Aaron Schuerr | The Chaos of Creation

Oil on canvas | 14 x 11 inches | 2020

From remote villages in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco to the depths of the Grand Canyon, Aaron Schuerr has traveled far to satisfy his artistic wanderlust. The lockdown has reaffirmed that all that is really needed to be creative is here in Livingston, in this wonderful community surrounded by miles and miles of inspiration.

Occasionally a painting has its own ideas. I step up to the easel thinking I am going in one direction and, at some point, I realize the painting is taking me someplace entirely new. It is at the intersection of intention and discovery that things get exciting. It also reminds me of the sudden detour our lives have taken this year.

COVID-19 is a harsh lesson in the urgency of competing evolutionary forces. I think of the bright warm colors in the painting as the force of life fragmented and torn apart by the pandemic. The materials of creation and destruction grow from the same evolutionary seed. I paint to speak to my fear, a fear inextricably bound up in love, a love that is sharpened by the urgency of life.

audrey hall

Soyala, Man o’ War, Namid

12 x 9 inches (each) | Spring 2020

Soyala: Hopi interpretation: “Time of the Winter Solstice” – Tea stained flag and string, vintage Breyer horse “Indian Pony,” 1973

Man o’ War: Bison hide and found object, vintage Breyer horse “Man o’ War,” 1967

Namid: Cheyenne interpretation: “Star Dancer” – Tea stained flag with embroidered trade beads and turquoise, Vintage Breyer horse “Quarter Horse Yearling,” 1971

Marabella

12 x 9 inches | Mixed media: tea stained flag bound with string and bison hair, vintage Breyer horse “Marabella,” 1997 | Spring 2020

Audrey Hall is a photographer and an artist living in the Paradise Valley. These works return to an original study I made for a “Bound Bison” photography series in 2011 to deepen my exploration in diminutive three-dimensional work.

Each sculpture is created with either a vintage Breyer horse from my childhood, stored lovingly, and moved from one residence to the next, one state to the next, or a contemporary Breyer horse. Like many little girls in 1970s America, these meticulous models represented my first big dreams, the freedom the spirit of a horse represents and being in wide-open spaces.

I made all of the new work during the coronavirus stay-at-home order. As the virus is spreading and social justice issues are in the forefront of our human experience, these small pieces are taking on layers of interpretation for me. Each piece also reflects my moods and emotions during the quarantine; trapped, defiant, edgy, liberated, uncertain, hopeful.

Brian White | Liquidface

Silkscreen on paper (blacklight reactive colors) | 13 x 19 inches Spring 2020

Brian White moved to Montana in 2004 from Virginia. He enjoys floating, printmaking, and sign painting.

During the lockdown, I made my paint room a darkroom, built a screen printing exposure unit and washout area. Once that was completed I started burning designs while fine-tuning my exposure times. Now I'm able to make screen prints of things whenever I want. Way to go mass hysteria!

Charissa Reid | Woman and Good Dog

Graphite on paper | 12 x 9 inches | Spring 2020

Reid works as a graphic designer for Yellowstone National Park and loves the creative opportunities that exist outside of work in the welcoming, vital art community of Park County.

COVID-19 allowed me to fully participate via Zoom in the Livingston Life Drawing Group; something that is difficult for me when they meet in person. I found the weekly sessions a great meditative calm in the media storm that was around me.

Dani DiPentino | A closed door can be a beautiful thing

Graphite on paper | 18 x 24 inches | April 2020

Dani DiPentino is a Livingston life-long student of the arts. Having formally studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago as well as MSU, her primary focus of study was art history. However, her love of the simple black and white sketch never faltered. Inspired by historical architecture wherever she goes, she is always armed with a pencil and sketchbook.

Mother’s Day 2019 found me wandering through the streets of Europe with my daughter. I was continually drawn to the history and architecture on display with the elaborate doors on the buildings. Each unique door inferred a statement, however subtle, about the lives on the other side. What had these doors seen? What had passed through in the many, many years since they had been erected? The brilliant turquoise paint against the smooth white marble entryways in Paris juxtaposed with the centuries-old, dark massive wooden doors of Rome and Florence. My imagination was newly captured at each corner as I quickly snapped photos for inspiration for some undetermined future project.

Mother’s Day 2020 found me in insolation at home fearing an unprecedented pandemic. I sat stunned as I watched the death tolls rise on the television. First Asia, then America and then Europe, cities I had visited were being devastated by death and sadness. I recognized the images on the television screen as some of those same doors I had stood in front of a year ago. I had spent the last few months sheltering in place behind my own closed doors unsure of what the “new norm” was going to be. I then realized these doors had been standing for centuries and had seen pandemics, plagues and destruction. Yet they still stand and they still protect. They still grant entry to families and businesses and stories and meals and laughter and love.

