Claire Alongi is a Pushcart Prize nominated fiction writer whose work has appeared in The Timberline Review, Crow & Cross Keys and elsewhere. She is a current fiction candidate in the MFA program at the University of Montana where she also serves as the social media and online managing editor for CutBank Magazine.  When she isn’t writing she enjoys going for long meandering walks and searching for cats to pet.

Britta received a Master of Fine Arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and a BFA in Studio Art/Art Education at Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM). She is a visual artist working with materials such as oil, natural objects, and installation to explore themes of contemporary landscapes and aesthetics - through form, space, and structure. ​Her influences and motivations are expressed through a tactile input — continuously triggered by the natural environment of where I am from and where I’ve been.

 As a landscape painter, Britta’s compositions are playgrounds of places she has found a fondness for, places that she collects and keeps, and eventually bits and pieces of each place seeps out onto the canvas. This particular painting is something unlike the rest, a new style and a new playground - the Bitterroot. She wanted to grasp the essence of everything she sees while driving, walking and hiking into the trails of this place she calls home, with no specific location, only vague details that let you walk into a familiar terrain with her. 

“I have always been drawn to the human experience; to the small, sometime lonely moments that aren’t normally seen to portray emotions that everyone shares. This piece portrays the insignificant act painting toenails a bright color even though they will never be seen, creating an intimate secret that only she and the viewer know.”

Josie Arganbright is originally from rural Montana and is studying for a BFA. 

https://jarganbrightart.wixstudio.io/paint

Jhonattan Arango (born in Camagüey, Cuba) grew up fully immersed in the arts before immigrating to the United States at the age of 13. He holds a BFA in graphic design, likes to incorporate hand-lettering into his craft, and loves to paint murals and facilitate community experiences.

 Samantha Arango (born in Brunswick, New Jersey) holds a BFA in graphic design and has always been drawn towards the arts. She loves the research and learning that accompanies any new idea or project, and her message is one of peace and compassion. Samantha uses visual communication as a tool to build awareness, bridge gaps, and contribute to global healing.

 As Anón, Jhonattan and Samantha are a husband and wife team that creates highly organic murals and paper art using only the rigid shapes of triangles. Their work is an exploration into the subject of interconnection, and rudimentarily mimics the function of triangles as the most fundamental fabric of reality. Their inspiration takes root in a developing understanding of the desire to attain happiness as a human commonality, and triangles help them narrate intricately woven stories on the subject of peace, harmony, and unconditional love.

Brooke Armstrong is a ceramic artist currently based out of Missoula, MT. She is currently the Technician at the University of Montana for the Sculpture and Ceramic departments. She also teaches at the university as an adjunct instructor. Her primary interest is in bodily relationships with objects.

“My current work revolves around the full-scale war in Ukraine. I utilize a variety of processes, ranging from ceramic sculpture, to video, photography and pottery.”  Sasha Barrett is a Ukrainian born artist living in the United States. Since receiving his BFA in Ceramics in 2014, Sasha has been a studio artist living and working through-out the country. Sasha is pursuing an MFA in multi-disciplinary art.

 @therealsashabarrett

Lily Luna Bennett was born and raised in Massachusetts. Working in textile sculpture and ceramics, Lily explores the effects of the current political climate on feminine bodies and gender identity. Through forms such as wearable art and large-scale sculpture, she investigates the value systems embedded in America's visual language. 

“My work interprets the psychological and physiological effects of trauma through a queer ecological lens. The beetle galleries adorning the figure in ‘Eleventh Hour’ suggest a corruption in the ecosystem of self and the eventual transfigurement to who, how, and what we are.”

Born and raised in rural Montana, Orion is inspired by relationships in the natural world and how they can mimic or represent dynamics in our own lives.

Sam Bovard is a gay poet and geologist currently based in Missoula, MT. He earned his MFA at The University of Montana. He has been featured in Heavy Feather Review, Traverse Magazine, and other publications, and recently received an Honorable Mention for Only Poems’ Leonard Cohen Prize. He received the 2024 Goedicke-Robinson Scholarship and was a 2025 Montana Poetry Out Loud Workshop Leader. He writes about the outside world, the inside world, and the in-between.

