Federal bill gets credit for guns in parks — Firearms now OK in Denali, Katmai, 3 others

By Jenny Neyman

Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. A brown bear grazes for berries in Denali Nation Park in fall. Due to a federal legislation change, any national park visitor able to own a firearm will be able to bring it to national parks, including Denali, Katmai and three other parks in Alaska that previously did not allow guns.

Redoubt Reporter

In Katmai National Park and Preserve, Denali National Park and other areas of the state, visitors bring cameras to shoot bears. This summer, they may bring something much more deadly.

On May 22, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009 into law. Tacked onto that piece of legislation is an unrelated amendment that repeals a National Park Service rule prohibiting the possession of firearms in national parks and reverting regulation to individual states. As of Feb. 22, the effective date of the legislation, credit card holders no longer have to fear their interest rates will increase without warning, or that they’ll have to visit a national park without a gun for self-protection.

“I’ve never had any desire to visit Denali Park as a backpacker or a hiker because of that restriction. I live in a rural area and I’m constantly watching my backside. I know the one time I don’t bring my gun I’m going see a bear. So if I’m thinking about going somewhere like Denali and I can’t protect myself, I just don’t go,” said Bob Bird, of Nikiski, one of the organizers of a Second Amendment/Constitutional Task Force Rally scheduled for Thursday in Kenai.

Bears, however, may be well-advised to cultivate more fear of tourists packing heat, say tour and photo guides operating in Katmai National Park.

“I think it’s a recipe for trouble, a gun in somebody’s hand that, one, doesn’t understand guns very well but is wanting to carry one because they can. And, two, don’t understand bears very well, and you’re in a park with lots of bears. It’s a recipe for a disaster for somebody, especially the bears,” said John Rogers, owner of Katmai Coastal Bear Tours out of Homer.

In Alaska, the reversal of the gun ban only affects five national parks, those established prior to the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980 — Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park in Skagway, the Sitka National Historic Park and the old sections of Denali, Glacier Bay and Katmai national parks. The 10 national parks in Alaska established by ANILCA conformed to state law on the possession of firearms.

The distinction doesn’t owe to a debate regarding the safety or sense of allowing firearms for protection in parks, it was simply a matter of timing, said Chris Pergiel, regional chief ranger for the National Parks Service Alaska region.

“When ANILCA established newer parks in 1980, they had a different enabling legislation which took into account the Alaska circumstance that people typically hunted and carried firearms up here. It was just the timing of when those parks came into the system,” he said.

As a result, the gun ban reversal will have less of an overall impact in Alaska as in other states.

“Part of the intent was to make the laws more consistent throughout the National Park Service and understandable for the public, which is a little ironic because now we’re going to each individual state law. There are parks in the country, like Yellowstone, that are located in three or four different states within one park, so that may be confusing for people. Up here it will be pretty straightforward,” Pergiel said.

Though the law liberalizes the possession of firearms for self-defense, it does not change the allowed use of firearms in national parks in the state. Prior restrictions on target practice and hunting still stand, and firearms are still not allowed in federal buildings or facilities, including national park offices or visitor centers.

Businesses operating concessions within national parks will have discretion to allow firearms or not, Pergiel said. That discretion may have the effect of limiting firearms possession in national parks in the state, if, for instance, a business that transports visitors into a park chooses to not allow people to bring guns onto vehicles.

“As private businesses, they will retain the right — as they do anywhere else in the state — to make a decision themselves whether they want to allow firearms on or within their facilities in national parks,” Pergiel said. “They could not prohibit them from possessing them in the park, but they could limit that somehow through their facilities or their vehicles or vessels. We’re urging the concessionaires to follow the National Park Service’s lead to do what they need to do to run their operations, but to also preserve the intent of the law, which is to allow people to possess firearms.”

Pergiel said it’s difficult to estimate how many Alaska park visitors may take advantage of the rule change.

