kelsi turner tjernagel

Ambassador of Wonder

If you have been to an RAS event, you have likely met Kelsi and experienced her contagious delight as she welcomes visitors. Kelsi and her family made the Lichen Lookout in the 2022 Bumblewood Thicket Fairy Village and participated in the 2023 Crankie Fest.

Kelsi has been a skipping stone for most of her life; bouncing between Minnesota, Tennessee, Iowa, Kentucky, Virginia, Washington D.C., and Arizona. Finally, after a long and winding path, she is able to call Montana home. She now lives on a broad saddle of the Gallatin Mountains with her wildly creative husband, daughter and son, an English Lab named Tig and flock of chickens named after artists, writers and other creatives. Her home is one big studio and workshop, often messy and always overflowing with ideas and works-in-progress.

She spent a lot of her childhood riding her imaginary horse and discovering secret, tucked away spaces. When she became a mother, the world of fairies, treehouses, forts and ziplines and shenanigans came rushing back full force. Kelsi loves being outside. She spends most of her outside time tromping–her family’s version of hiking, walking, meandering and looking at stuff, asking questions, drawing things, collecting interesting objects to study and learn from–basically just puttering outside.

Kelsi is a writer and visual artist who makes art as a way to deeply observe, delight in and steward place. She has worked as a writer, photographer, magazine editor, horseback-riding instructor, waitress, newspaper deliverer, native prairie restorer and more. She is most delighted when art, science, conservation and wonder overlap. Kelsi is a Master Naturalist, and is currently enrolled in the Natural Science Illustration certificate program at the Rhode Island School of Design. She’s always making something, from soup to pottery, drawing to gardening. She is a relentless reader and a lover of children’s books, fat biking and kayaking. If she had a super power, she would be an early riser who awakes before the sun with a smile on her face and a spring in her step.

“ ‘Wonder and enchantment require us to disengage from culturally constructed norms of rationality for adult humans and allow ourselves to be affected by the astonishing world that enfolds us always.’ writes Lyanda Lynn Haupt in Rooted.

Her writing brings to mind the The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, when the children access the magical world of Narnia through a wardrobe in the old professor’s home.

Random Acts of Silliness provides similar opportunities (and permissions) to be astonished. We put a doorstop in the wardrobe door to hold it open, to allow for ease of entrance. Everybody is invited! We bring enchantment and creativity to the forefront. We’re creating a community that values wonder.”