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 86 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 creative mediums, including oil, acrylic and watercolor paints, drawing media, pen and ink, collage and now, print making. 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! 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 She was born and raised in Missoula, Montana. When she was young her vision was poor, but after getting glasses at eight her world became clear. She started to draw everything, especially flowers and birds. Her high school art teacher exposed her to many art mediums. After high school she worked as a telephone operator, She would doodle on the message pads! Shortly there after she married her husband who was in the USAF and started a family. After he retired they moved to Great Falls where he was an air traffic controller. In between raising her family Janet created art in several mediums. Janet’s inspirations come from her love of Montana’s outdoors. Her artwork depicts scenes and wildlife from many backpack trips throughout Montana’s wilderness areas. Janet designed the four stained glass windows of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Great Fall. Her designs tell the stories of The Resurrection, Communion, Baptism and The Great Mystery of the Triune God. She reproduced these images into colorful bookmarks. Janet has designed rubber stamps with a western theme for a stamp company and painted backdrops for area plays. At 83 Janet’s vision has become poor again, however she still remains active with life and her art such as creating unique multi media greeting cards. “I feel that the Lord has blessed me with the ability to paint what I see and what I remember.”
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.
Lynn McLeod, Great Falls, Montana A Montana native, I have always been inspired by the beauty that surrounds me. A never-ending passion for the beach, gives way to dreams of warmth and sunshine.Fantasies of the beach or a far away place transfer to each piece I give life to. My art is at an intersection between realism and idealization. Not wanting to be limited to any one kind of art, I allow inventiveness to be my guide. Mental images are transferred to ceramic tiles, wine glasses, wood slices, jewelry designs and anything or everything I can use to unleash my minds eye. What my imagination sees, my hands create.
Margi Schindele, Wolf Creek, Montana is an artist who would like to share her cancer journey through art. “My art had an abstract view of going through breast CANCER as well as CHEMO. My struggles with how I feel and express my inner self has been tough. I able to express my emotional feelings and life experiences through paint, ink and my press. It may be my work appears to be sad so be it. Cancer profoundly impacts all our lives. We don't know whether we will be victims of cancer as patient or supporter. The human spirit is bold and resilient. I wish the viewers of my work to receive my message, which is that we will continue to rejoice in the precious gift of life.” Margi has a BFA in Printmaking. She teaches printmaking at the Paris Gibson Square, Great Falls, Montana.
Monica Bauer, Great Falls, Great Falls, Montana
Monica Bauer 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. "Fossil fuel processing structures are widely spread across the Western landscape. Yet they are rarely pictures 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."
Ashleigh McCann, Great Falls, MontanaAshleigh 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."
"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."
Judy Ericksen, Great Falls, MontanaJudy Ericksen, a well respected Great Falls ceramic artist, works in porcelain and stoneware. Iris patterns are her signature along with her variety of glaze styles. Judy is a former art teacher and continues to inspire others with her demonstrations throughout the community of Great Falls and beyond.
Sandy Walker, Great Falls, MontanaI’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. My opportunity to live in Alaska, Virginia, Massachusetts and, now, back in my home state of Montana, has allowed me to experience those areas and always 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. My opportunity to live in Alaska, Virginia, Massachusetts and, now, back in my home state of Montana, has allowed me to experience those areas and always 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.