Web Extra: Art And Belief And The Reconciliation Of Trevor Southey

Published January 13, 2022 at 9:57 PM MST

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The artist Trevor Southey stands in front of a painting depicting nude figures or a woman, a child and a man. — The artist Trevor Southey discusses his painting "Comfort Waiting" in the film "Bright Spark: The Reconciliation of Trevor Southey"

In a new documentary film, the artist and painter Nathan Florence explores a collective of influential Utah artists who aimed to use their creative gifts to make the kind of work collected in major museums that also expressed their deeply held faith in the LDS Church.

It was called the Art and Belief movement, and it took shape in Utah in the 1960s and ‘70s. At the center of this movement was the painter Trevor Southey. As Florence documents in his film, Southey struggled to resolve his grand ideas of art, not to mention his sexuality, with his hidebound church. Florence joins us to talk about Southey, his fellow artists, and their legacy. His film is called Bright Spark: The Reconciliation of Trevor Southey.

Bright Spark opens at Megaplex theatres along the Wasatch Front on Friday, January 14. MORE INFORMATION

Alongside the filmmaker Matt Black, Nathan Florence co-directed and produced Bright Spark.