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Artists selected for wilderness residency program

| May 25, 2023 12:00 AM

Artists Bri Dostie of Missoula and Portland, Maine, and Griffin Foster of Bozeman were selected to live and create in nature as part of the Artist Wilderness Connection program.

In its 19th year, the Artist Wilderness Connection program selects two artists, writers, photographers, or musicians to stay in remote forest cabins in the Bob Marshall and Great Bear Wilderness areas for one to two weeks during July, August, or September, while creating art inspired by nature and their backcountry living experience.

After completing the residency, artists work with the Hockaday Museum of Art and other program partners to share their experience with a free community outreach program or exhibition and donate a representative artwork to the program.

Dostie is a multidisciplinary artist, and outdoor cultural strategist with studio practice in the visual arts — drawing, watercolor, painting, illustration, digital — and writing. She is also a member of the Northwest Montana Feminist Birding Club. Her work follows lines of inquiry around “identity, environmental influence, queerness, interconnected existence and maps relational dynamics through observation and celebration of the natural world,” according to a press release. Dostie’s visual expressions are “reflective and detailed, often exploring narratives of relationship and reclamation.” After her residency, she plans on creating coloring pages, identification guides, and sharing stories through visual and written responses through small group experiences.

Foster is a painter and muralist working as lead artist for a landscape architect in Bozeman. His background in “hand drafting, analog rendering, and admiration of historic graphic techniques has shaped his style and view of the world,” according to a release. Foster spends his time trekking into the backcountry with his oil paints. Packing out wet panels reminds him of simpler times without the internet and smartphones. From small on-site sketch studies to large-scale urban mural work, “he is in constant pursuit of mastering diverse styles and media.” During his residency, Foster plans on-site analysis of his cabin location, inventory of existing drainages, native and invasive plants, sun angles, viewsheds, topography and observed wildlife to create botanical illustrations of native vegetation as well as hand-drafted maps that present these layers merged into hybrid drawings and paintings that evoke the feeling of being fully immersed in wilderness areas.

The unique artist-in-residence program is managed by the Hockaday Museum of Art, Flathead National Forest, Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation and Swan Valley Connections.

photo

Griffin Foster of Bozeman is one of two artists selected for the Artist Wilderness Connection program. Through the artist-in-residency program, artists spend one to two weeks living and creating in the Bob Marshall and Great Bear Wilderness. (Photo by Griffin Foster)