Naomi Thornton
Mixed Media Artist based in Missoula, Montana
ABOUT
Naomi Thornton is a mixed media artist, grandmother, and psychotherapist living in Missoula, Montana, located on the traditional lands of the Salish, Kootenai, and Kalispel people. In her art, she explores the juxtaposition of these roles. Naomi finds her passion close to the earth having lived off the grid and in community while raising her three children. As a psychotherapist in private practice, she joins with others to address the emotional impacts of climate crisis as we face a changing environment.
Naomi is a self-taught artist who was always drawn to create with her hands and heart. She remembers, as a four-year old, drawing a world of solace and adventure with pencil and crayons. At 15, she created large multilayered collages that reflected the turmoil of growing up in the 60’s. Later, she worked in mediums considered to be craft such as dollmaking, leatherwork, embroidery, and pottery. She started painting with acrylics at age 50 with a focus on large figurative paintings of women. At 60, she shifted to small scale collage on 5” x 8” cards as a tool for self-exploration. She facilitated workshops teaching this healing process for over 10 years. The pandemic became a catalyst for her current body of mixed media work. Her series, “Warrior Women” and “Healing Our Inner Child”, show the influence of being a deep listener to the personal stories of so many over the years.
In past year, her work has been exhibited in juried group shows, locally in “Montana Medley” by Art Mobile of Montana, nationally by Anthropology of Motherhood at the Three Rivers Art Festival and Sleeth Gallery, and in the international online shows “Dreamland” by Arts to Hearts Project and “Surrounded by Nature” by Art Mums United. Her artwork and stories can be found on Instagram @spirit_is_a_bone_art.
ARTIST STATEMENT
In my artwork, I create dream landscapes that are places of healing and empowerment. In my series “Warrior Women” I start with vintage photographs of women taken in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. My medium, collage, is a process of deconstructing and reassembling. I remove each woman from the constraints of her time and locality and place her in a nurturing landscape outside the bounds of everyday reality. In building the dream landscape, I carefully select each piece to reflect and honor her story.
I have always been drawn to portrait photography, knowing that a photograph is a moment in time, a real person with a unique story. The photographs I find are embedded within an historical and cultural context. Some portraits occur within the experience of privilege while others are shaped by colonization and exploitation. I seek to amplify women’s voices past and present and reclaim the undervalued stories of women’s everyday experiences. I research the achievements and struggles of women during each particular historical moment and locality to envision a framework for each piece of art. I use found images from magazines, books and online resources combined with paint, handmade papers, and text from old books to evoke a textured layering of desires, hopes and dreams. Through my art, I intend to create a narrative of connection and safety, of a way forward.
As a psychotherapist, I have witnessed the incredible resiliency of human beings to heal and reach toward wholeness. In my art, I seek to reflect that part of the human spirit. My hope is that the viewer will also enter the dreamscape I have created as a place of renewal and self-revelation.
I offer my gratitude to all the photographers, known and unknown, whose work is a catalyst to my creative process.
Website: spiritisaboneart.com
Instagram: @spirit_is_a_bone_art