I create fine art in images and words. My art and storytelling have flowered organically out of profound love for the wild world and all the children, intermixed with hopes and concerns for the future.
I use watercolor, ink & colored pencils to create vivid contrasts in strong shapes & color, light & dark. I love illuminating nuanced Life and its intense beauty. My art is sometimes whimsical, other times more painstakingly drawn. See the gallery here.
I have prints ready-to-frame, matted and framed prints & originals, and cards. This season, you'll find me at the Missoula Winter Market on Saturdays at Southgate Mall. Contact me if you have interest in these or to be on my mailing list!
When I weave painting and stories together, I intend to inspire, to teach, to imagine new possibilities. I incorporate my talents of writing, teaching, imagery, nourishing ecosystems, and activism. It's storytelling to bridge challenges, to build human connections.
I started writing a children's story this past winter for my own 7000-person neighborhood in Missoula, Montana. The story became 13 pages, laminated, posted on telephone poles along 5 routes. Through "What Makes a Village" and the story walk our neighborhood group created using it, people came out to meet each other in an engaging way, in the midst of a pandemic and of political battles, with the future up for grabs. They glimpsed that we have things in common. An illustration with each page helped draw walkers on and highlight some piece of the story. (Learn more here.)
This July, three of my recent art pieces appear in the Annual Art Exposition of Missoula's Frame of Mind Gallery. They are among the illustrations for "Villages as Butterflies" that continues the first story, as well as future episodes. These evoke humans in community with keystone native plants and jeweled insects, and with each other.
I use watercolor, ink & colored pencils to create vivid contrasts in strong shapes & color, light & dark. I love illuminating nuanced Life and its intense beauty. My art is sometimes whimsical, other times more painstakingly drawn. See the gallery here.
I have prints ready-to-frame, matted and framed prints & originals, and cards. This season, you'll find me at the Missoula Winter Market on Saturdays at Southgate Mall. Contact me if you have interest in these or to be on my mailing list!
When I weave painting and stories together, I intend to inspire, to teach, to imagine new possibilities. I incorporate my talents of writing, teaching, imagery, nourishing ecosystems, and activism. It's storytelling to bridge challenges, to build human connections.
I started writing a children's story this past winter for my own 7000-person neighborhood in Missoula, Montana. The story became 13 pages, laminated, posted on telephone poles along 5 routes. Through "What Makes a Village" and the story walk our neighborhood group created using it, people came out to meet each other in an engaging way, in the midst of a pandemic and of political battles, with the future up for grabs. They glimpsed that we have things in common. An illustration with each page helped draw walkers on and highlight some piece of the story. (Learn more here.)
This July, three of my recent art pieces appear in the Annual Art Exposition of Missoula's Frame of Mind Gallery. They are among the illustrations for "Villages as Butterflies" that continues the first story, as well as future episodes. These evoke humans in community with keystone native plants and jeweled insects, and with each other.
original paintings by Carol "Kate" Wilburn