Bozeman: Our First Best Place at Library

Bozeman: Our First Best Place is a cheerful array of oil paintings by artist June Safford and will be on display in the Atrium Gallery at the Bozeman Public Library November 1 through December 30, 2015.   The exhibit, paintings of Bozeman’s familiar and favorite historical buildings, is sponsored by the Bozeman Public Library Foundation.  The Foundation is hosting an Artist Reception, with refreshments, on Friday, November 20, 6 – 7:30 p.m., free and open to the public.  At 6:30 p.m., historic preservationist Derek Strahn will give a presentation on the downtown buildings featured in the paintings, enlightening us on the stories behind these familiar structures.

“Bozeman became a subject for me to paint the day a fellow artist spoke about her impending trip to Tuscany to paint that charming city. I looked around and decided there was charm enough for me and my canvases here in my hometown, Bozeman,” said Safford. Although she was raised in New York, she has lived in Bozeman with her family since 1968. “Images of buildings help make up my psyche, as I was raised in Brooklyn, where there are forests of buildings,” she said.  

Safford taught in public schools for 30 years, but now that she’s retired, the studio in her Bozeman home opts as her favorite classroom. Oil has been her medium of choice; yet, acrylics, water colors and pastels have a great appeal.  “It is Bozeman that has drawn me to try and capture it in oils and watercolors. It is a more vibrant Main Street than exists almost anywhere in the state,” she said.  Safford has a passion for Bozeman and expresses that through her art. Her first pieces depicted architectural structures, but now she is equally interested in windows and activities associated within the buildings. “The artist Edward Hopper’s mingling of buildings and people has also affected me,” said Safford.  “While Hopper chose to highlight the emotion of loneliness, I opt more for vitality.”

Derek Strahn is a historian, high school teacher, radio show personality, and folk/blues musician. He has lived in southwestern Montana since 1976. In 1992 he received a Master of Arts in History from Montana State University-Bozeman and began a nine-year career as a historic preservationist for the City of Bozeman. In June of 2010, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History named Strahn Montana’s Preserve America History Teacher of the Year.

 
The exhibition will be on display during Library hours.  A percentage of sales will go to the Bozeman Public Library Foundation to ensure continuation of cultural programs at the Library for public benefit.  For more information about the exhibit or opening reception, please call Sarah DeOpsomer at 582-2425 or email programs@bozemanlibraryfoundation.org.