Uncategorized
Spotlight: Julie Gustafson
Published
6 years agoon
Posted By
Outlaw PartnersThe business of art, the solitude of making
By Sarah Gianelli EBS Senior Editor
BIG SKY – Most people likely know Julie Gustafson as the face of Big Sky’s Gallatin River Gallery, but might be unaware the devoted gallerist is also an artist herself.
Gustafson earned a degree in geology from the University of Colorado Boulder, and although she would only spend a week working in the field, her attraction to the fundamentals of the natural world can still be seen in the artwork she chooses to represent, as well as the forms that show up in her own work.
In 1979, laid up after breaking her collarbone in a bike accident, Gustafson started drawing and creating watercolors with her rapidograph—a technical pen used to draw topographical maps—and soon thereafter decided to attend the California College of Arts in Oakland.
“When I got to art school the language made so much sense to me; I was in heaven,” Gustafson said.
It was a class in gallery design and management that led to the accumulation of 30-plus years in the industry. Directly out of school, during the art-thriving 80s, Gustafson got a job at San Francisco’s Fuller Goldeen Gallery, recognized as the most prominent U.S. gallery outside of New York City at the time.
Gustafson eventually moved on to the Susan Cummins Gallery in Mill Valley, California, where she spent 14 years gaining invaluable experience in the commercial art world.
In 1999, Gustafson took the plunge and opened a business in Big Sky rather impulsively after visiting a friend in the area. Gallatin River Gallery’s original location was in the canyon next to “J.D.’s fly shop,” Wild Trout Outfitters, among an odd jumble of businesses that Gustafson recalls feeling a bit like “Northern Exposure,” the ‘90s television comedy about small-town Alaska.
Now in its fourth location, in Big Sky Town Center, the gallery is going 18 years strong.
When Gustafson was pressed to find a connection between the business of selling art and the process of making it, she said that they are entirely separate aspects of her life.
“I live and breathe my business to keep it alive,” Gustafson said. “When I’m making my own art, I really do leave the gallery behind and get totally into what’s in front of me in a way that feels really pure.”
Gustafson replenishes her reserves of creativity by taking art workshops in stunning natural settings like the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, or a farmhouse on Wisconsin’s Lake Pepin.
Although she experiments in many different mediums, her focus is creating deeply personal 2- and 3-D collages that combine vintage paper, objects, text, paint and oftentimes abstracted landscape monoprints she made years ago in art school.
“I like putting together diverse elements that then come together to create a whole new piece,” she said.
Gustafson’s “Kiss Me” is a heavily layered piece consisting of monoprint fragments collaged on to vintage text and musical references, and was inspired by the joyful song and dance she experienced at Esalen. The piece was juried into the Arts Council of Big Sky’s Auction for the Arts silent auction which takes place on March 22 at Moonlight Basin Lodge.
Another collage utilized art school-era watercolors on rice paper, textile patterns and pages from an 1800’s arithmetic textbook with her great grandmother’s doodles in the margins.
“[It’s a process of] resurrecting, recycling remembering, honoring … a kind of a metaphor for the richness of experience of your own life,” she said. “It’s fun to revisit all those fragments and put them back together in a way that’s current.”
Gustafson says she would like to start creating more 3-D pieces in the vein of “Lost and Found,” a piece built on an old checkerboard she found on a beach in Northern California. She collaged a found or given object on each square: sea glass, a miniature Buddha, a flattened dime, a Swedish painted horse, and a glass sea anemone.“You know, weird stuff that I connect with and know the source of,” she explained.
A sense of personal connection also guides Gustafson’s selection of the artists she chooses to represent.
“I choose my artists on a really gut level,” said Gustafson, who represents approximately 50 artists, half of whom are from Montana. She won’t show anything she wouldn’t want hanging in her own home, and has to feel a natural rapport with the artist. And all of the work—abstract, representational, even jewelry—has to include some reference to the natural world that resonates with Gustafson and her vision for the gallery.
“Each one of my artists has a really personal journey they’re committed to,” Gustafson said. “And are really pursuing their own observations of living and being in nature.”
Gallatin River Gallery is located at 114 Ousel Falls Road in Big Sky Town Center. Visit gallatinrivergallery.com or call (406) 995-2099 for more information.
The Outlaw Partners is a creative marketing, media and events company based in Big Sky, Montana.
Upcoming Events
april, 2024
Event Type :
All
All
Arts
Education
Music
Other
Sports
Event Details
Children turning 5 on or before 9/10/2024:
more
Event Details
Children turning 5 on or before
9/10/2024: Kindergarten
enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year can be completed by following the
registration process now.
Children
born on or after September 11, 2019: 4K enrollment is now open for
families that have a 4-year-old they would like to enroll in our program for
the 2023-2024 school year. Please complete the 4K Interest Form to
express your interest. Completing this form does not guarantee enrollment into
the 4K program. Enrollment is capped at twenty 4-year-olds currently
residing within Big Sky School District boundary full time and will be
determined by birth date in calendar order of those born on or after September
11, 2018. Interest form closes on May 30th.
Enrollment now is critical for fall preparations. Thank you!
Time
February 26 (Monday) - April 21 (Sunday)
Event Details
Saturday, March 23rd 6:00-8:00pm We will combine the heart-opening powers of cacao with the transcendental powers of breathwork and sound. Together, these practices will give us the opportunity for a deep
more
Event Details
Saturday, March 23rd 6:00-8:00pm
Time
March 23 (Saturday) 6:00 pm - April 23 (Tuesday) 8:00 pm
Location
Santosha Wellness Center
169 Snowy Mountain Circle
Event Details
We all are familiar with using a limited palette, but do you use one? Do you know how to use a
more
Event Details
We all are familiar with using a limited palette, but do you use one? Do you know how to use a limited palette to create different color combinations? Are you tired of carrying around 15-20 different tubes when you paint plein air? Have you ever wanted to create a certain “mood” in a painting but failed? Do you create a lot of mud? Do you struggle to achieve color harmony? All these problems are addressed in John’s workbook in clear and concise language!
Based on the bestselling “Limited Palatte, Unlimited Color” workbook written by John Pototschnik, the workshop is run by Maggie Shane and Annie McCoy, accomplished landscape (acrylic) and plein air (oil) artists,exhibitors at the Big Sky Artists’ Studio & Gallery and members of the Big Sky Artists Collective.
Each student will receive a copy of “Limited Palette, Unlimited Color” to keep and take home to continue your limited palette journey. We will show you how to use the color wheel and mix your own clean mixtures to successfully create a mood for your paintings.
Each day, we will create a different limited palette color chart and paint a version of a simple landscape using John’s directives. You will then be able to go home and paint more schemes using the book for guidance.
Workshop is open to painters (oil or acrylic) of any level although students must have some basic knowledge of the medium he or she uses. Students will be provided the book ($92 value), color wheel, value scale and canvas papers to complete the daily exercises.
Sundays, April 14, 21 and 28, 2024
Noon until 6PM.
$170.
Time
14 (Sunday) 12:00 pm - 28 (Sunday) 6:00 pm
Event Details
Come join us at Cowboy Coffee as we celebrate a fun night of drinks, games, and meeting others within the community. This event is from 6-8 and all are welcome
Event Details
Come join us at Cowboy Coffee as we celebrate a fun night of drinks, games, and meeting others within the community. This event is from 6-8 and all are welcome to come, if you don’t know who to bring come alone this is a great mixer event! This is an event hosted by Big Sky OUT as we work to provide queer safe spaces throughout the community.
Time
(Sunday) 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location
Cowboy Coffee
25 Town Center Ave. Big Sky, MT 59716