Corno, Peteetneet Art Council President. “Dorothy Argyle, Neva Christensen, Dona Brian, and Lanay Brinkerhoff have beautiful hand-sewn quilts and afghans laid out.  Jennie Ruth Alvey  and others have brought books of poetry.  Claudette Woods, Neva, and myself have several original oil paintings on the walls.  Marian Wilson has created lovely flower arrangements in delicate glass containers to brighten the room.  It's a unique show in that the art council members, who normally organize art and cultural  events is showing off their own personal combined talents.”

The Payson Chronicle met up with some of the Art Council members last week, who shared their perspectives both as volunteers and artists on show at the Peteetneet Museum and Cultural Arts Center in Payson.

Neva Christensen has been associated with the arts for sixty-five years. “I studied with Paul Salisbury in high school and after,” she said. This has led to numerous projects and volunteer efforts over the years, including as docent at the Springville Museum of Art, as well as in varied capacities--from secretary to president, among the Utah County Art Board for ten years.

“I do a little bit of everything,” she said. “I quilt, I do pastels, I do oils. I have a kiln and I pour porcelain and fire it myself. A few years ago, I started [creating] vinyl dolls.”

Her contributions to the exhibit demonstrate her wide artistic approaches. Lovely handmade quilts, including a christening quilt, pastels and oil paintings, as well as a few of her delicate, lifelike dolls share space with her associates who make up the Peteetneet Art Council. A newly completed oil painting depicting the nearby Mount Nebo and the Nebo Loop barely dried in time for the show, she remarked.

“I think it's nice that these ladies and Doug are getting some recognition,” she said of the show, making special note of Donna Corno, specifically her ability to maintain a continued schedule of shows in the Art Gallery, along with Dona Brian, who oversees the Quilt Show, along with the help of yet another Art Council member, Claudette Woods.

Doug Huff, whose part in the Art Council show are hand-carved vessels out of wood he found during an out-of-state expedition. “My brother [Ross] and I went to Alaska a few years ago,” he explained. “He was after wood to make beds for his grand kids. I made [the vessels] out of the burl I found there.”

Doug claims that, among the two, it is his brother who is the sole possessor of artistic talent. However, his delicately carved pieces suggest it is a shared trait.

Aside from serving on the Art Council, Huff volunteers at the Peteetneet, guiding tours once a week. One of the more recent highlights among the artists and displays leading up to the current show, he noted, has been the Quilt Show. “I was very impressed,” he said. “There's a lot of artistic talent displayed in quilts.”

His own artistic talent now takes its well-earned place in the spotlight.

Claudette Woods is a former Art Council president, who now spends each Tuesday volunteering at the Peteetneet, as well as her continued service as an Art Council members. She started oil painting thirty years ago, which she notes brings her great joy. “I have been halfway around the world,” she said, describing the paintings she has contributed to the Peteetneet show, “so what you see is something that I've seen.”

Included in the Gallery exhibit is a cascade falls, “It's actually two pictures in one,” she explained. She has a fondness for vibrant, bright colors, and incorporates the hues attractively.

“Everything's a surprise. Every month is a surprise,” she said of the Peteetneet's rotating featured artists, among which she now takes her place. “It's nice to see all the different collections.”

Having served on the Arts Council for four months, Spring Lake resident Lanay Brinkerhoff is a relatively newcomer in this domain. But as an artist, she has had decades of experience.

Wildlife paintings in oil—a weasel at wintertime in one, quaking aspens in another—are among her offerings to the group exhibit. They were painted years ago, prior to her moving to the area from Richfield, Utah, with her family thirty years ago. Across the gallery hang a few quilts she has made. One bears three bears, a quilt she completed in a class led by Morganson Frames.

Lanay has been involved with the annual Quilt Show, her most recent role involving the overseeing volunteers who commit to the week-and-a-half-long event. “We can always use volunteers,” she noted, looking toward the future.

“All I do is write poetry,” said a modest, Jennie Ruth Alvey. She has written over a hundred and has compiled them on a book, her contribution to the show.

“I reminisce,” she said, “ever since I was a young person- I always think of things that I used to do.”

She was raised on a farm in Spring Lake amid a family where talent is in no short supply. Two of her brothers, Fred Lyman and the late Kenvin Lyman, have received acclaim. Brothers, Jay Lyman, and Ross Lyman, also pursue artistic interests.

“I didn't find the same niche as they did, as far as their art,” she said, noting that she accommodates for this through digital layout procedures that enable her to illustrate her work on the computer. Her expertise in writing was honed in her years working for Nebo School District as well as during her extensive role as director for the Miss Pageant Scholarship Pageant. Here, she worked yet again behind the scenes, writing the scripts used by pageant participants.

Jennie Ruth's poetry compilation sits near a copy of her brother, Kenvin's book, Kenvin: An Artist's Kitchen: Food, Art & Wisdom of A Bohemian Cowboy for the public to peruse and enjoy. Combining his love for art, the local landscape, and cooking, Mr. Lyman's original artwork and handwriting are featured throughout its pages. “He spent fifteen years on the book,” said his sister. It was published this year, two years after his death.

Payson Art Council Director Donna Corno has included several portraits she has painted in oil. Donna is a professional painter, whose work has been the focus of shows and is found in art galleries, from California and Oregon to New York. Currently they are in several galleries in Utah County and Salt Lake City, as well as Jackson Hole, that include her work.

Corno and her family moved to Payson eleven years ago, where she soon caught the eye of Peteetneet Art Council volunteer, Dorothy Argyle. Dorothy convinced her to join the Art Council nine years ago. Donna has been involved with it ever since. She oversees the selection of gallery exhibitors.

“The Art Council's mission statement is primarily about the cultural fine arts events,” she explained, “to promote the fine arts in Payson, to make the fine arts more accessible to the local population. We try to use local art as much as we can. Some of it comes a little further away, but most of it is Utah County. A lot of it's Payson, Santaquin, Mapleton, Salem, close by. And we try to find the very best.”

Donna, who was raised in California, has been painting since she was twelve years old. “I sold my first painting when I was thirteen,” she said. “I went to BYU and graduated in 1972 with my BS in Child Development.”

She married and raised a family with her husband, Joe Corno, in California. The Cornos moved to Utah seventeen years ago. “That's when I decided it was time to go back to school and get my MFA at BYU, and I received that in 2002. That gave me a huge boost in confidence at that point. That's when my art career really took off.”

Her portraits seem to reflect her background in child development, evoking a sense of concern for humanity. In fact, later, her Master of Fine Arts thesis would incorporate her earlier education, she said. “It was all about connections—visual connections—and people connecting together,” she said. “And so my work is really about the human spirit and how people love and are loved, how they conquer problems, and how they connect with each other.”

The public are invited to connect with all the artists who make up the Art Council. A reception will be held in the Peteetneet Art Gallery on Friday, July 19, from 6-8 PM. The exhibit runs through August 29.

Read more about the artists not mentioned in this story in next week's edition of The Payson Chronicle.