ACE
Adrienne Pollard is an artist/graphic designer. Pollard’s approach is rooted in the premise that good art and design are essentially problem solving—organizing images and words to clearly communicate a message with simplicity and intelligence.
Historically, the four suits in a pack of cards can be read as symbols of society and human energy, with Clubs representing both the peasantry and achievement through work, while in the ancient mystical science of playing cards (also known as the Cards of Life), the Ace of Clubs represents a quest for knowledge. Hence this Ace of Clubs incorporates imagery representative of a worker, a searcher, and other symbols of knowledge and learning.
TWO
Rachel Larson Long is an art educator and art therapist, living in Billings, Montana. She most frequently works in acrylic and mixed media, combining representational and symbolic imagery.
This whimsical image features the reflection of a tree on the banks of the Yellowstone River. I wanted to create a double image to include the 2 of clubs in a local setting.
THREE
Kateri Béchard is the daughter of a Canadian artist and is originally from Montreal, Canada. She has been showing her paintings since 1985, exhibited with the McCord Museum in Montreal, and sold her paintings and bronze sculptures to clients in the United States and Canada.
I wanted to create a humorous card that would remind you of a Montana fairy tale, and black bear cubs playing in a tree with a beehive nearby is about as good as it gets! It was also quite easy to see the “Clubs” in their round ears and bluish black coat.
FOUR
Malou Flato’s landscapes, over the past 30 years, have become part of the Montana landscape. She paints lively work executed by a technique that is hers alone: acrylic paint on Japanese paper applied to canvas.
The image on my playing card is from my garden in an old horse corral in Pray, MT. I thought clubs look like clover.
FIVE
Laura Poinsette deals in daydreams, portraying nature and humanity in an imagined light. She reengineers her daily commute, conversations, and dog breath, in playful and peculiar ways. Her work is a tribute to the ridiculous ideas that animate and keep us curious.
SIX
Rebecca Ruhd is a Livingston native making a quiet adventure of life. While working and raising a family in the real world, Rebecca is working out the ways to keep the Artist Within from starving.
The suit of clubs is historically represented either by a fleur or a baton; symbolizing the peasantry. I took my inspiration in the delicate and brutal existence of the common life of the great many.
SEVEN
Michelle Ouellette is currently studying the preservation of biocultural diversity and Indigenous ways of being, majoring in Social Justice at Prescott College in Arizona. Her other interests include practicing and teaching yoga, cooking delicious vegan foods, outdoor adventuring, and art.
One of my passions has recently become rock climbing, so I was inspired to draw towering cliffs capped with fields of flowers. They ended up resembling the beautiful White Cliffs of Dover, a famous array of strikingly vertical cliffs located along the southern coastline of England.
EIGHT
Lani McKay, originally from Hawai’i, has lived in Livingston for over 6 years now. Here in Montana, her work can currently be found hanging in The Soup Bar, Neptune’s Brewery, Faye’s Café, The Stafford Animal Shelter, 14 North Restaurant (in Bozeman), Saketome Sushi and Michi Ramen bar (both in Missoula).
Both shapes (the clubs suit and an 8) can be found in the geometric pattern called The Flower of Life, an ancient design referenced in many cultures around the world. I played with that imagery as well as the similarity between the clubs symbol and a three-leaf clover. Finally, I represented the figure 8, with a yoga pose that requires two people to create an infinity symbol.
NINE
Kate Helin-Burnette is a new, but accomplished artist who works mainly in 2D media. She is currently majoring in Studio Art as a freshman at St. Olaf College and has spent the past year studying art abroad in Italy and Greece as well as at home in her own studio.
I chose to depict the suit of my card using its real-life counterpart. The shamrocks and their two reflections, three groups of three, play tribute to the numerical quality of the number nine.
TEN
Marnie Gannon is a sporadic artist. She creates when the spirit moves her. She spends much of her creative energy in her garden.
I was assigned the final card. I took the over-looked 10 of Clubs and put a spin on what a ‘club’ is and came up with ten of them!
JACK
Wille Rainingcloud Ramirez
QUEEN
Elizabeth Rock Waddington, retired librarian and art teacher, has returned to her art roots. She grew up in a family of multigenerational artists where materials were always available to experiment with and encouragement for self-expression was freely given.
I created this Queen to show the maiden aspect that each woman must carry with her for life. The eyes wide open, head in the stars, slightly wild (or at least uninhibited) inner child encourages discovery along the path to becoming a crone or elder wise woman.
KING
Rodman Froke has recently retired from a lifetime bookselling career and is taking up pen and pencil again. He lives in Larkspur, California. He is the father of local artist, Angie Froke.
I have been doodling apes and hominids, real and imaginary, for years.
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