Alaskan portages

pre fall floor mosaic

After five portages; two very long land portages and three lake channels, we arrived at Lonely Lake on the Kenai Pennisula.  It took us close to three and a half hours to arrive to our final campground.  It rained all day and evening on Friday and continued to be overcast most of the time, but we enjoyed our company and had great fun chatting and touring the other lake islands during our four day venture.

our campground at Lonely Lakes

Below is a glance of the exquisite grasses that grow in Alaska.  I love these types of Alaskan wild reeds.  The water channels were incredibly winding, muddy and narrow.  On the way back home, the creator turned the fall colors up a notch.  It was wonderful magic; golden brown lily pads and other scattered leaves arranged in the perfect aesthetic greeted us at each lake site.

lake grass 

Below, you can see who is doing much of the hard work rowing while I am quietly looking around for tidbits of inspiration.  I find that being outside is physically challenging.  It takes me a long day to immerse into the wilderness, finding the terrain entirely different from what we experience in our daily domestic existences.  It is a natural treasure to be in nature, to be absorbed and foremost it is a great cleansing for the mind.

Ken rowing in the background while I am observing

August Ennui

At the sports park, I often take my dog Blue for frequent walks.  She doesn't go too far or demand much from me as far as throwing sticks or balls.  Blue likes to sniff, eat the grass and while we walk around the perimeter of the field, I get to peruse and observe slowly what is around me. I forget that it is okay to linger, to watch, sit in the grass and play.  

This time of year, I love observing the Alaskan grasses.  I often take this environment for granted.  This short film piece was taken the other day while I set up a tripod and filmed myself in certain locations around the area.  There were the tall grasses that I played with by rolling over the ground or jumping from behind the tall reeds.  For several years, I have been looking at this one particular grove of trees.  They are formidable in appearance and mystical to me; standing together so elegantly and aligned perfectly to each other spoke of the aesthetic that I look for in my art.  When I pieced and edited the project, I was taken aback at how small I was in comparison to the largeness of this forest.  They remain dear to me and I promise I will never look at them the same way.  These trees are remarkable, strong, enduring and fantastic.

minute clip feeder

During the past year I have been taking some video clips of our two bird feeders.  The Chickadees come and go, never stay long enough for me to entirely observe them,  but I  pieced together a short collection of their activities.  I love watching them flit in and out, making their short journeys to the feeders to grab some seeds while launching back to the branches, some resting while others disappear from sight.  

small treasures

small native American baskets made from the original rye grass material

Last Wednesday, I attended a Native American Basket Weaving Workshop.  It was sponsored by the municipality of Anchorage and I chose this as part of a community assignment to complete for a course I am taking that will secure my K-12 teaching credential.  It was held at Russian Jack Springs at the Lidia Selkregg Chalet.  I found that (formally) Lidia Lippi was born in Florence, Italy and then married Fred Selkregg during WWII.  She became a activist and environmentalist, a doctor in the field of land management where she fought for watershed properties in Anchorage.  Recently inducted into Alaska's Hall of Fame, she passed away in 1999.  Russian Jack Springs was discovered from Jacob or "Jack" Marunenko, a Russian emigrant, around 1930 and while he homesteaded the property, it was bought out during the war and actually used as a prison and rehabilitation center for alcoholics.  It was soon turned into a recreational park.  

one of the books available to peruse during our workshop

Often surprised with the hidden gems in Anchorage that I stumble upon, taking for granted the history of place, the roots of where I live and the people around me restores my sense of station.  The two unfinished baskets pictured above are made from the natural rye grass material that the native people used to weave their baskets.  The rye grass was harvested in bundles when soft and when dried, the strands were split into threads to complete the weaving.  Some baskets are extravagant and beautiful, embossed with silk and wool embroidery.  The native people would use these baskets for functional purposes to gather berries, dried fish and nuts.  Shown below is my own creation made from rattan strands.  I chose rattan that had been soaking in onion skins and complimented it with a natural berry color threads.  The instruction was invaluable and I learned a great lesson that day.  At times we had to soak our beginning creations in a vat of cold water to keep the strands supple and workable.  Eventually, you discovered the process of weaving by absorbing part of the heritage too!   My basket will be used for study and take me to another arena in my own personal art making.  

