Page 22 - Flathead Beacon // 6.25.14

22 | JUNE 25, 2014
CWenter of The Canyon’s Art Scene
alking into Stephanie Dahl’s Dam Canyon Shop is an almost overwhelm-
ing experience. Art of every type fills every wall; there are detailed paintings of Glacier National Park, colorful glassware, tiny leather bags and even big wooden bears. There’s even a spot for Mountain Man Reg- gie’s wooden beer koozies.
Fourteen years ago, when Dahl opened the small shop, she didn’t intend on becoming the center of The Canyon’s art scene – it just sort of happened. Dahl said other art- ists tried to sell her their products but she never had the money; how- ever, she offered to give them some space inside her shop to sell. Today there are more than 20 local artists represented on the walls of the Dam Canyon Shop along U.S. Highway 2 in Hungry Horse.
Dahl began making glass art in the late 1990s when she still lived in New Hampshire. She was pregnant with her second son and was looking for something to entertain herself. The hobby turned into a calling.
“I took the class, loved it and kept doing it,” she said.
In 2000 she moved to Kalispell and began making stained glass
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art and selling it at the local farm- ers markets. Her pieces were a hit and a year later she decided to open up a shop in Hungry Horse, mostly because it was one of the cheapest places to find a storefront. It wasn’t long after she opened her doors that other local artists started asking her to sell their pieces. She said The Canyon’s art community is strong, even though some people have never sold their work. Recently she helped a painter produce and sell his first-
ever prints.
“You’d be surprised how many
talented artists live up here in pov- erty with me,” she said. “They’re se- rious when they say starving artist.”
Another one of the artists in Dahl’s shop is her boyfriend, Brian Olsen. He’s been making animals carved with chainsaws for six years and produces about 100 bears, ea- gles or owls every year. Olsen came upon the hobby mostly by accident when Dahl got him a book about
FROM LEFT: The Dam Canyon Store in Hungry Horse; Brian Olsen works on a chainsaw carving, which he sells at the Dam Canyon Store in Hungry Horse. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
chainsaw art.
“I couldn’t even draw a bear be-
fore then,” Olsen said. “But I sold that first one so I just kept going.”
Dahl said that 14 years ago friends told her not to move to Hun- gry Horse because of its rough repu- tation, but she hasn’t regretted the decision once.
“No one has anything positive to say about The Canyon but there’s no reason for the negativity,” she said. “It’s the place to be.”
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