Diana Arnold is a Bozeman native who graduated from Bozeman Senior High School. She received a BA in Metalsmithing from Montana State University in 1988 and also completed her teaching certification in Art Education Kindergarten-12th grade. She served as director of the Exit Gallery at MSU in 1989. During a long recovery from an auto/semi accident Diana changed focus from a working studio artist to wanting to share her 25 years of artistic and teaching experience. This goal of teaching and sharing artistic knowledge was shared by two other artists and Bear Canyon School of Art and Craft was created. Diana has recently returned to working in her studio where she works with a wide variety of jewelry materials, recycled parts, metal, glass and organic materials to create jewelry and small sculpture. Her goal is to create small intimate spaces that engage the observer.
Looking for a change of scenery, Diana headed south to Las Cruces, New Mexico to complete a MFA program in Metalsmithing in 1992. After returning to Bozeman she worked for other studio artists honing production jewelry skills and stained glass techniques. Diana started building her dream studio in Bear Canyon in 1998. She showed her work in art galleries in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana and her work has been in several publications. She enjoyed the opportunity to teach Bozeman High School art students for two years starting in 2000.
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Ken Bova came west to Montana from his native Texas in 1977 to pursue his MFA in jewelry and metalsmithing at Montana State. After teaching a short while in Oklahoma in the early 80’s, Ken returned to Montana once again, this time to develop his art work and fly fishing technique. He worked at a variety of positions to support both including a three year period as director of the Beall Park Art Center in Bozeman.
Active in the Bozeman community he has served as an officer on the boards of the Humane Society, Sweet Pea Festival, and the Emerson Cultural Center as well as statewide serving for the Montana Arts Council and the Montana Art Gallery Directors Association. On a national level Ken served as president of the Society of North American Goldsmiths while on the board from 2002 to 06.
His mixed media wearable assemblages are made of colored, patterned, and textured bits of unusual materials. Visual play, the use of color, and questioning preciousness within a personal narrative are among the primary concerns of his work. He usually assembles his work with cold connections preferring to tie, sew, rivet, and bolt his pieces together in such a way that the process becomes part of the image.
His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is found in the permanent collections the Smithsonian National Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, the Racine Art Museum, and the Tacoma Art Museum among others. He is a recipient of a Montana Arts Council Fellowship and his work has been published in American Craft, Metalsmith, and Ornament magazines. He is represented by Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA, Facere Jewelry Arts in Seattle, WA and Artworks Gallery in Bozeman, MT.
Since 1989 he has taught at Montana State as an adjunct professor in the jewelry/metals area while continuing to expand his studio jewelry practice and freelance teaching career. Ken has presented workshops around the country including at schools such as Penland, Haystack, Arrowmont, and the John Campbell Folk School. After nearly 20 years at MSU Ken resigned in the spring of 2007 to pursue full time studio work. He now lives and works in the historic smelter town of Anaconda Montana in a newly remodeled home he shares with his wife Ellen, four cats, and his beloved dober-pup Effie.
See Ken's work at Artworks Gallery
Vicki Fish was born and raised in the Midwest, Vicki got the bug to head west and came to Montana after graduating from high school. She received her BA in art from Montana State University in 1987 and continued her westward migration where she made Kodiak Island, Alaska home. She left Kodiak for San Francisco to earn her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, then returned to island life for the next 15 years where she worked as a mom, bartender and carpenter and was actively involved in the local art scene as a board member of the Kodiak Island Visual Arts League, founding member of the Kodiak Island Arts and Crafts Cooperative, and mixed media and drawing instructor at the University of Alaska, Kodiak College. She returned to Montana to start the Bear Canyon School of Art and Craft and pursue life as a full-time artist. Happy to be in Bozeman and inspired by her family, friends and the beauty around her, she shares a house on the wrong side of the tracks with her two wonderful children, Sara and Isaac, Willy the dog and a stray cat.
She is known for her sometimes serious, sometimes whimsical mixed media constructions that tell stories, reflect on the human condition, and relay the ironies of life's situations. Her work is influenced by myths, humor, personal journeys, human nature, and great stuff. She exhibits throughout the U.S.