“I think some folks will feel safer being able to possess firearms for protection from wildlife, and other folks may feel less safe knowing there are people out there with firearms. It’s hard to say,” he said. “We certainly encourage people not to put themselves in a situation where they need to use a firearm, but from time to time there are bear-human encounters.”

Whether to bring a firearm will be a case-by-case decision up to each visitor who’s eligible to possess firearms. If it were up to Pergiel, he said he recommends pepper spray as bear protection over firearms. He said he doesn’t anticipate the rule change to cause any problems.

“Hopefully not,” he said. “We’ve allowed the carry of firearms in national parks here in Alaska for going on 30 years now, for most of them, and we have not had a lot of significant problems. There’s always some concerns with illegal hunting activities and the rangers are in the field monitoring that and taking action, but specific to this new law, we don’t anticipate a lot of change or any significant new problems.”

Bird said he is in favor of the rule change.

“I’m all in favor of your right to self-defense, whether it’s against a human being or a wild animal,” he said. “To say that you give up your right to self-defense just because you’re in a national park sounds a little silly.”

Some Katmai guides are not so sure the change is a good idea.

Playing respects — Bagpiper ushers rare, antique pipes on to happier home

By Jenny Neyman

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Steve Adams plays his set of Dunbar bagpipes at his home in Kenai on Saturday. He recently sold an antique set of bagpipes to a world-renown piper.

Redoubt Reporter

There can be no doubt of Steve Adams’ bagpiping hobby or near 100 percent Scottish heritage when visiting his home in Kenai. The Adams coat of arms hangs on a wall inside the door, leading down a hallway lined with photos of Adams piping in full traditional kilt and regalia. In the living room, the fireplace mantel is lined with Scottish knickknacks and plaid paraphernalia — bottles of Scottish beer, more photos and bagpiping figurines — including a Santa sporting a red, white and green tartan, and a tiny plastic Smurf with a red hat and yellow pipes. On another shelf is an antique apple doll made by Adams’ grandmother when he first started piping 40 years ago.

Given all that, Adams should be well aware of the old Scottish saying, “The worth of a thing is best known by the want of it.” Even though that proved to be the case when he sold his set of antique bagpipes recently, the phrase hadn’t crossed his mind as the situation developed. Nor did the equally pertinent Scottish saying, “One good turn deserves another.”

Adams’ enchantment with the bagpipes has been long-lived, but it wasn’t instantaneous. Growing up in New England, he once had a girlfriend who piped, but wasn’t interested in learning about the instrument himself at the time. He played French horn and was accepted into the Armed Forces School of Music. After a tour with the Navy, he attended a music conservatory in New England, though he didn’t graduate from college.

On a Sunday visit home he tagged along with his dad, who was going to bagpiping practice with the Shriners club he had just joined. The crowd was a boisterous bunch, as bagpipe bands tend to be.

“Piping is kind of interesting in the fact that you get two or three pipers together and give them an hour and they’re going to be arguing about something,” Adams said.

Adams neglected to mention his musical background, and the Shriners started betting him he couldn’t play the pipes.

“I knew dang well I could learn to play it if I wanted to,” Adams said.

Adams has a collection of Scottish and bagpiping knickknacks and figurines, many given as gifts over his 40 years of piping.

What he didn’t realize at the time was what a large part in his life the bagpipes would come to play. Before long Adams was involved in four different pipe bands, with some piping-related activity happening every night of the week. Adams’ father started researching the family’s genealogy and discovered both sides were nearly 100 percent Scottish, which just added another dimension to Adams’ interest.

“I like the sound of them,” he said. “Pipes are something that are just really unusual. There are just nine notes. There’s no sharps, no flats, no major, no minor scales. It’s nine notes only, but it’s very intricate and very difficult because of the fingerings that are involved.”

