It’s widely acknowledged that nature inspires art, but the adage is rarely transposed. Yet, art through the ages has certainly left its imprint on nature: in gardens and dwellings, in water features and public sculptures, in designs and in deeds. The relationship between artists and nature...
For most of his life, Ott Jones has been an outdoorsman and a sculptor. As an elementary school student in Spokane, Washington in the early 1970s, he learned from his father how to hunt, fish, and camp. And both of his parents were Western art...
Their texture furrowed from heat and wax, ironed, then marked, Shawna Moore’s encaustic paintings ignite conversations between herself and the world, each a culmination of a life spent in contemplation and exploration. “My work comes from my life as an outdoors woman and trying to...
The first thing you notice is the light. The common thread running through Chessney Sevier’s art — whether etching or oil or encaustic — is her deft and masterful rendering of light. Sun illuminating a summer meadow. The neon of a country bar shining out...
Artist William “Lucky” Davis stands by the window in his restored 1920s-era cabin-turned-studio in Paradise Valley, Montana. He’s gazing out at an open meadow that leads to forested land and the Absaroka Mountains in the distance. The sound of running water — riffles from nearby...
Willem Volkersz was among the earliest contemporary artists to experiment with neon lighting. Waterfall, his first neon piece (created in Kansas City in 1969), is composed of a few long, wavy tubes mounted directly to the wall. Now in the permanent collection of the Museum...
The fossil beds of Montana have contributed more to dinosaur paleontology than those of any other state in the U.S. Indeed, dinosaur fossils have been discovered in 48 of Montana’s 56 counties, and to celebrate that legacy and promote visitation to member institutions, the Montana...
The shrill whistle of a steam locomotive pierced the air and a passenger train thundered toward the station. The sheep dog looked on as several men removed a long, rough-cut wooden box from the back of a hearse and rolled it across the platform. As...
By most empirical measures, Doug Peacock is an undisputed winner. America’s most visible and vocal defender of grizzly bears, he has won battles over land management and prevailed in skirmishes over the fate of individual bears. His guerilla tactics have inspired environmental activists around the...
April 2015, PPL Montana shut down its Corette Power Plant, an eyesore that was one of the first sites to greet people driving into the city of Billings from the east. A few months later, a local organization I’m involved with — the Yellowstone Valley...