Artist: April Werle
Website: aprilwerle.com
Mural Location: 327 S Excelsior - Backside of the building, viewable from Diamond St.
Artist Bio: April Werle is the daughter of an immigrant Pinay and third-generation Montanan. She is a mixed Cebuano American artist and muralist. Werle is known for her iconic black and white hands that serve as universal storytellers, creating artworks that explore the intersections of identity, place and culture.
She creates her settings with Filipino motifs and abstracted landscapes, influenced by traditional Philippine art making which is flat and heavily shape and pattern based. Werle tells stories rooted in the North American Filipino diaspora, by reimagining memories and oral stories passed down to her.
About the Mural: "Drawing inspiration from both my Filipino culture and the icons of Butte, this mural is an exploration of the meaning of home.
It was such a pleasure painting in Butte. I really enjoyed the rich culture of Butte, and painting in this neighborhood where residents would walk down to the wall and have a conversation about the piece. I think there are a lot of ways to interpret this mural. If someone knew nothing about Filipino culture, I think some of the Catholic-inspired imagery would particularly stand out.
When creating this mural, it was really important to me to make something that speaks to my community here in Montana. There are a lot of Filipinos and AAPI in Butte. There's this really powerful feeling of seeing yourself reflected in the "outside" world, that my community rarely gets here in Montana. And I was honored to be able to create a mural for my community to see themselves represented in Uptown Butte.
I am thankful to be a part of Butte's Uptown Mural Project, and all of the meaningful conversations I had with neighbors and facilitators of the project."
Artist: Somer Hahm
Website: somerhahm.com
Mural Location: Park St Parking Garage - Roughly 50 W Park St - To the left, just inside the entrance.
Artist Bio: Somer Hahm is a visual artist and a visitor living and working on the ancestral lands of the Tanana Dene peoples, also known as Fairbanks, Alaska. She received a BFA from University of Montana, Missoula in 2005 and an MFA, with an emphasis in Painting and Drawing, from University of Alaska, Fairbanks in 2008. Her past works drew from nature, often combining colorful abstraction with flora and fauna. Interested in the plants found locally in the Tanana Valley, in 2017 she designed and released an annual series of educational botanical posters for children.
With robust involvement in the Fairbanks art community, Somer exhibits her work statewide and teaches painting and drawing workshops for the Folk School of Fairbanks and Well Street Art Company. Employment as Exhibition Technician, installing rotating exhibits at Fairbanks Arts Association’s Bear Gallery, allows her to work one on one with Alaskan artists in all career stages and hands on with a diverse variety of art works.
Hahm’s recent body of work has been inspired by the wealth of the American Patchwork and the timeless beauty of quilt block designs. Motivated to create community involvement and interest in public art, Somer founded the Far North Quilt Trail in 2019. In 2020, Hahm received a Rasmuson Individual Artist Project Award, funding from the Alaska Chapter of the Awesome Foundation, the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment of the Arts to further her artist-led endeavor of creative place making, initiating Alaska’s first barn quilt trail. Somer is a mother of two young children.
Artist: Stella Nall
Website: stellanall.com
Mural Location: Uptown Parking Garage - Galena St. Entrance - Approximately 37 W Galena St. At the back wall as you enter from Galena St.
Artist Bio: Stella Nall Bisháakinnesh (Rode Buffalo) is a multimedia artist and poet from Bozeman, Montana. A first descendant of the Crow tribe, her work is informed by her experiences navigating the world and often centers current issues pertaining to Indigenous identity, visibility and representation.
She graduated from the University of Montana in 2020 with a BFA in Printmaking, a BA in Psychology and a minor in Art History and Criticism.
She now lives in Missoula, where she is represented by Radius Gallery. She currently serves as a member of the Western Montana Creative Initiative’s Indigenous Art Advisory Committee, VonCommon Art Studio’s board of directors, and the COHESION Art Collective Advisory Committee.
Artist: BT Livermore
Website: btlivermore.com
Mural Location: 109 N Montana St - In the alley on the north side of the building.
Artist Bio: BT Livermore is a Butte-based artist and sign painter, and has lived in Butte since fall of 2016. They are the coordinator of the mural program and this website. BT is also one of the community printmaking studio stewards at the Imagine Butte Resource Center. Contact BT for all general questions regarding the murals program, or to commission a sign, gold leaf address, or design work.
About the Mural: "A few years before painting the mural, I designed and printed a letterpress postcard at the community print studio at the IBRC. The postcard read "THINGS ARE (getting) BETTER IN BUTTE." These postcards were for sale, and went pretty quickly. Most of my painting work revolves around traditional sign painting and lettering. When it came time to find a good phrase to use for the mural, I went back to this postcard concept, but changed the phrasing to make it a more of positive message, as opposed to the more self-depracating one of the postcard.
Artist: Cara Murray
Website: carajanemurrayart.com
Mural Location: 130 W Galena St - East face of building
Artist Bio: Inspired by life and layers, Cara Jane Murray creates with the eye of a multidisciplinary artist and muralist.
Cara’s spirited work explores the imprints of strife and jubilation. Limitless in medium, the strength of her art is rooted in its ability to evoke the inspired human spirit in all of its blunders and triumphs. Her positive, uplifting style serves to remind us that we are both great and small in this wild world.
Born and raised in Southeast Alaska, Cara’s style illustrates an extensive graphic design background combined with a love for contemporary folk art and the expansiveness of Alaska. Both maker and mother, she resolves to stay open, clear and connected to a sense of place while remaining fluid in her spiritual experience.
Cara believes art will continue to serve as the most honest and expansive form of communication that can ever be shared and this is how she gives, heals, rallies courage, loves and illuminates her heart.
About the Mural: "The mural I created in butte "Sing to the Sun" is a tribute to embracing the light, the positivity, the joy that comes from thriving in any environment that allows you to be you. It’s a reminder that we can be the sun we need, and in expressing our truth inspire others to do the same. "Sing to the Sun" is essentially about connection at its core. "