Amanda Morton is a fourth generation Montanan, born, raised, and currently residing in Dillon with her husband Dennis, an aviation officer for the Forest Service, and their 18 year old daughter, Morgan. Since 2005, she has commuted to Butte to work at Insty Prints where she is a typesetter and graphic designer. Mandy loves everything about working there, from the projects to the people. She says she is blessed to work for great bosses, good friend and fellow artist Rose Sladek and husband Jim. They are like family and she can’t say enough good things about them.
Mandy can’t remember a time she was not drawing or painting something and began telling people she wanted to become an artist back in grade school. She primarily works in pastels but has recently gotten back into acrylics. She also works in colored pencil and graphite. Though she has dabbled in most mediums, she has always preferred the tactile feel of pastels.
When not on an artistic “bender”, Mandy enjoys the usual Montana suspects- camping and the outdoors. She really enjoys photography and tries to have a camera with her at all times- you never know what you’ll see. She loves cooking, especially if it involves big family dinners or coming up with a new recipe with her cooking partner, daughter Morgan. Their most recent experiment was margarita cupcakes! Yum!
Mandy attended the Festival back in the 90’s when she lived in Bozeman. She enjoyed it immensely! This is her fifth entry in the poster contest, having first entered in 1990. In 2011, one of her pieces was selected for the Wyoming Wildlife Conservation Stamp, but she says as thrilled as she was to receive that honor, winning the Sweet Pea contest is a particular personal accomplishment!