Fox Croasmunchristensen is a large format film photographer from rural Oakley, Utah with a double-major in fine arts and journalism. His work is heavily influenced by the time he has spent in the deserts and mountains of the Intermountain West, particularly Utah and Montana. Most of his free time is spent hiking, camping and reading.

 The reality of the American West is often forgotten in the grandeur of its peaks and river canyons. There is no doubt the Tetons and the Grand Canyon are spectacular, but their spectacle is not the whole of the Intermountain West. Quiet scenes on the side of the road are as true to our shared reality as the awe of our best-known areas and deserve the same reverence given to the lands we hold as shining examples of preservation.

Myth Deck is a BFA student from Montana exploring identity, trauma, and stigma on painted canvases through an introspective lens. Myth utilizes bold saturation, metaphorical objects, and intuitive brushstrokes to allude to their lived experience. Their work brings visibility to emotions and events only brought to light by this artistic process rather than spoken conversation.

My piece reflects how the past informs the present, and how the two points in time tend mirror each other in unpredictable ways. Even—or rather especially—aspects of this work that seem out of place, reference navigating the concept of timelines and consequence.

Description goes here“My work explores mythological links between humans, animals, and their environments. This work examines the impact of our changing climate through the Bull Trout—a threatened indicator species in the Clark Fork River. In this piece, a fictitious guardian of the river guides the trout to colder water and shields them from further harm.”  Robin Graf Dorsey received her BFA studying printmaking and art criticism. She now runs Inkworm Press out of her Missoula studio.

Instagram: @inkwormpress

“In Victorian Flower Language, hydrangeas symbolize boastfulness – a fitting translation given their proud display of puffed out petals and self-assured leaves. This piece indulges their braggadocious nature by providing them with a sprawling stage to flaunt their many endowments. However, in tones of grey, the display takes on an air of desperation.” Megan is originally from Maine and recently received her Masters of Fine Art.

Instagram: @meganvfoster

“My work explores the delicate balance between discomfort and fascination. Inspired by the macabre and dark humor, I create pieces that challenge the viewer to find beauty in the unsettling. I use interactive elements to encourage viewers to leap into the art itself and gain a connection from the interactivity. In this case, I wanted to capture the motion of emotions.” Kaisha is a recent BFA graduate in Media Arts, specializes in digital art.

Instagram: kaisha_lil_doodlez

Mickey Haldi is an artist meditating through paint.

Trinity Herr is a poet and storyteller from the mountains of the Oregon Coast Range. Her first job was baiting hooks, casting poles, and gutting fish for visitors at the pay-to-fish ponds adjoining her family’s roadside diner. A Breadloaf Fellow and Winner of the Madeline DeFrees Prize, Trinity’s writing can be found in High Desert Journal, Modern Huntsman and Sonora Review among others. She currently lives in Missoula where she is pursuing her MFA at the University of Montana.

Trinity Herr is a poet and storyteller from the mountains of the Oregon Coast Range. Her first job was baiting hooks, casting rods and gutting fish at the pay-to-fish ponds adjoining her family’s roadside diner. She is a recipient of a Bread Loaf Environmental Writer’s Fellowship, a Fishtrap Fellowship, and winner of the Madeline DeFrees Academy of American Poets Prize. Her writing has appeared in CALYX, Modern Huntsman, High Desert Journal and Hobart among others. She will be graduating from the University of Montana’s Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing program this spring.

Erica Hitzman grew up in Pendleton, Oregon and moved to Missoula in 2017, continuing to nurture her love for the outdoors, the creative process, and fine dining. Her figurative paintings explore themes of body, mind, and spirit with dream-like elements that highlight her fluid relationship with physical reality. 

Pamela Huber is an MFA candidate in fiction at the University of Montana who was raised on the waters of the mid-Atlantic. Her writing has appeared in numerous journals including Atlanta Review, Grace & Gravity, Mid-Atlantic Review, and elsewhere, and has received awards from Glimmer Train and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She currently serves as the fiction editor of CutBank Literary Magazine and she recently won the Merriam Frontier Award for her novel, Water People. 

“My work deals with issues of queer identity in the context of portraiture using animal metaphor and art-historical imagery. Portraiture has historically been a record of what narratives are considered socially valuable. I include queer figures in this format, demanding representation in what we consider "normal" and giving voice to stories worth sharing.” Oren Jaffe is a bachelor’s candidate in the fine arts and biology. 

