2021 Missouri Falls Fine Arts Show & Sale Artists
Janet Christina, Great Falls. Montana Janet Christina is long time member of the Arts Association of Montana, formally the Great Falls Arts Association. Janet’s inspirations come from her love of Montana’s outdoors. Her art work depicts scenes from many backpack trips through out Montana’s wilderness areas and of the wildlife. Janet has work in many mediums such as oils, watercolors, charcoal, pastels and graphite. Janet also had the opportunity to design the stained glass windows of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Great Falls, Montana. She reproduced one stained glass window into colorful bookmarks and cards. At 87 Janet is still active although her eyesight is very poor. She creates unique greeting cards made with feathers, dried flowers, different papers and stamps.
Jean Fleming-Mazur, Vaughn, Montana " I am an artist who works in many mediums, including oil, acrylic and watercolor paints, drawing media, pen and ink, collage and now, print making. My work is abstract to representative styles. I have been a calligrapher since high school and love working in black and white. The essence of expression through line quality from thin to thick, controlled or freely drawn are when ah-hah moments happen. Mono printing is a new obsession. Every print is a surprise! I love working BIG - painting on banners. This allows for large movement mark making. Jean earned a BFA in Graphic Design and worked in the field for 30 years. She and her family moved from Michigan ten years ago to experience the open skies and clouds, mountains and plains, and does not miss high humidity, serious city traffic or the lack of winter sun!
Joy Staelens, Great Falls, Montana Joy is an artist from Hollywood, FL. "My relocation to this gorgeous state has allowed me to have a new perspective on art. The mountain air is proving to be an excellent tool for inspiration. The humanity I envision in nature adds to my eclectic views I portray through some of my paintings. Aside from a desire to clean up our glorious planet, the textures of recyclable materials inspire me. My first design using beer bottle caps is of a rose opening. Another bottle cap art is a large mermaid at a local Great Falls bar. Both represent my fascination with seeing something creative in everyday objects." Joy's signature pieces are mermaids done in paintings, murals and multi-media materials. This summer Joy's art was selected to decorate a traffic light box in Great Falls, Montana with one of her signature mermaid paintings!
Alexia Duncan, Helena, Montana "My art style fluctuates as I weave through life’s experiences. When studying environmental politics, nature and wildlife dominated as my subjects. Once I became a mother, mediums I could walk away from at any moment and return to whenever time allowed became my preference. During my time as an art instructor, my students often inspired the direction of my artwork. I taught a variety of classes, therefore, created artwork on a wide range. Past pieces include found metal sculptures, pottery and clay works, colored pencil drawings, acrylic and oil paintings, weaving, and duct tape “paintings”. On returning home to Montana, I again looked to the beauty of nature to inspire me. Our home in rural Helena provides ample subjects from dainty wildflowers to spectacular mountain views. The rich colors found traversing the endless backroads has reignited my love for oil painting. Inspiration runs abundant when visiting the hidden gems of the state. My most recent pieces accentuate the hidden colors of my subject. A shadow is not just a shadow; it’s blue, purple, hints of pink and deep green. For that reason, I tend to be drawn to the details of objects, the shapes within a shape. This process also lends to color blocking which often appears subconsciously in my work. My intention is to rekindle fond memories within my viewer, a pleasant sensation of carefree adolescence or a longing for something past."
Barbara Liss is a new member from Hamilton, Montana. Barbara's medium of choice is concrete, a very organic medium. It’s texture is the characteristic she values most. Appreciation of Chicago’s great buildings and architectural ornamentation influenced her choice of concrete. Traveling aboard deepened her appreciation of cultures.
Immortalizing my creations in the organic and durable medium of concrete provides texture that I value. Portland cement a product as a gardener I always have at hand, mortaring bricks and rocks was a natural chose to become my medium of concrete sculptures. The sculptures vary from the sole medium of concrete to adding elements of found objects that are often the inspiration of a piece. "I have been drawn to the many faces of our world and occasionally creatures from another one. Concrete sculptures are at home in the inside and outside environment, placed wherever they inspire. My sculptures speak to me as we become friends in the sculpting process, telling me who they are or what they are thinking. Their expressions conveying a message. Their adornments providing appreciation of a reclaimed memory or treasure, a celebration of what once was. When they're done, my brother, Dan Liss, writes about what each piece is expressing. I create the visual story while he creates the written one.
Visit Barbara's website for more of her fascinating art! www.montanablissartworks.com
Immortalizing my creations in the organic and durable medium of concrete provides texture that I value. Portland cement a product as a gardener I always have at hand, mortaring bricks and rocks was a natural chose to become my medium of concrete sculptures. The sculptures vary from the sole medium of concrete to adding elements of found objects that are often the inspiration of a piece. "I have been drawn to the many faces of our world and occasionally creatures from another one. Concrete sculptures are at home in the inside and outside environment, placed wherever they inspire. My sculptures speak to me as we become friends in the sculpting process, telling me who they are or what they are thinking. Their expressions conveying a message. Their adornments providing appreciation of a reclaimed memory or treasure, a celebration of what once was. When they're done, my brother, Dan Liss, writes about what each piece is expressing. I create the visual story while he creates the written one.