Adams moved to Alaska in 1980. He lived in Juneau for six years and played with a pipe band there, and lived in Anchorage for six months and played with a band there, although he vowed to never live in Anchorage or Fairbanks after that. He moved to the central Kenai Peninsula, taking a job at the Soldotna Post Office 15 years ago, and became the area’s sole performing bagpiper.

There’s another piper in Homer, but in this area, any need or desire for a bagpiper means calling Adams. He’s performed at weddings, funerals, the Kenai Performers’ production of “Brigadoon” a few years ago, and various fundraisers, parades and other community events. Last week he played at the Tustumena Lodge in Kasilof for a send-off party for Iditarod musher Wattie McDonald, of Scotland. McDonald’s entire family flew over from Scotland to see him off to the trail, with all the men wearing kilts, including Adams, he said.

Beluga issue nets large reply — Critical habitat testimony stretches into the thousands

By Naomi Klouda

Homer Tribune

The testimony on whether or not to designate most of Cook Inlet as beluga habitat is now in, with some 91,668 responses to the public comment period that ended March 3.

The comments will be available to the public shortly at the National Marine Fisheries Service Web site, said spokesperson Sheela McLean. It is important to note that the number of responses didn’t calculate how many made repeat testimony. However, the numbers from organizations were noted, with Sierra Club accounting for 43,339 responses. The Natural Resource Development Council — countering the idea of designating Cook Inlet as critical habitat — weighed in with 39,939 responses.

NMFS counted 10 responses from North Star Terminal and Stevedore Co., LLC, which operates the Port of Anchorage, and 219 from postcard mailings. It also received 13 “unknown” letters and received 7,500 from a signature petition.

The NMFS is expecting to issue its decision sometime in October, McLean said.

Here is a sampling of commentary that came from residents in Homer and/or the Kenai Peninsula:

• Roland Maw of the United Cook Inlet Drift Association: “It became apparent to us as an industry that belugas were declining 15 or more years ago. NMFS came to us as a group, and to the set net group, and asked us if we would have some observers on board our vessels and you have the results of that. We had observers to the tune of about 9,000 hours on our vessels and beaches. There were no sightings, no entanglements and certainly no deaths. We have been trying to be proactive, even though our government hasn’t been … This is a difficult problem to work through but we’ll get through it and we’ll be OK.”
• Ken Tarbox, Soldotna: “I worked from 1980 to 2000 for Fish and Game. In that capacity, I flew over Cook Inlet and observed whales. I support the critical habitat designation identified, with a couple of exceptions. One, it is not far enough up the Susitna River. The whales would go much further up the Susitna River than what is designated. Two is the Kenai River. Even recently, since 2000, I’ve seen whales moving two to three miles up from the bridge. I assure you the lower Kenai is still used by belugas. I’ve seen as many as 30 in there in the spring and in the fall. Where we are not seeing them is during the July period when we historically used to see them.”
• Harold Shepherd, director Center for Water Advocacy: “I am here to testify in support of proposed designation of critical habitat for beluga on behalf of our members, which includes native villages and tribal governments in Alaska including the Marine Mammal Council and the Eklutna, Kenaitze, Chickaloon, Ninilchik, Seldovia and Tyonek tribes… Many tribal organizations can be of significant assistance in implementation and support in helping keep the belugas from jeopardy.”
• Beaver Nelson: “I have lived here since 1965. As a commercial fisherman I’ve spent a lot of time in Kachemak Bay and have observed belugas. Up until mid 1980’s there was a group of belugas that would come in every fall. All through October they appeared to feed on smelt (little wiggling clouds you could see in the grass). There would be 40-50 belugas in that area steadily. In mid to late 1980’s the belugas began to disappear. They were gone in a two to three year period to where there just weren’t belugas there anymore. You very rarely saw orcas back then, but in the late 1980’s the orcas became way more common. Even now if you go up in October you will see orcas up there hunting seal. My feeling is belugas are a candy bar for orca. They found a good food source and drove the belugas out of there. It is a risky venture for a beluga to move through there to run a gauntlet of orcas which seem to be increasing in abundance.”