 Instagram: oren_jaffe

Eric Jensen is a western landscape painter who was born in Utah and has since lived in many places across the country. Passionate about our relationship with nature, his work seeks to reduce the gap between perception and reality thus bringing us into a deeper conversation with the natural world. 

Claire Kaveney is a multimedia artist from Bozeman, MT, currently based in Missoula, MT. Her work is predominantly focused on the connection between the body and its surroundings, as it pertains to self-perception. 

Observable to others and oneself, a body encases each of us in skin that holds memory, experience, thought, and feeling. In my work, I distort my own physical form to bring the mental and emotional sensations into the flesh. Playful objects, whimsical colors, and inexact rendering reference the joy of childhood, the speed of a moment, and blend fiction into my reality.

Lily Kip is a second year MFA candidate from Massachusetts. She makes figurative oil paintings based on amateur snapshot photography. 

Stephanie is an independent artist working in various 2D media to create original artwork in the form of murals, fine wall art, window displays, logos, and greeting cards. Her work strives to inspire a sense of joy and belonging in the viewer through themes of nature and the use of vibrant color. She holds a personal interest in symbolism and uses this knowledge to create pieces intended to imbue spaces with deeper meaning in addition to aesthetic beauty. Stephanie is passionate about creating collaborative pieces for accessible public spaces that can be enjoyed by people of all ages. Her work can be found in numerous locations from street art destinations to schools, local businesses, galleries, and private residences. To learn more about Stephanie and her work, visit www.supernovastudio.art or find her on Instagram @supernovastudio.art.

My art is for the adventurer, for the hearts who long for the vistas that took their breath away. I come each day to my studio to be humbled by the material and the subject – transforming materials that would otherwise be thrown away into something beautiful again. Through my work I get to travel to mountains I’ve never seen, becoming familiar with their curves and shapes like a lover. And often travel back to places where I left a piece of my heart behind. Amanda Krolczyk lives and works in Missoula, MT. She received her formal education at the University of Montana earning her BFA in Ceramics. Her work can be found in galleries and shows across the west. 

Yuke Li is a New York-based Chinese visual artist and a storyteller who was trained by the MFA Illustration Program at the School of Visual Arts.  Art practice is Yuke’s self-therapy, and people and animals are always her inspiration. Her goal is to inspire people with another possibility, to comfort sadness; to plant a hopeful seed in the mind.

Jules Lucero is a printmaker based in Missoula, and graduated from the University of Montana with a BFA in Painting and Drawing and a Minor in Art History and Criticism. Lucero currently teaches printmaking classes at the Zootown Arts Community Center. Lucero is drawn to carving animals because they hold the qualities of wonder and quaintness.

“I make art; at first it was to make money, but now, I don't know why. The original title for this piece was to be: ‘Was Mankind Ever Kind?’  but one day, overcome by a wave of optimism and hope, my original quartet of dark figures transformed into four virtues attempting to prevent the collapse of society.”

Mark Matthews has been sculpting, painting, writing and calling contra and square dances for the last fifty years. He grew up around Boston and Maine and migrated to Montana in 1989. The arc of his life is best encapsulated in the title of his autobiography: “Everything...but Fame and Fortune.”

Karma May was born and raised in Missoula and is currently studying for a BFA in painting and animation.

My work explores the physical and emotional toll of repetitive labor. I use repetition, layering, and erasure to reflect on the tension between effort and perceived value. In The Bog, I use white tic marks over a colorful, abstracted landscape to echo the slow accumulation of time, effort, and decay—revealing how labor can both build and bury.

Crystal McCallie is a visual artist based in Missoula, Montana with a practice situated in printmaking, drawing, and collage. She is currently completing an MFA at UM with an emphasis in printmaking. Her work centers around themes of memory that utilize subjects of family, nature, and objects of curiosity. Her art is inspired by her life in Montana and her former home of the Texas Panhandle.

Photographer Barbara Michelman started in Hollywood and was one of the first women in film lighting. Widely exhibited in public and private collections here and abroad, her recent series on the aftermath of fires in the west, Fire on Every Mountain, was awarded Best of Photography  at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival in California. Her work is also in the  current global exhibition Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss. On a Benediction of Wind, her black and white photography book with writer Charles Finn, recently won the Montana Book Award and lives in Missoula, Montana.

