Keith Dagley grew up on a ranch, and planned on spending his life as a rancher, but he sold his horses when he was drafted into the military.
The day before he was to report for duty, he received word he'd been rejected.
"So I herded cows for the Logan Canyon Cattle Association and put myself through college," he said. "I started out in college in range management, because that's what my brother had done, but in my first quarter of taxonomy, I realized I don't care what genus and species animals belong to, as long as I can see the differences to paint them."
He carried his portfolio to the art department, was immediately accepted into the program and studied to be an art educator.
"I took my last final at 11 a.m. and started teaching at North Ogden Junior High School the same day, at 1 p.m. in the afternoon," he said. "I stayed there 33 years. I had several opportunities to move, but I figured if it wasn't broken, why fix it?"
Dagley retired from teaching 10 years ago. Now he's a full-time painter who is being honored as the featured artist at the North Ogden Arts Festival on Saturday.
Art education
Art was always important to Dagley, who lives in North Ogden. His first art teacher was a high school student who was a family friend; she gave him drawing lessons when he was in grade school.
His high school art teacher was also female.
"She was extremely good-looking, and as young men do, we had the tendency to talk about that," Dagley said, remembering that he quietly commented on her legs when she'd go to sharpen a pencil. "One day, when I was a senior, she was giving us a lesson on perspective lines. ... I said, 'I can't do that.' "
The comment had been a whisper, but his teacher responded.
"I knew at that point she had heard everything I'd said all three years, and I was a little embarrassed," he said.
He may have turned a little pink that day, but not as pink as the teacher.
She had a spray can of pink paint that wasn't working properly.
"One of the guys said, 'You know, if you dent that can with a hammer, it'll make the pressure build up inside, and it will spray better,' " Dagley said.
Unfortunately, the student used the claw end of the hammer and punctured the can.
"It started spraying pink paint all over, and all he could do was stand there with his mouth open instead of spraying it into the garbage can, and it painted her pink," Dagley said. "The more pink she became, the louder we laughed and the more mad she got."
One of Dagley's paintings was ruined, along with the blackboard, and his teacher's clothes and new purse. But the teacher eventually regained her composure.
"After about an hour, she started to laugh ... when she looked in a mirror and saw how funny she looked," he said.
Western artist
Dagley is best known for painting Western images. He calls on his background as a rancher for those images, as well as photos taken at rodeos and other events.
He also paints American Indian images, based on people and activities he sees at powwows. His interest in American Indian culture also comes from his own background.
"My great-great-great-grandfather married a woman called Black Fox," said Dagley, adding that another name that turned up in his family history is First To Kill.
"But I have always been attracted to Native American culture," he said, "and I suspect that where that comes from is when I went to high school on the Ute Indian reservation in the Uintah Basin, so I had a lot of friends that were Native American."
Egyptian art
During the festival, Dagley is also showing paintings inspired by a trip to Egypt.
Dagley found himself intrigued by the Egyptians' use of burros.
"You'd be down in the middle of town in a car, driving like here, and get stuck in a traffic jam -- in the middle would be a burro surrounded by cars, or kids riding a burro," he said.
In addition to paintings, Dagley sells drawings -- most of them created as he's en route somewhere on an airplane.
"I used to throw them in a pile when I got home," he said. "But I had shoulder surgery about four years ago, and they wouldn't let me paint for about three months."
He was taking part in the Celebration of Fine Art in Scottsdale, Ariz., and needed more work to show.
"I thought, I'll take the drawings I've been throwing in a pile and have them framed," he said. "They were accepted so well that now I always do drawings for Scottsdale."
Although Dagley enjoys participating in big art shows out-of-state, he's happy to be featured in the North Ogden Arts Festival.
"It's just kind of fun to do a show here," he said. "I get to see and meet with all of the people I've known over the years and never get a chance to see."
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