Resident Joe Deru Featured in Art Exhibit November 13, 2005 New Eccles exhibit features local artists By Becky Wright Standard-Examiner staff bwright@standard.net Color, form and simplicity are the guiding principles of artists exhibiting their work at the Eccles Community Art Center this month. Paintings by Mac Stevenson will hang in the main gallery, accompanied by Joe Deru's turned wood bowls and vases. Lindey Carter will display her paintings in the center's Carriage House sales gallery. The exhibits open Friday. Stevenson, of North Ogden, compares his paintings to entries in a diary, with moods and rare moments recorded on canvas. Most of his paintings are landscapes, ranging from traditional to abstract in style. "I want to let the viewer experience the feeling or mood I experience when I see a moving landscape," he said. "One or two years ago, I was trying to create a more photographic image of it ... Recently, it seems like I'm turning more toward color to create that mood or atmosphere." Stevenson is so moved by color these days that he's even reworking some of his older paintings. "I've punched up the color and made the contrast stronger," he said. "It gives new meaning to the saying that a painting is never done. As an artist, I hope to never be finished either. As my work evolves, I hope my diary of paintings becomes a little more poetic." Joe Deru grew up with an appreciation for the visual poetry of form, instilled by his mother, who was a ceramic artist. A resident of Marriott-Slaterville, he found his own artistic path when a friend invited him to try out a wood lathe. "I put the roughing tool to the wood and it was like, inside my chest, like a light switch or something switched on," he said. "I A turned wood vase by Joe Deru. don't know how to describe it, but it went really deep, and I thought, 'This is what I've been searching for.' I've tried to be a student of form ever since." Using Utah woods, he creates vases and bowls inspired by forms used in American Indian and classical pottery. "All I really seek is form and finish," he said. "Very little of the wood needs enhancement; it already has color and figure." Layton artist Lindey Carter creates watercolor landscapes. "My landscapes are more abstracted; I don't sit and paint what I see," she said. PREVIEW WHAT: Paintings by Mac Stevenson of North Ogden and turned wood by Marriott-Slaterville artist Joe Deru WHEN: Opens with a reception, 7-9 p.m. Friday; continues 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday, and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays, through Nov. 26 WHERE: Eccles Community Art Center, 2580 Jefferson Ave., Ogden ADMISSION: Free. Information, 392-6935. "Generally, I oversimplify a landscape. I take the simplest elements and put them in, rather than every detailed branch or twig."