SEPTEMBER 2026: TRINITY OCHOA AND FREYA GOODAY
SHOW STATEMENT
Often, life confronts us with seasons where the passage of time is strange and sticky. We recognize this as summer. Childhood is felt most strongly in the summer, building on itself year after year even as the days are spent in reckless pleasure. In the summer, there is freedom; there is remembrance. The work in this gallery represents this unexpected fusion, of carefree moments with friends, the release of change, and familiar places with the overturning of time and the illusions of memory. Perhaps this is where the dragon comes in, a fantastical being who can only exist in the past—nostalgia incarnate. Though the artwork shown here was put together separately, the cohesiveness of the subject matters provided an opportunity for the theme of the work as a whole to present itself. On one hand, there is a blend of relief prints and canvas paintings put together with leftover ink and reclaimed scraps of paper, a process prioritizing accessibility and encouraging responsive experimentation. On the other are two representative paintings of childhood and an abstract dragon painted on the night of the Lunar New Year. Together we have the feeling of summertime sweetness, a subtle sense of isolation under the statement that life should be enjoyed with people (and also with dragons).
TRINITY OCHOA
Trinity Ochoa is a University of Montana graduate as of spring 2026, with a major in Media Arts, minor in Studio Arts, and a Certificate in Web Design. Their final semester involved an internship at the Zootown Arts Community Center, and since graduating she has shown work in Missoula and sold her handmade, beaded jewelry. Her oil paintings have also shown in Dallas, TX in the BIPOC owned community art space Mi Barrio. With her film photography featured in the Bozeman literary magazine ANEMONE, Trinity is an avid observer and unconfined to any one medium.
FREYA GOODAY
Freya Gooday graduated from the University of Montana in 2026 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in printmaking, a Minor in Art Criticism and History, and a Certificate in Web Design. Her work is technically varied as she experiments with new methods in her practice such as linoleum and wood block relief, reduction, paper making, and more. Freya worked at the Zootown Arts Community Center from May 2023 to September 2025 and has participated in many of their annual group exhibitions such as The Missoula Monster Project and the Last Best Print Fest. She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions at the University of Montana such as the Annual Student Juried Exhibition and the BFA Senior Thesis Exhibition. A series of six prints from her thesis show were purchased by the Montana Museum of Art and Culture and are now part of their permanent collection. Since finishing her degree, she has been looking for ways to continue to do art without the resources provided by the university, which has presented new challenges and sparked new ideas.
For purchase inquiries, please email the Gallery Manager:
Lily Kip
lily@zootownarts.org
Interested in a show in the Blackfoot Communications Gallery?
