Meet the Artists
Beautify Kalispell Project | Traffic Signal Boxes
About the Project
The Beautify Kalispell Traffic Signal Box Project is designed to visually complement the City of Kalispell by adding works of art to the streetscape on surfaces that are often targeted by unwanted tagging and graffiti.
Artwork on TSBs functions as a form of communication to a moving audience with the goal of creating an inclusive and interesting environment.
Original artworks are formatted into vinyl wraps and installed by the courtesy and expertise of Wrap Hive.
Thank you, Wrap Hive!
This project is made possible through the Tourism Grant Program provided by the Montana Department of Commerce, in-kind donations from Discover Kalispell, Kalispell Downtown Association, and Wrap Hive.
View them all! Download this printable map and take yourself on a self-guided tour of each box.
Phase Two Artists
Audrey Hyvonen
Stars & Stripes
I am an artist that loves to work in collaboration to bring playfulness and people together in community. I've developed several projects that invite folks into an intentional space to experience something together. Those projects usually involve quilts. I’ve hosted pop-up quilt-in-progress tours at libraries, a circus sketching lab series, a quilts-on-stilts event with a companion slow-stitch sit-along, a covid-friendly city-wide outdoor quilt exhibit/driving tour, and traditional classes of quilt related projects for high schoolers, families and adults.
The themes I explore in my work always circle back to exploring some sort of tension: Hold/release, accept/reject, binary/non-binary, strength/vulnerability. I appreciate the medium of quilts as a soft entry into potentially hard conversations about loaded topics and use my social collaborations to facilitate some of those opportunities. In this project, the jagged stripes and the high contrast colors of the flag are a nod to our current political atmosphere and resulting mood of our people as a nation.
See it at Main Street and 1st Avenue East.
Norah and Peyton Hanson
Rainbows, flowers and Dabs of Color
Norah and Peyton are students at KALICO and make art everyday. Wednesdays at their house are called “watercolor Wednesdays” and they spend time finding a reference and exploring the different artists and techniques. Their current favorite artists are Georgia O’Keefe, Alma Thomas, and Frida Kahlo. They believe that we are all artists.
When they are not making art you can find them hiking, playing with animals, and taking ballet at Noble Dance.
We are so happy to see our art by KALICO!
See it at Main Street and 2nd Street East.
Chelsie Dwello
Universe Series
I am a self-taught artist. I started out as a photographer and fell in love with painting last year when I decided I wanted to put something different in an art show I was doing. My paintings, as well as photography are an expression of the love I have for and see in all of creation. We all are a part of this cosmic flow of energy. Everything we see and experience is manifestation of this energy source. The name we give it is not important. My art is my way of telling this amazing story. Through my art I hope to inspire you to connect with your own truth and inner light.
This painting, is part of my universe series. In this series I tell the story of the birth of the universe. After the big bang life exploded into existence. This painting represents that explosion. Out of the chaos a beautiful pattern of life emerged. The bottom of this painting represents the basic building blocks of life, single cells, and progresses upward to the more complex patterns of the animals and plants that appear of the painting. I invite to connect with this story of creation and with each other.
See it at 2nd Street West and 1st Avenue West.
Jess Jackson
Dreaming in Hundertwasser
I have always been artistic I've also been a land surveyor since the middle 90's. When the recession hit in fall of '07 there was no more work for land surveyors. I remembered how Magic Eye hid a 3D image inside a monochromatic pattern and realized that same effect could be achieved with a real painting - patterns are everywhere. After some searching i concluded that nobody was painting stereograms. So I began to paint patterns that would look good if looked straight at, but would look amazing if looked 'far away through' - like a mirror or glass window. Then I found the work of Fredrich Hundertwasser. His style has integrated with mine and now I paint for both of our futures. of course his place in art history is already assured. I hope to bring more recognition to Hundertwasser and to continue his vision of Earth first.
This piece is a mix up of 6 different Hundertwasser paintings that I pieced together after staring at his works for too many hours. It is 40 x 30 inches acrylic and metal on canvass. I still add the vertical lines to make these paintings 3D if you choose to look 'far away through' them.
See it at 1st Avenue East and Second Street East.
Tara Segger
Wildflower
A little bit about me, I was born and raised in the flathead valley and I've been making art ever since I can remember! I received my AAS in Graphic Design last spring at FVCC. Along with that, I am an EMT/volunteer firefighter, which I do in my spare time. When I'm not doing that, I'm spending time outside or creating more art/doodles. I like working with different mediums, but one of my favorites is working with posca pens (paint markers).
Part of my inspiration for this design was to give it a mosaic style to make it pop and give character, since most of our native wildflowers are bright in color and stand out. One of my favorite parts of the summer time is when the native wildflowers blanket the landscape to where it looks like waves of colors. I like to think about some of the bigger local fauna, like grizzly bears, and how they too like the wildflowers and want to be among them as well. The flowers included in the design are Indian Paintbrush, Alpine Aster, Beargrass, Shooting Star, and Mountain Bluebell.
See it at Highway 2 and Main Street.