Mastering the hills — Adult ski club tackles the trails

By Jenny Neyman

Photo courtesy of Alan Boraas, Tsalteshi Trails Association. Tslateshi Trails Association held its first masters — for adults — ski relay race Feb. 13, and masters distance races on Feb. 14. The races are part of its Master’s Ski Club for adults. The club has grown from about 25 participants at its inception last spring to about 90 people on its contact list now. Above left, Adam Reimer, in the masters club race suit, leads a string of skiers up a hill in a 30-kilometer distance race Feb. 13.

Redoubt Reporter

A handful of central Kenai Peninsula skiers in blue and yellow gripped their poles and tensed for start of the Tour of Anchorage ski marathon Sunday, ready to launch themselves into their 25-, 40- or 50-kilometer races, propelled by the desire to ski strong and months of physical conditioning, technique drills and ski training that would help make that happen.

Back on the peninsula, other owners of blue-and-yellow jackets went about their day Sunday, going for a ski, walking a dog or maybe just folding some laundry, propelled by a boost in health and fitness from the same program that was boosting the marathoners toward the finish line.

That’s the point of the Master’s Ski Club, put on by the Tsalteshi Trails Association — to be a tool for serious athletes to get faster and go farther, and to be a way for novice skiers or exercisers to just get out, get moving and build some skills and fitness to keep on going.

Club organizer Kjell Risung has been in both camps — elite athlete and out of shape — and wanted to create a program that would benefit people at either level or all points in between.

“I think any person can do anything they put their mind to. Our bodies are amazing. You can set yourself a goal and you can reach for it and do it,” Risung said. “Norman Vaughan had a saying, ‘The only death you die is the death you die every day by not living.’ The only one that stops you from doing it is yourself.”

Risung, a physical therapist in Soldotna, grew up in Norway, where kids learn to ski about as young as they learn to walk, and ski clubs and racing programs are popular for school ages on up through adults. Risung moved to the U.S. in 1987. He’s been in Alaska since the 1990s, when he got into mushing and ran the Iditarod in 1995 and 1996. But when he had kids, family became more of a priority than athletics.

Photo courtesy of Alan Boraas, Tsalteshi Trails Association. Gigi Banas skied the 15-kilometer distance in the race.

A year ago, Risung found himself largely sedentary and 40 pounds overweight, but with his kids grown to the point where he could take time for his own activities again. He set himself a lofty goal to keep his training on track — ski the 54-kilometer classic American Birkebeiner in Wisconsin. To say he achieved that goal is a monumental understatement. In one year of training he dropped 40 pounds — with another 10 to follow — and placed 27th in the Birkebeiner, as well as second in the Pepsi Challenge in Biwabik, Minn., and second in the 25-kilometer Tour of Anchorage classic race.

In the course of his training, shushing through the kilometers on local ski trails, Risung was struck by how many other adults he saw out making use of the trails, but usually skiing alone or in little groups. He also noticed the popularity of middle- and high-school ski programs in the area and the huge response Tsalteshi’s first youth ski program had last year, and wondered if adults would be interested in something similar. There seemed to be interest in skiing among the “master” class — meaning adult, not level of ability — in the community, but no program in place for them to learn or train together.

Common Ground: Catch phrases — Ice fishing for ‘green trout,’ understanding with kids

By Christine Cunningham, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photo by Christine Cunningham. William Hamby and Patrick Giver show off their “green trout,” caught as part of Trustworthy Hardware’s 2010 Ice Fishing Dercy. William won fourth place, and Patrick placed sixth in the Minnow Division.

I never had brothers. And the boys I knew in grade school were the kind that poured glue in my desk and aimed for my head in war ball. It would be fair to say it was hard for me to relate to either of my two nephews, William and Patrick, 5 and 6 years old, respectively.

