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Montana Exaltations – Works by Jessie Smith

Opening First Friday, February 4, 5-8 PM & exhibiting through February
in the Blackfoot Communications Gallery

Opening First Friday, February 3, 5-8 PM
In the Blackfoot Communications Gallery through February

Jessie Smith is a surrealist illustrator based in Missoula, Montana. She delights in creating intricate surreal illustrations often featuring opulent animals and Faberge eggs as the subjects. Finding inspiration in the natural world and the human condition, Jessie aims to produce works that make you want to take a closer look, examining the fine details as well as the deeper social interpretations of the piece. Her story as an artist is anything but traditional. Jessie grew up loving art and holding onto the idea that she would grow up to become an artist. All through high school she took art class electives and planned on going to college for art. Her plans derailed when she became a young single mother a week before she graduated high school. It was because of these coinciding life events that she felt limited in her options for higher education and decided to pursue a tattoo apprenticeship. In learning how to tattoo, Jessie also became well acquainted with many of the techniques used in fine art – her true passion, and left the tattoo industry after three years to pursue this passion. Since leaving the tattoo industry she has participated in numerous solo and group art exhibitions including her first solo gallery show in 2016 titled ‘Ode to Art’ – which paid homage to the artists before who paved the way, the artists’ creation process, and the emotions artists experience trying to be successful. In 2019 Jessie participated in Open A.I.R’s residency program, which inspired this new series of work exalting Montana's wildlife in a surrealist fashion.

About ‘Montana Exaltations’
In Jessie’s Words:

“This continuous body of work is inspired from the natural world, one that I was lucky enough to experience and be surrounded by as a child and into my adulthood. Montana is a state full of so much natural beauty and wonder that life can feel like a dream. I treasure the hot summers catching frogs, toads, and tadpoles in the irrigation ditch behind my home. Watching the minnows dance around my toes in the streams, rivers, and lakes I grew up swimming in. Traveling across the state to see family, driving through the many mountain ranges between little towns and cities, watching in awe as the sprawling mountains, wildlife, and endless skies steadily passed my window. Snowflakes that dance down from the sky accumulating into blankets and mountains of snow in winter leaving an eerie hush over the landscape. Montana truly is the Treasure State, and its natural beauty is worth memorializing in every creative aspect possible. My artist residency at the Montana Natural History Center inspired this series of work. My life growing up as a multigenerational Montanan also impacted this work, as I’m compelled to not only preserve our state's wonderful natural history and ecology in a new and exciting way, but to also visually express to our communities the importance of preserving our beautiful state’s natural wonders.”

Jessie Smith has her current works available to purchase through her website https://www.artistjessiesmith.com/, and has print replications available at the ZACC as well as the HandMADE Montana Shop in Polson, Montana.

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