From L to R: Lisa Easton, Laurie Stevens, Frances Carlson, Christy McKay, Deb Schmit, and Bill
100 Mile Radius: A Response to Place
August 19, 2011 – October 15, 2011
Opening: August 30, 2011 5:30 pm
Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, Great Falls, MT
“100 Mile Radius” is the brainchild of Laurie Stevens, a rancher and Montana artist who brings Montana landscapes and individuals alive in her lyrical oils. Deb Schmit, also a rancher and artist, celebrates the West and its traditions with sympathy in her oils. Christy McKay’s medium is clay. Her work joins the natural world about her to its timeless roots. Lisa Easton explores her abstract interpretations of the natural world through the unlikely medium of industrial materials. Steel, slate, and wood, much of it cast off, form the basic vocabulary for her work. Montana’s open spaces suggest endless stories, dialogues, and relationships to Frances Carlson who explores them through her pastels and charcoals.
The inspiration for this show lies in the High Plains of central Montana that we call home. Though our styles and media are diverse, we share a strong love for this place. We all wrestle with the complex responses engendered by a place that can be heart achingly beautiful and tediously difficult all on the same day. This show explores the variety and commonality of our responses.
