MT Day 7/ WY Day 0 - Brilliant Art, Breakfast Burritos, and Bizarre Sleeping Arrangements
Today started with me noticing that there was an astounding view of Great Falls and the Missouri River just outside my Air BnB window that I hadn’t been able to fully appreciate in the evening. I am incredibly jealous that some people get to wake up to views like this every day.
After soaking up the sun, I made my way to Morning Light Coffee Roasters to help wake up. Morning Light is super cozy and has an impressive variety of coffee drinks and pastries to choose from at crazy low prices. I kept things simple and just got my standard iced coffee, but I was impressed nonetheless.
My first stop of the day was to see the C.M. Russell Museum. I didn’t know anything about Russell before I started this whole trip, but he quickly became one of my favorite American artists for his incredible versatility and visual storytelling ability. The Russell Museum has over 2000 pieces of artwork and personal artifacts from C.M., and it is consistently ranked as one of the best museums of Western Art in the country. The museum opened with some of his earliest oil paintings and watercolors. Some highlights here included: a piece he made when he was only 15 years old (!) called The Bucker; a somber oil painting of a Native American family being forced to relocate westward called Wanderers of the Trackless Way; a lush watercolor of deer crossing a river; and a wonderfully surreal comic-booky (but made in 1890 way before that visual language was established) oil painting called Western Montage.
I think my favorite piece though was this trompe l'oeil still life painting of a poster hanging on a wall near a cup, a rope, and a bandana, because it shows how well Russel could alternate between whimsy and hyper-realism. It also takes a very upper-crusty European painting tradition and brings it down into the dirt and grit of cowboy paintings, which I got a big kick out of.
As if to highlight Russell’s versatility, the gallery also had one of his early bronze sculptures called When the Best Riders Quit, which just has so much energy and motion for a stationary hunk of metal. It’s really incredible how he get the nuances of the rider’s clothes and the horse’s muscles to look so believable.
In the Lobby heading to the next galleries was a really weird amazing tribute Russell by an artists named Tim Joyner. The piece entitled Pishkun, after a Blackfoot Indian word for Buffalo Jumps (big cliffs Native Americans would trick Buffalo herds into charging over so they could hunt them in bulk), which features a big sculpture of a Buffalo. On one side of the buffalo is a recreation of a Russell Painting of a Native American making cave drawings of a pishkun, but the drawings gradually become three dimensional sculptures so that on the the other side of the large buffalo sculpture the smaller buffalo sculptures that came from the drawing are now falling over a cliff. It’s wild and surreal but so technically impressive and a neat visual metaphor for story telling both by Russell and his subjects.
Up next the rest of the galleries focused on art made after Russell gave up his ranching and exploring ways IN 1892 to settle in Great Falls and try to make a living as a full time artist. These mature works expand on that early promise in both scale and scope. These galleries were divided up among common themes, and first came his highly realistic portraits of animals and landscapes. Personally I’m more partial to his more narrative scenes, but these ones really show off his technical side and the way he can really bring authentic animal behavior to life.
Similar to these nature pieces in content but very different in style was a four part series about the seasons which Russell did based off Native American traditions he learned while living with the Blood Indians, incorporating both dreamlike nature scenes with more traditional Native Imagery. Beyond their aesthetic beauty, these pieces really impressed me in how much he strived for authenticity. I feel like it was pretty rare for a white artist (certainly before 1899 when these were made, but even now sadly) to not draw stereotypes of Native Peoples let alone take the time to actually learn what pictograms they might actually use. Even their rounded shape is a tribute to the Blood Indian belief that life like the seasons is cyclical.
Next up we had some classic action packed Western scenes of cowboys and Native Americans fightin’, ridin’, huntin’, and just sittin’ around the campfire. These pieces for me were the ones that really got me, be they watercolors, paintings, line drawings, or sculptures, because I love how much he’s able to capture entire scenes in a single image. Even with just the snapshot he provides you, you get so much character and plot and you can see why he inspired an entire generation of Western Illustrators. I also love how he mixes up his color palette, sometimes going really bright and lush and sometimes going for more of a sepia tone to lend a photographic or nostalgic tone as opposed to a more realistic one.
