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STORIES: August 21 – Sept 30, 2021

An Exhibit of Four Storytelling Artists' New Works

"When you’re speaking in the truest, most intimate voice about your life, you are speaking with the universal voice." ~ Cheryl Strayed

Please join us on August 21st from 10 to 4, to meet the four Helena artists featured in STORIES. Each of thes artists is a storyteller and an optimist. Each is a magical being who uses narrative in her art, to tell about the human condition through humor, strength, story and beauty. Each speaks through art-making, in a true voice and therefore a universal voice. We invite you to spend time viewing these stories during the exhibit, and hope that you will bring their meaningful ideas into your own lives and homes. 

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LIGHT: July 17 – August 14, 2021

An Exhibit of Four Artists' Expressions of Light
How Do You Respond to Light?

How are we to understand the ephemeral ways in which light behaves, validating all of life? How might an artist pay proper homage to this vast and vital force? With wax and wood and paint and stitches. Light needs to be contained (but not caged.) Light needs context, it needs an outfit in the right size if we are to interact with it in such personal ways. 1+1=1 Gallery has invited four brilliant artists to respond to the theme of "light" and the resulting exhibition is truly profound. Visit the gallery during this luminous show and see new works by Tim Carney, Linda McCray, Pam Sullivan and Erika James.

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HOME exhibition June 5, 2021

Home, an exhibit of eleven artist's personal sense of place and home

Home is more than a place, it’s an atmosphere. At times, our sense of home is active and on the move, found only in our willingness to pursue the sweet breeze or sudden budburst. These moments of home, those we sometimes seek beyond our familiar walls and windows, are as true as the air is fresh. These rare encounters, when our precious, private inscape aligns with the ever assertive landscape, remind ing us that, in many ways, we are always home- that we each carry within us a golden ticket, an open invitation, a never worn out welcome to the hospitality of the heart.

In this exhibit, we shine the light on several artists who’ve gathered their own materials and traversed the tender territory of home for us to see. You’re invited to step into each piece as if you are an honored guest. Because you are. So please, by all means, make yourself at home.

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New Works by Betsey Hurd & Dan McArdle

New Works by painter/sculptor Betsey Hurd and wood carver, Dan McArdle, will be on display at 1+1=1 Gallery from Oct 19 through Nov 9, 2019. Stop by the gallery during the Fall Art Walk Nov. 8 from 5 to 9pm. Demos and Refreshments.

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2nd Annual Wood & Wax Exhibit

postcard front for Wood & Wax exhibit

October 19 – November 24, 2018

It’s Our 5th Anniversary … Come Celebrate with Us!

Our second annual Wood & Wax exhibit opens Friday evening, October 19th and runs through November 24. Seven artists come together in this exquisite group show that features art made from wood and art made from beeswax, pigments and resins.

Who: anyone who likes art, particularly really cool art
What: opening reception to celebrate Wood & Wax exhibit AND our 5th Anniversary
Where: 1+1=1 Gallery at 434 N. Last Chance Gulch, Helena, Montana
When: Friday Oct 19 from 5 to 8pm
Why: cuz you like art, good food, and we like you!

 

Our 5th Anniversary Month — a Perfect Time to Bring Back One of Our Most Exceptional Exhibits: Wood & Wax

Since our beginnings five years ago, we have proudly represented some of the best Montana woodworkers, at 1+1=1 Gallery. Helena artists, Dan McArdle, Tim Carney and John Andrew, are back at the gallery with all new finely crafted carvings, furniture and turned wood vessels. This year we welcome another wood turner, Boyd Carson of Bozeman. This year, we are also introducing encaustic artist, Erika James, from Portland Oregon.

All seven of the artists in Wood & Wax 2018 are talented, mature artists and we are delighted to show their work! Although we show their work year-round at the gallery, seeing it in exhibit and meeting the artists is an experience not to miss!

Curious about encaustic art?

Come to our opening to find out more about encaustic. What it is. How to care for it, how these three artists have explored the wax medium in their unique ways.

Darla Myers of Bozeman Montana, returns to Wood & Wax with a series of sumptuous yet whimsical forest paintings. Myers’ emotive abstracts are distillations of nature’s colors, light and shadows. She spends many hours outdoors, hiking, sketching, camping and walking her dogs. When you see her encaustic images of forest trails, filtered light and seasonal color, you’ll be reminded of some of your favorite Montana places.

