Tim Carlburg - The Purple Pomegranate - February

The Purple Pomegranate, a fine craft specialty store, is featuring work by Kalispell ceramic artist Tim Carlburg during the month of January. Largely a self-taught potter, Tim Carlburg holds a BS in K-12 Art Education.  He has built, owned and operated Carlburg Pottery (a Veteran Owned Business) since 2008.  Focusing his attention on the micro brewing industry for the past four years, Carlburg sells growlers to micro breweries and bars around the world and has made countless one-of-a- kind growlers for home brewers and micro brew aficionados alike.  Recent endeavors include producing work oriented for local and national Distilleries; as well as the exploration of more politically charged artwork.

Traditional American pottery was often not fancy, nor pretty; it was functional and served a very specific purpose as a cooking, drinking, or storage vessel. Use of this pottery was centered upon the communal acts of cooking, eating, or sharing a drink. It was from this perspective that Tim created his first growler; a half-gallon beer jug that is based loosely upon traditional moonshine jugs. The sense of community, friendship and camaraderie that can be formed and shared over such a communal vessel was paramount to the thought behind it and he hopes that the growler plays a role during that special time of sharing. Made to be used, it is Tim's intention that they will be enjoyed by their owners; not just placed on a shelf. Through use, they will become part of those special interactions and will eventually take on marks of wear; a proud patina that is a direct reflection of where they have been and how they have served.

Meet Tim during Whitefish Gallery Night, Saturday, February 15, 2014 from 6-9 PM. Tim's work will be displayed throughout the month of February.

Kim Waldman - The Purple Pomegranate

The Purple Pomegranate, a fine craft specialty store, is featuring work by Whitefish artist Kim Waldman during the month of December. In her mid twenties after graduating from nursing school, Kim found an old toolbox full of oil paints at a garage sale. She began painting portraits of friends in hats and became interested in self-portraits. A few years later Kim began painting with gouache, an opaque watercolor, and soon combined gouache with ink. Her artwork evolved into colorful and whimsical circus performers, musicians and dancers.

Kim currently resides in Whitefish and recently completed the Montana Artrepreneur Program (MAP) helping her to create a business called Mother Bird Art. Over time Kim felt thoroughly captured by the creative process and this is when birds flew into her work. Maybe it is the beauty of birds--or their vulnerability--maybe their quiet intelligence, but birds have permeated her art and life in a way she never could have imagined. 

Meet Kim during Whitefish Gallery Night, Saturday, December 28, 2013 from 6-9 PM. Kim's work will be displayed throughout the month of December.

Shelter Fiber Art Exhibition - October - The Purple Pomegranate

The Purple Pomegranate, a fine craft specialty store, is featuring a juried fiber art exhibition with the theme of Shelter during the month of October. Shelter is one of the basic needs for all living creatures.  What constitutes shelter?  Is it an actual structure or metaphysical?  From the lowliest tent to a mansion, shelter exists in many forms and has many different meanings.  What does shelter mean to you? Fiber artists from throughout the U.S. considered how to represent the theme of Shelter in their fiber art.

Tether by Lori Raines

Twenty pieces were accepted into the exhibit from thirteen different fiber artists. Titles of the work range from 'The Gastro Guest House', 'Tether', 'Searching for Center' to 'My Nest, My Shelter'. The work includes three dimensional sculpture and wall quilts consisting of fabric, felt, paper, stitch, cold wax techniques and more.

Bright Sunshine, Cool Shade by Heidi Zielinski

Please visit the opening of the show during Whitefish Gallery Night, Thursday, October 3, 2013 from 6-9 PM. The exhibit will be displayed during the opening and throughout the month of October.

Waiting by Jan Shanahan

Waterlillies Fiber Art - September - The Purple Pomegranate

The Purple Pomegranate, a fine craft specialty store, is featuring the fiber art work done by the 'Waterlilly' Level 2 Studies in Design, Hand and Machine Stitch class from the Gail Harker Creative Studies Center during the month of September. Students from the class are Patti Olds of LaConner, WA, Nancy Drake of Anacortes, WA, Lynette Barnes of Kelowna, BC and Ruth Lane of Kalispell, MT. During the class, students use their inspirational design work to create exciting and unique portfolios and interpretations of the stitched book through the use of painted, printed and dyed fabric, threads, embellishments and a variety of mixed media techniques. Work on display will include experimental stitch samples, design sketchbooks and innovative stitched pieces or books from an original design. 

Going in Circles - Kantha Stitch - Patti Olds

Gail Harker Center for Creative Arts is located in LaConner, Washington. Internationally known textile and fiber artist, author and educator Gail Harker has the equivalent of a Masters in textile and fiber art as well as Contemporary Embroidery, also known as Stitch. More than 2,000 artists have studied at the Center, which offers certificate and diploma programs in Design and Stitch. Several students have gone on to win national and international awards. Learn more at www.gailcreativestudies.com

Machine Stitched Book - Lynette Barnes

The Level 2 Studies in Design, Hand and Machine Stitch course helps students acquire further skills in design, hand and machine stitch through a series of diverse techniques including painting, printing and dyeing of fabric and threads to create a portfolio of stitched samples. Students add to samples made in Level 1 Hand and Level 1 Machine Stitch courses. This course is conducted over a period of 18 months, in six five-day sessions. The Waterlillies class completed their certificate in February, 2013 and will be displaying samples of their hand and machine stitched pieces as well as hand stitched books.

