Patricia Griffin starts by telling me about the wolves. “There was a pack of them on my back hill this past winter,” the esteemed painter, photographer, and conservationist relays over the phone. She’s taking my call from her studio in Jackson, Wyoming — the reception...
It all started with toads. “I grew up in Texas, and actually, the best thing about Houston was the toads,” artist Claire Emery recalls with a laugh. “There were so many toads, and I was an avid toad collector. They would come out of their holes...
If you talk to a dozen ceramic artists throughout Montana, chances are good they’ll cite three reasons for the state’s unique ceramics community: the landscape, the people, and “The Bray.” In a state as vast in area as it is sparse in population, the existence...
Christine Byl’s Lookout (Deep Vellum, $25.95) offers a stunning portrait of a family firmly rooted to the land in northwest Montana. Told through numerous points of view, in authentic voices, and with a poetic ear for language, this is the kind of novel one becomes...
Residing in the mountains of northwest Montana with her husband and two daughters, Sally Vannoy is living — and painting — her best life. “I live in a place I love, with people I love, doing what I love. What could be better than that?”...
Artist Joe Kronenberg doesn’t spend a lot of time reflecting on his past, but his studio is a repository for its hallmarks. There’s the Ralph “Tuffy” Berg Award for outstanding emerging artist that he received during the 2009 C.M. Russell Museum Auction; a framed reproduction...
Since 2008, Carter G. Walker has been crisscrossing Montana and Wyoming in pursuit of the best places to hike, stay, eat, learn, and explore. In her Moon guidebooks — including the most recent, Moon Yellowstone to Glacier National Park Road Trip (Moon Travel, 2023) —...
“We’re not mad geniuses, that’s for damn sure. We just know what we like and what we feel dignified in producing. And also what we’re good at.” On a recent Wednesday morning, two of the three owners of Brasserie Porte Rouge sat in the filtered light...
Most music aficionados don’t think of Montana — let alone Havre, Montana — as a hotbed of sonic Americana, but Dave Martens is changing that view. Martens is a Havre native, a pedal steel player, and the curator of a music archive he calls Lost...
Lane Timothy rekindled his love of painting when, after years of mainstream commercial success, he realized he needed a change. What he needed was Montana. In this return home to find himself, he would leave slick magazine covers and photo shoots to dig into his...