BUTTE — The juxtaposition between the grit and the grandeur of the Mining City is the inspiration behind a new body of work by a nationally recognized artist who is back in Butte to show his series Butte Noir.
"Art functioning as a bridging mechanism more than anything else, and what we need is more bridges. We need less firebombing and more bridging," says Andrew DeGraff, an artist and illustrator.
DeGraff is a Maine-based artist who spends most of his time as a commercial illustrator working for publications like the New York Times and Sports Illustrated, to name just a few.
He says creating art in places like Butte helps build bridges.
"I think art does that better than a lot of other things actually, and I think people undervalue it and, when it disappears, all the sudden people really notice. Try selling a magazine without pictures or illustrations or a newspaper without a good cover photo," says DeGraff.
Some of DeGraff’s most notable works include a series called Cinemaps. The works bring the viewer along on a journey through cartographic maps that chart the routes of characters in major films like Star Wars and The Princess Bride.
One of his illustrated maps has even appeared in a movie made by Wes Anderson. But after a two-month visit to Butte in 2024 his work took a different direction.
"I thought I was really going to have to manipulate something to kinda find an interest point and really the city wears its history and its past on its sleeve and as is, it’s like a finished interesting product," says DeGraff.
He uses a mixed media process that combines ink, gouache (an opaque watercolor medium) and pencil to create 25 black and white landscape paintings of his ramblings around the Mining City.
"I was just wandering. Like every street that I hadn’t gone down, there was a reason to go down, and I just kept finding these, like beautiful little alleys and nooks and crannies."
DeGraff’s Butte Noir work is on display at Homestake Pub located on Utah Avenue through July 13. He will host a free workshop on July 12 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
