The final Yellowstone Perspectives virtual program, The Artist’s Field Guide to Yellowstone: A Natural History by Greater Yellowstone’s Artists and Writers, with Katie Shepherd Christiansen is on April 27, 7:00pm. Participants can register for the Zoom program at https://www.parkcounty.org/Yellowstone-Gateway-Museum/webinars-programs/yellowstoneperspectives/. The four-part virtual speaker series programs are uploaded to museum’s YouTube channel after the live virtual event.
Katie Shepherd Christiansen created the book "The Artist's Field Guide to Yellowstone," in collaboration with fifty local artists and writers. The book introduces readers to the wildlife of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. This robust anthology of eclectic artwork and inspiring storytelling offers an enlivened take on the traditional field guide and argues for the intrinsic value of this world-renowned ecosystem.
Yellowstone naturalist and artist Katie Shepherd Christiansen compiled this sensible field guide and elegant art book to highlight the unique biodiversity of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, organized across four habitat strata: sky, earth, soil, and water. Writers and artists pair up to reveal new ways of understanding key species through prose, poetry, and artwork. Christiansen will discuss various aspects of the book (process, goals, outcome, etc.) during the program, featuring book artwork and writing excerpts. A special focus of the evening are appearances by some of the artists and writers, including Jenni Lowe-Anker, Elise Atchinson, DG House, and Karen Reinhart. They’ll discuss the role of artists and writers as storytellers of Yellowstone National Park, the ways that art and writing can foster conservation values within GYE communities and beyond, the process of translating the natural world through creative processes, and more.
Katie Shepherd Christiansen is an artist, naturalist, and conservationist. She is Artist in Residence at the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative in Jackson, WY and principal of Coyote Art & Ecology. Katie completed her graduate studies at Yale's School of the Environment, focusing her research on Yellowstone's biophysical, cultural, and political contexts. For her commitment to the region, Katie received the prestigious recognition as a Wyss Conservation Scholar for the American West.
Katie's artwork appears in parks and natural areas across the Yellowstone region including Bozeman's Story Mill Community Park, Jackson's Astoria Hot Springs Conservancy, and in Paradise Valley's West Creek Ranch. She is a two-time recipient of National Endowment for the Arts funding and has collaborated with various organizations including Trust for Public Land, City of Bozeman, Gallatin Watershed Council, Sacajawea Audubon Society, Ucross Foundation, Leave No Trace, the WILD Foundation, and National Geographic. Katie is a contributing columnist to Mountain Journal and illustrates books including the recently released Atlas of Conflict Resolution: A Montana Field-Guide to Sharing Ranching Landscapes with Wildlife.
DG House is a guest artist in both Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, and was recently named the first Honorary Ranger for Grand Teton National Park. Her contemporary Native American artwork has exhibited in fine art museums across the country. House is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Tribe of NE Alabama and lives in Bozeman, Montana along the Gallatin River.
Jennifer Lowe-Anker was born and raised in Montana and has resided in Bozeman for thirty years as a professional artist. Her paintings depicting wildlife, birds and western landscapes are well known in the region. She is the author of Forget Me Not, a memoir that tells her story of her life with the late Alex Lowe and her current husband, Conrad Anker, both world-renowned mountaineers.
Elise Atchison lives in an off-the-grid cabin on the edge of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness in Montana. Atchison’s work has appeared in Montana Quarterly, South Dakota Review, An Elk River Books Reader, Terrain, Cutthroat Journal, Reflections West Radio, and elsewhere, and she was awarded a grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund for her novel in progress.
Karen Reinhart spent a lot of time monitoring geothermal basins in Yellowstone during her 15-year tenure as a park ranger interpreter at Lake. A native Montanan, Karen has authored two books, Old Faithful Inn: Crown Jewel of National Park Lodges and Yellowstone’s Rebirth by Fire: Rising from the Ashes of the 1988 Wildfires. She currently is the curator at the Yellowstone Gateway Museum in Livingston.
Visit Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for program updates or contact Karen Reinhart, 222-4184 or kreinhart@parkcounty.org. Register for Zoom programs at www.yellowstonegatewaymuseum.org; please call or email if you need assistance.
