J. Calhoun

Growing up with a Mother that regularly, enthusiastically exclaimed, “Ohhhhhh, look at THAT!,” J. Calhoun always looked. She feels that is the main reason she became an artist. 

After high school, she took a ski trip out west to Alta, Utah.  There, she actually experienced a phrase written by John Denver, in which he sang about “coming home to a place he’d never been before.”  She realized that he wasn’t just being poetic, it was a real feeling and she was feeling it! She trusted in that feeling and moved out west the next year.  

For a while, she worked at Alta and went to college. Finally, she had the opportunity to put a foundation under her dream to become an artist.  A friend connected her with someone who was renting a ‘cabin.’  Instead of a ‘cabin,’ she found it to be a 9’ x 12’ shack with no running water, electricity, insulation, nor heat.  It had THE most beautiful outhouse and wood stove.  She immediately signed the lease.  The rent?  $150 … A YEAR!  For two years, she’d hike, paint, and pour over library art books.  When her paintings looked childish, she’d chop wood in frustration. (She chopped a LOT of wood!)  Then, the land was sold.

Upon returning to the city, she miraculously managed to create a position at Alta, where she could display and sell her artwork. For twenty years, her afternoons were spent at her display, while many of her mornings were spent skiing with her Dad.  At 86, he had a stroke.  She closed up shop, gave up painting and moved in with her folks.  For ten more years, they got to stay in their own home, together.  It was incredibly rewarding (and fun) to be able to give back to them.

It took her about five years to readjust getting back into the ‘real’ world and then, she started painting again.  She entered several, local plein air competitions with the hopes of meeting other artists.  Instead, she delighted in getting intimate with new, unfamiliar places.  

She had some success entering several national shows.  She gained experience doing outdoor shows.  Her artistic friends looked at her in horror when she told them that she had settled upon showing at a small, low-key flea market every week.  It’s up in the mountains and she loves the couple running it.  A friend plays guitar and sings.  She gets to renew old acquaintances and meet new ones that come up several times a summer to see her.     

Limiting her show numbers, enabled her to start focusing on creating several, new series.  They are ‘Dogs in Water,’ ‘Cats Sunbathing,’ ‘Onaqui Herd’ (wild horses) and “On Little Cat Feet’ (cougars). “Silent No More’ will hopefully, help bring awareness to the missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW).  She’s working with a Canadian photographer in order to do her first portraits but then hopes to get involved with a local group, so she can take her own photos.

Utah