Artists picked for Artist Wilderness Connection residencies

Artist Wilderness Connection has selected four individuals for the artist-in-residence program.  

They include visual artist collaborators Sydney Boveng of Kalispell and Tarek Penser of Whitefish; musician Elana James of Austin, Texas; and potter and ecologist Adi Rex of Missoula. 

Rex will be living at Shaw Cabin in August and James will stay at Granite Cabin in September in Flathead National Forest. Boveng and Penser will be stationed at the Lewis and Clark National Forest Gates Park Guard Station in July, which is a new location added to the program this year. 

Boveng is a multidisciplinary artist with a passion for trying new mediums. She cites curiosity and nature as the driving forces behind her creativity. She works outside and in studio, focusing on landscape, color relationships and detailed drawing, according to her bio. This will be her first official artist residency.  

During her time collaborating with Penser, she 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.  

Penser is a printmaker born and raised in Sweden and now based in Whitefish. He makes painted linocut prints inspired by nature. His prints are hand carved, hand pressed and hand painted in small batches. Penser, who spent a decade working as a guide in Glacier National Park, has a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering.  

“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 applied to this residency for the opportunity to challenge myself to bring my art practice outside and to work in collaboration with artist Sydney Boveng," Penser said in a press release. “I think this opportunity could have a great impact on how I work.” 

James has been a professional touring musician for almost 30 years, primarily as the fiddle player and vocalist with her band the Hot Club of Cowtown. She also loves guiding, packing, wrangling, cooking and exploring the back country and wilderness of Montana. During her residency, James plans to record soundscapes of deep wilderness and compose songs inspired by and intertwined with the natural world — rivers, wind, birdsong and hoofbeats.  

Rex’s focus is creating ceramics and everyday pottery with the intention of representing a natural story of a specific moment in time and place. Rex’s work seeks to remind people of the beauty in nature and its worthiness of protection during a climate crisis. During the course of the residency, Rex plans to create a collection of small ceramic tiles of experienced landscapes, seeking to be “fully present and enmeshed within them.” Following the residency, Rex plans to offer a community workshop discussing the intersection of local ecology, botany, and art.  

NOW IN its 21st year, the Artist Wilderness Connection program selects artists from a variety of disciplines including writers, photographers, or musicians to stay in remote forest cabins in the Bob Marshall and Great Bear Wilderness Areas for one to two weeks in July, August, or September.  During their stay, the artists will create, drawing inspiration from nature and living in the wilderness.  

After completing the residency, the artists work with Glacier Art Museum and other program partners to share their backcountry experience with a free community outreach program or exhibition and will donate artwork to the program. 

The Artist Wilderness Connection program is managed by Glacier Art Museum (formerly Hockaday Museum of Art), Flathead National Forest, Lewis and Clark National Forest, and Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation.  

For more information, contact Alyssa Cordova at the Glacier Art Museum, 755-5268, [email protected], or Rebecca Powell at the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation, 387-3808 and [email protected]. 

    Visual artist Sydney Boveng of Kalispell is one of four artists selected for the Artist Wilderness Connection residency program. (Courtesy photo)
  

   Printmaker Tarek Penser of Whitefish is one of four artists selected for the Artist Wilderness Connection residency program. (Photo provided by Tarek Penser)

    Potter and ecologist Adi Rex of Missoula is one of four artists selected for the Artist Wilderness Connection residency program. (Courtesy photo)