09/30/2026
This time last year, I was deep in some creative trust-falling, trusting my friends and my gut to make something happen I always dreamed about, and I was scared this would fall flat. Or worse. Fake. It was a test to see how much could I be a girl in the West with a capital W, without being too far gone into a genre of artistic work that is neither interesting to me, nor true. I ain’t no cowgirl. But I know maybe in another life I could have been. I aim for truth in my voice. I value honesty. And I know, for every word of it, there’s usually a deep elixir of healing, a kind of magic that can’t be ignored. I made this leap of faith for myself then, but it’s plain to see now it was just an inevitable step INTO myself. It seems this is the way when we look back at one year of time, hindsight is always that damned 20/20.
I learned a lot from this collection of work, and season, in bulding it and watching it unfold. I learned mostly about capacity last year, how to hold pain, and also hold it accountable. I learned a lot about grace. And community. I learned a lot about asking for more, and asking for help. I learned a lot about what it feels like to stand in my agency, and lead others into theirs. I also, more than any other thing, learned that sometimes, the only way forward is to sorta just throw it into the wind, and know that what comes back to you was always meant for you. And whatever doesn’t, it’s better with the birds anyway. Or maybe if I were a horse girl, A horse.
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I made this collection last fall rooted in Montana heritage, sourced stones from our river bottoms and lucky bands of sediment, from sweet Sally Bleck Sally | Montana Miner + Lapidary and my dear ol’ Merlin Windy Way Rock Shop. It was a cathartic experience to have such powerhouses in my back pocket: stone-cutters, friends with cameras and trucks to get us there, a litany of women who said YES, and who trusted me explicitly. This necklace is a continuation of that story, and lives currently at Altitude Gallery alongside a few others. I’m going on a little backroad tour of previous work from this collection, and feel inclined to mention that a round two is likely!
