By Mariden Williams | [email protected]

The South Jordan Arts Council held its 13th annual community art show from Oct. 5–16. The show featured around a hundred pieces of art made by local artists, ranging in age from the very young to the very old. Each artist was allowed to submit up to two pieces. 

The show was held at the South Jordan Community Center (10778 South Redwood Rd), just off to the side of the main lobby. Most of the artworks were displayed on a series of triangular wire displays, separated into categories according to the artists' ages; others were hung on walls or displayed on tables. 

The Arts Council awarded first-, second- and third-place prizes to each age division, along with one Best in Show award. This year's Best in Show piece, as chosen by the Arts Council, was “Who You Lookin At,” a painting by Larry Osoro. The painting features a young woman in Dutch-Baroque peasant clothing and jarringly modern Instagram-esque makeup, with sharp winged eyeliner and strong contouring. 

Some of the more striking pieces in the exhibition include Aldo del Bosque's “Sweet Bear'”(a geometric bear head sculpture made entirely out of old license plates from various U.S. states) and “Navajo Boy” (a portrait of a young Navajo boy rendered entirely out of patterned pixels of neon-colored puffy paint, similar to the style used by acclaimed artist Chuck Close), Chrystul Fund’s “Great Blue Heron” (an oil painting of the titular bird), Susan Schofield's “Palette Piano” (a very large painting of a technicolor piano against a black background) and Annabel Lee's “New York Apartments” (a realistic oil painting of a brownstone apartment building surrounded by trees and ivy).

Lee, a teenage artist who happened to be at the art show with her family when the South Jordan Journal visited the exhibition, said “New York Apartments” was inspired by the quarantine and feeling trapped indoors, as well as just a desire to experiment with oil painting.  

"I'm a beginner at oil, and I was just trying out how it works," said Lee. "I was born on the East Coast, so doing something from New York was kind of like a way to go back." 

Lee took first place in the teen division with her piece “Maria,” a surreal mixed-media drawing depicting a dragon-like eye floating in outer space. It's a few years older than “New York Apartments” and was done as part of a school art class.