Storytelling at Fairview Museum through digital media and sculpture
1-30-2020
FAIRVIEW—A new art show at the Fairview Museum will be featuring two local artists with unique methods of telling stories.
One of them is Robert Stevens, landscape photographer and digital artist as well as the managing editor of the Sanpete Messenger, and the other one is Gale “Blue” Lewallen, a Fairview sculptor specializing in metal and rock.
Sanpete residents are invited to an opening reception to kick off the show on Friday, Feb. 7 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Fairview Museum, 85 N. 100 East. The exhibit will run through the end of April.
Stevens will be displaying his traditional photographs and digital artistry. His collection is heavy with pictures of abandoned farmhouses and some of his more popular Temple scenes.
After being raised on California’s central coast, Stevens transplanted to Sanpete County, where his journey of art and storytelling truly began. He is the main photographer at the Messenger and often incorporates drone photography into his work.
“I’m always looking for a new way to see something,” Stevens said. “When I finally figure out how to see something new, I start looking for a way to show it to someone else in a way they’ve never seen before.”
In all, he has earned more than a dozen awards for his visual and written storytelling.
Stevens lives in Manti with the love of his life, Daniela, and their two-year-old daughter, Avila.
The second artist, Blue Lewallan, has a special talent in sculpting and mixed media with rock and metal.
He was born and raised In Weiser Idaho where he developed a deep appreciation of nature and wildlife. He now lives in Fairview with his wife and granddaughter. He served in the Navy and was stationed on the east coast, working in the ship’s engine room. He was onboard to pick up the Apollo 7 space capsule, and helped to decommission the USS Essex.
Throughout his life Lewallan has traveled many of the back roads of the country, usually on a shoestring, making many life-long friends and sometimes selling his art along the way to finance his adventures.
In the 1970s he moved to Colorado and found work in the mines, where he tried his hand at sculpting some of the oil shale rocks he removed from the teeth of the primary crusher.
For five years during that time he and his wife lived in a tent high in the mountains. His skill as a metal worker has led him to the creation of many custom signs and art pieces, some of which he colors with the heat from his cutting torch.
