Francis Ambrose’s musical journey began with a ukulele on the Pacific Crest Trail. She moved westward after living in Philadelphia in pursuit of spiritual clarity. As a way to stay connected with the frontcountry, Ambrose let her stream of consciousness flow into songwriting like a journal. She was led to Jackson by the outdoors but chose to stay because of the arts community. Ambrose is naturally creative, making a career as a visual artist in Jackson. She recently came by the studio to perform new and unreleased material accompanied by guitarist Pat Botini and discussed recently learning the guitar, coming out of her shell and finding ways to instill soul into art.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. – Ed.
Support for this arts and cultural coverage comes from the Wyoming Arts Council.
Evan Ballew: First off, how did you get to Jackson?
Francis Ambrose: I was living in Spain. My idea was to live there permanently, to just move to Europe. Then COVID-19 happened, rerouted me back home, which is the East Coast, and then I bumped out to Colorado where I did some trail maintenance. I wanted to be outside. A couple months later I was like, ‘I’m just gonna head out to Jackson,’ and started to ski instruct.
Pat Botini: I moved out December 2020 as well, kind of a COVID transplant just looking to work. I started working for the resort, taught on the ski school side, but then ended up playing music in town, playing with a few different bands. Mainly Strumbucket and then a couple side projects. That’s how I’ve met Francis and we’ve been playing together and doing all of her original stuff here.
EB: How did you two actually connect?
FA: The first time we ever met was at a jam party in Jackson where a bunch of musicians got together and played and I heard Pat and I was just like, ‘Wow, this guy is incredible.’
EB: What’s been your musical background thus far? You said you told me a little earlier that guitar is pretty new to you.
FA: I was very, very shy growing up and I never really could have imagined myself doing something like today where I’m on a radio station live or getting up on stage. That all really terrified me so I didn’t really start until after college. Living in Philadelphia I just started going to concerts, and I loved the band Twenty One Pilots and [Tyler Joseph] had a ukulele so I bought myself a ukulele. From there life happened and I eventually ended up hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and I didn’t know how to sing or how to play any instruments and so I just threw [the ukelele] in my backpack and began writing music on trail. Not thinking I would really ever perform them, but more just to process some trauma and emotional baggage that I had going on through college.
EB: What does your songwriting process look like?
FA: It’s pretty similar to how I started on the PCT, where I started journaling out my emotions and a lot of my songwriting comes from trying to process like, ‘Why can’t I make the next step of where I’m trying to go?’ and trying to look at my patterns or my habits and breaking those down.
EB: What do you think makes Jackson a special place to live, to be a musician and everything in between?
PB: Definitely attracts a lot of creative people. You’ve got access to all the national parks here, which definitely coincides with writing songs, having some inspiration. It definitely caters to up-and-coming people. It’s not super, super competitive in terms of trying to get out and play your original music and get gigs in that regard.
FA: It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. I initially came for the snow and the mountains, and I’ve stayed for the art community because although it’s a small community compared to the bigger cities. You have a lot of really amazing musicians here and it’s really awesome that we get to collaborate together. I’m a visual artist, so I stayed because I started a small fine arts business and I realized, ‘Oh, I can actually sell my art and make a living doing this.’
EB: What kind of visual media is your main medium?
FA:I do meditative landscapes,essentially plain air painting. I can go outside and go on backpacking adventures and then I can be immersed in beautiful nature and I can capture that. I do printmaking and I do original work. And I actually, was an intern as a framer for Full Circle Frameworks at one point for Rocky.
EB: Do you experience any sort of synthesis or connection between your musical work and the stuff you do with painting?
FA: With the stream of consciousness, when I’m making visual art, it’s all about the process for me, so it’s about being present in the moment and not so much about the result. I say that it makes me feel like I can tap into my soul, like very immediately, and it lets me know like, ‘Huh, how am I feeling today?’ or ‘What am I trying to convey today?’
Listen above for KHOL’s full conversation and live performance with Francis Ambrose and Pat Botini.
