Event showcases wilderness artwork
Art inspired by wilderness will be unveiled Tuesday, Sept. 14, at a Kalispell reception and presentation of Forest Inspirations: An Extension of the Artist-Wilderness-Connection Program.
The event at Flathead Valley Community College is hosted by Flathead National Forest, Hockaday Museum of Art, Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation and the Swan Ecosystem Center
The Artist-Wilderness-Connection Program connects Montana artists and local communities with local wild lands. Professional working artists spend time in a remote forest cabin on the Flathead National Forest to focus on their art.
After completing their residency, artists select a format to share their talents and residency experience with the community and donate a representative piece of their art to the program.
The reception will begin at 5 p.m. on Sept. 14 at the FVCC Arts and Technology Building, with light refreshments followed by a formal presentation featuring the 2009 artists: Whitefish landscape painter Rob Akey, Kalispell illustrator and graphic designer James Clayborn and Missoula sculptor and art professor Bobby Tilton.
Tilton uses non-traditional materials for her sculptures that are influenced by her years growing up on a Montana farm. Her art celebrates the lives and work of families in the rural west. Her work has been exhibited throughout Montana and she’s received several honors and awards for her art and teaching.
Akey’s paintings depict the dramatic scenery of the Northern Rocky Mountains. Many of his large-scale paintings hang in Flathead Valley locations. Through the Montana Arts Council’s Percent for Arts Program, he recently completed an original oil painting for the new Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Northwest Land Office and Department of Water Quality building in Kalispell.
Clayborn’s creative designs have been showcased for many years in the Flathead Valley. He creates images of nature inspired by the beauty and wildness of the area “recreating the gift of nature” within his paintings and sketches.
The evening’s event will include a short slide-show presentation by Akey that shares his personal experience during his residency in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and how his use of plein air studies capture the essence of place and transforms it into grand-scale pieces in the studio.
Clayborn will present “Painting a Picture with Music,” an illustrated dialogue with original guitar music inspired and composed during this residency within the Great Bear Wilderness. His presentation will explore how music and visual art intertwine.
Tilton will share her humorous side with a slide presentation titled “Ten Things That ‘Bob’ Taught Me,” sharing her personal experiences during her residency in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and inspiration for her “Shirt Off ‘Bob’s’ Back” sculpture.
Much of the artwork created since the program was initiated in 2004 will be on display in the Arts and Technology Building from Sept. 8 through Oct. 1.
Previous program artists include Myni Ferguson (2004), Annick Smith (2004), Janet Sullivan (2005), Karin Connelly (2005), Carol Poppenga (2006), Michael Patterson (2006), Jane Latus Emmert (2006), Bill Knoll (2007), Jane Kleinschmidt (2007), Sally Hickman (2007), Larry Blackwood (2008), Scott Friskics (2008) and Jennifer Smith (2008), in addition to 2009 artists Akey, Clayborn and Tilton.
The artists for 2010 are West Glacier’s children’s author Beth Hodder, metalsmith and jewelry maker Cyndy Mullings from Bigfork, and the collaborative art group of painter Julie Wulf, musician Lois Sturgis and photographer Sandra Marker from the Flathead Valley.
For more information, contact Teresa Wenum at 758-5218 or Elizabeth Moss at 755-5268.