Posted on Sun, Apr. 27, 2008

Finding inspiration, beauty and charm in Montana ART

By STEPHANIE SIMON

Los Angeles Times

BOZEMAN, Mont. -- My travels have taken me to many striking landscapes: the tangled marshes of South Carolina's barrier islands, the red-rock canyons of southwest Utah. But nowhere have I had such a strong impulse to capture the scenery -- to take it home with me -- as I did on a recent trip to southern Montana.

As I drove west to Bozeman, the sky opened up and seemed to unfold until the pale blue stretched forever. Knife-edged mountains to the north glowed under a fresh drape of snow, while to the south, gentler hills rose and fell in shades of brown.

I dreamed of finding a piece of art that would capture the way this landscape constantly changed, the wild sense of possibility it evoked.

When I got to Bozeman, I started browsing the galleries.

The town, founded in 1864, is made for strolling -- and shoppers and diners of every budget can find something. There are college hangouts -- an Internet cafe, a pizza joint -- and high-concept restaurants such as the popular Plonk, which offers up pricey twists on traditional food, such as a crayfish waffle with key-lime remoulade and a buffalo burger with Gorgonzola dolce spread.

The galleries offer art of many media: oil and watercolor painting, pottery, etching, sculpture, photography. The theme could best be described as heroic Old West: giant paintings of stampeding horses, snow on log cabins.

Tourists gravitate toward this Old West art.

I could see the appeal. Problem was, none of it appealed to me.

Eager to check out a more contemporary take on Montana, I arranged to visit the studios of a husband-and-wife team, Terry Karson and Sara Mast.

At first glance, their art seems well removed from the beauty of Big Sky Country. Karson works with -- well, to put it bluntly, junk.

Much of his work involves creating insects from this garbage: He cuts butterfly shapes from brownie boxes or creates larvae from rolled-up slivers of potato-chip bags -- and then pins these trash creatures onto a black background, as for an entomology exhibit.

Karson feels compelled to reuse and recycle trash to make a statement about consumerism, materialism and what he sees as pending ecological disaster.

His wife's wax paintings -- the technique is called "encaustic" -- look like cryptic maps, with bits of a street grid here, a fragment of a constellation there, a splintered word in a foreign language, like a signpost to an ancient ruin.

"This is all inspired by being here," Mast says.

As I soon learned, there's a small, vibrant contemporary arts community in Bozeman.

A short walk from downtown, I found a haven for contemporary arts in the Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture. A blocky brick schoolhouse built in 1918, the Emerson has been converted to a cultural center full of galleries and studios.

Unlike the images in the Main Street galleries, many of the contemporary paintings I discovered felt alive with the energy of Big Sky Country.

But none could capture the way I had felt driving west along those endlessly changing mountains, under the huge canvas of baby blue.

Belatedly, I realized the truth: I couldn't expect any artist to fix that memory for me in paint. It was mine. And it was up to me to hold onto it.

If you go

Getting there

United Airlines flies from Dallas/Fort Worth Airport to Bozeman for about $445 round-trip, with a stop in Denver.

Staying

Wingate Inn, 2305 Catron St.; wingatebozeman.com. Basic but comfortable. Doubles from about $90.

Josie's Bed and Breakfast, 12893 Kelly Canyon Road; 406-522-1521, josiesbozemanbb.com. Two cozy rooms, starting at $90.

Cabins or campsites, gobozeman.com.

Eating

The Nova Cafe, 312 E. Main St.; breakfast includes poached eggs with wild turkey hash. Lunches and salads from about $10.

MacKenzie River Pizza Co., 232 E. Main St.; from $10.

Plonk, 29 E. Main St.; high-concept lunch and dinner in a hip setting. Dinner entrees from about $12.

Things to do

Bozeman's Main Street is lined with art galleries, boutiques and bookstores made for browsing. For more galleries, check out the Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture, 111 S. Grand Ave.; theemerson.org.

For hiking, biking, cross-country skiing and snowmobile trails, visit gobozeman.com.

Information

Bozeman Convention & Visitors Bureau, bozemancvb.com