This weekend I was at the Great Western Living and Design show in Great Falls and I stopped to visit with Tom Marinkovich at his booth there.
Tom teaches art for Box Elder schools located on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation and is a talented artist in several different mediums. In addition to having his own booth at this show, he organized a bus of school kids from Rocky Boy to come to Great Falls and view all of the art shows that were open to the public. I’ve met Tom before and I’ve been to his studio, Marinkovich Art, located just off US Hwy 87 near the turn for Rocky Boy.
My favorite, and the only piece of art I purchased all during our major art weekend in Great Falls, was a blown glass vase done by Tom. It was difficult picking just one but I finally selected a short vase with wavy edges in shades of purple (a second-favorite color of my oldest granddaughter).
As I visited with Tom he explained that in addition to blown glass, paintings and pottery, he has started working on batik.
He said the process is a challenge because you apply colors just the opposite of how you would on a traditional painting. I’ve already forgotten this tidbit but one is dark colors first, then light. The other is light colors first, then dark.
My favorite part of the Great Western Living and Design show is seeing different items – items made by hand weaving cotton, juniper tree trunks made in to furniture, western chaps adorned with curly sheep wool fleece.
The chaps even had leather on the back and pockets for modern day cowboys! I can only hope that there wasn’t a cell phone holder on these chaps.
Obviously there were many more beautiful items created by the variety of vendors at this show.
I started taking photos of the different booths. Lots of talent. So much to see during Great Falls’ western art weekend, so little time!