HANDS-ON-LEARNING IS THE BEST!: Kanab Nativity Restoration from Joshua Baird on Vimeo.
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A group of Kanab High School students help restore a community nativity set. The set was purchased by funds raised by Kanab citizens over 33 years ago. The set will be on display through the month of December on the lawn of the LDS church on Highway 89, a few blocks South of Highway 89A/89B junction.

The Nvorczk series is one of the most puzzling in the history of American Art. It appears to be the work of a Russian expressionist named Nvorczk when in reality the artist responsible for these images was America's own Maynard Dixon. ​

MAYNARD DIXON (1875-1947)

Maynard Dixon is one of the Southwest's most celebrated artists.  His career overlapped many significant developments in the history of modern art. Many qualities of these modern movements show through in his work as it evolved over the course of his career.

Dixon painted around 60 of these mysterious images between 1917 and 1934, but never showed them to anyone. Susan Bingham, cofounder of the Thunderbird Foundation and friend of Dixon's widow, Edith Hamblin, says, "The abstract paintings Dixon produced with the signature Nvorczk were never meant to see the light of day. They were an expression of a time when Dixon was experiencing depression and difficult personal times, the reason he never signed his own name. After Edith Hamlin Dixon's death these pieces were discovered and offered in the public marketplace through a family member."

Dixon is famous for his tranquil paintings of the people and landscape of the American Southwest. This series flies in direct contrast to Dixon's familiar style and subject matter; it shows just how complex the man really was.  Below are paintings more typical of Dixon's style. ​

Garrick Infanger from the Krakens art blog just posted a piece about the Facetime show.  Check it out: thekrakens.com

I got to ride along as the art instructor on this San Juan river trip with Kanab High school students. Every teen should have the opportunity to go on a trip like this without it breaking their parent's bank account.  Students were so engaged, observant and attentive.  They were much more inclined to take an interest in subjects like botany, poetry, watercolor and conservation in this environment than they would ever be in a classroom.

Written by Clive Romney

"By any measure, last week's presentation of A Canyon Peoples' Portrait was epic.
Merrill Jensen, a composer with major motion picture film credits, conducted Kanab's Symphony of the Canyons in the world premeiere of a 20 minute symphonic suite composed to honor its 30th anniversary.  Two musicians from The Orchestra at Temple Square (Mark Robinette on tuba and Becca Goeckeritz on violin) and Bob Morphis on percussion joined them. 
Sam Payne, storyteller/singer/ songwriter and host of Star 98 FM’s “Sounds of Sunday” and BYU Radio’s “The Apple Seed,” narrated. 
The Legacy Folk Ensemble, directed by Clive Romney on guitar and vocals and composed of Ryan Shupe on fi ddle and vocals, Ryan Tilby on electric guitar, dobro and mandolin, Mark Robinette on electric and string bass, Bob Morphis on percussion, Joshua Baird on vocals, mandolin and banjo and Kortney Stirland on piano, accompanied all songs after the symphonic suite..."

Read more.

Contribute to ACPP's crowdfunding campaign.
Learn more about Clive Romney.

I really enjoyed the challenge of designing Crowdengine's tradeshow booth.  It was a little like painting a giant painting.  I based the design on the idea of fractal geometry.  No matter what your distance is from the design there is something legible and informative.  The large C/C logo is most visible from a distance, then the icons, then the title & subtitle, then the icon descriptions and finally the background.  Crowdengine designs crowd funding software.  Their website is crowdengine.com

A number of folks have expressed interest in attending a mid-winter workshop or two.  Click here to learn more about the workshops I'll be teaching starting January 31st.

K-Town Plaza is a teen-friendly, outdoor rec. center where teens can spend time, be safe, be active, be productive, and have fun. K-Town Plaza is designed to solve 3 major problems facing teens in the Kanab area:

1. There is no place in the community for teens to hang out that is safe, wide open, and far from residential housing.
2. The old skatepark is in really bad shape and needs to be relocated.
3. El-Ball, basketball played on an 8 ft. standard, is a highly popular sport in the community. The basketball standards at K-Town Plaza will be adjustable and designed for slam dunking. Go to megaslamhoops.com for more information.
4. BONUS: K-Town Plaza also incorporates a shaded gazebo where teens can hangout, do homework, and eat food. This gazebo would also act as a stage for concerts and dances. We're hoping to include a filtered wifi port as an incentive to keep the area clean and in good shape.

