Spring Creek Mural Project

The 50in50 Project is Cheyenne’s most recent adventure. A goal to paint a mural in 50 small towns across all 50 states by the end of 2025. Highlighting areas that value scenic beauty and small businesses. Creating a Documentary that highlights each community & the people that are doing amazing things for those around them. The main goal of the project is to take travelers off the beaten path, to create awareness for small town tourism, and to connect fifty communities to each other. Cheyenne believes art can be used as a tool to generate new perspectives. That a project like this can bring not only vibrancy to areas that are lacking in color, but it can also bring recognition to people that deserve it the most. Public Art can be used as a spotlight, shining on those who might otherwise be unseen just as it can be used as a megaphone, amplifying voices that deserve to be heard. Starting in her hometown of Covington, Virginia Cheyenne has traveled from coast-to-coast painting since April of 2022. Locations that have populations ranging from 200 to 60,000. Working with Nonprofit organizations & small businesses across the country to create artwork that represents those who view it the most. Each state being vastly different from the next.

Aspen Decker is an enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (t̓at̓ʔayáqn, Ql̓ispè, & Ksanka) and a speaker of her tribal language, Nsélišcn ‘Salish language’. She graduated with a master’s degree in linguistics from the University of Montana in 2021. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Tribal Historic Preservation from Salish Kootenai College in 2018. She has a Montana Class 7 Native American Language and Culture Educator License and has taught Salish for 10 years. Her passion for Salish language began as a child, learning from her elders, primarily, Patlik Pierre. Who taught her about the importance of perpetuating Salish language and culture. Raising her children in the language as first language Salish speakers has been one of the ways that she honors their teachings.
Aspen owns Xʷlxʷilt ‘Alive and Well’ a company dedicated to supporting Aspen’s language revitalization and cultural preservation through education, art, and consulting. The company is committed to developing and providing genuine Indigenous education, contributing to the promotion of diversity and Native voice within Western systems.

Artist Statement:
Ancestral Indigenous knowledge and language are at the heart of my work. As a Salish speaker and storyteller, I create ledger art on antique maps that reflect Sqelixʷ ‘Indigenous’ ways of knowing and emphasize cultural preservation, language revitalization, storytelling, and Plains Indian Sign Language.

Cameron Decker is Diné (Navajo) and a descendant of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. He is an artist and educator working in printmaking, painting, drawing, digital art, and public arts. Cameron holds a B.A. in Art History from the University of New Mexico and an M.A. in Fine Arts through the Creative Pulse program at the University of Montana. He served as faculty and Chair of the Fine Arts Department at Salish Kootenai College and was formerly the Educator and Outreach Coordinator at the Missoula Art Museum. Cameron creates his own natural pigments and charcoals for painting and drawing. His public artworks are installed throughout schools and parks on the Flathead Reservation.

Artist Statement:
My art practice is guided by intuition, memory, and connection to place. I work with natural materials like pigments made from rocks I gather and handmade willow charcoal elements. Each carries meaning, memory, and deep time of geological histories compressed into color. Drawing with these materials grounds me in a long continuum, where I feel both connected and fleeting. Creation comes in flurries, often sparked by reflection, and driven by a desire to learn and surprise myself. Whether working in painting, drawing, printmaking, or public art, I hope to honor those who shaped me and offer something lasting.