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ARTIST OF THE MONTH

John Armstrong knew he wanted to leave Laurel, Montana at an early age. The realization struck him not long after he discovered he could draw vegetable people better than the other kids. “I looked out the window and saw strip farming, an oil refinery and the railroad,” the 70-year-old recalls. “I didn’t want to be a farmer or work at the refinery or the railroad. I decided right then to be an art teacher.”