"Intersections: The Art of Anna Campbell Bliss," the 40-year retrospective of one of Utah's most visionary artists, was my favorite exhibition at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts this year was . The show stretched and stunned with its expertly crafted intersection of science, culture and history. Bliss incorporates dance, Islamic calligraphy, color theory, Navajo rugs, DNA and more into her pieces, which collide with the eye in tantalizing design and movement. This is another show I walked through multiple times.

"New Work: Denis Phillips" demonstrated the sheer magnitude of Phillips' talent and was at the heart of this show at the Phillips Gallery. The artist presented viewers with new abstractions that were sermons on color, form, composition, harmony and technique. As much at home with painting landscapes and the figure (he also composes original music in a studio next to where he paints), Phillips' new abstractions manage to produce such an array of distinct images that viewers are truly in awe.

"300 Plates," a late spring offering at Art Access Gallery, was a fund-raiser/exhibition of 300 aluminum printer plates transformed by 57 local artists in their signature styles. Because the plates were positioned very close to each other, the overall impact of witnessing the various styles and techniques together was nearly overwhelming. It was a visual feast for a great cause: assisting adults and children with disabilities, and other underserved people, who desire training in art.

"Ritual of Being" is an installation by Rie Hachiyanagi at BYU's Museum of Art, and provided an experience I will never forget. In eight locations, viewers walked through an installation that employed handmade paper utilized in various ways. In one area the paper had been folded into very small boats, each suspended from the ceiling, floating on a river of light and dark. It encouraged in me a reverence for the process of thinking, seeing and creating. As the installation runs through March 26, 2005, everyone should visit the museum and experience it.

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