FINE ARTS

Unlike any other creature on Earth, humans forge and shape the world around them, and leave behind meaningful imprints after they are gone.

Kathy Wilson, a life-long artist, teacher, community volunteer and fine art advocate, owns Trolley Art and Antiques at 602 E 500 S in SLC. Her entire life has been immersed in art. Her older brother drew horses and she tried to imitate him. She wasn’t satisfied with her own horse drawings, so she moved into recreating landscapes. 

The true catalyst for her art-life was a watercolor brush (a very expensive one) as a graduation present from her art teacher, Mary Kimball Johnson, at Lincoln Junior High.

“It was a brush I certainly could not afford at the time,” Wilson said.

Since then, she hasn’t put the brushes down. She is self-taught, getting her roots in with watercolor landscapes, but then expanding and exploring oils, acrylics, pastels, or a mix. Now, she paints realistic and impressionistic landscapes, gardens and abstracts. 

“I’m always experimenting,” she said. 

Wilson is also always improving. “I have always cared that my paintings are pleasing to look at and that they do not become irritating over the years,” she said. “If I find an old painting of mine, I can usually ‘spruce it up’.”

Her paintings have been shown and sold for decades. “My first four ‘one-man shows’ were at Hotel Utah in the 1970s,” she said. “I have used hotels for several fundraising shows for nonprofits and political campaigns, including the Children's Center and some international organizations I support.”

Wilson has owned galleries and businesses for more than 50 years. From the Carling Gallery, The Garden Gallery, Trolley Stop, The Cotton Kid, Gallery One, Urban Arts, The Ice Cream Store at Trolley Square, and The General Store at Trolley Square. Trolley Art and Antique has existed for 5 years. It is a DBA of Sego Fine Art at 432 South Temple (open by appointment only). 

Her businesses always did well. Sometimes it was a good time to sell, or simply time to move on to the next project. Some of her shops or galleries were open for business for 10-15 years. “I never lost money, never made a lot of money,” she said. “That's really one of the reasons I'm still in business.”

She also spent that 50 years raising children, serving on boards and volunteering. She served on The Utah Arts Council, The Children's Center, The Mesa, Utah Bolivian Partners, The Utah Woman's Art Project, RESULTS, and Sunstone.

But to Kathy, art is more than a business, more than a hobby, more than a charity. 

Art is science

“Fine arts …  [help] develop a part of the experience of being a human being; in reality that takes you to a greater understanding of the value of life,” Wilson said. She referenced a quote by Albert Einstein to illustrate:

“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. 

All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, 

lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading 

the individual towards freedom.”

Art is history

“You cannot lie or give disinformation about visual art,” Wilson said. “When you're studying anthropology, the art is an accurate history of that civilization. You can only draw or paint or imagine what you know reality is. You can expand that reality and vision but you can't be somebody you're not.”

Art is a creative endeavor, a dance partner with science, and the key to history. “Through the history of the world and the arts that are left, you can get a good idea of a civilization through their art.”

This is why it’s so important to support creators. It’s a personal expression, something that can be shared, and a permanent mark for future generations. 

Art is an economy

“When you are supporting local creative art,” Wilson said, “You are supporting the creativity of the whole community. Communities without art have no vibrancy.”

“We need to support local and original art, artists, galleries and the whole visual arts community. Often, the money that goes into the arts doesn’t actually go to the artists.”

Government funding helps keep the facilities running, but the money doesn’t reach the individuals. 

Art is psychological 

“Neuroscience has discovered that when you look at an original painting, your brain is able to create new pathways that it doesn't create when it's looking at a print,” Wilson said. “Your brain processes the information differently because of the texture and layers.”

If you start early in life, art can set the stage for growth and brain power.

“When you're teaching kids art and they're learning, this is one of the ways the arts help create intelligence. All of these arts have a certain purpose.”

What is fine art?

