Amy Doty

Amy Doty started Frame of Mind in 2014 and has grown the business to be an art hub in Missoula, Montana. Amy has nearly 20 years of experience custom framing and designing in multiple states and for high end customers such as Nike, Adidas, Intel, Beaver Mustards, and much more. Early in her career, Amy interned as a custom framer with Maria Mackovjak, a previous head framer of the Chicago Art Museum. Under that guidance, Amy learned professional framing techniques and design skills essential to tackling even the most challenging projects. She has continued to build on that foundation with training in archival framing, framing history, and innovative design concepts from leaders in the field throughout her career.

A graduate of The Northwest College of Art and Design in Poulsbo, Wa, Amy received a bachelor’s degree in Visual Communications with an emphasis on Fine art and Photography. She was taught under professionals in illustration, animation, painting, and more. She furthered her knowledge of the art world as an art gallery assistant for The Monte Dolack Gallery in Missoula, Montana in 2006. Amy contributed as a custom framer and assisted in sales and education of the full Monte Dolack collection, which is proving invaluable as she manages sales for the full collection of Monte Dolack fine art.

Amy’s hard work and dedication to art and creativity, both her own and others, allowed Frame of Mind to become a staple for artists in Missoula. As a reflection of her values, the business will always be a place for artists to create, inspire, educate, and grow.

In 2021, Amy was diagnosed with the BRCA 1 gene mutation. A BRCA1 gene mutation is a change in the BRCA1 gene that disrupts its normal function as a tumor suppressor, which is to help repair damaged DNA and prevent cells with errors from growing uncontrollably. This inherited mutation significantly increases a person’s risk of developing certain cancers, particularly breast and ovarian cancer, though it can also raise the risk for prostate, pancreatic, and other cancers. The next few years she underwent multiple cancer preventative surgeries, including a double mastectomy breast replacement procedure, and a total hysterectomy.  As a part of these procedures, Amy became a participant of research studies for the BRCA 1 mutation at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her continued health treatment includes biannual scans and biopsies in hopes of detecting any possible cancers that cannot be preventably treated surgerically or medically.

Despite the medical challenges of living with the BRCA 1 mutation, Amy works hard and dedicates her self to art and creativity, both her own and others. She shows this in her personal life, as well as in her business, Frame of Mind, which has helped to transform her business into a staple for artists in Missoula. As a reflection of her values, the business will always be a place for artists to create, inspire, educate, and grow.

Cynthia Swidler    

Cynthia Swidler, based in Missoula, Montana, specializes in painting and photography inspired by the natural world. Her work celebrates local landscapes, rivers, birds, and everyday encounters with nature. Swidler’s art emphasizes place and environmental consciousness, aiming to strengthen connections between art, community, and conservation.

She pursued art education and occupational therapy at Wayne State University and the University of Montana. After retiring from occupational therapy, she completed the Master Naturalist Course at the Montana Natural History Center and joined the Let’s Go Plein Air group. She enjoys painting and the camaraderie it fosters among fellow painters in northwest Montana.

    Jennifer Baylis

Jennifer Baylis currently works full time as an artist as a figurative painter in Missoula, Montana. Creating work inspired by women’s inner emotional worlds and the beauty of everyday life, she strives to bring a painterly approach to the subject. She works primarily in alla prima methods, a Realism technique established and taught the early 20th century. She received her BA in Fine Art from UCLA in 1997, worked in art museums in California, and has shown her work both in California and Montana in group and solo shows.

    Kate Dean    

Kate Dean is a printmaker and visual artist based in Birmingham, UK, whose practice is rooted in traditional and heritage printmaking processes. Having first learned letterpress in her family’s print shop as a teenager, she works primarily with relief, intaglio and letterpress, with a particular interest in the physical and material qualities of analogue printmaking.

Her work combines bold, graphic imagery with an emphasis on the handmade qualities of traditional print processes. Recent work has become increasingly personal, drawing on lived experience and using image and text to explore themes including illness, recovery, resilience and the body.

Following treatment for breast cancer, Dean returned to her practice with renewed focus. Her recent work reflects on aspects of that experience while retaining the directness, physicality and process-led approach that characterise her wider printmaking practice.

Alongside her studio work, Dean teaches printmaking and demonstrates historic printing presses through workshops, community projects and public engagement.

Instagram: @katedeanprinthouse

Website: https://katedeanprinthouse.wixsite.com/katedeanprinthouse

    Linda Helding

Linda Helding is a fabric artist who works with hand-dyed silk and rehomed fabrics. Long time Missoula fibre artist who appreciates open space, dogs and friends. Her images reflect a place and time in the natural space.

Linda Cox    

Born in Butte, America, I have been painting for as long as I can remember. Nature has always been my muse, and fantasy is a playful means to allow me to escape into a world of my own making. Art gives me peace, inspiration, and an appreciation for the beauty and wonders that surround us.

    Molly Stockdale

Molly Stockdale was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in October 2015. During treatment, Molly would often look in the mirror and lament, “I look like Uncle Fester” but at the same time, she felt empowered by her perseverance through surgery and chemo. She wanted a record of this pivotal time in her life that she could look back on with pride rather than despair. She enlisted two friends, Jennifer Mefford of Little Bear Photography and Nina Shyne, who helped with costumes and makeup, to create these photographs. As a survivor, Molly volunteers with Camp Mak A Dream and the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, raising awareness and supporting fellow survivors of gynecologic cancers.

Nightshade Rivera    

Nightshade is a genderfluid artist with a passion for anime, mythology, and more.

    Stacey Klocke

My name is Stacey and I paint with gouache and acrylic gouache. I’m trying to learn pleinair. I have 4 grown children and 4 little dogs. I grew up in montana but never thought I could or would paint until about 3 yrs ago, I haven’t stopped!

The Mutants Group

This piece was done by a local hereditary cancer mutation carriers support group, proudly named The Mutants. The Mutants Hereditary Cancer Mutation Carriers is a local group for education, camaraderie, and support for people with genetic mutations that can predispose them to different cancers. Several members met and used the paper of an exam table to dip their breasts in paint, then press them to the canvas, creating a unique print. One member of our group, Mallory Lampe, added the drawings done in permanent marker.

The individual prints on the smaller canvases represent how isolating and overwhelming it can feel to have genetic mutations that predispose us to cancer. The group print on the larger canvas represents how this diagnosis can also connect us with others in our situation and be a part of a supportive and positive community. One pair belonging to a single person is split between the group and the individual, because both experiences can be true and felt at the same time.

Art helps bring awareness to the seriousness of hereditary cancer. Thankfully, most people who participated in this project are Previvors (someone who has a mutation and has not had cancer). These individuals are usually screened at an earlier age in hopes of intercepting cancer or removing body parts before cancer happens.