The next room celebrated Russell’s love of ranching and hunting by collecting a couple dozen vintage rifles and handguns. I admired the craftsmanship on display, but I’ve just never been much of a gun guy so it was a bit lost on me. That being said, I did get a kick out of learning that John Moses Browning of the famous Browning Arms Company was a young Mormon of only 24 years of age with no formal engineering experience when he made and patented his first firearm. He would go on to make another 127 patents, and what’s more American than not letting a lack of experience get in the way of pure imagination and ambition?
The next few galleries were part of a special exhibit exploring Russell and his representations and relationships with Women. This has been a point of a lot of modern criticism of Russell as it’s hard to argue that when he draws white women they tend to be very chaste compared to much more sensual and sexualized Native women. It’s possible this shows a certain latent racism, portraying White people in a higher status and Native People as more base, but it could also be a purely business decision with Russell knowing it would be easier to sell “exotic” sexuality as opposed to white sexuality. The truth is probably a mix of both, but problematic or not, these more feminine works do show off the softer more impressionistic side of his repertoire.
I like that museum leaves room for both a more favorable and more negative appraisal of these works, and also provides a bit of cultural context by highlighting both how much sex and exoticism were a big part of both the West and the art World at large at that time with molds of famous sculptures and some of the earliest films of women hired to dance at saloons:
The exhibit also highlighted women who were important in Russell’s life. One of these women was Josephine Trigg, a friend of Russell and an art collector who was also a big reason this museum is able to exist as she donated hundreds of piece of her personal collection. People wanting to see her collection provided enough incentive to raise funds for what would eventually become the museum I was walking around in today. Josephine was an important figure in turn of the century Great Falls serving as both a public school teacher and the town librarian, sharing her love of reading and the arts with the town’s children. The exhibit showcased some of her personal artifacts and clothes to highlight and her life separate from how it intersected with Russell’s.
Is it just me or does she look a weird amount like John Lennon?
The crowning achievement of Josephine’s collection though, was the hundreds of letters and postcards she saved from Russell featuring beautiful and intimate drawings, stories, and illustrations that he would include with each correspondence. These pieces are astonishing works in their own right for how absentmindedly gorgeous they are despite the artist not expecting the public to see them, but they also paint a really lovely portrait of a Josephine and Russel’s lifelong friendship and of what he was really like as a man outside his rough and tumble public persona.
Of course the other woman who was most important in Charles Russell’s life was his wife Nancy. They married in 1896 when Russell was 32 and she was 18 (I’m not touching that one), and were together until his death in 1926. By all accounts, they’re marriage was a real partnership and Russell, who wasn’t a particularly good marketer on his own, might never have become as widely known outside of Montana were it not for Nancy’s hard work and campaigning to get him shows all over the country and even in London. She also served as a model for a number of his paintings, even those more sensual ones of Native Women, which I think is a fun illustration of how the idea of “more innocent times” is kinda nonsense. While Nancy was certainly well represented in Russell’s oeuvre, I thought the sweetest tribute to her impact on his life was a little diptych of sketches called “As I Was” and “As I Am Now” that show him basically living in a lonely mess before she picked him up and elevated his status in every way (even artistically it’s a lot richer and more shaded in).
Throughout the museum, there were works by other Montana artists sprinkled in, and this beautiful impressionistic landscape of Lake MacDonald was a real stand out but I can’t for the life of me figure out the artist’s name and it’s a real bummer because I’d love to give them all the credit I can for this impressive work:
From there it was on to Russell’s later more mature works that which really capture his imagination and skill (a Biblical piece sort of puts some cowboy flair on the Three Wisemen). Given the previous gallery’s focus on women in his work, one neat thing to notice is that for all his more stereotypical paintings of women he does have a lot more pieces than most of his contemporaries depicting ladies doing much less stereotypical things like delivering medicine and breaking broncos which I think captures a real part of the West and how survival didn’t always allow for abiding gender roles.