I was listening to them in the back seat of the vehicle on the way to their first ice-fishing trip. The least I could do is try to be part of the conversation.

“What do you know about ice fishing?” I asked.

“You put a hole in the ice and you fish out of it,” William said.

He knows everything because he’s one year older than Patrick.

“One time I was ice fishing,” Patrick, the storyteller, said. “And a swordfish came out and tried to cut me and I punched him back down the hole.”

“Swordfish are in the ocean, not lakes, and oceans don’t freeze up,” I said.

I might have well have said, “Today is brought to you by the letters W and T.”

William, at least, was taking note. He would use this fact at a future time to prove he knew more than a certain other person one year younger.

But Patrick was the boy who poured glue in my desk. He didn’t want to learn anything. He was the boy who, much like the girl I’ve become, preferred telling a story to learning about how to avoid one. Patrick would like to try things, whether they existed or not. He wanted to jump off the ends of tables and go ice fishing for swordfish.

The ice was covered in snow with frozen-over holes marking familiar spots. I set up a separate tent for the two cousins, packed them into camp chairs, put bait on their hooks and showed them how to wait for a bite. Outside, my hunting buddy was fishing a hundred yards away.

I had just sat down in my own camp chair when I heard my buddy yell to the boys that he had a fish on. It didn’t matter to them how they got out of their chairs or the shanty. By the time I came to their rescue, fishing line was wrapped around their feet and their snack boxes were dumped out on the snow.

Once untangled, they took off across the lake like bird dogs that had marked a bird 60 yards away.

Patrick wiped out midway, and by the time all three of us made it to the hole, a 3-pound lake trout flopped on the ice. Their hands were all over the fish, petting it like it was a puppy. It took me back to my first fish-through-the-ice-experience. I was amazed that something so muscular and alive could be pulled up from the depths after hours of waiting in the quiet.

“What kind of fish is it?” I quizzed them.

“Green trout!” they said in unison.

Science of the Seasons: Algae — more to sludge than meets the eye

By David Wartinbee, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photos courtesy of David Wartinbee. Cyanobacteria, also called blue-green algae, are a complex group of photosynthetic bacteria.

There are a large number of photosynthetic organisms in the fresh waters of Alaska. These are the organisms that capture light energy and store that energy in the form of energy-rich organic molecules. Those energy-rich molecules are initially simple sugar precursors, but they get transformed into other common plant molecules like sucrose, starch and cellulose.

Interestingly, cellulose and starch are actually large polymers of the well-known sugar glucose. Making polymer chains of sugars seems relatively simple, compared to the transformation of those sugar precursors into the lipids or amino acids that many plants produce.

The photosynthesizing organisms in a lake or stream vary from emerging sedges and floating water lilies to masses of microscopic bacteria. Sometimes the ones we don’t see so easily can be the most interesting.

A very common group of photosynthetic microorganisms are called cyanobacteria. These are what we used to call blue-green algae. We now recognize that they are a complex group of photosynthetic bacteria. Like all bacteria, cyanobacteria have very few cellular organelles.

Unlike true algae or other plants, they do not have a nucleus nor any chloroplasts. An additional characteristic of bacteria is their outer membrane contains the complex peptidoglycan molecule, rather than the plant material cellulose. These organisms were probably included in the algae grouping for years because they often formed long, filamentous strands of green cells and simply looked a lot like their neighbors.

Not only do many cyanobacteria form stringy strands, some have unusual branches and side chains of cells. Others look like simple greenish globes, or there may be large masses of miniscule green spheres. In case you are thinking you have never seen any of these organisms, the green stain on the side of a flowerpot or the dark-green color found on the north side of some tree trunks are probably growths of cyanobacteria.

