Hot Poop, Ski Bluewood, Volcanos, & The Evergreen State Infographics
Christian Schultz is a multidisciplinary designer, production artist for Caterpillar® clothing brand and owner / designer at Hukel Design. Drawing from his time living in Walla Walla in the early 90's, his designs pay tribute to the local independent record store Hot Poop and local ski hill, Bluewood. His Volcanoes of Washington and Washington, The Evergreen State designs, highlight his admiration for the state and aims to entertain and educate travelers about Washington's most iconic features, facts and symbols.
Valley Watershed & Local Avian Population Infographics
Hannah Bartman is interested in the ways humans create their own stories to remember the past. Her artwork uses symbols reproduced in vinyl to question these stories in the public space. Graduating from Whitman College with an art degree in 2016, Hannah lives in town and now works at the Walla Walla Foundry.
Hannah has made work that is inspired by Walla Walla and the Pacific Northwest's history for the past couple years, so her work with the Finch was influenced by that background. As her subjects for The Finch, she chose the Walla Walla Watershed and local avian populations. Both subjects are ecologically important in that they have a direct effect on Walla Walla's lived history, past and present. To know Walla Walla is to understand the vast environmental resources that support it – beginning hundreds of years previous with the nomadic lifestyles of the indigenous peoples to the thriving local economy of wine and agriculture that we have today.
Drink to Your Health Infographic
As a former resident of Washington state, Brittany was instantly inspired to create wine-related artwork when presented with the opportunity to design a piece for the Finch Motel. Combining her interest in history and affinity for research, "Drink to Your Health" seemed a natural choice as a subject for the infographic. Brittany earned bachelor's degrees in literature and Graphic Design at Montana State University and now works at Massive Studios in Bozeman, Montana as a user experience designer and web developer. When she's not building websites, she can typically be found be creating original hand knit and crocheted works of art or making steady progress through her colossal book queue.
Steelhead Trout Lifecycle, Lewis & Clark Journey, Subway Dam Map, Balloon Stampede, & Grape Composition Infographics
Nikki Simon is an Illustrator and Designer living in Helena, Montana. Her upbringing includes ties to agriculture, recreating outdoors, and generally getting her hands a little dirty. The experiences of those that came before her have been passed down like heirlooms to be protected and shared as a means of preserving this storied heritage. This reverence is a constant motivation in her work, where she hopes to educate and incite curiosity of a given subject. In researching her illustrated topics for the Finch, she realized similar themes of appreciation for the history and people that have existed in the Walla Walla valley. Her illustrated grains are an homage to the agriculture community and the humble expertise they hold. The steelhead trout lifecycle pays tribute to this steadfast spirit that begins in the local rivers. Lewis & Clark's journey through the Walla Walla valley is rugged and meandering in style, evoking a sense for the area's natural geography. In contrast, her subway style map of hydroelectric dams is reflective of this industrious feat of development on some of Washington's rivers. The hot air balloon of the Walla Walla Balloon Stampede playfully captures the wonderment of a hot air balloon's inner workings. And the common grapes in the Walla Walla AVA demonstrate the nuances between different local wines, displaying the cultivated sophistication of a Walla Walla grape.
Biking Map, Gear Checklist, & Onion Diagram Infographic
Seth Neilson is a multidisciplinary creative director, designer, illustrator, and photographer, currently working and playing in Bozeman, Montana. Raised between Washington State and Wyoming, his creative work draws from a lifetime of interest and experience in wild places and continues to be influenced by quality time spent in nature, as evidenced by his ongoing Outdoor Alphabet project. Inspired by the history and outdoor culture of Walla Walla, his pieces pick up the flavor of the local cycling community, as well as the sweet onions that are so iconic to the valley.
Palouse Falls, Frontier Days, Native Grass, & Wheat Plant Anatomy Infographics
Raised in Vail, CO, Walker developed a passion for agriculture and conservation early in life. He followed this passion into his twenties, working on some of the largest ranches in the West. He then pursued another life-long obsession – skiing – working for years as a helicopter ski guide in Alaska before completing his degree in Ranch Management from TCU in 2011. Walker began consulting ranching operations on best practices and sustainability, including leading a team in Ghana, Africa and collaborating with the Ghanaian government to improve the country's beef industry from pasture to plate.
Recognizing the opportunity to improve the agriculture industry by incorporating better technologies, Walker enrolled in classes at the University of Montana, exploring information systems, computer programming, and design. Combining his background in agriculture with his excitement for innovative technology and his love of clean design, Walker formed Milhoan Design in 2018, a Creative Design and Branding Agency with a western drawl, located in Bozeman, Montana.
