Accuse me of hyperbole — this year's Spring Salon is the best in years.

And not because the Springville Museum stacked the deck with 65 pieces of art from members of the 100 Most Honored Living Artists of Utah.

This year's statewide exhibition excels because the work by new and established artists excels; the majority of the art in the show is impressively conceived, soundly executed and professionally presented.

While I gave the last three Salons fair-to-good reviews, there was always something skeptical and cheerless lurking beneath the surface of my writing. Not so this year. The 82nd Annual Spring Salon has returned to its customary overall quality.

With 998 works of art submitted, 269 were selected for inclusion in the show. "And while we upped the entry fee from $10 to $12, we still had 12 more pieces entered than last year," said Vern Swanson, director of the Springville Museum of Art.

Unlike many other exhibitions, the Spring Salon juries from actual work, not photographs or slides. "They all lie," said Swanson. "Every photographic image lies, either to the benefit or detriment of the work of art, so we're committed to the idea of jurying off the work."

However, with this commitment comes a logistical nightmare for the museum. "We had over 500 works of art entered on Saturday, the last entry day," said Swanson. "It was a zoo!"

Due to the number of entries, the SMA had to establish a pre-jurying process for the first time in its history. This year it was 10 percent, next year it will most likely jump to 20 percent. "We have to do it," Swanson said.

Ruth Allred, a graduate of Weber State University and the Otis Art Institute in painting and sculpture, as well as a member of the museum staff, juried out the 10 percent this year.

"The pre-jurying," said Swanson, "took out most of the stuff that never would have made it into the show anyway, even on the best day possible."

Even with the 10 percent pre-jury cut, the main jurists, Margaret Hunt, director of the Utah Arts Council, and Richard Oman, from the Museum of Church History and Art, had an arduous task.

"If you try to allow each work of art to have within itself its own jurying criteria, you need mental gymnastics, artistic ability and physical stamina to do that with each piece," Swanson said. "Margaret and Richard tried to do it, but afterward they were dead." (Hunt and Oman juried art from 9:30 a.m.-7 p.m.)

As in the past, Swanson worries that some of the artists juried out of the show will be bitter about the experience. "We had to jury out so many marvelous pieces," he said. "It breaks your heart to see excellent artists not in the show, who have entered excellent pieces. In fact, some of the artists that didn't get in will certainly become part of the 100 Most Honored group one day."