Many cyanobacteria are able to fix nitrogen. This means that they can extract atmospheric nitrogen and convert it into ammonia or various nitrogen oxides that photosynthesizing organisms require. In many lakes, the photosynthetic community can quickly bind up all the dissolved nitrogen, and by midsummer the algae can no longer continue to grow. At this point, cyanobacteria, with their nitrogen-fixing ability, are still able to thrive, and they can become the dominant photosynthesizers in a lake. In tropical rice paddy waters, nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria capture enough nitrogen to supply the needs of the rice plants, too, and thus enable large rice crops.

Almanac: Growing pains — Early efforts to hold Soldotna El’s booming student numbers went bust

By Clark Fair

Photo courtesy of KPC Anthropology Lab archive. In 1963, Soldotna Elementary expanded for the third consecutive year, adding more than 10 classrooms in that time.

Redoubt Reporter

Nineteenth-century American essayist Charles Dudley Warner once wrote, “Politics makes strange bedfellows.” In the mid-20th century in Soldotna, however, burgeoning school enrollment accounted for the strangeness — pairing an elementary school class with a public library, and three other classes with a mortician.

To understand how these pairings were achieved, one must first understand the times in which they occurred.

Soldotna Elementary School opened for business in 1960, the same year Soldotna became a fourth-class city, only one year after Alaska became a state, and only three years after the discovery of oil at Swanson River. There was money to be made and opportunities to be had, and new residents began to throng the central Kenai Peninsula in order to get a piece of the action.

The original Soldotna Elementary, which even today sits at the core of the facility, consisted of only four classrooms. In those classrooms were 104 students, under the guidance of superintendent/teacher Charley Griffin, a Georgia transplant who was the autocrat of his own district, since the Kenai Peninsula Borough had yet to be formed.

In its second year, the enrollment leaped to 248 students and the expansions began. Classrooms were added in 1961-62, again in 1962-63, and again in 1963-64. Although the school finally managed to get ahead of the enrollment increases, the borough, created in 1964, found it necessary to expand Soldotna Elementary again in 1968 and then open Soldotna Junior High School in early 1970.

Even then, after grades six through eight were moved to the junior high, the borough expanded the elementary school again in 1975 and again in 1987.

Photo courtesy of KPC Anthropology Lab archive. This is the backside of Soldotna Elementary School during the expansion of the school that year. The school, which opened in 1960, had expanded in 1961 and would expand again in 1963, 1968, 1975 and 1987.

But it was the earliest of these expansions that created the odd educational situations in Soldotna.

While new rooms were being added in 1961-62, Soldotna went looking for a place to house two classes of students until the construction was complete. Fortunately, within easy walking distance of the school was a newly built structure containing two empty offices. Rent was paid to the building’s owner, entrepreneur Madison L. “Red” Grange, and his wife, Beulah, who knew a good thing when they saw one.

The following year, with enrollment spiking again, the Granges expanded their office building, adding new units to accommodate new classes.

In 1961-62, Superintendent Griffin had moved his two oldest classes. The following year, he moved his four youngest. Into the hastily constructed Grange offices went the first-grade classes of Jean Bardelli (now Brockel) and Dorothy Knight, and the second-grade class of very pregnant Rose Ann English. And into a portion of the fledgling Soldotna Public Library went a combination class of second- and third-graders.

The write stuff — Central peninsula authors share work in 13th annual Writers Present

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

As science holds, no two snowflakes are exactly the same. Even if they were, no two writers would describe them in quite the same way.

A technical writer may detail the crystallization process dictating how that drop of water came to be a bit of lace, while a poet may expound on the beauty of that filigree.

A science fiction or fantasy writer may place it on a far-off world falling on terrain and creatures born of their own imagination. For a memoirist, that flake could figure into a remembrance of building snowmen or driving a car off a road. For a novelist, snowflakes could set the backdrop for falling in love, falling for a lie, or simply falling on an icy walkway.

The possibilities for variety are endless in writing, bounded only by a writers’ imagination — and the experiences, perspectives and writing style through which that imagination is filtered. The results of those creative and refining processes from several central Kenai Peninsula writers will be shared at the 13th annual Central Peninsula Writers Present, held from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday at Triumvirate Theatre in the Peninsula Center Mall in Soldotna.

