The Day I Found The Idea Tree

Nicholson-Artworks Gallery
July 19 – Aug 28, 2011
Reception: Thurs, July 21, 5:30-8pm

After years of creating straight black and white photography, I wanted to go in a new direction to get a fresh way of looking at the world.  I decided to create a new photograph every week for a year.  This challenge brought a time deadline as well as a personal goal for each image to be something outside of my normal work.  These images come from dreams and thoughts of things that could be.  Some of these ideas have been wandering in my head for years.  Others happen as I walk the streets looking for inspiration.  The idea that photographs are real has changed in recent years.  These images were created from several “real” photographs that I combined to create a very unreal image.  I have always been facinated by dreams and where they come from.  These images represent my dreamscapes.

Millikan Gallery     May 13–Dec 31, 2011

Peter Meloy was one of the celebrated founders of the Bray Foundation. “You get notorious when you start a pottery in the middle of the wilderness,” he once commented, looking back on his own backyard pottery beginnings in Helena in the late 1940s. The Holter Permanent Collection holds a wide range of Meloy’s works which will be displayed as part of the Bray 60^th anniversary celebration.

April 5 – May 8
Artworks-Nicholson Gallery
RECEPTION: Fri, April 8, 5:30–8pm

Summer’s butterflies, autumn’s migrating warblers, winter’s mule and whitetail deer, and spring’s nesting birds—all visiting backyard creatures—are celebrated in Stephanie Frostad’s Zoology. Thus, a pictorial inventory of quick studies in graphite leads to others more elaborately rendered in paint. Throughout this process she attempts a new synthesis of drawing and painting in her work while looking at her place in this land as an artist and fellow creature.

Sherman Gallery
Jan 21 – April 3, 2011
Reception: Friday, Jan 21, 5:30 – 8pm 

The stark beauty of Montana’s High Plains is captured by three of the most accomplished photographers working today: Lee Friedlander and Lois Conner of New York and Geoffrey James of Canada. Dramatic black-and-white images accompany the work of 22 prominent writers from The Wide Open,  edited by author Annick Smith and Susan O’Connor, founder of the American Prairie Reserve

Image: Geoffrey James, North of Winifred, 2004.

Bair Gallery
Feb 21 – April 3, 2011
Reception: Friday, Jan 21, 5:30 – 8pm
Gallery Talk: Saturday, Jan 22, 11:00am – noon 

Few artists capture the tension between the land and the human presence as Stephanie Frostad. Her work embodies the phrase “way will open,” an old Quaker expression of faith for navigating through uncertain times. This innovative exhibition brings together landscape studies, still life and figure drawings, and paintings in a studio environment that reveals the artist’s own inner world.  For an interview with Stephanie Frostad by Marga Lincoln of the Independent Record, go to http://helenair.com/entertainment/yourtime/article_0cada2ba-4f8a-11e0-868a-001cc4c002e0.html

Image: Stephanie Frostad, Sudden Gulch, oil on canvas, 2010.

Artworks-Nicholson Gallery
Feb 22-April 3, 2011
Reception: Friday, Feb 25, 5:30pm

Tim Holmes is the first American artist ever invited to give a solo exhibit at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, the world’s largest art museum, where his sculptures remain on permanent exhibit. His work has gained notice among some of the world’s peacemakers, from the Chinese dissident students of Tiananmen Square to the Physicians for Social Responsibility. Jimmy Carter, Czech hero Vaclav Havel, and the late Coretta Scott King are among Holmes’ best-known collectors.

Holmes has created many international projects such as the U.N. Women’s Peace Prize and other peace awards.  He has worked with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in efforts to create an international peace center on Robben Island, the gulag where President Nelson Mandela and thousands of others were imprisoned during the dark apartheid years and on South Africa’s bid for the Olympics.

Though Holmes is most well known for sculpture he has worked in a variety of media from museum installation to recent work in film.  His award-winning series of short Body Psalms films focuses on the value of the body and its exploitation in capitalist culture.

