Library displays local artists' work

Residents who have paid a visit to the West Shore Community Library may notice something has changed on its walls over the past few months.

The library is featuring exhibits by local artists as a way to thank them for donating work to the auction at the library's annual summer fundraising event Chapters.

It started in September, with a display by artist Julie Wulf. Starting in January, the show changed, and locals can now see the photography of Lakeside resident Margaret Davis.

Davis' show, which runs through March, features a mix of her traditional black and white prints, which she processed in her own dark room, and color digital photography. The combination creates a "Mixed Bag," the title of the exhibit.

The inspiration for her 10 pieces comes from all over. Some feature Glacier National Park, but others include different parts of Montana and places outside the state.

Davis says her husband points out that at outdoor sites when everyone is looking at the view from one direction, she usually has her back to it, snapping photos of something else entirely.

"Design and composition catch my eye," Davis said. "I like to kind of find some little twist that encourages my imagination. I think a lot of artists do that."

Some of her pieces in the show were captured through what she calls "happy accidents," but others took work and patience. One commonality, she jokes, is that none of the pieces in her show feature snow.

Davis studied art in college, and almost majored in it. She had done painting and used a variety of mediums.

But it was as a bookkeeper at a photography shop in Helena that she really developed her eye. The shop had dark rooms and equipment, which gave her access to the tools needed, but it was the mentorship of her boss, Bill Brown, that really got her going in the medium.

"I thought, 'This is so cool,'" Davis said. "This is magic."

That was in the 1980s, and since then she's practiced photography in one form or another for 25 years.

She doesn't have a favorite piece, but she is partial to "Till Death Do Us Part," an image she captured of two old, abandoned refrigerators standing side by side.

"They looked like an old couple that is going to be there forever," she said.

Davis hopes those who see her show might be encouraged to get out and capture images themselves.

"I hope it inspires them to go out and get their cameras out," Davis said.

Today, people can spend hours on a computer working on photos, but, Davis says, they have to have something to start with.

"You really need raw material and that means getting out there and snapping away," she said.

She also encourages amateur photographers to read the directions that come with their camera.

"Usually the camera can do a whole lot more than you think it would," Davis said.

Davis' work can be seen on display at the library, located at 100 Bierney Creek Road in Lakeside. It is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Sunday.