Distorted Cross Stitch Tree - Nancy Drake

Meet Patti, Nancy, Lynette and Ruth during Whitefish Gallery Night, Thursday, September 5, 2013 from 6-9 PM. Their class work will be displayed during the opening and throughout the month of September.

Print to Stitch with Tyvek - Ruth Lane

Michael Chilcoat - Photography - The Purple Pomegranate

The Purple Pomegranate, a fine craft specialty store, is featuring work by Whitefish photographer Michael Chilcoat during the month of August. Mike bought his first film SLR camera in 1996 in an attempt capture some of the magnificent places after moving west in the early nineties. Mike's work has been published in various popular magazines including Town & Country, Outdoor Photography (UK), Departures Magazine and Travel and Leisure.

Mike currently resides in Whitefish to be close to the wild, natural outdoor spaces he loves. His favorite subjects to shoot are beautiful, interestingly lit landscapes to create large fine art prints, outdoor action for catalog and web, and wildlife in the great outdoors. Mike shoots with Canon equipment and does all his own printing.

Mike says " There is nothing quite like being in the moment, seeing an event in nature that will never happen in exactly the same way again. The goal of my photography is to show the simple beauty in these events, such as the rise of a trout, the first storms of Winter, or the peace in the stillness of a forest. I strive to capture the essence of these fleeting moments in vivid color and detail, but also enjoy the textures of light, shadow, symmetry and balance, in the simplicity of black and white. I can only hope the magnificence that surrounds us here in the mountains of the Western US shows through in my photography, and that the enjoyment of viewing it surpasses the enjoyment I've had creating it.

Meet Mike during Whitefish Gallery Night, Thursday, August 1, 2013 from 6-9 PM. Mike's work will be displayed during the opening and throughout the month of August.

Jane Latus Emmert - Paintings - The Purple Pomegranate

The Purple Pomegranate, a fine craft specialty store, is featuring work by Whitefish artist Jane Latus Emmert during the month of July. Jane Latus Emmert’s nickname is MontanaJane because she hikes, paints & fishes in the Montana wilderness.   She is a continual explorer, oil painting with brushes & palette knives in her studio or outside on-site early in the morning to capture the golden glow of the morning sky. 

 Emmert says, “When I paint, my heart sings.  Color, texture and the golden glow of morning light inspire me.  I hike; hunt, paint and fish in northwest Montana and my paintings reflect the freedom and openness in my life.   My friends call me MontanaJane and I think it fits because the woods, the water and the wilderness tantalize me with the feel of the wind, the smell of the pines and the play of sunlight and shadows.  Art is my voice and so, my paintings sing with joy.  Collectors say my art allows them to travel back in time to the days when life moved at a gentler pace in the Land of the Big Sky.”

As a workshop instructor, Emmert shares her knowledge with others around the United States and through her teaching videos.    You can frequently find her painting beside a waterfall or creek in Glacier National Park because she loves the freedom of the dancing water.  Emmert says, “When painting a river or stream, I frequently see fish rise in a feeding frenzy, so I’ll rapidly capture the scene before me and then get out my fly rod and catch a fish.  I don’t know if I’m an artist who fishes or a fly fisherwoman who paints!  I do know that color, texture, and the wilderness define who I am as an artist.^” 

Meet Jane during Whitefish Gallery Night, Friday, July 5, 2013 from 6-9 PM. Jane’s work will be displayed during the opening and throughout the month of July.

Linda Christensen - May - The Purple Pomegranate

The Purple Pomegranate, a fine craft specialty store, is featuring work by Kalispell artist, Linda Christensen during the month of May. Linda has worked as a full time professional artist since 1992.  Painting with a combination of surrealism, expressionism and realism and using symbols to communicate the nuances of what she sees, Linda is currently creating paintings based on her dreams and visions.

Linda speaks about her work, "I see paintings as I listen to the world.  Messages emerge through dreams and visions.  The waking dream and sleeping dream are equally powerful in this time of transition on the earth.  The shift from domination of the masculine mind to the feminine heart impacts my dreaming as it impacts the earth.   My dreams flow through my watercolor paintings in playful symbolism." Linda feels that watercolors express her visions and dreams in glowing, transparent layers or in vibrant opaque color.  She expresses emotion through the vast possibility of watercolor technique.  Flowing colors create a feeling of movement.  Free and mingling paint permits the imagination to flow.  Transparency portrays illusion.   Dark opacity indicates strength, power and surety. 

Meet Linda during Whitefish Gallery Night, Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 from 6-9 PM. Her work will be displayed during the opening and throughout the month of May.