Artists

Sisters M ELVA EM RAZI AN and ROSE PETERSON come from a family that endured fifty years of exile in Syria before immigrating in the mid-1960s to rejoin earlier Armenian-Mormon immigrants in Utah. During their exile, the family earned a living by weaving rugs. The girls learned to knit, crochet, make lace using only a needle and thread, and reproduce an item simply by looking at it. Both sisters create textiles, and Rose works as a professional tailor.

GLEN THOMPSON of Huntsville has constructed more than five thousand saddles in Utah during his career. Known for their made-to-order, leather ground seats, artistic tooling, and overall quality construction, each requires between eighteen and thirty hours of labor. Thompson’s Beehive saddle has been displayed throughout Utah and at the Renwich Gallery in Washington, D.C. In 1984 he received the Utah Governor’s Folk Art Award.

Like the Zundels, MAE PARRY was born and raised in Washakie and grew up observing and imitating the arts of her Shoshone heritage. She has demonstrated and displayed her art work at numerous festivals, art shows, and schools and has devoted many hours to speaking and writing about her people.

VON ALLEN, a resident of Provo, Utah, holds a B.A. and an M.A. from Edinboro State College in Pennsylvania, and an M.F.A. from Syracuse University in New York. She is currently an assistant professor and head of the ceramics program at BYU, where she was recently named “Teacher of the Year” in the art department. Her work has been featured in Studio Potter Magazine (Dec. 1988) and has been exhibited widely in such places as Texas, Utah, California, Georgia, Montana, Arizona, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. She is represented by Pierpont Gallery in Salt Lake

LAURA LEE STAY, born in 1958, lives in Provo, Utah, where she is currently working on an M.F.A. at Brigham Young University. She has exhibited in Utah and California and has major collections in the Utah Arts Council, Springville Art Museum, and the LDS Church Museum of History and Art. Old Town Gallery, Park City, Utah, and Garden Gallery, Los Olivos, California, represent her work.

ROMA POOLE ALLEN was born in .Whitney, Idaho, in 1923 and lives now in Logan, Utah, where she received both a B.S. and an M.F.A. from Utah State University. She has taught throughout Utah, has won numerous awards, and has exhibited at many local galleries and museums.

LOUISE GARFF HUBBARD lives in Logan, Utah, where she earned both a B.S. and an M.F.A. from Utah State University. She has taught art classses at Utah State University and for the Utah Arts Council. Her work has been included in numerous state and regional art exhibits.