Stella Nall is a multimedia artist and poet from Bozeman, Montana, and a First Descendant of the Apsáalooke (Crow) Tribe. She graduated from the University of Montana in 2020 with a BFA in Printmaking, a BA in Psychology and a minor in Art History and Criticism. She now lives in Missoula, where she is represented by Radius Gallery. Her work may be found in murals across the western states, and has been acquired to permanent collections at Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC), The Institute of American Indian Arts Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (Santa Fe, NM), The Montana Museum of Art and Culture (Missoula, MT), and Montana State University (Bozeman, MT).

Brooklyn Nason is small-town Montana girl who is somewhat lost. Thanks to financial aid and scholarships, Brooklyn is studying for her BFA at the University of Montana. Who knows where she’ll end up next, but she feels passionate about her work.

This piece opens wounds and smells familiar: it intends to expose your memories.

Ladypajama is an otherworldly force of nature. Mixing paint, pencils, pens, and collage materials, she creates scenes that present ordinary objects and characters in a new dimension. Rather than working toward an end product, she tries to capture emotion and authenticity by just jumping in without a plan. Ladypajama is part of the Voncommon artist collective, and also publishes a monthly zine which includes poetry and personal essays.  In addition, she is a great mom to her kid, Jorge. 

Sean Parson is a multimedia artist from Arlee, MT. The main body of his work is formed form natural stone and tile. He uses his vast skill set and knowledge of source material gained from being an award winning residential tile installer since 2004. Much of that material comes from tile scraps salvaged from job sites and the inspiration in the tones and textures found within them. These elements come together in fusion with his love for music, nature, and art. He is a 5th Generation Montanan, and currently resides in the Heart of the Jocko Valley, on the Flathead Indian Reservation, with his wife and daughter. 

Autumn Ploot grew up in Kalispell, MT where my love for the outdoors informed my interest with painting. I enjoy working with oil paints and making brushy, drippy movements. 

I love to paint special moments of rooms and places that hold a certain feeling. With a bright yellow base and gestural brushstrokes, I wanted to capture the airy and peaceful feeling of a greenhouse.

Kendall Quindry is an illustrative artist currently working on a B.F.A in printmaking at the University of Montana with a minor in Art History with an expected graduation in spring of 2025. She is working to become a children's book and graphic novel illustrator who incorporates printmaking and drawing techniques into her work. Kendall was born in Gainesville Florida and moved around the south for most of her youth. Just before high school, her family moved to Missoula Montana where she began developing her art skills outside of being self-taught. She has worked on and off with freelance work, having illustrated a book cover alongside many private commissions.

Her work wants to focus on visual based subjects that provoke captivating stories onto viewers. She strives to depict a narrative in each piece that people might not take so seriously. She hopes her work can be seen as a form of visual entertainment more than anything. Kendall has been a part of multiple group exhibitions as a part of her school and local communities.

Colton Rothwell is a photographer and artist working and living in Missoula, Montana. Born and raised in small towns in the Western United States, his work explores ideas about queer identity in relationship with rural, cultural, and physical landscapes, as well as notions around the tactility and function of photographic imagery.

I graduated from college with my BFA in drawing and ceramics, my minor in Zoology and Anthropology. I have pursued my passion for art by teaching in my studio and since then and showing both nationally and locally continue to do so. For the last 20 years I have come full circle back to art and have been actively proceeding ahead where I left off.  I joined two cooperative galleries, Core New Art Space and Pirate gallery in the 40 west art district. Since then, I have dropped Pirate and joined Valkarie gallery. For three years I was director at Core Gallery, until 2021. Belonging to two galleries gives me the opportunity of having two big shows a year along with numerous additional shows. I have been in many juried shows and invitational shows in Colorado and the west. Currently I belong to the Lovetts Gallery in Tulsa, OK and have membership in Valkarie Gallery Lakewood, Colo. I am also an active member of the Society of Animal Artists.

