Bigfork artist's work featured at Target stores nationwide
Take a walk down one of Target’s personal-care aisles and you just might stumble across the work of local artist Mya Bessette. The Bigfork painter’s piece entitled “Infusion” was selected to be featured on a line of soap products by a natural cleaning company called method, in collaboration with online art marketplace Minted.
The line launched July 24 in Target stores nationwide and is also available at Target.com.
Bessette, 41, is one of four independent artists whose work was selected from a pool of thousands for this collection. Her piece will be featured on hand and dish soaps in the “Tropical Cloud” scent, a fruity fragrance with notes of mangosteen and passion fruit, according to method.
Bessette draws her inspiration from the natural surroundings in the Flathead Valley and hopes her work will inspire others to recognize joy in everyday moments.
“My tagline was always ‘Optimistic fine art.’ I always wanted to create something that caused people to pause and enjoy a moment or be present in a moment,” Bessette said. “Looking at art can allow the viewer to pause long enough to accept those moments of joy that are kind of peppered throughout our day.”
Her chosen acrylic painting is a medley of bold, warm hues contrasted with cooler accents in a style she’s dubbed “ethereal cloudscape.”
“What I was feeling at the time was a win or a victory didn’t necessarily have to come from a bright sunny day or success at work, these big milestone moments, but rather opening the heart to the possibility that joy could be found anywhere in any moment,” she said.
The artist and mother of two first picked up a brush in 2009 after her pregnancy inspired her to leave the oil fields in Alaska, where she’d been working with her husband Cody. She took the opportunity to reinvent herself and started painting during her daughter’s nap times.
Bessette sold her work online through her Easy store before discovering Minted in 2015. Minted uses a crowdsourcing format where artists enter contests that are then voted on by the public and the most popular works are sold in a variety of formats — from traditional prints to linens and pillows.
“It launched me out of Montana,” Bessette said about Minted. “It really elevated me and gave me a little more of a voice.”
Bessette was ecstatic to learn that “Infusion” had been selected to reach an even broader audience through the method x Minted collection.
“I hope it just means that my art gets in front of more people and is able to lift more people,” Bessette said. “Everyone has a different reason for creating art. I just feel really fortunate to live where I live. If I can take all that energy, pour it on a canvas and have it resonate with someone — that’s the goal.”
Reporter Mackenzie Reiss can be reached at (406) 758-4433 or mreiss@dailyinterlake.com.