Joyce Watts Coolidge, a former fiber artist from Anchorage, Alaska, joins us for a second year with contemporary encaustic and sculptural mixed media pieces. Coolidge uses hundreds of layers of fused wax and pigment with horsehair, handmade paper and wood to evoke stories any of us might imagine. Joyce will be at the opening all the way from Alaska. Please give her a hearty Helena welcome!

Erika James’ dramatic encaustic landscapes are inspired by the fog, rain, gorges, coasts and crusty mountains of her native Oregon. She seems to have an emotional, even profound connection to gigantic earth forms that dwarf humans, yet the wax and pigment medium she uses give an intimate experience when viewed up close in person. Don’t miss seeing Erika’s work in Helena! We are betting you will love it.

Curious about woodworking and wood carving? 

Woodworkers have a saying that they “make sawdust.” Well, I think our woodworkers make “elegance.” Consider the wood objects you live with: wouldn’t your life be more lovely if some of those useful objects were elegantly made by an artist? If your answer is yes, don’t miss this exhibit! 

John Andrew, a long-time Helena resident who has been turning gorgeous bowls from local trees for many years and there are hundreds of folks in our town who are proud to own one of his masterpieces. Many of John’s wood bowls are truly functional though they must be given care. Every bowl John turns is a work of art!

Tim J Carney, one of Helena’s masters of fine furniture design and woodworking is displaying a stunning Cherry and Ebony dining table with chairs; a live–edge walnut bistro table with stools; and other fabulous pieces of live edge exotic and local woods. Tim has the reputation of making the most comfortable chairs in Helena. Come try one – you’ll agree!

Boyd Carson’s sensual turned wood vessels drew me in from my very first sighting. Our newest gallery artist, Boyd is a retired furniture maker and building contractor now living in Bozeman. His sculptural vessels are remarkable art pieces — and each one has a fascinating story. Come hear his stories!

Dan McArdle, an incredibly talented artist, makes gorgeous relief carvings on wood and stains them with dyes. His inspiration comes from the many hours Dan spends outdoors, fishing, mountain biking and back country skiing. Our customers have loved Dan’s ravens, wolves, trout streams and prairie scenes since we began showing them three years ago. You have to see what Dan made this time!

All My Relations – Interconnectedness of All Life.

An Exhibit about the Interconnectedness of All Life

May 26 through July 1, 2017

An exhibit featuring eight regional artists working in ceramics, wood sculpture, oil and acrylic painting and lino-cut prints.  If you missed the opening reception, please come on down and enjoy a cup of fresh coffee, some cookies, and of course, this exhibit through July 1st during Gallery hours. We are located at 434 North Last Chance Gulch in Helena Montana. Open Tuesday through Saturday 10 to 6pm. We are a very welcoming, friendly place to find gorgeous fine art in a wide range of prices. Hope to see you soon.

Eagle Poem

To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circles in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon, within
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.

~ Joy Harjo (from “How We Become Human: New and Selected Poems,” 1975)


Artists featured in this exhibit: Poo Putsch, Elizabeth Hughes Bass, Betsey Hurd, Trudy Skari, Nancy Goughnour, Patty Ceglio, Peter Shaughnessy, Carol Montgomery


All My Relations is inspired by a phrase from the Lakota language. It reflects the worldview of interconnectedness by the Lakota people and many other indigenous peoples on Earth. This concept and phrase is spoken during Lakota prayer and ceremony to invite and acknowledge all relatives into the moment. It is a simple yet profound prayer of oneness and harmony with all forms of life: other people, animals, birds, insects, trees and plants, and even rocks, rivers, mountains and valleys.

To most of us today, relative means a blood relation or another human in our family lineage. We have not been taught that an entity other than human, could be a relative. Understanding this sacred statement and contemplating it, can change your outlook on life forever. If you love and honor your relatives —  if you lived by this meaning of “relative,” you would be loving and honoring most of what is on this earth. What a different world we would be living in!