The program is held annually by the Central Peninsula Writers Group, an informal collaboration of writers that meets the first and third Thursdays of every month at the Kenai Community Library.

The Writers Present is open to any central Kenai Peninsula writer, as is the group. Anyone interested may submit their work for review. Several authors will be chosen to give readings.

This year’s selection of authors is Brent Johnson, Marilyn Wheeless, Ruth Lawler, Michael Stone, David Thompson, Don McKay, J. Eric Boyce, Laura Faeo, Heidi Amend and Delphia Nelson.

LaVerne Silcott, who is helping organize the presentation, said this year’s event will have a great variety. That’s not surprising, given the diversity of the group’s members over the years.

Silcott said they’ve had mothers, teenagers, cannery workers, fishermen, a retired Lutheran minister, school teachers, a homeopathic practitioner, a magician — the list goes on and on. Just like their authors, this year’s pieces are a diverse lot, including poetry, memoirs, fantasy, short stories and other styles and genres.

“It’s a really good group. I enjoy going and seeing the variety of stuff that we get,” Silcott said.

The presentation is free and donations are accepted. And anyone interested in stopping by the regular writers group meetings are welcome to do so. Bring work to share or come to see what others are working on, Silcott said. The group will be moving meeting locations next month. Call the library for more information at 283-2266.

Art Seen: Jury’s in on biennial show’s expression

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

“Untitled,” a fiber piece by Lily Huebsch, is part of the Kenai Fine Arts Center’s Biennial Juried Art Exhibit, on display through March.

Sheila Wyne, juror for the Biennial Juried Art Exhibit at the Kenai Fine Arts Center, has a rich history in theater design, public art, installation art and multimedia studio work. Her artwork has been exhibited internationally.

Since 1990 she has designed over a dozen public artworks. Wyne has been awarded a national National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Fellowship in set design, a Rasmuson Artist Fellowship, a Boochever Fellowship and grants from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Andy Warhol and Rockefeller Foundations.

The Peninsula Art Guild brought her down from Anchorage at the beginning of this month to jury the every-other-year show. Era Aviation and the All Alaska Outdoor Lodge generously donated their services to the guild. Board members pitched in to make the event a success.

The years the group has not had a Juried Show, it has offered the community a simple judged exhibit, meaning all of the works entered are displayed, and the judge is there to give awards for excellence — often, first, second, third and numerous honorable mentions. Those years are especially good for emerging artists who can then experience having their work in a show with others and the accompanying ritual of artist receptions.

Wyne cut the entries by more than half and awarded three Juror’s Choice Awards to Anne Louise Gillilan, Joe Kashi and Donna Schwanke, all from the Kenai Peninsula. She also gave four honorable mentions.

“Holdfast,” by Steve Panarelli

There were many newcomers to the competition this year, and some folks who don’t necessarily even consider themselves “artists” who had a strong showing in the photography genre. Wyne noted that a high number of entries were digital photography, and that she was surprised there was very little ceramic work, especially considering the Kenai Potter’s Guild is on site at the Kenai Fine Arts Center.

She also mentioned the strong showing of fiber works and agreed that while it was true there were very few sculptural pieces, that is not uncommon. Working in 3-D, as she does most of the time, takes a significant effort and generally requires an abundance of space for creation.

I found Wyne’s judging technique to be measured, intelligent and intuitive. She explained that she was editing the works not only by her aesthetic sensibilities regarding each piece, but also for the sake of the final exhibit. The show hangs together wonderfully, with different mediums interacting in interesting ways, and it fills the space at the center lovingly.