Visit Barbara's website for more of her fascinating art! www.montanablissartworks.com
Chary Majerus, Conrad, Montana Though Chary began working with oil paints in the early 1990s, it wasn't until 2011 before she started painting scenes based on her memory of pack trips along the Rocky Mountain Front. Her landscapes are strongly influenced by Montana’s natural beauty, and while oil on canvas is the primary medium, Chary has recently started painting on slabs of wood. She is currently working on oil paintings done on Montana-shaped wood ornaments in three different sizes and state-shaped ornaments featuring resin-coated arrangements of her pressed Montana flowers. Chary is also a calligrapher and will have her work at the show. You will find Chary at her business, Framing, Etc. in Conrad, Montana and https://www.facebook.com/FramingEtc
Monica Bauer, Great Falls, Montana Monica Bauer paintings finds inspiration is a different aspect of the western scene. "Fossil fuel processing structures are widely spread across the Western landscape. Yet they are rarely pictured in tourist brochures proclaiming the beauty of the western states. Health problems related to the oil extraction industry are commonly known. Yet production continues, unabated. Extraction and processing often appropriate Native lands, challenging the sovereignty of the Nations. These paintings present massive energy production sites as 3D structures in a landscape seemingly vast, yet under constant pressure from industrial interests." Monica earned an M.F.A. degree at the University of Montana, and an M.A. degree in Art History at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has taught at UM, AIC, Pratt Institute, and Parsons The New School in New York. Monica has received grants from the Chicago Cultural Center, and has been awarded residencies at OxBow, Jentel, and Montana Artists Refuge. She has exhibited at galleries in the US and Europe. Her work has been published in New American Paintings, the Chicago Tribune, Punkt, and Die Welt.
Ashleigh McCann, Great Falls, Montana Ashleigh McCann is a native of Great Falls, Montana who earned her BFA in painting and drawing from BYU-Idaho in 2016. Following her degree, Ashleigh was the artist in residence for Great Falls Public School District for the 2016-2017 school year, which included teaching K-12 classes and concluded with a solo exhibition of her work. Her's work has been shown at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, the Dahl Gallery, the O.C. Seltzer Gallery, & at the Great Falls Public Library. McCann currently manages collections & heads graphic design at The History Museum/Cascade County Historical Society and teaches art classes at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in Great Falls, MT. "My art making process is a meditative practice, a process of play and response with intuitive mark making. My work is based upon the landscapes around me, from the dusty prairie grasses and yucca plants to the tree lined distant mountains."
Sandy Walker, Great Falls, Montana "I’m a native Great Falls artist and explorer who enjoys nature and wildlife, photographing and painting all that God has created for us to enjoy. I've enjoyed working with oils, exploring the painting process for 40 years and am still learning about all aspects of painting. When I began watercolor painting 30 years ago, I discovered the fluid creativity & beauty achieved with this medium.
Photography has been a means of capturing the world around me and its use for design & composition. The few seconds of a gorgeous sunset or sunrise through the lens of a camera, painting from scenes that came from a backcountry hike or drive that depict a landscape that needs to be shared, and capturing that wonderful rare moment of animals & birds being wild and carefree, are the motivating drive for me to be creative. Living in Alaska, Virginia, Massachusetts and, now, back in my home state of Montana, has allowed me to experience those areas with a have a camera along to capture my experiences.
Some of my paintings are tributes to favorite artists of the past. I've taken their creations and put my own spin on them. Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night " is shown outside of a room with a door ajar and the wind blowing curtains in the window. In "The Persistence of Memory," by Salvador Dali, I've put my own spin on his depiction of flowing or melting objects, I created a scene where a dog is holding a melting keyboard in his mouth, while his head protrudes through a sea, a few inches thick, held up by a pitchfork. Another painting is "The Scream" by Edvard Munch where I show a person at a craft fair, with pink flamingos, kites, & kids clothes on nearby tables.
Photography has been a means of capturing the world around me and its use for design & composition. The few seconds of a gorgeous sunset or sunrise through the lens of a camera, painting from scenes that came from a backcountry hike or drive that depict a landscape that needs to be shared, and capturing that wonderful rare moment of animals & birds being wild and carefree, are the motivating drive for me to be creative. Living in Alaska, Virginia, Massachusetts and, now, back in my home state of Montana, has allowed me to experience those areas with a have a camera along to capture my experiences.
Some of my paintings are tributes to favorite artists of the past. I've taken their creations and put my own spin on them. Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night " is shown outside of a room with a door ajar and the wind blowing curtains in the window. In "The Persistence of Memory," by Salvador Dali, I've put my own spin on his depiction of flowing or melting objects, I created a scene where a dog is holding a melting keyboard in his mouth, while his head protrudes through a sea, a few inches thick, held up by a pitchfork. Another painting is "The Scream" by Edvard Munch where I show a person at a craft fair, with pink flamingos, kites, & kids clothes on nearby tables.