My personal top ten of these works included: a moody dreary piece called Caught in the Act which shows two settlers being caught after killing a Native family’s livestock; two powerfully dynamic photos of Native Women in roles of leadership during expeditions for supplies complete with some particularly great horse and dog illustrations; a sweet scene of a family feeding an adorably lumpy some water that also serves to answer the question of how people safely transported infants via horseback; a neat rendering of Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea standing on a rock; a richly detailed painting of a stagecoach robbery; a fantastic black and white scene of a man on a horse looking absolutely done with his cheerful female companion; an endearingly unflattering self-portrait of an older fatter C.M. Russell on horseback; another painting of Lewis and Clark where you feel like the explorers are really trying to strike a cool pose despite being totally out of their elements; and an amazing pen and ink drawing of a woman coming across a potentially dead body.
Amidst these later works, I really enjoyed some almost Norman Rockwell-esque drafts of political cartoons protesting the government’s treatment of Native Americans and the general public’s indifference toward that treatment. The pieces generally feature starving Native people crossing paths with very well-to-do white people and receiving no help or even attention. The last piece though decided to throw out even that degree of subtlety by just outright having Uncle Sam calling a politician a Land Hog, “the only animal known that lives without a heart”. It was pretty bold stuff for a white artist to risk his reputation on back then, but I’m glad he used his platfoom to give back to the Native people that inspired so much of his work (and also literally helped keep him alive for most of his 20s).
One last piece that really stood out for its more unusual medium was a water color he did of and older Indian sharing stories with a young boy that was done directly on birch wood. The blend of the art and the different textures of the wood give it such an incredibly surreal and unique quality that just completely captured my attention and imagination.
Next up was more of his sculptural works featuring pieces big and small of cowboys, Native Americans, and animals frozen forever in dramatic scenes and poses. I can’t stress it enough how crazy it is to me that he could he be so good at so many totally different realms of art.
And can a cowboy art exhibit end any other way than with a scene of our heroes riding off into the sunset?
After the main galleries of Russell’s works there were a few small collections of work by other artists. Some highlights included these sculptures of otters by Gerald Balclier made out of just beautiful white marble with a really sleek almost art deco-y style to them.
They also made sure to highlight some more contemporary Native American Art with some energetic pop-arty portraits by the late great Fritz Scholder:
And lastly there was a traveling exhibit all about Buffalo complete with insanely captivating photographs and videos of these behemoths of the plains:
They had some really great Buffalo themed art by different artists both White and Native, that capture the complex human history with the animal.
They had a nice diagram taking the old saying that the Native American’s used “every part of the Buffalo” and actually quantify it, showcasing just how many versatile items could be made using different parts of the great creatures. Some were more obvious like clothes and food, but other items were a bit cooler and more surprising like jewelry and musical instruments:
They even had a few full sized taxidermy buffalo. Please note how well they captured the abject horror in a horse’s eyes when it doesn’t expect to be next to a giant buffalo:
After all that museuming, I went to a place my friend Rachel recommended called Taco Treat, which is a local chain of Fast Food Mexican restaurants that I think holds a special place in the hearts of Montana’s high-schoolers and stoners that Taco Bell would normally fill. I got a beautiful monstrosity called the Beef and Tater Treat Burrito, which featured ground beef, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, green onions, and little crispy potato circles called Tater Treats all wrapped up in a tortilla and covered with more cheese and tater treats. As gross as it looks and sounds, I’ve gotta admit it was shockingly good. Unlike with Taco Bell, you could tell it was all real beef and veggies and if you can past the concept of tater tots in a burrito, the tater treats were pretty dang tasty. And it’s all for ridiculously cheap prices so you really can’t beat the value.
After lunch I had about a 6 hour drive to Wyoming ahead of me so I stopped to fuel up with some good cold brew from the cute and artsy Crooked Tree Coffee Roasters.
