Tessa Heck MFA’16 recently brought the painting skills she refined at PNCA to two large-scale murals that grace the side of LOGE Camp’s new hotel in Missoula, Montana. The murals incorporate Heck’s love of landscape with her talent for figure painting. The artist, who earned an MFA in Visual Studies at PNCA, even got an assist from fellow PNCA alum Shelby Baldridge MFA’20.
Heck first worked on large murals at PNCA, when she served as an assistant for Amir Fala, who had a show at Hap Gallery. “This taught me some important skills, and I’ve been building up my portfolio since then,” says the Montana-born artist, who adds that she does a couple of murals a year along with her figure and landscape painting. “Murals are very time-consuming,” she says, “so it’s probably good not to be doing them all the time.”
The client, LOGE, wanted the murals to reflect the local landscape. “They gave me artistic license to bring that idea to life,” Heck says, adding that the hotel chain brings in local artists for each of its projects. “They really wanted it to reflect local values,” Heck said. The mural references landmarks such as Snowbowl, a local ski resort, and Rattlesnake Canyon, known for its mountain biking.
Heck worked on the LOGE murals for a year before beginning to paint and reaching out to Baldridge to assist. “It was nice to spend time with a friend while I was working on the murals,” Heck says.
Heck believes PNCA gave her a great foundation for building a professional art practice. “It’s an amazing program that can give you the skills to build your life around art,” she says. “I never would have imagined that I’d be doing murals full time and have a studio.”
“PNCA can lay the groundwork for those things to be more attainable,” Heck says. At PNCA, she mentored with Storm Tharp, Elizabeth Malaska, and Samantha Wall, an experience she said was “super powerful.”
An adjunct art instructor at the University of Montana, Baldridge first met Heck when they worked as waitresses at a James Beard restaurant in the state. She was thrilled to assist on the murals. “It felt like a great opportunity to challenge myself on a large scale,” she says. Baldridge’s skill in depicting the natural world seems like a perfect fit for the projects.
Looking back on her time at PNCA, Baldridge cites the late Chair of MFA Visual Studies Peter Simensky for helping her cohort “get into the critique rhythm and mindset of graduate school.” Her mentor Jessie Spiess Werner, “had an impact on my trying to go more sculptural and play around with all the materials I collect. Baldridge also felt lucky to work with Nan Curtis. “For me, the mentorship was one of the most impactful parts of the program.”
Heck also found her time at PNCA inspiring. “It sounds simple to say, but it really changed the way I view the world and experience art and my everyday life,” she says.
Watch the artist in action
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