Black Flame Lotus

Cover Story Utah Arts Festival 2011

Like many 35-year-olds, the Utah Arts Festival is considerably larger than its younger self. And—again, like most 35-year-olds—it’s far more interesting than the younger version, having lived a little and ultimately benefited from some growing pains.

When the festival started in 1977, evolving out of the Salt Lake City Festival of the Arts, it was a three-day gathering on three blocks of Main Street, boasting 55 visual artists, 43 performing groups and eight food stands. It cost about $38,000. Now, it’s a four-day, $1.6 million monster drawing more than 80,000 to Washington Square and Library Square, showcasing more than 140 artists, 100 live performances and 20 culinary visionaries. It takes more than 1,000 volunteers to pull off, plus four full-time staffers, 60 program coordinators and a production staff of 30.

In between its Main Street start and current location, the festival bounced through a site on West Temple near the Salt Lake Art Center, the Triad Center area, the Utah State Fairpark (aka “the lost years”) and the Gallivan Center.

The festival’s executive director, Lisa Sewell, remembers visiting the Utah Arts Fest for the first time in 1983, having recently moved home to Utah after college in Oregon.

“I was trying to find a job, figure out what I was going to do, and I distinctly remember sitting on that slope (outside the Salt Lake Art Center) with hair down to my ass, and I was wearing this long white dress with embroidery on it,” Sewell says. “And I remember thinking what a great thing it was. Who’da thunk 15 years later I’d be the director of it?”

My own first memories of the fest start as a college student at the U in the early ’90s, when I had no time for visual arts but loved seeing concerts by the likes of Laurie Anderson (1991), Jimmie Dale Gilmore (1994) and Mahlathini & the Mahotella Queens (1992), a South African group that inspired my house full of college dudes to start greeting each other for the rest of the summer with an African howdy: “Ya-bo!”

In the years since, my tastes have grown more eclectic, as have the offerings of the festival. Art, music, food, film—I like to sample as much as possible during those four days each June. Here’s a look at 35 aspects of the 2011 festival on my to-do list.

sleeperawake-s: THE MYSTERY OF BAPHOMET

While searching for a word, i now have forgotten, i went to dictionary.com and saw a half quote of *I know I am but summer to your heart....* i clicked on it to see the full quote *I know I am but summer to your heart........And not the full four seasons of the year.* (Edna St. Vincent Millay) and an article describing the links between Shakespeare's Midsummer Nights Dream and the summer solstice. The information was interesting, although more on the entertainment side. I scanned the comments, which were your regular mix of kosher-pissy opinion ....until this comment ....at the very end.... "In the first eon, I was a Great Spirit. In the second eon, Men knew me as the Horned God, Pangenitor Panphage. In the third eon, I was the Dark One, the Devil. In the fourth eon, Men know me not for I am the Hidden one. In this new eon I appear before you as Baphomet The God before all gods, who shall endure to the end of earth". -Peter j. Carroll: Liber Null- Psychonaut, Yourk Beach, Me (Samuel Weiser) 1987, page 131f. Baphomet is one of the most controversial figures within the history of the occult. The symbol is often used by Satanists but older practitioners of The Craft had no problem using the symbol of Baphomet as well. Sabbatic Witches along with Traditional witches have always used the symbol of Baphomet within their rites throughout the ages. The old wood carvings showing Baphomet along with a female figure in attendance at witches sabbaths have been depicted in art for many years and they are a visual testament to the classical witches of old. The Ancient Mystery Schools both east and west used monstrous figures which were displayed outside of temples and within sacred groves to ward off anyone who would let appearances alone frighten them form entering their schools. Traditional Witches understand the symbolism behind this figure because we know this is not an "idol" it's a representation of harmony between two polarities, a place were opposites meet. Within many of the old Mystery Schools the figure of Baphomet represents many occult truths, one of which is his association with the four elements EARTH, AIR, FIRE, and WATER. His wings represents the element air, the top of his head between his horns burns a torch which of course is representative of fire. He sits on top of the world (the earth), and he's surrounded by the the element water.

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Lotus

The three-inch golden lotus

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The encyclopedia of Tibetan symbols and motifs