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Two deer scamper by Kay Lynn’s Kalispell art studio.

“They let me live here,” she says jokingly as she weaves through her creative space.

It’s a remark that reflects her attitude about nature — which she sees as an amazing creation that she’s lucky to be a part of. The natural world often takes center stage in her creative works too, which range from paper and epoxy sculpture to mixed-media mosaics and wood carvings.

Lynn’s studio is located down a windy, treed road in an unassuming yellow building. Her work — mostly of the mosaic variety — decorates the walls, shimmering facets bringing life to the window-lit space. In one scene, a multi-hued orb floats above Flathead Lake while city lights from Bigfork glimmer below. In another, a waterfall-like form runs down into a series of hills, where a deer stands looking into the distance.

She pulls up a large white door at the center of the studio, revealing a second room with cabinets stocked to the brim with a rainbow of glass and ceramic pieces. Here she can choose the precise shade and texture for her works to stand alongside natural elements, such as agate slivers and fossils.

It was the versatility of colors that drew the sculptor to glass and mixed media over 15 years ago.

“When I looked at what I could get with glass or ceramic, the bright colors just stole my heart,” Lynn said. “A lot of the work that I do is just glorifying color.”

Lynn’s foray into the art world began with wood. She took a class in college and fell in love with the medium. Her carvings became larger over time, and she especially liked crafting the forms of burls, a bulbous tree cancer.

After a while, she decided it simply took too long to make her carvings and the art wasn’t exactly lucrative, so she learned to make molds and studied foundry work.

On the East Coast, she specialized in contemporary bronze vessels, inspired by the thin, yet delicate designs of the ancient Chinese. Lynn also picked up paper sculpture, which she’s best known for locally. Multiple life-size paper forms decorate downtown Kalispell locations, and are protected from the elements by an epoxy putty coating. The cowboy atop the Noice Studio and Gallery, and climber scaling the face of Rocky Mountain Outfitter are her creations, as is the bank robber on Valley Bank of Kalispell.

“I couldn’t believe a bank would want a bank robber. That bank had been robbed twice,” she said.

When she traded her Boston address for a ranch in Whitefish, Lynn opened a foundry, which she operated for 25 years until her inspiration took a different turn.

“I realized one day that I hadn’t wanted to come out here and work for a long time and I was feeling really guilty about it,” Lynn said of her foundry. “I realized, ‘That’s it, you’ve hit the wall. Do something else.’”

She sold the foundry equipment in the early 2000s and, wooed by the colors of glass and ceramic, decided to give mosaics a try.

“I’m just trying to express my wonder at being on this planet in this time. I’m just trying to show people that life’s really beautiful,” she said. “I think that’s what all artists are trying to convey, something they feel that’s special about life.”

She also wants to focus on bringing the artistic community together in her Kalispell studio through classes and community events. In the past, she’s hosted anything from art films to puppet shows and various speakers.

“I’m coming back to the idea that I want to share this space more, so I’m going to go back to the classes. We’re going to have different kinds of involvement with other people,” she said.

Beginning Nov. 1, Lynn will host a poetry night the first Wednesday of each month from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Attendees are invited to share their poetry and special guest poet Nancy Rose will read from her book, “Backstroking All Night in the Starpool.”

On Thursday nights starting Nov. 2 from 6-9 p.m., Lynn will offer a large paper sculpture course for six weeks for $110 plus materials, and Tuesday nights she’ll host a mixed-media glass design class at a cost of $90 for six weeks. For more information, contact Kay Lynn at 871-0681.