Jackson Mills Smith is a recent graduate of the MFA Poetry program at the University of Montana. Born in Louisiana and raised in the bottoms of the White River in Southwestern Indiana, Smith is an author interested in the living histories and cultural folkways embedded in the landscapes that surround us. Now located in Dublin, Ireland with his wife, Isabella, the poet maintains the same strong passion for angling, hunting, and wild places instilled in him by his father and Cajun family friends. Recipient of the Greta Wrolstad Travel Award, second runner-up of Midway Journal's 1000 Below Contest, and recently nominated for the AWP Intro Journals Project, Smith's work is featured in publications including Miracle Monocle, Sunspot Literary Journal, Making Waves: A West Michigan Review, and Wild Roof Journal, among several others.

I’m a painter, musician, and forester. I’m lucky enough to work outside, and I make it a priority to travel often. That is where I find my inspiration. Nature reminds me of its vast learning and our insignificance and travelling reminds me that the boundaries we like to index our world by are often imaginary. I like to paint pretty and powerful subjects. We need to highlight more of that goodness in this world. I paint murals, wood panels, and design various art projects out of Northeast Washington, at the moment. Artbymonika.com

Jade Taylor is a graduate student at the University of Montana, where she studies fiction. Originally from Eastern Montana, much of her work reflects her upbringing on the high plains.

I am Sarathi Thamodaran, explorer and independent photographer, born and brought up in Thisayanvilai, a small town in the State of Tamilnadu, India surrounded by sea and temples. I was a keen observer from my childhood days and all the local culture and tradition has left a lasting impact in my memory. I was always fascinated by the mundane day to day life of the common people. Later when I took to photography I was fascinated by folklore, Ancient beliefs, rituals & Arts, I am travelling the length and breadth of Tamilnadu to photograph indigenous people reflecting their culture and traditions. Through fields like anthropology, archeology and literature, I learning about the culture and Lifestyle of the people of the past and documenting the cultural diversity of the various ethnic community groups living in the landscape of Tamil Nadu.

Quinn Thomas is a painter and printmaker pursuing a BFA degree at UM. When I'm not in the studio, I enjoy spending time with my pets, taking care of my houseplants, and baking.

My piece depicts the Mission Mountains, an iconic part of Western Montana. Their formation can be traced all the way back to the splitting of Pangaea- they feel ancient and powerful.

Instagram @spilled.paintwater

Website https://quinnthomas.myportfolio.com/ 

Skylar Lynn Tibbetts is a hybrid writer from Seattle, WA. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Montana, where she was a recipient of the Richard Drake Writing Award and a Ridge Scholarship. Her work has recently been published in Camas Magazine and is forthcoming from Press Pause Press. She is currently at work on a book-length project about obsessive-compulsive disorder. In the summers, she moonlights as a whitewater guide on rivers across the West.

“I see my creative practice as a yearning to be in a relationship with the transcendental ground of being. My art is a technology that allows me to not only investigate the physical but also the non-physical.”  Eporu Tower was born in Uganda and has been living in Missoula for 10 years. He is  studying art and psychology. 

 Instagram: @eporu_tower

Dagny Walton is originally from Colorado. She received her BA in Classical Studies from the University of British Columbia, and MFA from UM. Dagny applies her background in Classical Studies to a re-interpretation of the myth of the American West and her work incorporates themes and visuals from Greco-Roman mythology.

Sam received his BFA in painting from Boston University College of Fine Arts where he honed his traditional art making skills and murals. He has a huge passion for public artwork and the positive power color alone can hold for passersby. Sam has been inspired by painting styles such as surrealism, cubism, pop art, and realism along with being inspired by the world in which the artwork lives.

A.R. “Well” Well is an interdisciplinary student at the University of Montana. Exploring all mediums, they are drawn to multi-media art that is bizarre, dark, conceptual, kinetic, interactive, and made from unconventional materials. A collector of unique art and objects, they hope to channel their passion into a future in museum and exhibition work. Queerness being central to their identity, they strive to foster connection and build community through art and mutual aid.

April Werle is a mixed Filipino American artist and muralist. Werle is the first born child to an immigrant mother. She reflects on the Filipino diaspora, and the effects of immigration on family, culture, and identity. Werle uses her own hands as central subjects in her works. Skin color and other body parts are intentionally absent. By omitting her ethnically ambiguous characteristics, she is able to tell stories of her own cultural experiences without her appearance invalidating her identity. Werle’s murals can be found internationally. Her works have been exhibited frequently in the American Northwest and sold to private collectors nationwide. She has been featured by Filipino American brands and organizations like Kuyate and Filipino American News