MISSOULA — A local artist is bringing Montana scenery to life outside of the Southgate Mall.
Artist Ann Karp with Sideways Gaze Art & Sign, painted a mural outside of the mall, next to what will be the new Scheel’s entrance.
She said she’s worked with the mall before but said this was her biggest project yet.
“I’ve been working with the mall for a couple of years and working on different projects with them and they approached me and just asked if I could do a mural and then they sent me the size of it,” Karp said.
The mural is part of a new initiative the mall is doing called the Canvas Project, that aims to bring more art into the shopping experience.
Karp drew inspiration from nature for her color pallet.
“I was out on Blue Mountain one evening and the colors were just so dramatic. I tried to look around and memorize them and then the fun part was going to the paint store and picking out all of the colors,” Karp said.
The mural displays things that represent Montana such as fly fishing, Mount Sentinel, Mount Jumbo and Great Blue Herons.
Southgate Mall General Manager, Tim Winger, helped out in the design process.
“With Scheel’s being an outdoor sporting goods store, we just thought this would be a nice compliment and an attraction to the experience of coming to the mall,” Winger said.
Karp said there’s another reason she loved working on the piece.
“To me, preserving public lands and keeping them for future generations and so this is an homage to that, so these are a couple of reasons I was really extra pleased to do this particular art, right here, outside,” Karp said.
Karp added that over the course of nine days, she had a lot of people cheering her on, including mall employees and delivery truck drivers.
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