Affirmation has a short blurb on his "story"

http://www.affirmation.org/news/2007_053.shtml

The Affirmation article states Trevor was "featured in the documentary The Mormons recently aired by PBS." and "Renowned artist Trevor Southey talked about his experience as a Mormon man who, despite being gay, married and had children in an attempt to fit into Mormon culture. Some of Southey's remarkable paintings were prominently featured throughout the documentary."

Here is a link to the UMFA's (Utah Museum of Fine Arts) web page about the current showing. Um, it is NOT Mormon approved and probably would be a bit much for most work places, Utah work places in particular:

http://umfa.utah.edu/trevorsouthey_reconciliation

I'm headed out to see it today (Sunday). I'm interested in seeing if some of the more provocative pieces are shown. I also really want to support a show for what the art and the artist represent in relation to the LDS.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/2010 06:20PM by MJ.

Wow! That really looks interesting. He's definitely got the touch when it comes to human anatomy. I'll have to stop in next time I'm on campus.

OK, I would have liked the display to be about 4 times larger. I wanted to see more and went thought the whole exhibit a second time then returned to particular pieces a third time to study more closely.

Here is some more detail on his life from Q-Salt Lake.

http://qsaltlake.com/2010/09/16/trevor-southeys-oxymoronic-life-on-display/

Trevor received two art degrees from BYU and eventually became an instructor at BYU where he began the Mormon Arts and Belief movement. There are at least 3 pieces on loan from BYU in the exhibit including nudes, the males genitalia only hinted at with no detail what so ever.

His early work was beautiful and fascinating but I never really related to most of the characters as human. With the exception of a self portrait and the portraits of his mother and father, the other paintings of humans came across more as a caricature than as human with emotions.

That all changed after Trevor came out as gay in 1981, got divorced, got fired from BYU, excommunicated from TSCC and moved to San Francisco bay area (how gay is THAT?).

After Trevor came out, male genitalia had detail, but more than that, his characters both male and female seemed to have a sole. One piece in particular, a sketchy portrait of a man felt like it was looking right into my heart. It seems that leaving the LDS church allowed Trevor to be far more expressive of the human form than he could as a Mormon.

He tells quite a story. It needs to be heard.

It isn't fair to him. It wasn't fair to the woman he married. Things need to change.

who is genuine in ways that Mormons have always tried to take advantage of for their own ends. After his forced departure from the cult, Trevor continued on his way - loving, laughing, and living.

The bitter homophobes of Mormonism couldn't crush his spirit.

Usually I try to avoid artist receptions, too many fake people, but given what I now know, I would have liked to meet him.

I was an art student at BYU when Trevor Southey was part of the art faculty. I enjoyed his personality and sense of humor. I thought is artwork to be interesting. I had no idea that he was gay.

It doesn't matter now that I know he is gay. What does matter is that he lost his family and membership in his church in order to act on his sexual attraction to men. When he married he made a commitment to live the law of chastity, which prohibits any sexual relations (with males or females) outside the bonds of marriage. I think he acted very foolishly and selfishly. I would think the same if he had an affair with a woman. It is difficult for me to understand how anyone can dump their family and faith because of a selfish whim. Yet as a christian, I can forgive him and I hope never to lose sight of the things that matter most to me and that is family and faith.

I lived in Alpine and am about the same age as Trevor's kids. As far as I am aware, everyone in this family is happier and better off than they were living the perfect Mormon lie. Last I heard, he still has a great relationship with his kids.

And how do you know he violated his vows while married? Or are you saying that the only appropriate place for sex is within marriage?

As for dumping the church, uh, you know where you are, right? On a board where nearly everyone has done precisely the same thing? Right?

After you've been coerced into self-loathing by a culture you were born into and coerced into a marriage with someone you really didn't want a marriage relationship with, then you can talk about "selfish whim."

Christian or not, you are in no position to "forgive him," and the passive-aggressive attack in your post here hasn't gone unnoticed.

Put yourself in his shoes, Gary. Pretend that from a young age you found yourself attracted to girls. You had your little crushes, which got stronger over the years. Every time you saw a dimpled smile, or long hair swaying, or a skirt sashaying by, your heart skipped a beat. You dreamed of getting close to a girl, of cuddling her, of kissing her.

The only trouble is, in the eyes of your church such desires are totally unacceptable. Isn't everyone attracted to the same sex? Isn't that the normal order of things? Like with like. What sort of pervert is attracted to the opposite sex? Don't those people know that their eternal salvation is at stake?

So you swallow your natural inclinations. You court and eventually marry a man in the temple. You like that man well enough...he's your best friend, of course. But you never fell in love with him, because, well...you can't. Somehow you steel yourself to kiss that man, even though it nearly wants to make you retch (Picture it, Gary. Try to feel it.) You manage intimate relations every month or two. You eventually produce some offspring. Your family, bishop, and fellow ward members are pleased with you. You have followed the plan.

Until one day a particular girl makes your heart skip a beat. She winks at you and you gasp in shock. For the first time in nearly forever, you feel a sense of hope. And just as suddenly, you realize that you've been living a huge whopper of a lie.

*************************************

Homosexuality: At least 4% of any given population, across races, cultures, and time periods. Across animal groups. Why? No one knows, not even the Mormon church. Can you say that being gay doesn't have survival value for humans as a whole? You can't say that. No one can. We simply don't know why God and nature designed us this way. And yet we are so designed.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2012 08:46PM by summer.

Quit trying to promote The Big Mormon Lie about Trevor Southey. You are trying to claim that Trevor lost his family when he was thrown out of the Mormon cult.

You obviously do not know ANYTHING at all about the man if you think he "lost" his family over being gay. I know him: I have met his former spouse, all his children, and most of his grandchildren. I have been invited to many events he has celebrated with them. Trevor adores his family and keeps them close, and they in turn treasure and adore him.

You, on the other hand, are a judgmental fool. How is it that you think you know the man better than anyone else here or anywhere, that you can judge him thus from afar? It is very clear that you are just another spiteful, vicious, vindictive TBM who can not bear to know that a good man found a higher truth in life and went there, and his love carried his family there with him. May you be so fortunate some day.

I don't care for his style, but that's a matter of personal taste. He has an excellent grasp of human anatomy (which was my specialty as well when I pursued an undergraduate degree in studio art.) He is especially good at hands and feet, which are often acknowledged to be the two toughest parts of the body to render accurately. He also has a good grasp of foreshortening, another notoriously difficult skill.

I wish him well, and I'm glad that you enjoyed the show, MJ.