The interconnected relationships of all living things are called the Sacred Circle of Life. First Nations teachings guide us to show respect for all within this sacred circle. An intense and deep connectedness with all that surrounds us is a foundational concept of First Nations philosophy. This includes a connection to Mother Earth and all the Universe contains, including other people (personal relationships, family, neighborhoods, communities, nations), all of the plant beings and four legged brothers and sisters, the finned, crawling and flying beings, and ultimately the Great Spirit that animates all.

 

 

 

We invited 8 artists whom we feel express through their art the Sacred Circle of Life — the connections between all of us, not just relationships of human to human, or human to animal. All My Relations is about the deep connection amongst all of Life, all of Creation, even inanimate parts of our planet Earth. Our artists often depict and honor animals such as the fox, magpie, deer, raven and horse. Some see the intertwined relationships between human and animal or human and trees in a spiritual light. Some express the intimacy and vulnerability between parent and child; between lovers; between mortal and God. Some of our artists have chosen works that express their delight in the way animals bond with other animals. We humans do not have a monopoly on love.

  • Elizabeth Hughes Bass, of Butte Montana, uses oil paint with rapid expressive brushstrokes and palette knives, to describe human relationships and those of animals with each other. Her scenes of friends and lovers in small cafés, markets, and windows capture a bond as old as humanity. Her painting of a sow and her piglets running towards us makes us smile and think of the connection between mothers and children.
  • For this show, ceramic artist,Patty Ceglio, incorporates profound or wistful quotations into her intricate designs on functional pottery. She says a pitcher requires consideration of the vessel to the handle and spout and expresses, for her, the way relationships take much care and attention.
  • Nancy Goughnour’s iconic St. Francis sculptures express the tender way the saint relates to animals birds, while her nudes are all about the deep bond between mother and child or between sisters and friends. In another exquisite piece by Nancy, a young Godiva rides a porcelain llama in a serene scene.
  • Betsey Hurd’s obvious bond with her horses comes across in her large canvases and in her figurative ceramic sculptures she describes as “polymorphic fabulism.”  Mystical human/animal figures combine deer, horse, human, badger, cow and other animals allowing us, as viewers, to experience “the integration of species – no separation. We are all one.”
  • Carol Montgomery is a true lover of flowers and birds: parrots, magpies, hummingbirds, garden bouquets, lilies and hollyhocks. Her bright and playful, multi-plate linoleum block prints brilliantly describe her bond with the plants and birds that live in her world.
  • Poo Putsch was inspired by the years she spent from age 15, in New Mexico, particularly on the Navajo reservation in Ship Rock. Her paintings of brilliant turquoise, azure, rich ochre and sienna depict the southwest canyons’ pictographs and petroglyphs through an artist’s eyes. When we look at Poo’s images we may wonder if our own ancestors are recorded on rocks somewhere?
  • British Columbia sculptorPeter Shaughnessy, created a new wood piece for this show. “Betweeness,” expresses the physical and metaphorical links between each of us and Family, between Nature and Universe. Our connections teach and nurture, bind and ultimately define us. Each figure’s body is almost always a box: the boxes signify our personal relationship with the spiritual content of Earth.
  • Local artist,Trudy Skari, offers ceramic sculptures tiny to large, about tension, love, humor, what we know and mostly what we can not know unless we see with new eyes. With her expressive dogs, rabbits, crows and other philosophical animal pieces, she says, “Laugh with new tears and embrace with new arms.”

Sound Gallery Founder Honored with Award

M.J. Williams, founder of Sound Gallery in Helena Montana, and acclaimed jazz vocalist, trombonist and composer, is one of five distinguished Montana artists who will be honored in December, 2016, as a recipient of the Governor's Arts Award. The other honorees are Jack Gladstone, Neal and Karen Lewing, Rick Newby and Patrick Zentz.

The awards ceremony will be held on December 2nd, 2016 at 3:00 pm at the Montana State Capitol.I am so proud to say that I know and work with Willie! I'll be there!

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Where Outside the Body Is The Soul

MelissaMjGraphic

1+1=1 Gallery and Sound Gallery present our first performance of 2016

… an evening with two acclaimed Montana artists: poet Melissa Kwasny and improvising sound artist, MJ Williams

WHERE OUTSIDE THE BODY IS THE SOUL

A suite of poems by Melissa Kwasny with improvised sound by MJ Williams

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