I was hired by Kane County, Utah to develop this sketch to help visualize a possible layout for a Kanab events center. The idea has since been scratched, and moved to a different plot of land.

Architectural renderings are really handy for this process; it's nice to work through the logistics of a project in an animated design, rather than build the whole thing, and discover major design flaws after the fact.

...and yes that's a statue of Elvis.

More than 40 Kanab High School Students have restored their community’s life-size nativity set over the past several months.

The Nativity project was directed by the school’s art teacher, Joshua Baird. Baird says the set would cost approximately $6,000 to replace, but was only about $600 to restore. Ultimately though, Baird says this endeavor was more valuable than any savings.

Go to KUER.org to read more.

​Video was an essential component to the Kanab Skatepark compaign we initiated in around 2011. I learned alot while making these videos. They were essential to the compaign's eventual success.
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The film below is just a simple explanation of what K-Town Plaza might look like within the confines of the 100x100 ft property boundaries the city was willing to donate to the project. This was before cell phones were used to capture and share video. I mounted an old canon camera to a stop animation mount to make this video.

I had some students throw this video together in an effort to get as many students involved as possible in the project. We burned this video to DVD and sent it out to businesses to raise money. ​

This animation was curcial in helping people visualize how the plaza might look. We later pitched the idea to the city council to remove the redundant street on the East side of the property. They initially rejected the idea, but only a few months later, we noticed it's removal. We're super glad they got on board with that idea and embraced the idea of connecting the Plaza concept with Jacob Hamblin Park to the East. 

​Virtual Tour of K-Town Plaza from Joshua Baird on Vimeo.
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According to ARC (American Ramp Company) K-Town Plaza is the first skatepark they know of to incorporate a pump track around its perimeter. No one knew what a "pump track" was at the time so I made this video to demonstrate the idea.

​K-Town Plaza Update: What's A Pump Track? from Joshua Baird on Vimeo.

I didn't make this film, it was made by Alon Karpman. It does a great job of showing the construction process. Lots of great shots here...

I'm not totally sure who made the video below, but I think it was a former student of mine, Jake Clayson. It shows what the skatepark looks like today. Every time I drive by I see kids all over it. The folks on the committee and I couldn't be happier with the final results. We could not have make this happen without the support of local families, business and politicians.

The Laramide Orogeny was a geologic chapter in the history of Western North America when tectonic forces were creating entire mountain ranges, the age of dinosaurs was coming to a dramatic end with the chicxulub asteroid, and mammals were beginning to thrive and grow to great sizes in all parts of the world.

Apart from being the prelude to the Grand River Anthology, Orogeny of Laramidia is a sonic journey through the Colorado Plateau and its historic inhabitants. This soundscape is an ode to immense time, the persistence of life, and the tumultuous process of geologic creation and destruction.

Lee's Lament was first composed as a score for a short film by Nathan Forbush. The film was entered in Kanab's guerrilla film-making competition, Little Hollywood Shootout and won 1st place in it's category.
I later took the score from the film short and adapted it to the Grand River Anthology project. It became Lee's Lament, a piece about the brutality of a different September 11th attack than the once we're familiar with today. This one happened over 150 years ago:
“On September 11, 1857, some 50 to 60 local militiamen in southern Utah, aided by some American indian[s], massacred about 120 emigrants who were traveling by wagon to California. The horrific crime, which spared only 17 children age six and under, occurred in a highland valley called the Mountain Meadows, roughly 35 miles southwest of Cedar City. The victims, most of them from Arkansas, were on their way to California with dreams of a bright future” (Richard E. Turley Jr., “The Mountain Meadows Massacre,” Ensign, Sept. 2007).

​Click to read more on lds.org.

* The Grand River Anthology is a 4 part musical history of the Colorado Plateau blending symphonic, electronic and bluegrass genres.  Ama8a is my Soundcloud username.