In a blog about the MTS Gallery in the Mountainview neighborhood in Anchorage, (http://mtsgallery.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/interview-with-sheila-wyne/) I found this quote by Wyne, who I feel is one of the most significant artists in Alaska today: “My own studio work, the most solitary of my creative pursuits, is similar to walking

“The Interpreter,” by Anne Louise Gillilan. Gillilan and photographer Joe Kashi were awarded Juror’s Choice Awards.

backwards. I can’t directly observe my progress toward a destination. I ‘see’ where I’ve been through the trail left from assembling, painting, reading, writing and conversation. This trail grows larger before my eyes as I move into the unknown. By observing these markers, I eventually sense my arrival when the last view strikes my internal eye as a destination. When successful, this artistic mode can lead me beyond my own limited cartography to a surprising landscape. But it is always risky. There are times that I never reach a destination and find myself simply wandering in the wilderness. But it is there, through this process, that I make the discoveries that can lead to what I desire. To bear witness to what can’t be said and hopefully give voice through a visual poetry to what can’t be seen.”

The exhibit will be up for the remainder of the month.

Zirrus VanDevere is a local mixed-media artist and owns Art Works gallery in Soldotna. She has bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and education.

Plugged In: Master the medium to get good shots

By Joeseph Kashi, for the Redoubt Reporter

Because photography is the most technologically dependent practical and fine art, a deep knowledge of fundamental photographic technology and techniques is critical. However, it’s not enough.

Beginning in the 1970s, many photographers felt that they didn’t really need to learn fundamental photographic techniques, instead leaving the “details” to a fairly automatic camera and a commercial printing lab. That’s a poor way to develop your practical or artistic skills.

You really need to understand fundamental concepts of photographic technology so you can concentrate on the practical and creative act of taking a picture, the “seeing” of an artistically powerful image or of clear practical documentation of anything from construction details to family memories.

When you have a working knowledge of fundamental photographic concepts, then you’ll know many different techniques you can use, depending on the circumstances. You’ll be less distracted by basic requirements like achieving a good exposure when circumstances are not “ideal.”

Psychologists who have studied highly successful professional athletes, creative engineers and scientists, and critically acclaimed artists find that they tend think and work in very similar ways when achieving their peak performance, something that’s often called a flow state. Research with exceptional athletes, scientists and engineers suggests that achieving this technical familiarity takes time but is necessary to working creatively at your peak performance level.

Over the next series of columns, I’ll be focusing on many different photographic techniques, including using the various exposure modes built into your camera, achieving good exposures under unusual circumstances and correcting sharpness, noise and optical imperfections.

For the remainder of this week’s article, though, I’d like to discuss some broader, nontechnical aspects of photography.

Your subject is obviously of critical importance in determining how you photograph it. If you are documenting a construction problem, then it’s important to understand precisely what needs to be shown, something that the engineer or contractor will probably direct in detail.

In documentation photography, ambiguity or creativity is not a positive trait. Creative angles or unusual approaches to such photographs are unwelcome at best, and most likely a serious distraction that diminishes the information and the credibility of such documentary photographs. Here, it’s important to be aware of optical perspective, detail and resolution, and generally ensuring that everything that’s important to understanding the image can be seen clearly in relationship to each other.

Similarly, unless you’re a teenager, you’ll probably want most photographs of family and people to depict them in a pleasing manner, rather than looking like a carnival sideshow. In these cases, good lighting of the subject that avoids unpleasant shadows is one important factor. Again, as with pure documentation photography, you are involved in a fairly conscious analysis of the situation and in making a determination about how to best show the subject.

Fine art photography, on the other hand, can be rather different. I’m amazed at how many people in the area engage in making and displaying artistically inclined photographs. In this branch of photography, your range of subjects and how you photograph them are basically unlimited by the practical considerations that dominate documentation and personal photography. Instead, it’s limited by your creative act of “seeing” and your ability to achieve what you’ve set out to create.

Given the hundreds of billions of digital photographs made every year in the United States, finding a fresh subject and a fresh way to photograph it can be a daunting task.