This is the sign that greeted us as we entered the Women Artists Mentors show in Miles City, Montana at the Waterworks Art Museum.
This is the view of some of the artwork. What an honor to have my artwork displayed in this wonderful facility.
I just returned from my show with my WAM (Women Artists
Mentors) group in Miles City, Montana at the Waterworks Art Museum…coincidentally
also WAM. After flying across the
country and driving a couple of hours my artist friend and fellow WAM member,
Debra Keirce, and I arrived at the venue.
We were warmly met my Dixie, the director of the museum. Walking into the museum is absolutely amazing. It is a repurposed water treatment facility
and the character of the original purpose is evident at every turn. The walls are concrete, original pipes are
present and the original control panel is prominently placed in the foyer. What looks like a modest building from the
outside reveals itself to be a large series of hallways that hold classrooms, galleries,
offices and other facilities. The
history is fascinating.
We were led down a concrete hallway to the main gallery
which held our paintings. I was totally
overwhelmed by the sight of my work in such a magical setting. Each piece placed perfectly on large panels and
lit by spotlights that showcased the work.
Walking through the gallery was like a dream.
We had a quick tour then Dixie, Toni, DeNice, Kim, Debra and
I went to the Hole in the Wall Café for dinner.
It was like stepping back in time.
All the fixtures, woodwork and ambiance are all right out of the past. It was fabulous. The American home town feeling was
evident. We had our dinner then Debra
and I crashed at the hotel to recuperate and get ready for our demo’s, art
talks, and reception the next day.
Up early-ish and off to Spoonful Coffee Shop for a bite to
eat with our gift certificates. When we
arrived they recognized us (new in town) and greeted us warmly. We had a delicious treat and headed across
the street to Girl Ran Away with the Spoon shop to browse the eclectic,
interesting, and innovative wares. I
could have spent all day in there…but we had an agenda and places to go. We did pop out back to the “sale trailer” to
check on bargains and spotted an old pink Desoto in the lot! I digress…
We had a bit of time to kill before heading to the demo so
we went to the Range Riders Museum. It
is an enormous display of history, artifacts, and replicas of historic
streets. It was indescribable. Multiple buildings holding thousands of
artifacts including a donut from the civil war...yes…a donut from the civil
war. We had precious little time to
spend there and could have spent days pouring over all the artifacts.
My biggest regret for the weekend is that this hat shop was closed...a hat shop. I certainly would have left with a new hat had it been open.
Our demos began at 4 pm. Deb set up at a table to let people try their hand at painting miniatures and I set up nearby painting a portrait. One of the many visitors was Karen Stevenson…an author.
She was anxious to talk to me about one of my paintings. It is of a woman wearing white and holding a
white umbrella…the comment was the woman in the painting looks just like
someone from Miles City. She was an
activist and quite well known in the area…Elise Fox. Karen was amazed by the resemblance and
presented me with the book she wrote about Elsie and picture of her. The woman in my painting is actually Dot, the
mother of my neighbor and dear friend LaVonda!
Such an interesting happenstance.
Our demos were over and we geared up for our reception and
art talk. We had a nice crowd of enthusiastic,
inquisitive art lovers and our talks were well received. We mingled and stayed past our 9 o'clock
closing…I, for one, did not want the evening to end. It was all so wonderful. I cannot thank everyone enough. The whole weekend was like a dream.
