Name/Title
Sherry Brown, Montana CallsEntry/Object ID
CTC001B00018Description
Sherry Brown is a self-taught artist. Ever since she could pick up a crayon, she had been drawing, even before kindergarten. Ever since she was a little girl, Brown knew that being an artist was what she wanted to do. She admits to being a little sassy, so when she told her parents she wanted to be an artist, and they encouraged her to consider something a bit more financially secure, she said, “It’s a sin if I don’t use God’s gift!”
Charles Marion Russell has been Brown’s favorite artist and has inspired her. His art transported her back to that time and drove her to learn brain tanning and make her own earth paints (pigments from natural sources). Fittingly, the C.M. Russell Museum is the first to display her work and award her with an up-and-coming artist achievement award. Later, an art gallery hosted an event for emerging artists, and when Brown and her family received free tickets, she was happily surprised to see her artwork displayed. With all of this, her future course was affirmed.
Recognizing she wanted to do art full-time, she never sought the highest-paying jobs to achieve luxury and has found fulfillment through her art. “God has truly blessed me,” Brown said. “I have a lot of gratitude." While she worked at other jobs, Brown was never far from her roots as an artist. While working at a window factory, she would draw in every spare minute on waste cardboard. She has done color and design coordination, as well as the restoration of wooden carvings. She worked at a paint supply store (that included an interior design section) as a bartender (doodling on napkins got her better tips!), but always sold artwork in between. She trained as a tattoo artist, which would help her as she later began woodburning on turkey calls.
Around 2005, Brown started turkey hunting after her son displayed an interest. She was self-taught and had the typical trial-and-error learning curve new hunters experience. She would watch flocks, listen to them, and observe their patterns and roosts; at one time, she had nine different flocks patterned. “I started figuring things out,” said Brown. “It took a few years before I got one, but when I got my first one, it was over; this was happening; I was hooked!” In 2010, Brown raised Royal Palm turkeys and enjoyed learning their language. She would run calls and learn much more about their language and interactions.
Brown had been strictly selling pencil drawings and doing portraits until a turkey callmaker approached her in 2014 and asked if she was interested in doing art on calls. “I was going through a divorce, and diving into my hunting, fishing, and artwork was a therapy,” said Brown. Extending her art into the world of turkey callmaking was a natural progression. The first thing she did was paintings on finished calls. As she gained familiarity with different woods, she discovered that holly wood provided a great palette, especially woodburning, which she began in earnest in 2015.
She prioritizes safety, having seen the injuries other callmakers have sustained. Brown has an air filtration system for her wood-burning to remove smoke, so she isn’t exposed to toxic fumes or irritants from many types of wood. “I started getting sick after burning on some wood, and a friend sent me the air equipment,” she said. She enjoys the smell of apple and maple wood while she is burning. She can carve unfinished woods (before a finish or varnish is applied), but won’t do woodburning on calls with finish on them, given the toxic fumes that are created. “It is all about the proper pen temps and hand pressures, and I modify all of my pen tips,” Brown said of her approach to making good woodburnings. Since she began, Brown has decorated over hundreds of calls.
“When I first started working with other callmakers, I had it in mind right away that I wanted to make my own calls,” Brown said. She has started carving on calls, but strives to make calls with the unique signature look that callmakers strive for. She has been tinkering with making her own calls, including pot calls, turtle shells, and wingbones. “I am a new callmaker, but I have a good concept of what it takes to make a call.” She continues experimenting with different equipment and techniques, even as she tries to keep up with the decorative collaboration calls she has such demand for.
She not only does artwork of turkeys but also enjoys painting deer, antelope, and other animals, as it helps keep her refreshed and motivated. She also does people and fantasy creations, and her artwork often reflects what is happening in her life. “Everyone has a little artist in them,” Brown believes. “Finding a way to release that is different for everyone.” The competitive world of turkey callmaking was introduced to her in 2018 when she collaborated with Bob Fulcher for the NWTF Grand National Callmaking Competition (GNCC). That earned second place in the collaborative decorative call category, and the second time she entered a call in that category with Shawn Kotchey, they won first place.
In 2023, Brown started Montana Calls. She has an ear for sound, having played the flute, cello, and recorder. Making turkey calls, which are musical instruments after a fashion, is a new way for her to merge her art and craftsmanship. She aims to go from a block of wood to a decorated and finished call.
In 2023, Brown went solo and entered the Grand National Callmakers Competition amateur decorative call category with a call she made from start to finish: a sculpted epoxy clay rendering of two gobblers fighting over a fallen tree, which incorporated a pot call into the sculpture. The pot call was hand-drilled and carved out with a slate surface, and a single-piece striker that she hand-carved and finished. The sculpture had a wire base, and she applied clay to bring it to life. She won the Amateur Callmaker of the Year, Best of Class 1-3, and the prestigious Earl Mickel Award for Best of Show. Brown is the first woman to win that award, the first amateur to win, and the first time a sculpture won that honor. That same year, Brown also illustrated the book Yelp & Gobble, Inc. by Brent Rogers.
Sherry continues collaborating with callmakers by woodburning and painting on their calls. “I want to learn more and to grow more. I want to increase my skills, and woodworking is an art form I want to incorporate with the other mediums of art I like to work on.”
Sherry Brown lives in Great Falls, Montana, with her two dogs, Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. She loves being outdoors and is active in fishing, hunting, and training her dogs.Create Date
May 10, 2026Update Date
May 10, 2026
