New West Network

My Page: Alexia Beckerling

Conversations at the Missoula Art Museum

The Missoula Art Museum is showcasing the work of Marie Watt through June 27 at the Lynda M. Frost Contemporary American Indian Art Gallery.

Watt’s site-specific installation Heirloom is the final commission from MAM’s Andy Warhol Foundation’s New Spaces/New Visions Series. Watt was an artist-in-residence at MAM from March 13-21 during the process of installation.

In this multimedia piece, produced by Alexia Beckerling for the Missoula Art Museum, Watt explains her process and her inspiration. Click on the image to play.



Click here for more information. [more]

Conversations at the Missoula Art Museum

This Spring, Master Printer John Armstrong is showing "Engaged Abstraction" -- twenty-one new works -- at the Missoula Art Museum's Faith Pickton and Josephine Aresty Gallery.

In this multimedia piece, produced by Alexia Beckerling for the Missoula Art Museum, Armstrong explains his process and his inspiration. Click the image to play.



From the exhibit:

"The twenty-one works to be featured in this solo exhibition were selected from Armstrong’s recent body of work by MAM Exhibitions Curator Stephen Glueckert. These works bring to the forefront the artist’s sensitivity, intuitive color sense, consistent instinct for compositional resolution, and ever present spirit of experimentation. Raised in Laurel, MT, with nine siblings, Armstrong has worn many hats in the art world, both inside and outside of Montana. In addition to being a professional artist, he has been an arts administrator, art educator, businessman, museum board member, press manufacturer, master printer, artist facilitator, designer, installer, and collaborator. His renaissance approach to the art world is rare in this time of specialization. The exhibition is accompanied by an exhibition catalogue highlighting an artist interview. Visit missoulaartmuseum.org for more information."

"Engaged Abstraction" runs at the MAM through May 23. Click here for more information. [more]

Missoula Profiles

Chances are if you’ve bought lavender in Missoula, be it in the form of a bouquet or a spritzer or a soap, it has come from a woman most people know as “Lavender Lori.”

A petite but loud woman with long silvery blond hair and a spritely step cultivates the therapeutic crop in the picturesque Rattlesnake valley, where it grows along the driveway of the Ten Spoon Winery, creating a frame of purple.

Once she harvests the lavender, Lori Parr Campell crafts the flowers into the wands, soaps, eye pillows, aromatherapy oil and stress-reducing spritzers that Missoulians pick up to wish and wash the cares of the world away. 

In this profile, Alexia Beckerling looks at the life and work of “Lavender Lori.”

Missoula is home to a plethora of artists who express themselves in a variety of media. Alexia Beckerling is venturing into the studios and performance venues of a handful of local artists and bringing back multimedia glimpses into their creative worlds.

Meet Molly Murphy, a descendant of the Oglala/Lakota tribe, who defines herself as a contemporary sculptural native beadwork artist. Murphy had a solo exhibition at the Missoula Art Museum in March, 2008.

Check out previous multimedia profiles of Missoula artists Marcy James, Jason Bohman, Jerry Baldwin, Marty Fromm, Valentina LaPier and Nan Bovingdon.

multimedia

Missoula is home to a plethora of artists who express themselves in a variety of media. Alexia Beckerling is venturing into the studios and performance venues of a handful of local artists and bringing back multimedia glimpses into their creative worlds.

Meet Nan Bovingdon, a Missoula folk musician who brings a musical perspective to America's history by playing a variety of antique instruments. [more]

alternative energy projects

Dr. Paul Williamson, director of Alternative Energy Technologies at the University of Montana, shows Senator Jon Tester a Chevy S10 pickup he developed that runs entirely on electric power.

Tester visited the Forest Service Technology Development Center in Missoula today as part of his tour of alternative energy projects across Montana.

"This is early generation stuff. It is only going to get better," said Tester. "It is probably the only pick-up in town that runs on chips," he added. [more]

Multimedia

Missoula is home to a plethora of artists who express themselves in a variety of media. Alexia Beckerling is venturing into the studios and performance venues of a handful of local artists and bringing back multimedia glimpses into their creative worlds.

This week, meet Valentina LaPier, an enrolled member of the Blackfoot tribe who sold her first painting at the age of 14 and is currently working and exhibiting at the Hanging Art Gallery in Arlee.

multimedia

Thousands of music lovers from near and far descended upon Butte, Montana this weekend for the 70th National Folk Festival. Festivalgoers ambled among seven different stages taking in music, dance and cultural traditions ranging from zydeco to cowboy poetry to gospel and blues.

Enjoy this multimedia glimpse from the festival. [more]

multimedia

Missoula is home to a plethora of artists who express themselves in a variety of media. Alexia Beckerling ventured into the studios and performance venues of a handful of local artists and brought back multimedia glimpses into their creative worlds.

Meet Marcy James, a photographer who is currently working on a project entitled “Very Important Things.”

6th annual sustainability tour

This weekend, homeWORD hosted the 6th Annual Sustainability Tour. The public was invited to visit 12 Missoula homes that are creative examples of innovative urban land use, energy conservation, water resource management, and remodeling with recycled building materials. The overall aim of the tour was to show the public that building green on a limited budget is an achievable goal. [more]