For Bozeman, Montana-based mixed-media artist Miles Glynn, inspiration is instantaneous. It’s a melding of color, shape, sound, and feeling. “There are moments where everything comes together visually,” says Glynn. “The lighting, the senses, maybe the music I’m listening to, it creates a moment or a...
In 2013, the newly-elected governor of Montana, Steve Bullock, commissioned artist Parks Reece for a painting to be unveiled at his inauguration ceremony at the state capital building in Helena. “I did a weird one,” Reece says. “I mean, I was surprised. [Bullock] gave me...
In an essay on the history of storytelling, writer Ursula Le Guin posits that, as a species, we have prioritized tales of adventure and action, drama and conflict. Paleolithic hunters returned not just with mammoth meat, but also — and perhaps just as importantly —...
Suspending the prescience of time, painter Rob Akey’s solitary scenes allow viewers to take a precious breath, understand a fleeting aperture of light, and stay a moment to linger. His ability to encapsulate our inner lives — even amidst busy city streets — speaks to...
Jennifer Li first became intrigued by The Art Students League of New York because of carriage horses. It was the early 1980s, and she was living in New York City after studying at Bennington College for two years before transferring to Sarah Lawrence, where she...
Some artists, when asked about their backgrounds, will trot out a pedigree full of art schools, MFAs, and institutions that have taught them how to paint. Not so with Jim Dick. Instead, he’ll tell you that his teacher is the Montana landscape, and his lessons...
Marshall Noice’s richly chromatic paintings have a stained glass effect: Light seems to come through the colors, which are at once deeply saturated and enchantingly translucent. His landscapes inspire a renewed sense of delight in one of nature’s most ubiquitous and easily overlooked life forms....
Surrounded by his recent work — oil paintings finished, in-process, or merely put aside — Kyle Sims focuses on painting a small fox he spotted recently in Canada. His glass palette reflects an orderly approach, a line of select hues along the top and three...
When artist Meagan Blessing was 9 years old, she filled an expedition-style backpack and walked out the front door of her family’s home in Seattle, Washington. It was summertime, school was out for the year, and she was ready for a great adventure. Her plan:...
Early on a summer morning, while the rest of the family sleeps, a small boy makes his way alone to the overgrown banks of a nearby mountain stream in California’s Eastern Sierra. He tosses a worm-baited line just right. Soon, he’s using all his might...