Official Guide to Art Week Great Falls, Montana March 15th-19th, 2023
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1092595
50 • portfolio Kira Fercho Art Show Modern Impressionistic Oil Painter kira fercho art show Darkhorse Wine Hall & Snug 116 1st Avenue South Kira Fercho Art Show K March 19-23 10am-10pm ira Fercho, a modern impressionistic oil painter, focuses her work on what she knows, the people, the landscape, the animals, the Montana way of life, and the culture of the West. "Being from Shepherd, Montana, (a farming community north of Billings) we have one bar, a school, and a post office. We grew up riding horses and chasing cows," says Fercho. "Painting was my way to escape. It was a way to keep myself entertained for hours." At the clever age of 2, Kira told her parents she was going to grow up to be a painter. But life as a full-time artist is an achievement accomplished by few. After earning her master's degree and becoming a licensed therapist while trying to paint and single parent, it wasn't until she was 30 when she finally said, "If I don't' make this jump I'm afraid I'm never going to. I had to trade one thing I loved for one thing I loved a little bit more." Fercho lives in Billings, Montana, where she works and raises her children with husband, Kent. In her local studio and Big Sky, Montana gallery, Kira produces and sells her work, which she has been exhibiting throughout the West in public and private collections and in art spaces for more than 20 years. In 2013, Kira was commissioned to paint twelve tipis/ lodges with each one representing a federally recognized tribe of Montana. The project took over a year to research and create. The collection was donated to the Billings Clinic where it now hangs in the commons. "This is one of the greatest works of my life. One day, I sat in the atrium and watched as a woman stopped, pointed upwards to her young child and said, "that is us". The paintings are an homage to the Native Americans of By Ellie Stone