Featured artist: Kaetlyn Able
BOZEMAN – During Bozeman’s June 12 Art Walk – the first of the summer – Altitude Gallery is holding a reception from 6-8 p.m. for local artist Kaetlyn Able whose new work is featured in the gallery. The walk will also showcase an artist demonstration in front of the Main Street gallery.
Able’s botanical portraits are inspired by her collection of antique photographs. These intricate drawings and paintings explore the human connection to nature, the tension between natural and man-made worlds, and the passage of time. Able juxtaposes the formality of the subjects’ restrictive clothing, stiff poses, and solemn expressions against wild, vibrantly detailed botanical elements to evoke the secret lives she imagines for them.
After learning that Montana’s Native American tribes once called the Gallatin Valley the “Valley of Flowers,” Able began a “flowery house” series. The series represents her vision of a floral ghost town where the flowers that once ruled the landscape begin to reclaim the city.
Born and raised near Boston, Mass., Able majored in studio art at Wellesley College and earned an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2004. Her work has been exhibited widely throughout the Northeast, and many of her paintings can be found in private collections in New England and New York.
Able moved from the east coast to Libby, Mont., with her husband and two young sons in 2011. A year later, they relocated to Bozeman. Today she works out of her home studio while her two little boys make their own art alongside her.
Visit altitudegallerybozeman.com for more information.
