Kelsey Mcdonough

June 2 - june 14

Kelsey McDonough is a visual artist interested in the exploration of the natural world and our human connection to environments. Her paintings are colorful fragmented glimpses of the landscapes that refuse to be just memories. Kelsey’s process involves many solo road trips, hikes, and meanderings, observing the world with no particular destination in mind, capturing what sticks. After graduating with a BFA in painting from the University of Montana, her time has been split between the deserts of southern Utah and Northwest Montana. In 2016, She was selected for a month long residency in Finland at the Arteles creative center, where she focused on solitude and simplicity. Kelsey’s most recent works are of the places she has wandered to in the past year and the spots of her dreams. Her pieces are not traditional landscapes, but fractured visions of how the mind picks a part the land and the correlation between what these places give us and our human impact towards them.

Karl Becker

August 12 - 24

Since childhood, art has been a meaningful part of Karl’s life and a way to connect with the world. Primarily a watercolor painter Karl creates realist landscapes and architecture. In spring and fall his work is augmented with sketches and watercolors of birds to use later in paintings. Drawing is where Karl began the process of making images and each piece of his work is an act of renewal. Karl has field sketched and painted watercolors in the Cordova and Prince William Sound region for over 30 years and in his travels elsewhere  - Nepal, Mexico, Interior Alaska, Chile, the Middle East, and the Northwest U.S. – he always carry a sketchbook and watercolors. Karl hopes that the viewer will feel the emotional impact of his subjects as he did when he sketched and painted them.

Paul Scannell

June 2 - June 14

Paul had a life-changing summer in McCarthy in 2016 - enjoying time as a WMC volunteer gardener and the Golden Saloon artist in residence. Proudly crowned the season’s Prom Queen, he has since hung up his high heels to concentrate on photography and writing. Inspired by moody northern landscapes and forgotten residential spaces, his Alaskan work has been exhibited in both London and Dublin. Having recently spent a winter residency in rural Iceland, he is looking forward to immersing himself in McCarthy’s magic and the warmth of the folk that make it so unique.

Helene Fischman

August 12 - 24

Helene’s work is about the creation of contexts for teaching history through narrative. She captures both ancient and contemporary aspects of places, weaving in text and language to expand the message. Helene looks for the quiet evidence of history which falls uniquely at its own designated time, often in secret places. She began to incorporate text into her work when collaborating with American poet Jehanne Dubrow at the Auschwitz Jewish Center in Poland in 2004. During her artist residency there, they created a paired series of paintings, photographs and sonnets-telling the story of the 500-year old Jewish community from the region. Helene found using both words and images provided a richer opportunity to tell a story immediately accessible to various types of learners. Narrative and image enable telling stories of an experiential nature, fostering links between past and present. She has since been selected as artist in residence at ten national and state parks throughout the country. Helene believes it is her job to tell the story of our landscape through these disciplines.