Artists Nominated for NMWA’s 2027 Women to Watch: A Book Arts Revolution
Wyoming’s 2027 Women to Watch
Nomination Process
Wyoming Curator Beth Venn selected 4 Women to Watch artists to represent our state, and NMWA will select one artist from this group to be featured in the upcoming national exhibition Women to Watch: A Book Arts Revolution.
Jodie Atherton
Sculptress | Laramie
Jodie Atherton, delights in pursuing soul-stirring experiences as she explores viewing the world and creating artwork outside a well-worn path. These views directly lead to her passion for using reclaimed materials, with an aim for her artworks to inspire others to expand their view and embrace new possibilities. She is a contemporary western environmental artist, sculptress and jewelry maker.
Atherton studied Fine Arts at the University of Wyoming, and has studied under Mary Jane Edwards, Ray Reichert, Connie Norman, Marie E.V.B Gibbons and Ashely Hope Carlisle. Atherton has her bachelor’s degree in fine arts with a minor in ceramics.
“The heart of my art is to take found items and turn them into unique contemporary works. Visual concepts are my primary language.
“I form pictures in my mind and then create ways to express these in my artwork.
Communicating via this sculptural language, viewers “read” and conceptualize my sculptural books as the story unfolds though chosen imagery.
As a Wyoming native, I find inspiration and freedom to deliberate in the vast open lands of our state. My style highlights the subtle beauty in eclectic objects.
Ephemera tells part of the story as I rely on my life circumstances and visual sense to link these items into a finished piece of artwork. I hope my artworks inspire others to expand their perspectives and embrace new possibilities.”
Oakley Boycott
Multi-disciplinary Artist | Lander
Born and raised in the foothills of the Wind River Mountains in Lander, Wyoming on Apsaalooké (Crow), Eastern Shoshone, and Cheyenne land, the majority of her childhood was spent touring with her parents, the Western music duo "The Grizzlies" to communities across the country.
Based out of New York City since 2007, she can be seen regularly on stage and screen and with consistent appearances and accolades in New York City at the Metropolitan Opera, the Town Hall Theatre, Feinsteins 54 Below, and Theatre Row as well as regional theaters across the country.
Their production company Boycott…the Production works to cultivate and foster creative connection between juxtaposed communities in order to foster empathy, growth and healthy risk-taking.
As an endurance artist, Oakley has performed:
SILENCE, based on Marina Abramovics "The Artist Is Present".
ECHO, a three-day long endurance art performance piece, rooted in community relationship to mental health.
NOISE, a three day endurance art installation integrating true freedom of speech with community mental health.
“ART is anything and everything done with passion and attention to detail that shifts the way we experience the world. ENDURANCE is the act of sustaining a prolonged effort or activity; physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, etc.
Endurance art is like no drug I’ve ever, never done. If I could do this every day for the rest of my life, I would. Endurance work became a part of my craft simply because I wanted to know what it feels like. Now, I wish that every human being alive was crazy enough to want to do what I do, experience what I experience and see what I see; the world would be better for it.
There’s something to be said about the durational aspect of pushing through the discomfort, whether it is physical, mental, spiritual, emotional. In building these pieces I have found that they naturally strip away everything that we try to hide behind in our daily lives, whether that is in the constructs of time, speech, social niceties or autopilot responses. The formats exist as suggestions, but you are allowed to use them however you want to use them.”
Katie Christensen
Mixed Media | Laramie
Katie Christensen (she/her) spent 20 years working in the arts in various capacities including as a mixed media artist, for the Wyoming Arts Council, Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, and the University of Wyoming Art Museum. Motivated by working with veterans and women who were incarcerated, she recently transitioned to the mental health counseling field and is a licensed professional counselor. She continues her personal art making practice, which focuses on book arts, mixed media drawing, and small sculptures.
Integrating expressive arts in counseling, Katie provides a nurturing environment to help people explore and create their best selves. Katie holds an MS in Mental Health Counseling from the University of Wyoming (UW), MFA from Bowling Green State University, and a BFA from UW.
“I’ve chosen to share a selection of artist books from the last 14 years. Working in cycles, and always in relationship to present-moment, books have been a way I find my anchor, find myself, and my place in the world. I have also practiced meditation for more than 20 years. The element of time is an important feature to each work, as is the unique structural form, which I love to play with as I design, often making several maquettes. Text is drawn from my own writing, and authors who revere common humanity, emphasis on place, and spirituality in Nature. Images come from my own prints and drawings, which are another meditative, repetitive practice.
While jobs and careers have changed, family and relationships evolved, and the world feels more tenuous, my artistic practice soothes, helps me process, and I find both stillness and stimulation. I’m drawn to abstraction as another way to interpret the world around me, to reflect on my awareness (which is always heightened in an always loud world). Books are like a snapshot in time, with the slow labor of making, cataloging each moment. Their forms naturally weave together elements of image, text, and time in ways other media do not. In this way my books document, and are like a quiet revolution, a persistent action that resists norms. A moment of quiet power.”
Kayla Clark
Print Artist | Laramie
Kayla-Clark is a formally trained graphic designer and educator with a persistent obsession with typography and industrial & architectural design. She infuses her work with fresh yet structured concepts and clean & streamlined craft.
With a background in entrepreneurship and visual arts, Kayla brings both expert and inventive knowledge to client-driven work and the classroom along with a hearty dose of grit.
She is currently faculty at the University of Wyoming and enjoys partnerships with makers, scientists and friends around the globe.
Her studio, Kiss-Cut Studio is a fusion of knowledge and craft. A kiss cut (production method) leaves a precise, gentle and enduring incision. The design principle, K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid) is the k-c creed in life and the making process.
“A book is a vessel for the good work of mischievous imagination. Rooted in community and typographically driven, my work as a book artist, letterpress printer and graphic designer invites curiosity, conversation, and often, contribution from the viewer.
Exploring the push-and-pull between narrative and materiality, my experimental, process-driven approach combines utilitarian, playful, and unexpected materials with traditional tools and methods. My Wyoming roots are present in these works, sensed through community-centered customization, gritty problem solving and industrial materials.
By treating everyday fragments as vessels for narrative, I redefine what a book can be: an adaptable form that holds stories in both familiar and unexpected ways. Whether inked and pressed onto paper, sourced from a crowd, or glowing on a screen, the power of letters, words and stories prevails.”
Beth Venn
Consulting Curator | Wyoming
The Wyoming Committee has selected Beth Venn as its curator for Women to Watch 2027: A Book Arts Revolution. Beth Venn is the Executive Director at the Neltje Center for Excellence in Creativity and the Arts and the Managing Director of the Jentel Artist Residency, both in Sheridan, Wyoming. Beth also serves on the board of the Wyoming Arts Alliance.
Most recently, Beth served as the founding executive director of KinoSaito, a multidisciplinary art center and artist residency program in the lower Hudson Valley, N.Y. Beth has held curatorial positions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Newark Museum. She has consulted for museums, performing art centers and public libraries on strategic planning and program development, and she advises community-based arts nonprofits. A native of northern Illinois, Beth received her bachelor’s degree in art history at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL. After relocating to the Northeast, she completed a master’s degree in art history at the University of Delaware.
“Too often, the voices of women artists in rural states go unheard. This exhibition will showcase the important contributions of women artists in Wyoming, highlighting those doing the most visionary work in the field of book arts. I am honored to call attention to the ways they not only challenge, inspire, and expand our understanding of the arts of the West, but to also include their contributions in the national conversation.”
— Beth Venn