Brian Kershisnik's exhibit of paintings and drawings, "Painting From Life," is a revelatory experience.

To see his work — on display at the Utah Museum of Fine Art through July 1 — is to be, what I call "Kershisniked": It draws you up and in, stimulates your sight and mind, then sets you down comfortably, often with a chuckle or satisfied grin.

His talent and success have been the topic of myriad magazine and newspaper articles, and if you Google "Kershisnik," be prepared to spend several hours looking at a prodigious portfolio of images with the word "SOLD" nearby.

What you may not know is that Kershisnik is also one of those rare visual artists who can actually wax poetic while responding to a question: He can be cogent, pithy and gregarious.

Deseret Morning News: My favorite painting in the UMFA exhibit is "Woman with Infant Flying."

Brian Kershisnik: That's a big one, isn't it? That was painted for the show because they have these huge walls. I actually had intended for the bottom of it to be 10-to-15 feet off the ground but there were difficulties hanging it that high.

DMN: My favorite part of the painting is the baby pointing its finger.

BK: That baby's hand kind of turns down, the thumb is down, kind of like the arm is twisted. Initially his arm was out with the thumb up, but it didn't look right, so I erased it and I kind of twisted it down. It's a little bit of an odd gesture, so I worked on the anatomy a little so it didn't look like the twist was hurting him. But you know kids' gestures are weird and unexpected. And a pointed finger, compositionally, carries an amazing amount of weight. There's a lot of energy thrown out the end of that finger.

DMN: Have you ever been tempted to treat the dark side in a painting? Perhaps a little Albert Pinkham-Ryder meets Joyce Carol Oates?

BK: I feel that I do. Take for example the "Rescue," the painting of the man being attacked by a lion, and the boy fighting him off with a shovel. However, even in a painting like that, where I feel like I'm dealing with kind of a dark subject, it's amazing to me how some kind of light always breaks through into it.

A Mogul miniature of a lion attack inspired that particular painting. In my version, when I drew the lion and man on the canvas, they were so large there wasn't any more room for another adult to help fight off the lion. In the initial drawing the guy fighting the lion was bent over so he would fit on the canvas. Well, that looked kind of silly so I just made him into a boy.