Leland Bryan is a Lakota artist based in Eagle Butte, South Dakota. Leland grew up eager to learn about his family’s culture, including various traditions within Lakota art. Leland discovered a passion for making drawings, using pens and paper from his mom’s job at the local High School. Since then his art practice has grown to combine styles rooted in ledger drawing traditions and street art. Today, he works as a professional artist, making commissioned artworks, painting murals, leading art workshops, and continuing with the Lakota traditions he learned in his youth.

Michael Chavez is an artist and public art administrator living in Denver, CO. He was born and raised in Laramie, WY, and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wyoming and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Kansas.

This project is especially personal for Michael as his father worked for Union Pacific railroad (UP) for 30 years as a conductor and his maternal grandfather worked for nearly 35 years as a maintenance of way laborer. His work for High Iron is an homage to his family and all those who sacrificed their lives to make a better life for their children.

Anjel Garcia is a student from Cheyenne,Wyoming who just completed her associate’s in Art and Communications and Creative Arts. She is a visual artist who specializes in painting, drawing, and mixed media. Her next adventure will be at the University of Northern Colorado where she will go on to study Graphic Design. Anjel’s work is inspired by her family, western life, and everyday cultural practices. Her ancestors traveled from Mexico to Cheyenne to work on the railroad.

Eirini Linardaki, (b. Athens, Greece) is a visual artist and public art project developer based in New York City and Newark, NJ. She received her fine arts education at L.I.T. Limerick, Ireland, the Universität Der Kunst of Berlin, and the Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts of Marseille, France. Her projects, rooted in community engagement, emphasize accessibility and multiculturalism.

Linardaki has developed numerous public art projects in the US, collaborating with various organizations such as the New York City’s Parks Department, the NYC Mayor’s Office for Climate Policy, and the Department of Transportation. As part of her community-based art practice, she has been an active member of the Newark Artist Collaboration, an initiative to transform Newark, NJ, through public art. In 2024, she created a large-scale digital installation for Grand Central Station commissioned by the MTA Arts & Design and one for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in DUMBO, New York City commissioned by the City.  She created "Occupy Art Project," a three-year collaborative art endeavor, launched in 2019 with the French Institute and the General Consulates of Greece and France in NY, fostering collaboration among artists and curators from the US, France, and Greece, uniting artistic communities across borders.  Linardaki's activist work was recognized with the 2022 Artivist Award from Sing For Hope and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Grant for 2023. She is the mother of two children.

Amanda Pittman is a lifelong Wyomingite who graduated from the University of Wyoming in 2011 with her Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology, with a focus on biological anthropology. As long as she can remember, she has been a visual artist, sewist, and maker; she now primarily does illustration and graphic design. She has done costume design for four productions for Relative Theatrics in 2022 and 2023. Her artwork is inspired by the natural landscape of Wyoming, history, science fiction, and speculative fiction. Her ancestors traveled from what we now know as New Mexico to Rawlins to work on the railroad.

Danielle SeeWalker is a Hunkpapa Lakota citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and currently resides in Denver, CO. She is a multidisciplinary artist, muralist, writer, businesswoman, former Chair Commissioner of the Denver American Indian Commission and most importantly, a mother. In her artistic practices, Danielle works across disciplines to explore the intersections of Native American stereotypes, microaggressions, and colonialist systems, both historically and in contemporary society. Drawing on au courant color palettes, expressionistic art strategies, and her Lakota traditions, SeeWalker spins her work into a contemporary vision to elevate historical perspectives as told from the side not often heard. Her passion to redirect the narrative to an accurate and insightful representation of contemporary Native America is centric to her both her artwork and community involvement. Danielle is also a freelance writer and published her first book titled “Still Here” in 2020. She is also co-founder of “The Red Road Project” which is a photo/film-documentary project that documents what it means to be Native American in the 21st century by capturing inspiring and positive stories of people and communities within Indian Country. In 2022, Danielle was the recipient of the Mayor’s Excellence in Arts & Culture Innovation Award and most recently received an Emmy Award for her work on a documentary piece with Rocky Mountain PBS called “A NewChapter”.

Karen Vaughan is a scientist, educator, and creative who is passionate about sharing soils knowledge and beauty with all who are open to receive. She is a pigment forager and paint maker as well as soil science researcher and life-long learner. Karen has long been fascinated by color - from the information we gather from color to the way it makes us feel and the unique connections we have with color.

Through the Art of Soil, she crafts watercolor paint made with soil to offer ecologically responsible art supplies. Karen tries her best to slip in a little earthy beauty and a lot of soil science love in all that she shares with the world. Her work seeks to spark curiosity while highlighting the beauty of the oft unseen. Her most important works have been created and/or inspired while biking, trail running, and wandering in open spaces with her two children and husband. Karen has been highlighted in Smithsonian Magazine, Orion Magazine, and Wyoming National Public Radio. 

John Wilhelm is a musician, audio engineer, and sound designer from Laramie, WY. He is a lifelong resident of Wyoming and graduate of the University of Wyoming, where he studied Music and English. In 2014 John began working as a collaborating member of the design team for Relative Theatrics, a community theater company committed to making thought provoking, contemporary, theatre in Laramie. He has since contributed sound designs to over 40 productions. In 2021 John became the Technical Director at Relative Theatrics. As a performer John has a long standing relationship with Wyoming singer-songwriter J Shogren, appearing on his 2020 release Pulp For Paper and is currently performing live in Mr. Shogren’s enable: NOISEfolk. In 2024 John was a founding member of the Garrett Guitar Quartet, performing classical and contemporary music for the guitar. John is currently building a portfolio of sound art and installations that examine the American West.