Moab ArTTrails, the non-profit public arts organization, is pleased to reveal the annual sculpture chosen for purchase and donation to the public collection.  “This year the votes were clear’, said Creative Director Christy Williams Dunton. The winning piece chosen for inclusion in Moab’s permanent sculpture collection is Arizona Artist Steve Grater’s “Matriarch”, a stately steel patinaed work which currently stands along the Center Street face of Wells Fargo bank. “The public input really informs so much about which sculptures connect with the Moab and Grand County residents, and it’s a such a pleasure to be able to add one more”. said Williams-Dunton. 

The morning of October 11th, Moab ArTTrails volunteer installation crew will be helping artists de-install the outgoing works and install the new. 

Art lovers can catch a first peek at the new exhibition at the Art Stroll- the artist led, musically accompanied walking tour through the exhibition. Participants in the Art Stroll are invited to vote for Best In Show, which brings a cash award to the winner. 

Each year, non- profit Moab ArTTrails solicits submissions from artists nationwide to be part of the area sculpture exhibition. 10 to 16 sculptures featured in the yearlong exhibition are chosen by a rotating volunteer selection committee comprised of merchants, artists, civic leaders and other community members. This year, the volunteer selection committee chose 9 artists to display their works along the trail. The pieces will remain in Moab for a year, as residents consider which sculpture(s) are loved enough to keep in the permanent collection. 

Since its founding in 2015, Moab ArTTrails has donated $120,000 worth of art to the areas’ growing collection of permanent works along Moab’s shared pathways and parks.\
More information can be found at www.moabarttrails.org.

You won’t find many artists doing the kind of work that Moab artist Jess Hough enjoys doing. Hough specializes in a medieval type of printmaking called intaglio, where an image is etched or engraved onto a surface, allowing the sunken area to hold ink – a popular type of printmaking in Europe from the late 1300s to the early 1800s. You can find Hough’s work at Moab Made, 82 N. Main St., a shop that showcases the work of local artists and artisans.

Inspired by the red rock desert, Hough makes black and white prints of drawings she’s made of the local landscape, as well as botanical drawings of desert plants like desert globemallow, and yucca. Hough was Community Artist in the Park for several months in 2023, where she spent time in nearby national parks doing plein air drawing while out on the trails, and demonstrated printmaking at park visitor centers.

Hough is unaware of anyone else currently doing intaglio printing, and the supplies needed for intaglio printing can be hard to find. She taught herself the process and in 2020, built a printing press so she could do the work. “It’s niche enough people (often) don’t know what it is,” she said.

Hough’s work has been recognized at recent art shows – she won “Best in Show for Emerging Artists” last year at the Park City Kimball Art Festival. This year at the St. George Art Festival she was awarded first place for printmaking/graphics. And in mid-August, at the Ridgway Rendezvous in western Colorado, Hough won the “Mayor’s Choice” award.

In addition to selling her work at Moab Made, Hough travels around Utah, and the Four Corners region to various art festivals and events. She’s also shown her work at galleries in Provo and in Bountiful. At Moab Made she sells both originals and reproductions of her work, framed or unframed, and additionally makes stickers, cards, and postcards from her prints.

Moab Made has been an especially good outlet for Hough’s artwork. “A good amount of local people shop there; there’s so much in Moab Made,” Hough said. “Even if you go there regularly, it’s always changing, with new stuff.”

The 31-year-old Hough is also a handywoman – which may explain her ability to figure out how to build her own printing press! As a handywoman, she lays tile for showers and backsplashes, and does custom design work – such as making shelves to fit inside unconventional spaces, for example. She also dabbles in woodworking to make various art pieces.

To see more of Jess’s Artworks you can visit her website at www.opusmixtum.com or visit Hough on Instagram at www.instagram.com/moabjess/?hl=en

And be sure to mention you read about Jess in Moab Happenings.