When not building brands or sketching fresh designs, Walker can be found schussing after his kids at Bridger Bowl or trying to become a better fly angler than his wife.
Winemaking, Loess Soil, AVA, & Stemware Infographics
Yogesh is a designer working in Bozeman Montana. During over a decade of freelancing he's worn many hats, but lately focusing on designing for the wild frontier of the world wide web. Yogesh enjoys the challenge of finding beautiful and simple design solutions that function on all devices and screen sizes. I also have an extensive print background and continue to design identities and collateral for the printed page. He earned an MA in photojournalism from the University of Montana in 2005. After a short stint working for weekly papers in Missoula and Hawaii, Yogesh struck out his my own to tell visual stories through design. He still has all the hats in my closet and occasionally he writes and does photography for outdoor magazines. He also does voice over work for my friends at Wild Vision Films and plays in band called Holler N' Pine.
Hand Stamped Installation Art. Guest Bathrooms and Lobby
Sukha Worob, a Bozeman, Montana educator, printmaker and installation artist starts his figural works by photographing community members and creating hand cast rubber stamps which are then used to create populations directly on the wall. The same interest in possibility fuels Worob's typographic work in the lobby, which relies on stamp rollers. "I like that our written language utilizes the same basic forms just pieced together differently" he says. Much like the figural work, this imagery is unplanned. Worob created the installation of works throughout the Finch on site with assistance from Walla Walla Emerging Artists Peter Eberle and Lex Lupton.
Artwork Panels and Framed Found Objects in Map Room and Loft
The art panels installed on the wall above the Map Room communal table have been repurposed from the 2012 Missoula Art Museum solo exhibition entitled "Commons". Created from repurposed cardboard packaging, which has been cut, sanded and organized into an orderly tile-like grid, the panels were originally used architecturally to create a dimly lit mosque-like colonnade in the Museum exhibition, giving the space a sense of ancient architecture. Echoing the original intent, The Finch Hotel has repurposed the panels as an architectural feature on the partition wall between the ground-floor Map Room table and the second-floor loft. A visit to the upstairs loft provides an opportunity to view work from "Specimans", a long running Karson series which reveals found consumer waste objects organized and mounted into collector-like shadow boxes. The waste objects here were collected from Central Park in Iowa City, some of which have date specific items such as movie tickets.
Over a long career Terry Karson has been in dozens of group and solo exhibits, and his major works have been donated to the Yellowstone Art Museum and The Missoula Art Museum, both in Montana. Karson was an arts administrator, professor, and curator in addition to his long-standing studio practice. Terry Karson dedicated nearly 50 years to his passion for art before dying at his home in Montana in 2017.
Metal Chandelier
Kirsten Kainz lives and works in Montana. During college Kirsten worked in many disciplines of the arts including ceramics, glass blowing, bronze casting, but working with metals stole her heart and has led her to creating monumental works. She completed her BFA specializing in metal smithing, at Southern Illinois University and Curtain University in Western Australia.
Her work in precious metals never quite fit the jewelry scale and once her training in the techniques of ornamental blacksmithing started it was evident that her work would grow in scale. Her award-winning paintings and sculptures are featured in public and private collections all around the nation. She is represented by several national galleries and represents herself locally in Montana. She has works available for sale and does commission work for public and private collections.
Lobby & Map Room Light Fixtures
Shaw Thompson's passion for using reclaimed materials was a perfect fit for The FINCH's quest to provide intriguing art around every corner. Shaw produced distinctive light fixtures to complement our Walla Walla hotel lobby and Map Room using both recovered pieces and new materials to build visually pleasing and proportionally balanced vessels. The FINCH's unique fixtures include parts salvaged from the internal workings of air circulation fans and much more. To see more of Shaw's carefully curated items, visit his shop, The Misco Mill Gallery, in downtown Bozeman or at miscomill.com.
Architects
Beginning with an essentialism design intent, all items deemed necessary for the FINCH Hotel renovation– from the mundane to the pragmatic – were elevated to a level of high design. This was executed through artisan built-in furniture and fixtures. While traditional hotel lobbies focus primarily on the utility of guest check-in, The FINCH Hotel lobby was reinterpreted to serve as a base camp for guests and locals to learn more about the surrounding areas and the opportunities that they hold. A large communal table and map desk facilitates this exchange of information. A connection to place was also emphasized with the curation of the art in the guest rooms. Regional and local artists gave each room a unique, infographic wall installation to tell the guest a story about the experiences that are waiting just outside their door.
