About Jim
Jim Trueax is an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana. Born in Havre, MT, Jim spent most of his life growing up in and around the Anaconda, MT and Georgetown Lake area surrounded by wildlife. This inspired him to become an artist.
While attending Montana State University in Bozeman, MT, Jim belonged to the MSU Indian Club and painted 6 murals depicting native culture. Reproductions of the murals are on permanent display in the new American Indian Hall on the MSU campus. After graduation in 1977 with a degree in Art Education, Jim did some teaching and worked for 2 sign companies.
Jim moved to the Helena, MT area in 1984 and opened a very specialized sign company, doing work all over the US. Jim has created a number of 3D art/sculptures (photo ops) for the Montana State Museum (this includes an 18’ long bas relief sculpture that depicts the animals that roamed Montana 10,000 years ago, a celebration of Glacier National Parks Rangers, and a reproduction of a section of one of Charlie Russell's paintings) along with some work on television shows, etc.
He retired from the business in 2019 to pursue his love of art. Jim is currently working on a series of paintings that depict Native American dancers. Jim has displayed his artwork during the Charlie Russell/Western Art Week in Great Falls, MT. He was chosen to do the illustrations for the Native American "Homelands" section of the new State Museum (Montana Heritage Center) in Helena, MT. For 4 years Jim was honored to be chosen, as a member of the Little Shell Tribe, to display and demonstrate in Yellowstone National Park at the Yellowstone Tribal Heritage Center at Old Faithful .
Another of Jim's passions is the restoration of vehicles. This passion started early on (while in high school), when Jim built his first car. This has carried on through life with the rebuilding of 20+ Datsun pickups, full size pickups and his true love - those wonderful 1960 era vehicles, especially those amazing Camaros! This passion is very strong to this day although at this time his major attention is to his artwork.