Fine art is what transcends the rest. “It is a quality of visual art that surpasses 99% of creative visual art,” Wilson said. “The reason paintings sell for millions is because the artist had developed their particular insight far beyond what the average artist could do — the emotion that comes with the very finest art. 

“It has a depth that you don't find in an everyday gallery. They develop that ability to see beyond the image of a landscape or the image of a face. It’s the same with sculpture — the reason Michelangelo was considered the greatest artist of all time. When you look at his things there's an emotion that swells up within you. It takes you to another level.”

You're not going to find a piece of art in this gallery that costs a  million dollars. You're not going to find a Van Gogh or a French impressionist. Picasso was creating on the edge art, and the value is not only for the emotions that come through, but pushing the envelope to a new creative style. They have helped people appreciate visual arts. You do create an emotional attachment.“

While immortality such as Michalangelo and Picasso attained may not be accessible for most of us, there is a vibrant and resplendent art community in Utah. Wilson herself has rubbed shoulders with some of the Utah greats: Earl M. Jones, Gordon Cope, Frank Huff, and Denis Philips. 

You will find art from these and other local artists in Trolley Art and Antiques, including some of Wilson’s own creations.

“If it's a painting I know will sell,” Wilson said, “whether I purchase from the artist or a secondary source, the money goes to the artist. I’ve worked with more than 50 artists over the years. Many of them have passed away. Art in THIS gallery is representative of the many friends I've made, the many styles of art, the paintings I've sold for many years.”

How to grow into a fine artist

What does it take to become a fine artist, one whose style is instantly recognizable? First, you need mastery of design, emotion, balance, technique, mood, balance, dark, light, color, structure. It is no small thing to aspire to. 

“When you get close you can see the paint,” Wilson said. “But when you stand back, it holds interest.” Colors vary within the sky, within the snow, within the trees and within each shadow. You may see something totally different depending on how close you stand to the art.

Only a few make it, but it’s not impossible. Creativity and understanding are crucial, but it also takes a network of others. “When an artist is starting out they do have to have family support, and create things that are sellable, maybe not real creative,” Wilson said. “They need to  utilize free places to exhibit their art. There's only a small percentage that make it; to totally support themselves and their families.”

If you want to create art and improve your art over time, here is what Wilson suggests. “You need to have real art to look at; fine art galleries, art museums. You need art instruction in the schools, teachers who know something about original art and the history of original art, and the different eras of art.” 

Art is human. It is like our skin. We are filled with crucial organs for survival and what keeps us productive, but there is nothing to see, nothing to admire, nothing to connect with.

“One of the most interesting eras is the French impressionists," Wilson continues. It was a surge of fine art that happened at the end of the 1880s that changed the whole direction of visual art. There's no way you can understand fine art unless you have seen it in person. You can't look at a computer and understand the different levels of paint. You might not know how to look at the painting.”

Girija Kaimal, a professor at Drexel University and a researcher in art therapy, said in an interview with NPR, that art helps you imagine and hope for a better future. 

"This act of imagination is actually an act of survival," Kamal said. "It is preparing us to imagine possibilities and hopefully survive those possibilities."

Art also helps lower stress, regardless of your experience level. A 45-minute art session with a therapist was just as effective for reducing stress for experienced artists as it was for the novices. 

Art helps you focus. "It's that sense of losing yourself, losing all awareness,” Kaimal said. “You're so in the moment and fully present that you forget all sense of time and space. It activates several networks including relaxed reflective state, focused attention to task, and sense of pleasure.”

Whatever your goal with art — be it to support artists by purchasing their work, to create something that reflects your own thoughts and feelings, or to admire the masterpieces in museums — each approach plays a vital role in the artistic ecosystem. Engaging with art in any form not only enriches your own life but also helps sustain the creative community.

Head to Trolley Art and Antiques as your first step into the Utah fine art scene. Here you can begin to appreciate and understand excellence, explore local masterpieces, learn to recognize value, and support the wellbeing of present and future humankind.