Exhibition Statement
“Every art work is a self-portrait.  In the same way every relationship is at least two: that you have with your partner and that with yourself as revealed through that partner.  Because each relationship illuminates hidden parts of one’s own soul, the beauty we see in other people is partly our own.  Thus the mystical dimension in any relationship is illuminated, enlarging all involved and exposing the divine within.

In some of my recent series of artworks I’ve explored various aspects of creative enterprise as a mystical practice. Language of the Heart looks at the subtle appearance of oneself in the partner, creating a compelling dialogue between inner and outer, self and “other”, body and spirit.  Many of these images are illuminated with mystical poetry, lines from my own journal or questions to the viewer.  There is more than one way of looking at these works.  They can certainly be taken literally, but to me the images are more powerful when viewed as metaphor.  Who is talking to whom?”

-Tim Holmes, 2011

Image: Tim Holmes, Whose Desire Turns, ink on pastel, 2011

Youth Electrum! Youth Electrum!

Sherman, Bair and Millikan Galleries  April 8 – May 8

Young Helena-area art students from elementary, middle and high school will once again showcase their ambitious art work during Youth Electrum. You’ll be amazed by the enthusiasm and creative talent of these emerging artists.

Sponsored by:

May 10 – June 12
Artworks-Nicholson Gallery
Reception: May 13, 5:30 – 8:00pm

Tulasi (tul-see) Zimmer is a professional artist and educator. She grew up in Columbus, Ohio where she earned her BFA degree from The Ohio State University and a MFA degree from Miami University of Ohio in painting, drawing, and art history. Tulasi’s professional art career began when she was still in high school and includes experiences as a portrait artist; illustrator; graphic artist; web developer; multimedia producer and publisher; computer animator; stained glass artist; fiber artist; and arts education administrator. She has worked for major corporations, State government, design studios, higher/adult education programs, the private sector, and as a self employed contractor. Tulasi is an award winning oil painter and has received several national and regional awards, gallery representation in New York City, and her art work belongs to public and private collections around the world.

ARTIST STATEMENT – Inner Landscapes
I started my professional career as an artist painting realistic/traditional figures and still life, when I was still in high school. For several years, I worked independently painting, entering competitions, and fulfilling gallery obligations mainly on the East coast. After being involved in the New York art scene for a few years, I took a break from painting and pursued other creative endeavors. Three years ago, I had a desire to paint again. But, I wanted to do something totally different than what I was painting before so I thought I would try painting the beautiful landscapes scenes of Montana. I was going for a more painterly approach in my work, so I decided to try painting abstractly as a way to make my brushstrokes more fluid. To my surprise, I started to enjoy creating the abstract paintings so much that I decided to go in a totally different direction. These new abstract paintings are a fresh start and a new direction for me.

I don’t have a subject in mind when I start a new painting. I begin by selecting a color palette to work with. I randomly paint large shapes over the entire canvas, using energetic brush strokes of transparent paint diluted with a painting medium. From there, I selectively enhance shapes that I find interesting, and sometimes merge several shapes into one. I continue by adding values of colors that will push and pull shapes in and out of the space and create a sense of movement. In some instances, I will apply thicker applications of paint that not only provide a sense of depth, but also create interesting textural qualities. I choose to work with oil paint, because it is easier for me to blend colors and create value gradations. I try not to portray representational elements in my paintings, because I want the viewer to interpret their own meaning to my art work and enjoy the visual experience.

I call this series of paintings “Inner Landscapes” to reflect the internal imagery I experience and try to manifest through painting. I enjoy taking the abstract approach, because it appeals to my years of practice in spirituality and meditation. It’s the journey into the unknown, without an external reference, and the exploration of my Self that is intriguing to me. Furthermore, it is a lesson of surrender and the letting go of results that I am learning through this creative process.

- Tulasi Zimmer

Bair Gallery      May 13-July 17, 2011

Josephine Hale (1878-1961) was one of  Montana’s extraordinary female pioneer painters. After serving in The Red Cross in Europe in World War I, she returned briefly to her ranch near Great Falls before returning to Paris to study at the Paris Salon. Her paintings reflect the artistic excitement of the time and depict still lifes, portraits, landscapes and scenes from France, Mexico and Morocco as well as Montana. On loan from UM-Missoula.