my humble Native American Twined Basket 

summertime stretch

Intermezzo, mixed media on board, 12" x 12", 2012

Summer is usually a high energy time for me; sunshine, long hours and uninterrupted periods in the studio gives me an abundance of new works.  Shown above in this art piece,  Intermezzo, I am playing with mixed media, which is usually an interim work used for study, play and a rest from painting.  Below, It is just the way it is, is my first experimentation with cement and wood, one of my more sculptural pieces and is my favorite test to date.

It's just the way it is, cement and wood, 2012

Hand Study, oil on canvas, 10" x 12", 2012

Next month, August 3rd on the 1st Friday event, I will be showing new paintings called Painting Hands at the  Alaska Humanities Forum.  It won't be a huge exhibit, but it entertains the notion of working directly on the canvas surface and letting the paint speak for itself.

Seemingly Unfinished, Painting Hands, oil on canvas, 38" x 26", 2012

Below is the painting called Summertime Stretch, my newest work, with cement hands and painterly gestures of outstretched hands this art work entails a stencil of my own arms.  I continue to make other works and look forward to more three dimensional creations.

Summertime Stretch, cement and oil on canvas, 38" x 26", 2012

a ten year's best

View of the valley while entering the Knik Glacier

Dehaviland Beaver, Canadian made circa 55

For our tenth year wedding anniversary gift, Ken decided to put me on a float plane.  Taking off from Lake Hood, (one of the largest float plane centers in the country), this Dehaviland Beaver was made in Canada and is one of a kind.

  Ken completes four surveys a year in this plane, spending close to seven days cramped up, wearing uncomfortable head phones with sometimes warm and stuffy air (although I was told you can open a window at one point while flying.)  This is the highlight of his work as he camps out in remote areas in Alaska and knows the state intimately through these journeys.

It was an hour and a half tourist ride for me and two Australians couples who accompanied me.  I grabbed for the co pilot's seat and they didn't seem to mind, since they wanted to sit together.  Without  the head phones on, the sound is deafening; you could ask questions to the pilot while he also gave out some information on the settings.  We flew four thousand feet up; amazed at the valley and the Knik Glacier presented a tremendous view.

  

Me in the co pilot seat

 While flying, I snapped several pictures.  One person commented on the photography and I remarked that you cannot take a bad picture.  Pictured below are two of my favorite shots of the Knik Glacier.  They are like abstract paintings but somewhat better I have to admit!

like a painting - glacier view from above 

another glacier study from above

wrapping around NYC

at the Metropolitan, New York City

This past week, I visited New York with a friend from my graduate school days from Long Beach, California.  We decided to stay in the city and focus the week on viewing art.  We did just that!  Our experiences ranged from exhaustion, delight and to extreme surprise; staying at the Jane Hotel reminded us that visiting New York was a feat if you wanted to do it on reasonable costs.  Our hotel room was barely a large closet with bunk beds and a bathroom to share (with how many others, we didn't want to know! You would tepidly visit the bathroom hoping you wouldn't see the other users.)  However, the shower was amazingly wonderful; the establishment gave you sweet robes, fresh water and the downstairs cafe hosted a substantial breakfast for a good cost.  We  decided that we would do this experience all over again.  

Roman sarcophagus, Metropolitan Museum, New York City

Above, was one of my favorite Roman sculptures.  This work of art is amazingly full, rich in detail and is exquisite to behold.  The city is crammed of wondrous adventures and eye candy of bustling life.   I find that when I experience the presence of antiquities, it is easier to examine these works than the raucous behavior of contemporary art.  These masterpieces are old and established.  I found myself dreading and at the same time loving visiting the modern art facilities.  Once at the contemporary art spaces though, I found myself diving into the void and by turning my psyche around, I would just let it wander.  It is a hard thing to do but I would compare it to a little bit like falling in love.  Try it.

Chakaia Booker's tire sculptures, Chelsea