Artists

Dale Bryner, the founder of Earth Arts, passed away peacefully on November 16, 2011 in the company of family and friends. Dale was a beloved mother, sister, friend, environmental educator, teacher, and member of the community. Dale came to Ithaca in 1999 and founded Earth Arts, a wilderness education and mentoring program. Prior to coming to Ithaca, Dale earned her M.F.A. at Carnegie Mellon University in ceramic art, painting, and design. She began her teaching career in Valley City, North Dakota, and later moved to the Southwest, where she taught at a variety of colleges and art centers, becoming a respected expert in traditional American Indian primitive pottery, techniques, and firings. Dale taught Art Education in Iowa before moving to upstate New York, to combine her love for the outdoors, teaching, and art to create Earth Arts. Dale’s passion was connecting youth and adults to the land, to each other, and to their community through earth-based arts. Dale’s love and devotion is remembered by her children Phoebe and Ben, her brother and sisters Rachel, Andy, and Donna, and by the many families and friends here in the community that she loved

From a very young age, Larry was a dedicated and talented artist and loved to paint original pieces as well as posters for activities at Granite High School. He also excelled at track; after becoming a high hurdler as a junior, he won nearly every race he entered and eventually earned a track scholarship to the University of Utah.

Dale Thompson Fletcher was born on February 21, 1929 in Utah. Fletcher was a painter and a teacher of studio, art history, and elementary education courses. He died May 21, 1990.

Fletcher earned a bachelor of science from Utah State University in 1953, and a Masters of Arts from the University of California in Berkeley in 1956. He joined the art faculty at BYU in 1965 and taught there until he unexpectedly resigned to pursue a cult of pyramidology.

Fletcher’s works were shown at a number of galleries, he even won the purchase prize at the Institute of Fine Arts exhibit of 1961. In the late 1970s Fletcher was appointed to the directorship of BYU’s art gallery.

Biography adapted from Artists of Utah.

Albert Christensen was a native Utahan, whose love for art, and especially sculpture, not only defined his passion but ultimately broke his heart. In the 1930s, his family moved 40 miles north from Monticello, to a parcel of land the family had purchased years earlier, near Cane Springs. Iit was here that the Christensens made their home.

Lucile C. Tate was a biographer and artist. She is the author of the best-selling biography, LeGrand Richards: Beloved Apostle, published in 1982, and David B. Haight: The Life Story of a Disciple, published in 1987. She also penned Boyd K. Packer: A Watchman on the Tower (1997). In addition, her articles and drawings have appeared in university and Church publications.

Lucile was born on May 17, 1914. She attended Brigham Young University where she received a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in 1964, and was elected to Phi Kappa Phi. Continuing her studies there, she was awarded a master’s degree with distinction, receiving the Clark-Thomas Graduate Award.

She then became a faculty member of the College of Humanities. From 1971 to 1976 she and her husband, George S. Tate, lived in Alexandria, Virginia, during which time she did considerable research and writing for a biography of her father. That biography, Andrew B. Christenson, Mormon Educational Pioneer, was published in 1981.

Lucile and George served a mission together and were among the first workers in the Washington D.C. Temple. They later went again to the DC area to serve a mission for the Church. After George’s death, Lucile served another mission in that same area with her sister Margaret, while both of them were in their 80s.

Lucile has held many other positions in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including teacher, Relief Society president, and stake Primary president. She is the mother of four children.

In 2004 she was awarded an honorary doctorate at BYU. She died on March 18, 2009