Frame of Mind Presents Art by

Amanda Bielby

A Blossoming Journey Through Art

On display November 1st - 30th

About the Show

As the winner of the Frame of Mind Juror’s Choice award for their annual Juried Art Expo, Amanda Bielby was presented with a solo art exhibition in the Frame of Mind Art Gallery. Chosen by the Juried Art Expo judges and Missoula artists, Monte Dolack and Courtney Blazon, Amanda's work stood out for it’s original content and application.

“A Blossoming Journey Through Art” shows Amanda’s ever-changing journey as an artist. From struggling with dyslexia to cognitive therapy works, Amanda displays a journey of struggle and growth in a unique form of storytelling.

An exhibition that shows the ability to overcome mental health, “A Blossoming Journey Through Art” speaks volumes at a time when our country is at an all time high for recorded cases of mental health crises. Showing a promising outcome to a struggle many of us are facing, it is an encouragement needed to lift our spirits and keep us going in a time of such uncertainty.

Due to the increase of Covid-19 cases in Missoula, Frame of Mind will be discontinuing all in person receptions until case numbers are at a more acceptable number. In lieu of an in person reception, Frame of Mind would like to invite the public to view this exhibition for the entire month of November during our regular business hours.

Frame of Mind hours of operation:
Monday-Friday 10am-6pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am-5pm

Read on below to learn more about Amanda and to see her work on display.

About the Artist

Some would say fooled at a young age by my athletic ability, a talent for fine detail, and a learning disability that pulled me from school. I went into the building trades at a young age. I believed if I could just push harder than the next, then I would someday become my own boss. I dreamed of art and saw it in everything I did. Every wooden board finished and nailed. Swirls of trowel marks on a cement floor. My artistic hands fit well into the trade of house painting. I soon discovered Faux painting, and on cloud 9, I felt I had found my dream job. I started my own business, along with the responsibilities of being a parent and a wife. I felt that being self-employed would allow me the flexibility to be more present. I found myself doing some of the most exciting jobs in our city, for example, restoring ornamental painting in historic buildings. Wholly swept away, I was hard at it from dark to dark. I started canceling family weekends to meet deadlines. I was concealing that I was developing arthritis through my back and shoulders, and I experienced my first panic attack. Something was slowly creeping up on my ability to think clearly. I became grouchy. I found myself weakening. I looked around and saw the people I loved and admired in the trades were suffering too, with lung conditions, brain injuries, bad backs, and so on. I felt cornered, hurt that I had put so much into something that may never pay off. Then I saw my childhood dream staring me right in my face. Everything I needed was there, I didn’t even have to buy an artist brush; I just had to start. So I quit calling my paint shop a shop and started calling it a studio. I believe the craftsmen in the building trades develop their own fine art over time. With the competition biting at our heels, we tend to forfeit our bodies and personal lives to get the job done. My art is my way of escaping that same fate, yet still fulfilling my passion for dirty hands and fine detail. I create contemporary art. I fell in love with historic paint and plaster techniques, usually used in a cathedral-like setting. I twist them around, add some modern mixes, and place them on a substrate so that you can have a piece of the cathedral to add to your home or business. My inspiration grows from the beautiful mountain state I live in, and the moments and existence of life. My background has motivated me to incorporate leftover building material that on the norm would be thrown away to our landfill. Hoping that I might help a step towards restoring our environment as well as myself. Who would have thought that the very thing that pulled me away from my dreams, pinned me down, and forced me back two them? Thankful for a different path. 

Abstract Gibberish

My work here is meant to take a hardship of mine and turn it to something positive, a tool to grow on, bring voice to myself and help add awareness to others like me. In the 6th grade I was diagnosed with dyslexia. This affects all forms of communication in myself. I think with myself and others with learning disabilities, if not given the right opportunities, it can spiral into other problems such as poor self esteem, mental illness, lack of education, and dead end jobs also what I like to call modern day slavery. How many times have you seen someone quickly judged for their poor grammar or someone taken advantage of because they may not understand what is being presented, or don't have the ability to voice feedback. I think this is a hard to pinpoint form of discrimination. A lot of what I hear is that we are mistaken for being stupid and lazy, but that is far from the truth. In fact I think we work harder to make up for the skills we don't have. I could write a book about my struggles of going from a general house painter, to faux and decorative painter to finally being given the title local artist in Missoula, Montana. I think people light up when they are given knowledge about things they are naturally talented and interested in. It took me a long time to get to this point, but I like to think God just had to take me through a different route. I like to take the skills of the trades that I was taught over the years and turn them into a means of self expression and a relief outlet. Being interested in building restoration I have fallen in love with stucco and paint recipes used over the past hundred years and make anything from modern abstract landscapes and sculpture to what you see before you. These pieces I hope will draw the person in and make them curious to the meaning and attempt to read what what is in front of them only to find out they cannot and have a moment of what it is like to be dyslexic.

Desperate Consolidation, Time Management, Healing with Soft pastels

As with any modern-day woman, I had a massive to-do list. Add in being an artist with Dyslexia and ADHD; you have a mess. Because of covid, I was not socializing. With my massive to-do list, I was not exercising, creating, relaxing, anything but taking care of myself. People told me to do all kinds of different things to help the situation, like cognitive therapy, meditation, walks, and reaching out to friends. All of those things take time and work when I have none to give. Because of the setup time, I found myself unable to work in mixed media as I on the norm do. When I am not making art regularly, a strong sense of failure creeps in.

I found myself playing with soft pastels because I could pick up a stick of color, make a swatch, put it down, and go back to the grind on other things. Before I knew it, I had completed a few paintings for a deadline that was coming up.

Those of you who know me know that I have a fascination with abstract writing. I loved playing with this in soft pastels, which led to my experimenting with cognitive therapy. I start this process by writing out the negative thoughts I am having with pastel; I smear them into the background, then I layer words of positive thinking on the top.

This cognitive writing, mixed with thoughts about color and artistic appeal puts me in an active meditative state that completely clears my mind and brings me to the present. I then combined this with starting a Plein Air art group. Plein Air meaning-of or relating to painting in outdoor daylight. As a group, we go to local parks and trails to be outdoors and paint the scenery. This move grouped several things together that I struggled to find separate time for. Put them all into one event—socializing at a covid safe distance, meditation, cognitive therapy, exercise, vitamin D, and I was getting my artwork done. Using the word writing cognitive therapy process to build the landscape that I witnessed added to an even deeper meditative state.

Do not worry; I still do the other art that you have known me for, just less of it. This Plein air work helped me through the year of Covid, having to step in and take care of my father with Alzheimer's Dementia and make my artwork deadlines. To me, this is a powerful tool now if I could just maintain a good diet.

Thanks for taking a moment.

~ Amanda

If you have any questions about the show, please contact Heather at 406-549-8589 or htaylor@frameofmindmt.com