A Judgment of Art

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Provo’s 4th District Judge Fred Howard may hold a gavel by day, but in his off time, it’s a paintbrush.

Howard’s oil paintings are currently hanging in the Springville Museum of Art, in their new exhibit, “The Great Organ: Paintings of the Tabernacle Organ by Fred Howard.”

There are 33 paintings total, and all of them showcase the 17,000 pipe organ in the LDS Salt Lake Tabernacle.

“I think the ones I’m drawn to the most are the ones very close up,” said the museum’s associate curator Ashlee Whitaker. “He’ll just take a little snapshot of part of the organ woodworking. Fred’s doing these close up paintings that focus on just the lines of the organ and just the beautiful dynamic of the pipes.”

Howard showcases all the parts of the organ, big or small, but the exhibit is missing one thing, the fact that the artist is also a judge. Nowhere in the exhibit does it say what Howard does as his day job.

The exhibit runs till November 3 at the museum, and afterwards, Howard says he’ll donate the paintings to those who have played the organ in the past and their families.

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