FIRST SIGHT OF THE DESERT: DISCOVERING THE ART OF ELLA PEACOCK, Kathryn J. Abajian, University of Utah Press, $21.95, cloth, 152 pages.

Kathryn J. Abajian's new biography of Spring City artist Ella Peacock, "First Sight of the Desert," is an intimate portrait of a strong-willed, single-minded artist, as well as a self-portrait of the strong-willed, single-minded writer.

And while Abajian's personal introspection and struggles mirror much of Peacock's own life struggles and are necessary and reasonable for her book's self-imposed structure, her story is ultimately not as engaging as Peacock's. Not because the author's life isn't interesting — she includes many intimate and painful recollections that will captivate readers. But because Abajian's excellent writing skills capture such vivid moments in Peacock's singular life that readers will find themselves pleading for more Peacock and less Abajian.

"First Sight of the Desert" covers more than 15 years of interviews and research, from the author's first meeting with the artist in 1985 to Peacock's death in 1999, a literary moment that will move even the most hard-hearted reader.

At their first meeting, Abajian writes, "Standing tall in men's work clothes, her long white hair knotted in back and secured with a headband, Ella seemed formidable, with an air of craggy authority. Yet she invited me into her 125-year-old adobe house that summer afternoon — into her paintings and her life."

The author's technique of moving back and forth in time, telling Peacock's story as well as her own, is much like seeing a finely crafted movie complete with flashbacks and asides. However, there is one part of the book that disappoints, as if the finely crafted film suddenly dropped a dozen scenes and then started up again.

There is a 40-year period where Peacock married, had a son, purchased and worked a farm with her husband, worked for a drafting agency, and put away her paints. To be fair, this gaping hole is not entirely the author's fault; according to Abajian, Peacock was a very private person and often reluctant to talk about her past.

However, one event from this period was discussed, and with the artist's usual candor: joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Peacock's independence, masculine clothes and near anti-social behavior caused more than a few tongues to wag in the small Mormon community of Spring City. When Abajian meshes the artist's church-attending dilemma with her own thoughts of leaving the LDS church — due to a loss of faith in the male-dominated organization — we readily perceive the pain in both women.

Truthfully, rustlings of great melancholy and regret permeate this biography, and some of the author's complaints almost border on misandry. Nevertheless, the gradual unfolding of Peacock's decline into old age interwoven with Abajian's rise to self-fulfillment as a divorced woman living alone and away from her children is what compels readers forward.

Upon initial perusal of "First Sight of the Desert" there will seem to be a dearth of Peacock's art. To complain, however, is pointless: It's not that type of art book. It is, instead, the story of a very influential Utah artist who refused to yield to the contemporary leanings of the art world, as she created her vision of the desert landscape.

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