The beauty and the wonder of the lives secreted beyond the ornate entrances—closed doors that have seen hundreds and hundreds of years of life ongoing—that was what they represented. That was my new future project and now I had the time to do it. Here is one in a series of many...

Doris Davis-Gallagher | Untitled

Oil on canvas | Spring 2020

Doris Davis-Gallagher has been a lifelong artist. Davis-Gallagher’s work has been shown in the Frame Garden and Livingston Center for Art and Culture — as well as in Illinois before moving to Montana.

Whenever there is a need for confinement, an artist finds additional opportunities for self-expression. I find that focusing on nature gives me rewards and comfort. My nature pieces reflect that joy.

Edd Enders

Running Rabbits No.1

Oil on canvas | 60 x 16 inches | Spring 2020

Running Rabbits No.2

Oil on canvas | 36 x 16 inches | Spring 2020

Livingston Montana native Edd Enders was born in 1962, graduated from Park High, and studied art at Montana State University, Bozeman. Growing up, he spent his free time outdoors observing nature, drawing, camping, and hunting. Enders has worked on archeological survey teams throughout the West and has held jobs as a hunting guide, packer, wrangler, and cowboy from Alaska to Arizona. He has been painting since 1989 and has been a prolific full-time painter for two decades. Enders has collectors of his work ranging live from New York to Key West and to Chicago to Shanghai. Enders and has shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions.

I actually have been painting this running rabbit theme since last fall. There are several different meanings to running rabbits that go back, some are quite negative. I first heard of the term in 60-70's rock music, specifically Pink Floyd's, "Breathe," and that is the meaning that I am using. Basically, for me, the implication is that we need to overcome the obstacles-difficulties and do what inspires us. We only live once. After traveling to Spain just prior to the pandemic, seeing work by the surrealists, and then the virus, I will be working on this theme for the rest of my life.

Jade Lowder

Obscured Believer no.2

Oil on canvas | 24 x 18 inches | March/April 2020

Obscured Believer No.3

Oil on canvas | 24 x 18 inches | March/April 2020

Jade Lowder was born on a reservation in Montana and went to school for painting at Montana State University and Washington State University. Currently, Jade teaches drawing at MSU and serves on the boards of multiple local arts non-profit organizations.

I’m thrilled to submit my work for The Art of THE QUARANTINE show. Each of these pieces was created and completed during the social isolation, mostly in March and April. I used the time to work on pieces that for me represented the feeling of isolation, either the empty room or figures alone in the room. I work from found images to construct personal narratives. These images resounded with my thoughts on what it meant to be alone. They are images taken from paranormal investigation websites and then painted. There is something about the act of searching, maybe for meaning, truth, or the self, that resonated with many of us while we searched during this time.

Joanne Berghold

Rodeo Chaps

Silver gelatin print | 16 x 16 inches | April, 2020

Hub Caps

Silver gelatin print | 16 x 16 inches | April, 2020

Berghold is a black and white film photographer. She has exhibited on the East and West coasts and in Montana, and has four books of her work.

The [corona] virus has quarantined me so I have had to look at my older work and have made collages and a book during this time. I have always enjoyed projects and, much as I miss my friends and the art and music events, I have been inspired and forced to look at and appreciate what I have and what I can create.

The images in Rodeo Chaps were taken when I was following the rodeos, but the piece was created during my quarantine! Hub Caps was created before the virus, but was SO instrumental in inspiring me to produce other collages—so far!

John Garre | Anxiety

Mixed media | 18 x 34 inches | March 2020

John Garre graduated from The University of Washington, and The Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, with honors. Garre has worked as an artist, art director, and creative director in New York where he won many awards. He has been represented in New York, on the West Coast, and in the Northwest as a full- time working fine artist.

work is expressing complex feelings about isolation.

work is expressing complex feelings about isolation.

work is expressing complex feelings about isolation.

work is expressing complex feelings about isolation.

work is expressing complex feelings about isolation.

Karen Garre | Spring in the time of Covid

Acrylic on canvas | 12 x 12 inches | March 2020

Karen is a full- scholarship graduate of the Art Institute in Seattle, WA. She became an established designer and illustrator in Seattle before devoting herself full-time to fine art painting. Her work has been shown in many museums and galleries, and is collected worldwide.

