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Show Page 2 The West View West Side Artists Make a_ ‘Santaland Diaries’ Living with Their Talents Returns to Wagner By Melissa Sillitoe West side artist Ruby Chacon didn’t choose to be a painter. Painting chose her. It was the same with William Littig, whose “Lupita” sculpture sits close to Chacon’s mural on 600 West 500 North. “No sane person chooses art,” Littig laughs. “You don’t go into the humanities for the money.” Chacon agrees. During her first year as an artist, her earnings came to about 80 cents an hour. But, there are other rewards to making public art. Chacon grew up in a “crazy environment” and attended the late, great South High and Granite High schools. Drawing was therapy, a way to get attention and good grades. She later studied art at the University of Utah. Chacon (and her husband Tereso and son Orion) moved to the Guadalupe neighborhood three years ago. “We weren’t going to stay very long. I didn’t like the duplex. We just moved in, because it was the best deal we could find. But, it’s been three years and now it’s home.” She says it’s been easier to get to know her neighbors in Guadalupe than it was when they lived in the Avenues. Both Littig and Chacon decided early that art would have to pay their bills, somehow. Littig became a commercial artist. He works mainly in stained glass and cement and has restored windows at churches from Magna to Vernal. His studio has been at 333 West Pierpont Avenue for 22 years, but he sees his art as belonging to the entire city. Littig likes the challenge of taking an assignment and making it his own, like using the image of sandals to show St. Barnabus’s missionary work. | Chacon only took “temp jobs” to pay the bills until she could support herself with art. “I knew that if I worked fulltime, all the time, it would consume me and I wouldn’t paint.” Her most recent project is a mural and an oil painting commissioned by Zion’s Bank on 1635 South Redwood Road. Her turning point as an artist came after the death of her 3-year-old nephew. “That’s when I realized I have a tool to tell my own story.” Theatre Sometimes she tells the story of her Latino heritage. Her paintings at Zion’s Bank show Mexican street vendors, inspired by photos she took when she was in Mexico. Her uncle is the model for a man clutching a property deed. _ Making art in public is different from making it in a studio. “You have to be able to talk with people about it,’ Chacon says. “There’s a very communal feeling...when [’'m making a mural.” Littig makes public art, too, including anagrams on the sidewalks at 2100 South Highland Drive in Sugarhouse. He dislikes labeling one area of Salt Lake City as “the West Side.” “We screwed up when we divided the town with railroad tracks,” he says. Chacon agrees that it’s almost like “gang mentality” to divide up the City turf into neighborhoods. Whatever they call their neighborhood, both Chacon’s and Littig’s art are important parts of the West Side landscape. “T’m just lucky that I survived doing it,” says Littig. Tooth & Nail Theatre will present its holiday anti-tradition, “The Santaland Rose Wagner Diaries,” Theatre department store elf. It details the dire and hysterical humiliations that playwright David Sedaris endured when he took a job as one of Santa’s elves at a Macy’s at the in Salt Lake City through Dec. 30. The theatre is located at 138 West 300 South. After a year’s hiatus from the show - last year the company produced “Fully Committed” Tooth & Nail is excited to return to the production that has become the company’s “Nutcracker,” although in truth it could moreaccurately be called “The Cracked Nut.” store years ago. Over the course of the play, audiences are introduced How the Holiday and New Year Traditions Around the World: An Eclectic Mix Grinch of Cultural Art and Artifacts Stole Christmas Don’t miss this live performance of — everyone’s favorite Dr. Seuss tale, told in music and mime by The Players. Fun for all ages! December 20 at 7:00 p.m. Main Library November 24 - January 13 Monday - Thursday 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. and by appointment FREE to the public! Come discover the many different ways groups celebrate their religious and New Year holidays through a diverse, educational, and visually exciting gallery exhibit at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center. The Holiday and New Year Traditions Around the World exhibit features a variety of art, artists and organizational displays all brought together to inspect the unique ways people celebrate the holidays. dozens of characters, eccentric Santas and Elves, who man the various stations along the Santaland path. But Sedaris saves the real venom of his comedy for the parents and children who flock to Santaland for reasons that have little do with the true spirit of Christmas. Tickets are available by call- The play captures the insanity _ to including an array of peculiar and of Christmas commercialism in the day-by-day account of a ing 355-ARTS. Work on 900 South Storm Drain Project Comes to a Halt for the Winter - The 900 South storm drain project has been progressing very well, even through the winter weather. Recently, work has continued through the 400 West intersection. The storm drain work has progressed past the railroad tracks that are east of 400 West and the tracks have been rebuilt. Construction crews have paved everything to that point and have called it a winter on culvert installation. For more information, please call 965-5108 or 965-5101. If you have any questions or comments about this project please call 1-800-278-4282. FOOTBALL continued from page | changed, and with open enrollment, kids started going to almost any school they wanted. Some transferred so that they could play football with their STAFF CONTRIBUTING Editor Charlotte Fife-Jepperson Layout / Design Chad Jepperson Advertising Salt Lake West Journal Staff Dale Young, Brandon Rawlings, Boyd Petersen | cousins,” said Holtry. West Ute Gremlins coach and former West High coach Craig Graves said defections to the likes of Juan Diego, Highland, East and Woods Cross “all come back to the community. The kids and their parents need to explain why [they are transferring to other schools].” PHOTOGRAPHERS : WEE SG CONTRIBUTING Subscriptions Kate Rubalcava Distribution Salt Lake West Journal Consultant / Advisor James A. Fisher Legal Support Mary C. Gordon : WRITERS Charlotte FifeJepperson Dale J. Neilson Melissa Sillitoe Edie Trimmer Afeaki said the Panthers’ woes not only include losses and defections, but a The West View is a community-based newspa- business on the West Side. It is also available on per, providing a voice and informational resource newsstands in local recreation centers, senior cen- lack of information about college educa- for residents and businesses on the west side of Salt ters, shopping centers, libraries, and on the web at tional opportunities from coaches. Community financial support would also Lake City. We welcome community involvement www.thewestview.org. Please contact us if you live and appreciate story and photo contributions. We outside the distribution area and would like to be help the team, he added. reserve the right to edit all submissions for style added to our mailing list. The subscription rate is Can West stop the bleeding and the exodus of playmakers from its football team? It might take a modern-day Moses. West fans hope that the next coach for West will be that Moses. West is accepting and space, and will not publish anything that is $15 per year (12 issues). applications and will be interviewing potential coaches this month. defamatory or slanderous in nature. Please email submissions to the editor and West side product Kite Afeaki currently plays as a defensive lineman, #99, for the University of Utah. include your full name, city or community, and | Our Contact Info: editor @thewestview.org telephone number. You may also deliver your sub- The West View missions to us on a compact, floppy or zip disc. 1094 Garn Way SLC, UT 84104 Ph# 801-355-9572 http://www.thewestview.org As an insert in the Salt Lake West Journal, The West View has a circulation of around 24,500 copies delivered monthly to every household and | |