Sydney Boveng is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in her hometown of Kalispell, Montana. Curiosity and a passion for trying new mediums are driving forces in her creative practice, as is her fierce love of nature. Over the last year, she has shifted into a practice largely focused on landscape. She works outside and in studio, focusing on color relationships and drawing out the details that delight her the most. She is particularly excited by dark skies, glowing horizon lines, and the shapes at the tip-tops of evergreen trees. Sydney makes work for her childhood self, for the mountains, and for anyone who could use a moment of joy. 

Sydney is also an organizer of local community-serving art events, and has completed two self-imposed artist residences, both for gallery and DIY exhibitions. AWC will be her first official artist residency. 

During her shared time with Tarek at the Gates Park cabin, Sydney hopes to gain a fresh perspective in her work and provide the community with an opportunity to view the intersection of art and wilderness in an approachable way.

www.sydneyboveng.com/ / instagram.com/huckleberry.syd

Elana James is violinist, vocalist, composer and educator based in Austin, Texas, and, in the summers, when she is lucky, in Montana. Her background is in Classical music and American roots music, including early swing music, hot jazz, traditional European Roma music, and American cowboy songs. She also loves guiding, packing, wrangling, cooking and exploring the back country and wilderness of Montana on horse- or muleback and was previously honored to have been a packer apprentice with the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation in 2019. She has worked as a wrangler for outfitters in Montana, California, and Colorado over the years and especially enjoys opportunities to blend her passion for fiddle and traditional music with time in nature sharing music and community with people and animals.

During her residency, Elana plans to record soundscapes of deep wilderness and compose songs inspired by and intertwined with the natural world – rivers, wind, birdsong, hoofbeats, bells, and whatever she may encounter. James has been a professional touring musician for almost thirty years, primarily as the fiddle player and vocalist with her band the Hot Club of Cowtown, a hot jazz and western swing trio also based in Austin. She has released two solo albums and over fifteen studio albums with the Hot Club of Cowtown and plans to incorporate material created during her AWC residency into her next solo or Hot Club projects and live performances.

https://elanajames.com/bio/    

Tarek Penser is a printmaker based in Whitefish, Montana. He makes watercolor painted linocut prints inspired by nature. His prints are hand carved, hand pressed and hand painted in small batches making each and every one unique. 

Tarek's road to full time artist was slightly unconventional. A childhood in Sweden, a decade working as a guide in Glacier National Park, Bachelor's and Master's degrees in engineering combined with an endless curiosity for the natural world lead him to where he is today.

“My subject matter is the great outdoors, but my process typically involves me taking a lot of photos while outside and then spending hours, by myself, in my studio carving blocks. I am applying to this opportunity to challenge myself to bring my art practice outside and to work in collaboration with another artist. I think this opportunity could have a great impact on how I work as an artist.”

Tarek and Sydney will share their residencies at Gates Park Cabin on the Rocky Mountain Front.

tareksprints.com / instagram.com/tareksprints

Adi Rex is a potter and ecologist based out of western Montana. Adi’s focus is creating work with the intention of representing a natural story of a specific moment in time and place, presenting it in intricate detail. Their art, primarily in ceramics and every-day pottery, seeks to remind people of the beauty of the areas surrounding and supporting us and their inherent worthiness of protection as the climate crisis worsens. Above all else, Adi’s art exists as a raw expression for the profound awe, love and respect for the natural world in which we exist.

Through a residency with the Artist Wilderness Connection, Adi seeks to deepen roots in the Bob Marshall, a wilderness that has extensively shaped their life and personhood, both individually and artistically. During the course of the residency, Adi will create a collection of small ceramic tiles of experienced landscapes, seeking to be fully present and enmeshed within them. Following the residency, Adi hopes to offer community workshops discussing the intersection of local ecology, botany and art.

magpiepots.com / instagram.com/magpie.pottery/