COVID-19 brings out the feeling of being distanced from beings of your kind.

Karen Thiel | Transitions

Oil on linen | 7 x 8 inches | April 2020

Karen Thiel moved to the Paradise Valley from Colorado in 1981. Thiel has always been interested in art, and one day, about 20 twenty years ago, she stopped to watch a plein air artist. She has followed the plein air artist path ever since!! Over the years, Karen Thiel has been fortunate to study with some of the best western plein air artists. Thiel’s focus is the landscape, and she shares her vision, working in oil and pastel.

This scene gave me hope that spring is coming, and with it, hopefully, better times.

Kurt Cooney | April Snow on Sheep Mountain

Watercolor | 12 x 6 inches | April 2020

Kurt Cooney’s Montana roots go back to family ranching along the Missouri River (and eventual displacement to higher ground at Avalanche Creek during the creation of Canyon Ferry Lake). As a current resident of Livingston, Cooney finds the surrounding landscapes absolutely captivating and he is especially inspired to paint the changing of the seasons with winter-into-spring and fall-into-winter receiving the majority of his attention.

This painting has no direct connection to the COVID-19 quarantine other than, because of the darkening uncertainty surrounding the pandemic in early April, I wanted to paint something uplifting, something with blue sky.

Linda Barnsley | Lilies Among the Stars

Oil on canvas | 24 x 18 inches | April 2020

Linda, while residing in her home state of Maryland, taught art in public school, raised a family, and started a mural business while always pursuing her love of wildlife painting. In 2008 she began a new life in Montana painting and photographing wildlife and the natural world.

In this age of COVID-19, I am looking for an escape. Reality still exists, as with the realistic rendering of the lilies, but where are they? They are growing among the stars, the vastness of space, the unknown we now all have to live with.

Nicole Divine | Empire in Neon during Quarantine

Acrylic on linen | 16 x 12 inches | Spring 2020

New to the art scene, Nicole Divine has always had a creative streak. Divine characterizes herself as “a bit of a perfectionist” and acknowledges that the creative process is teaching her to let go.

When the pandemic hit, I was working on the Downtown Livingston Neon Series, this is the seventh painting in the series. The message on the marquee at the iconic Empire Theater captured this historic moment in history. I like to think that in some little way “Empire in Neon during Quarantine” documents our place in history and unites us with the rest of the world.

Tandy Miles Riddle | On The Road To Pine Creek

Oil on board | 8 x 10 inches | March 2020

Tandy Miles Riddle is an artist living in Livingston, Montana. The pandemic had allowed Riddle to be home, sorting through goals and the physical dilemma of detritus. She has resurrected a garden, and is unearthing a pottery studio. Staying connected via Zoom with friends, family, and fellow life drawing enthusiasts, Riddle writes: “I am becoming actively reacquainted with myself,” noting that these are all qualities and endeavors which bode well for a resurgence of prolific artistic accomplishment. “These are the fuel and sometimes the spark and often the actual fire of my creativity.”

“On the Road to Pine Creek” was the outcome of my first drive into Paradise Valley after I was self-quarantined. I am a “vulnerable individual,” so I have been extremely careful about venturing out. I realized I could stay in my car and paint a plein air piece. I was feeling very isolated and in need of “being in nature.” Although I remained in my car, I felt the answer I was seeking from the omnipresent mountains and trees and grasses. As the numbers of dead and fear of the pandemic took over my consciousness, it was healing to remember that the mountains were still sacred and serenely present.

Life drawing via Zoom No.1

Pastel on paper | 18 x 24 inches | April 2020

Life drawing via Zoom No.2

Pastel on paper | 18 x 24 inches | April 2020

The Life drawings via Zoom are all drawings done during the time frame when the life drawing community adapted to social distancing by modifying meetings [with live models] to be held remotely, online, through Zoom. I know this is incredibly important to all of us, keeping our hand in our practice even when we cannot meet in person.

Tony Eaton | Hell 2020 Series

(1) In the Room Where it Happened

Oil on canvas | 12 x 9 inches | April 2020

Tony Eaton is a mountain biker and a painter who lives happily in the Paradise Valley.

Well—what better artist to be inspired by during the Trump/COVID-19 experience than Hieronymous Bosch? It is a living hell. The two portraits came about as a reaction to the subject’s smug hubris. Contrast that with their [the Trump administration’s] devastating failure to deal with the coronavirus.

(2) Devil Doll

Oil on canvas | 11 x 14 inches | April 2020

(3) The Devil’s Mouthpiece

Oil on canvas | 9 x 12 inches | April 2020