Bigfork Art & Cultural Center celebrating 'Wild Places'

An exhibition featuring a Montana photographer, jewelry maker and filmmaker, “Campfire Stories: Celebrating Montana’s Wild Places and Community Camping Stories,” opens Friday, June 30 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Bigfork Art and Cultural Center.

The artists — photographer Mandy Mohler, jewelry maker Erin Hawley and filmmaker Jeri Rafter — created their works during a wilderness residency at Mystic Lake, on the edge of the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness and within the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. The three spent their nights in a forest service cabin on the banks of the lake.

Mohler has a photography studio in Kalispell and creates portraits through taxonomies, a scheme of classification for an object, typically with specific organisms. She takes that scientific ideal and applies it to photographic portraiture — presenting physical objects and allowing the subjects to speak for themselves.

Hawley creates her jewlery for Rag and Stone, a metalsmithing studio in Northwest Montana. Most of her jewelry is inspired by strong, independent women with a contagious zest for life. Strength and bravery is a common theme in her work.

Rafter has worked on television shows and feature films, including “Winter in the Blood,” “The Skeleton Twins” and “So It Goes.” Her latest feature film, “Bella Vista,” premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 2014. She is a graduate of the University of Montana.

The artists will be on hand for an interactive opening reception, hoping to inspire campfire stories and paintings from those in attendance. Campfire snacks and drinks will be served, with a beer tasting courtesy of Flathead Lake Brewing Co.

For more information, visit www.bigforkculture.org. The exhibition will remain open through July 22.