Like many Montanans, Barbara Dillon has noticed the apparent signs of global warming. An avid fly-fisher and cross-country skier, she notices the changes in snowpack and river levels around her home in Big Sky.

But few people understand the impacts of rising temperatures in quite the same way Dillon does. Every day in the studio she keeps in her restored, century-old cabin, Dillon fires up an oxygen- and propane-induced torch and a small kiln, and shapes beautifully lifelike flora and fauna out of raw, superheated glass.

"For more than 30 years, I've been fascinated by glass, and the process of pinching and pulling and stretching glass as it melts into something new," says Dillon. "To me, that process can take on many levels of meaning. ... And so when I'm doing work, it's a process of trying to put a meaning or message to something that's also beautiful to look at."

That effort has led Dillon to focus on some of the most vexing issues of our day. One recent series of her glass works addressed immigration and border issues in the American Southwest. Most recently, she turned to climate change.

The result is a series of ornate and colorful glass works now on display at the Missoula Artists' Shop on North Higgins Avenue. For Dillon, the beautifully finished objects represent a small-scale and personal exploration of one of the biggest and most complex problems of our time - and more.

"This work is about the climate of change and the change of climate," she says. "It's from a very personal perspective - we have changes in our life that come from the world but yet when it gets to us, it's our own perception of the change. ... When I approach these pieces, I might have a very broad idea in mind, but as they develop they become more about my personal climate of change within that time."

It's a circular play on words that is intentionally crisscrossed with double meaning; Dillon aims in her work to leave much to the interpretation of the viewer. But in works such as "Rural Development," which consists of a trio of colorful glass bird's nests set upon the ends of rotting old fenceposts, the surface beauty can't obscure a wry comment on the interplay between human encroachment and natural splendor.

Several of the works in the show address climate change more directly - particularly a series of cactus-like sculptures that feature beautiful glass blossoms atop clay paddles.

"We're obviously not used to seeing a lot of cactuses around here, and I think they kind of represent for us a sense of a hot, dry place," says Dillon. "The cactus itself has a kind of un-lifelike appearance to it, but then it's totally transformed into something beautiful by the blossom. So it's negative in some respects but at the same time beautiful and natural."

Dillon says it took her many years to develop a command of the technique of flame-manipulated glass, which differs from blown glass in both technique and raw materials. But with her work now included in the Smithsonian Institution's permanent collection and in catalogues such as American Art Collector, she has emerged as an artist of both skill and purpose.

"Not only should art be pretty and inviting for your home, it should be about creating questions and intrigue," said Dillon. "That's my goal, and hopefully it encourages people to look at this work and see in it their own climate of change."

Barbara Dillon's glass work remains on view at the Missoula Artists' Shop, on Higgins Avenue downtown, through November.