first post | a bit on Alaska
ALL YOUR ART POST ARE BELONG TO US
A first!
A blog!
After watching the occasional friend and family member get deeply into blogging, I am finally taking the plunge.
Tonight I am unpacking from a family trip--- to Alaska. It was gorgeous, rainy, slippery, vast and magnificent. From jellyfish pumping around, and salmon struggling to get their tushies upstream (and *I* thought dating was difficult for us humans!), to whales blowing white foam out of the ocean, to the bear I saw taking advantage of those poor, sex-starved salmon.... an incredible visual feast.
And the GLACIERS! I could sit all day and stare at (AND LISTEN TO) a glacier.
So, after a week in chilly, moist paradise, I get back to my 90 degree (F) studio, on a truck route, in BEAUTIFUL industrial downtown L.A. Need I say more?
Near Ketchikan I visited the local totem-pole-carving mecca of Saxman Village. [For a description of the carving shed, see this article.] Yes, it was touristy, and yes, the contemporary art conversation would relegate this art form to anthropology or throwback kitsch, but I had a blast chatting up two remarkable carvers (both from the Raven clan). Outside of, or perhaps before, taking up carving totem poles, Nathan Jackson actually taught printmaking, too, and was as wary of me and MY artistic credentials as Mat Gleason was the first time he sized me up. [Hee hee!]
GAWD. Artists worldwide are all the same. (Hey, I'm guilty, too........)
Anyway, he and Bill Pfeifer (did I get that spelling correct, Bill?) work in this large, beautiful space with other totem pole carvers, tolerating the looky-loos from a zillion cruiseships wandering, summer after summer after summer. Could *I* create under those circumstances?
I must say, I was impressed and moved by their work and commitment.
A first!
A blog!
After watching the occasional friend and family member get deeply into blogging, I am finally taking the plunge.
Tonight I am unpacking from a family trip--- to Alaska. It was gorgeous, rainy, slippery, vast and magnificent. From jellyfish pumping around, and salmon struggling to get their tushies upstream (and *I* thought dating was difficult for us humans!), to whales blowing white foam out of the ocean, to the bear I saw taking advantage of those poor, sex-starved salmon.... an incredible visual feast.
And the GLACIERS! I could sit all day and stare at (AND LISTEN TO) a glacier.
So, after a week in chilly, moist paradise, I get back to my 90 degree (F) studio, on a truck route, in BEAUTIFUL industrial downtown L.A. Need I say more?
Near Ketchikan I visited the local totem-pole-carving mecca of Saxman Village. [For a description of the carving shed, see this article.] Yes, it was touristy, and yes, the contemporary art conversation would relegate this art form to anthropology or throwback kitsch, but I had a blast chatting up two remarkable carvers (both from the Raven clan). Outside of, or perhaps before, taking up carving totem poles, Nathan Jackson actually taught printmaking, too, and was as wary of me and MY artistic credentials as Mat Gleason was the first time he sized me up. [Hee hee!]
GAWD. Artists worldwide are all the same. (Hey, I'm guilty, too........)
Anyway, he and Bill Pfeifer (did I get that spelling correct, Bill?) work in this large, beautiful space with other totem pole carvers, tolerating the looky-loos from a zillion cruiseships wandering, summer after summer after summer. Could *I* create under those circumstances?
I must say, I was impressed and moved by their work and commitment.
posted by laurelpaley at 11:01 PM
1 Comments:
We also had a chance to see a totem carver at work in Ketchikan; he was at the nature walk, where we saw the bear. The preserve there hired him to make them a totem for the place. The smell of the red cedar being worked was fantastic!
Oh, and your hot point about the glaciers worked.
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