Tanya Lambrecht
Untitled
Every color has a story. Tanya Lambrecht loves life and she lives to express this love to
all of us. We all benefit. In a black and white world, Tanya combines acrylic fluid paints, applying layer upon layer of glazes and colors.
This creates her Color Story. The action and color story in each painting is extremely important to her. While her work is experimental
and abstract, pattern work is her passion. Tanya loves to create enormous amounts of pattern work. She then focuses on simplifying
these patterns so they become the support of her basic composition. The result is a composition which sings and dances seamlessly.
Tanya began painting at an early age. Her Mom owned Beartooth Watercolor Workshops, and Tanya loved to travel with her. This allowed Tanya to paint with some of the best watercolor artists in the country. She also grew up showing and riding horses. Combining
her love of painting and love and respect for horses, Tanya is so thankful for her unique life experiences. She began working in mixed-
media at the age of 17. She's attended colleges, including The Colorado Art Institute. Although her education and experiences have resulted in a compilation of awards, her best work is her next work- she is never quite satisfied. Her work has been available in
galleries in Arizona, California, Montana and New York.
See it at the intersection of Main and Center Street.
Jessy Hanson
Prairie Fire
Jessy Hanson is a multi disciplinary artist residing in Lakeside, Montana. She draws inspiration from the beauty found in ordinary things and spaces.
“My art practice is how I process my place in the world and pause to breathe. The emotions, the trauma, the beauty, and the joy; painting grounds me in the chaos.
My inspiration is most often drawn from my kids, my family and the beauty of the woods where we live. My current work consists of studies in the connection of emotion and physical movement using minimal marks and bright colors.”
I use scaps of paper, canvas and wood to paint or draw at the end of everyday as a sort of non verbal diary; the avenue of daily self care. This little design was born from one of these sessions and took on a happy digital collage life of its own, paying homage to my favorite wildflower. I hope it sparks joy in the hearts of all who pass by.
See it at Center Street and 1st Ave. E.
Neva Shilling
Untitled
Neva Shilling is a multi-talented youth artist born and raised right here in montana. She has performed with ATP, Whitefish Theater Company, the Bigfork Children's Theater and Kalispell Middle School in a variety of musicals and productions. Her passion is singing, dancing, acting, drawing and painting. You will often find her watching a musical on TV and painting one of her latest magical paintings.
Her submission for the traffic signal box was a mashup of many of her favorite things: rainbows, citrus, patterns and color. Neva loves to create art that leaves you feeling happy. Art has been a big part of how she keeps herself mentally healthy and hopes you find a pocket of joy in her TSB box.
See it at 3rd Street E. and Main.
Phase One Artists
Sophia George
Playful Pastel
Sophia George is an artist born and raised in the Flathead Valley. She works with paper and fabric and has always been a color enthusiast. She received a BA in Studio Art from Wheaton College (IL) in 2019. She has shown works at Montana Modern Fine Art in Kalispell, Montana and in 2021 was selected by Open AIR Artist-in-Residence program to create work inspired by Thunderhead Gardens in Moiese, Montana.
I read an excerpt from one of Elena Ferrante’s novels, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, which says, “When you don’t know what you’ve made it means you’ve made something good.” This little pastel felt like that -- I didn’t know what I had made but I loved it. Is it a surface design? A piece on its own? Whatever it is, I know the best things come from play, and I know our Traffic Signal Box Project will add some spunk to Kalispell Main!
See it at 1st Avenue West and 4th Street West.
Michell Wang
The Call of the Mountain
Michell Wang is an artist and art instructor primarily working with ceramics.
Having my collage mountains be turned into a vinyl wrap for public art was an unexpected pleasant surprise. You never know what may happen unless you try.
See it at Main Street and 4th Street East.
Megan Crawford
Wild Goose Island
Megan Crawford (b. 1995) is a Montana-based artist and the owner, editor, and designer of Montana Woman Magazine. With a degree in Film & Photography from Montana State University, she often works with 19th-century photographic printmaking processes and teaches workshops about handmade prints. While she feels at home in a darkroom, the inspiration for her work comes from the wild outside. From watercolors to writing to embroidery, the natural world is a driving force through every medium.
Rising a slight 14 feet from the water’s surface, located at the heart of Saint Mary Lake, lies Wild Goose Island. One of Glacier’s iconic viewpoints, this region of the park is a geologic journal— a U-shaped valley carved by glaciers, sinking beneath the water 300 feet below, flanked by mountains climbing up from the Rocky Mountain Front. The ten-mile stretch along the lake is home to a vibrant ecosystem, changing through the seasons as the land has changed time immemorial.
See it at Sixth Street East and Main Street.
Heidi Marie Faessel
Untitled
Heidi Marie Faessel is a Flathead Valley resident and multimedia artist working primarily in abstraction. Her work is born from observation of our natural world, and references the forms and rhythm found in our living planet.
“I see the world we live in, filled with mystery, magic and higher intelligence. My creative work is born from this place of deep reverence.”
This digital collage is a mash-up of items from my sketchbooks. I digitally layered ink drawings, cut paper flowers, pressed leaves, watercolor flowers, and photography into a joyful design that celebrates the flora and fauna of the Flathead Valley.
See it at 1st Avenue East and 4th Street East.