BOOKS . . .
First Sight of the Desert: Discovering the Art of Ella Peacock
Utah artist Ella Peacock—fiercely independent and idiosyncratic in the manner of Georgia O’Keeffe, to whom she is sometimes compared—painted the desert landscape and rural setting around her Spring City home in purposeful isolation, rendering her subject matter in a subtle tonalist style.
Kathryn Abajian was immediately drawn to the painter, then eighty-six-years-old, and she found in Peacock a remarkable role model for a life of voluntary simplicity, devotion to work, and dedication to an uncompromising artistic vision. But Abajian also found that in her search to understand Peacock she was seeking to know herself. First Sight of the Desert ultimately blends the multiple colors of two women’s lives onto a single canvas, reveling in brush strokes that draw beauty from even the simplest of subjects.
KIND WORDS AND ENDORSEMENTS
Phillip Lopate, Director of the Graduate Nonfiction Program, Columbia University,
his books include The Art of the Personal Essay, and Waterfront, A Journey around Manhattan
"This is a thoughtful, sensitive, and very honest double portrait of a painter and of the writer who attempts to capture her lonely artistry in words, only to discover that both of their stories are inextricably mirrored. It successfully combines biography, art history, the literature of place,
and the personal essay."
Vern Swanson, Director of the Springville Museum of Art
"This is a major contribution to Utah art history of this period, a much needed and very informative publication."
Ruth Lubbers, Executive Director of VSA Arts of Utah and Art Access Gallery
"Through the framework of her own personal journey, the author makes Ella Peacock’s life and art come alive. This important book captures beautifully the soul of Spring City and the essence of a unique artist who lived and painted there."
David Ericson of David Ericson Gallery, Salt Lake City
"Kathryn Abajian has created what Wallace Stegner said made good writing. First Sight of the Desert shows time, place, presence of the artist, and the author’s discovery of both the subject and herself. By including her own memoir of her search, Abajian has lifted the art history of the book to a higher level. The narrative surprises the reader who can participate in a similar adventure. The dialogue Abajian creates between the artist, writer and reader makes this an outstanding addition to contemporary western literature."
. . .AND BYLINES FROM SELECT ESSAYS
Climbing the Coconut Tree, originally published on Salon.com; reprinted in Hot Flashes, and Travelers’ Tales The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2005.
“I’ve been watching you all week,” he said. “You have a nice smile.” And then, inexplicably, “You are a good wife and mother.” …..He was a waiter at Aggie Grey’s Hotel in Samoa and I was on my last day in the country, lying by the pool and trying not to think about leaving this paradise. He had been standing in the sun’s heat for forty-five minutes, holding his tray and trying to convince me to meet him in my hotel room…Continue reading
The Patina of Character San Francisco Chronicle Magazine
It started with June Chatterton, the oldest person I knew. She lived across the street with her daughter’s family. Their home was full of antiques and Mrs. Chatterton gave me my first--a miniature hobnail blue glass perfume bottle, one small enough to hold in my eight year old fist. Something about its age caught my imagination–the smoothly worn chip on its rim, the word…Continue reading
from Meeting Ella Peacock, Again Catalyst Magazine
"After keeping myself busy in her quiet house for my own long empty days, I was gaining a better understanding of her determination to do her 'full-time job of looking' at the desert mountains as a diversion from her isolation. Perhaps it was that loneliness that encouraged her amazing capacity for work in Sanpete County where she painted in her car during both the hot summers and white winters. But I was beginning to see that she wasn’t really painting for the love of it alone. She was also working so hard from a long tradition of duty and from a genuine need to survive. I only then realized the quiet power in her paintings was not entirely a reflection of her unassuming personality; it replicated her inner solitude as well.