Page 34 - Flathead Beacon // 12.7.16

EVENTS 36 MOVIE REVIEWS 37 PAWS & CLAWS 40 SIDE DISH 42 Arts&Entertainment
The Artist Ranger
National parks employee Tim Rains displays his illustrations at Montana W Co ee Traders in Kalispell during December
hen Tim Rains nally sat down in Kalispell this December, a step the artist says is huge in his Denali, Alaska home to for his growth and con dence in his work.
get to work honing his passion It’s just kind of been like that since Rains moved here. for illustration, all that emerged He’d been living in Portland, Oregon, focusing on his tal-
from the tip of his ink pen was a circle. ents as a composer, when he felt compelled to move to As an employee at Denali Montana.
Tim Rains’ illustration. ABOVE “Happy Hoo-lidays!” OPPOSITE PAGE: “When He Put on The Heron Mask.”
ral. Then a circle again.
“I was kind of waiting for the
light to come down and the angels to start singing. They didn’t,” Rains said in an interview last week, quick to laugh at his slightly hubristic beginnings. “But it felt cathartic to draw that circle. So I drew another.
And more spirals.” Eventually, his illustra-
tions evolved to include the overwhelming and incredible Alaskan outdoors. But Rains knew those circles and spirals
would follow him.
Several years and a couple
moves later, Rains, who worked as the communications special- ist at Glacier National Park last summer, is about to show his rst solo exhibit, his circles and
spirals having become lovable, whimsical, colorful characters. Rains’ work will be on dis-
play at Montana Co ee Traders
National Park, Rains had to BY MOLLY PRIDDY “I thought it would be a better place to
nd a way to pass the time,
but also wanted to better himself. Illus-
trating was always a passion, he gured. So he drew another circle. Then a spi-
focus on artwork and music,” Rains said. A longtime employee of national parks, Rains said his passion for the outdoors is mirrored in his desire to create and express himself. Each time he’s worked in a national park, Rains said he’s treated it like an art- ist-in-residence position as well, learning from his sur- roundings and taking the most inspiration to the paper. Ironically, Rains said that while working for and in Glacier National Park, the only characters and scenes he felt compelled to capture were the goats and a tra c jam caused by an explosion of wild owers in a eld in Many Glacier. The landscape hasn’t played into his work much,
and the bears remind him too much of Alaska.
Instead, while living here, he turned those circles into creatures and people. His partner Jon loves owls, so Rains tried that rst, and found a natural rhythm with the circles he’d drawn before. Soon, hearts became an important aspect of the illustrations, which he draws
with ink then lls in the color on the computer.
“I never intended to be an illustrator,” he said. “But I found through abstraction and doing my own thing and owning it, people start to nd something that speaks to
them.”
His creations are whimsical and inviting, and have
found homes in local businesses. While working at PlantLand in Evergreen, for example, Rains drew a piece called “From My Gnome to Yours,” featuring a garden gnome o ering a potted plant. The gnomes eyes are spi- rals, his hat and belt are decorated hearts, and the plant is a small, growing heart as well.
Youth thru Grade 12 admitted free
SAT. DECEMBER 17, 7:30 pm & SUN. DECEMBER 18, 3 pm • Kalispell Flathead HS Performance Hall TIX: GSCMUSIC.ORG 406-407-7000
John Zoltek, Artistic Director/Conductor
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DECEMBER 7, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
Cozy up with Fun Holiday Favorites!