As life passes our roles change – Wife, Mother, Designer, Teacher and Retiree. Time, materials, and priorities have dictated our choice of media. Our skill set expands. Favorites are lost and new loves are born. Fighting mortality, we keep producing, marketing, and selling.
The one constant is interaction, sharing our hard-won skills. So, the Mission is to find new connections, keeping art and the creative spirit alive in this technological age.
Leith was born in Logan, Utah. She graduated from the University of Arizona with a B.F.A. in Art Ed. and a minor in Math. Upon graduation, she continued her schooling, completing the Graphic Design Program. Her efforts resulted in employment as the staff designer at Pima Community College. She created all manner of printed material and several award-winning college catalog covers. It was also where she met her husband, Jerry. A craftsman in his own right, they pursued silversmithing and lapidary. Their designs were exhibited at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. Leith and Jerry artistically collaborated their entire marriage. After years of experimentation, they settled on wildlife relief carvings.
Leaving Tucson, they moved to southern Utah and then to Montana. Leith maintained a teaching position in both her areas of study. Her broad background was a real benefit to the school and students. Over her thirty+ teaching career, she enriched the curriculum by displaying student art, supporting drama productions, and designing proms, winning Anderson’s Annual National Prom Decorating Contest. During the Annual MCTM Math Competitions her students earned many awards.
Her students have had their work in the Big Sky Literary & Arts Magazine, the Junior Federal Duck Stamp Competition and Communication Arts Magazine. Under her administration, Opheim School received grants for the Big Read Under the Big Sky, a project coordinated with the National Endowment of the Arts and the Montana Historical Society.
As she approached retirement, Leith became interested in watercolor. With her graphic design background, she has a good eye for composition and color. With strong attention to detail, her paintings cover a wide range of western subjects - open vistas, failed homesteads, and past nostalgia. Her work was selected for the juried North Dakota Art Gallery Association 2017 tour. She began doing exhibitions and selling at art shows. A prolific painter, Leith has exhibited with the Wild Bunch of Artists, the James Memorial, Western Art Week, Art in the Park Glasgow, Wolf Point, and Williston, the Rough Rider Fine Art Show, MonDak Art, the Phoenix Art Directors’ Graphic Design Show and Signature Tuscon Sci-fi Theme Posters.
Leith has three children and six grandchildren. Her husband is deceased. She has a dynamic art studio in her home at Saint Marie where she gives private lessons and paints.