Because it was such long drive and I had spent much more time than I planned on admiring all that cowboy art, I didn’t make a whole ton of pit stops along the way and just chugged my way down the middle of Montana. I did stop to get gas in a wonderfully named town called Big Timber, and while I was at the gas station I stumbled across the best/ least appetizing advertising logo I’ve seen on any product. I just don’t get why they’re so fancy from the ass up?
Around the four hour mark of my drive, I started getting hungry so I looked up what was good near me and stumbled upon a real gem of a pizza place in Joliet, MT called Jane Dough’s. It was a cozy mom and pop pizza shop, but every pizza had wild pun names like Danny DeVi-dough and Quasi Mo-dough so I fell in love pretty much right away. I got the Play Dough which is a personal pan pizza with two toppings of your choice. I went with Garlic and Mushrooms because I had nobody to impress later, and it was such a delicious pizza. Every part of it was good, but whatever they did to make their crust so crunchy and doughy at the same time was pure witchcraft. I was very happy that I happened to get hungry nearby because otherwise the restaurant might never have come on my radar, and I would have really missed out.
After dinner, I made my way to the Montana/Wyoming Border, and I was struck by how much empty space (lovely empty space, but empty nonetheless) stretched out for miles in every direction. I don’t think you can really say there isn’t enough space in the country for everyone, when you look out over these vistas:
At last I made my way to Basin, Wyoming, where I stayed at probably the most unique Air BnB I would stay in for this whole trip: a vintage sheep wagon converted to a little one bedroom apartment. It wasn’t big, but it had electricity and better wifi than most places in Wyoming and it was only a short walk to the outhouse. The woman who hosted me raises horses and teaches yoga so she was real earthy and fun to talk to. For a person traveling the west on their own I couldn’t recommend it more highly.
It also helped that I picked up a few of these bad boys (shockingly I didn’t opt for the Pig’s Ass Porter) the last time I stopped for gas, because I’m a sucker for both brown ales and anything with coconut so I had to give it a shot. I’d say they definitely get my stamp of approval.
Favorite Random Sightings: An advertisement for an orange cream shake that said “It's calling. Orange Craem Shak” (so much intensity so little spelling); a chain of gas stations called Loaf ’n Jugs; a beautifully petty billboard that said “Just say no to Rimrock Auto” (I would love the story behind this one
Albums Listened To: Tracker (deluxe) by Mark Knopfler (a softly lovely double album that was oddly fitting for the Western Landscape despite being written and performed by a Brit); Trader John by Dr. John; Trader John’s Crawfish Soiree by Dr. John
Regional Observations: Driving through Montana I feel like I saw every possible ecosystem. I even saw a swamp, I thought those had to be at lower elevations but I’ve been proven wrong
People’s Favorite Jokes:
A very fun barista: I don’t know any good jokes, but I can tell you I have the heart of a lion and a lifetime ban from the San Diego Zoo
My Air BnB Host: I have this really old pooper scooper for my dogs and it shuts every time it hits a rock so I was using it and I just kept saying “You piece of shit!” and I didn’t even realize I was being funny
Montana Superlatives:
Favorite Coffee Shop: The General Mercantile in Helena
Favorite Restaurant: It’s a tie between the Montana Ale Works in Bozeman and the Burger Dive in Billings though if I’m being honest I only ate very well in this state
Favorite Beer: Knotty Latte Stout from Neptune’s Brewing
Favorite Bar: The Loft Nightclub in Billings
Favorite Open Mic: Bar IX in Bozeman
Favorite Attraction: Natural: Glacier National Park all the way Man-Made:Black Foot Pathways: Sculptures in the Wild in Lincoln and the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas in Arlee are both unlike anything I’ve ever seen before so I don’t know how to choose and I won’t
General Impression of the Comedy Scene: It’s not huge and it’s fairly spread out, but it was quality over quantity with both the stand up and improv I saw being really funny and all the performers being incredibly warm and kind offstage. I only wish I could have seen more of it, as I hear there are lot more mics when the college kids are in town. It was my loss
Songs of the Day: They’re both double albums so here’s two songs a piece
A little celtic flair
RIP to the good Doctor
just amazing