Picture of community — ‘Paint, Pen the Kenai’ celebrates residents’ talents

“Kenai La Belle” by Fanny Ryland.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

Most striking wasn’t the colors, though they were vibrant. Nor the designs, though they were eye-catching. It was more the content of the imagery — the interestingly different takes on the theme “Life on the Kenai,” and yet the similarities running throughout all the pieces in the Paint and Pen the Kenai summer art show, which opened with a reception Thursday at the Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center.

“I think it’s very diverse and there are a lot of neat possibilities for public art. And there’s so much similarity, too — most have planes, most of them have fishing and the Russian Orthodox Church,” said Anna Widman, who teaches art at Nikiski Middle-High School and submitted one of the mural paintings.

Hers references salmon runs with a Native-inspired motif and recreation with a campsite, a fishing fly, a guitar player seated at a bonfire and a snowmachiner. There’s a moose amid summer wildflowers, and it’s all set at the mouth of the Kenai River with the Russian Orthodox Church and Veronica’s Cafe in Old Town, a few oil platforms out in Cook Inlet, a plane flying overhead and Mount Redoubt framing the scene in the background.

By Anna Widman

“I thought that togetherness was a theme, so I wanted to show that,” Widman said. The lines of the Kenai River and sandy shoreline in her vertical design converge into two hands holding each other at the bottom of the frame.

Kenai Peninsula residents were invited to paint a mural panel or submit writing sharing their vision of “Life on the Kenai” for display in the summer show. Starting this week viewers of the show will be able to vote for their favorite painted panel, and the winning design will be reproduced as a large-scale, permanent public mural somewhere on the peninsula. The placement also is going to be community-driven, with people suggesting and voting on possible locations. A Pen the Kenai writing will be selected to go on permanent display with the mural, as well, and a book will be produced commemorating the project, showing the mural designs and writings.

“Everyone will get a chance to vote on what they want to see and where they want to see it. I’m looking forward to having one of these awesome designs be a mural in our community,” said Marcus Meuller, president of the Soldotna Rotary Club, which is organizing the Paint and Pen the Kenai project in conjunction with the Kenai Chamber of Commerce. “Thank you to all the artists and all the writers. I’m just astounded by the quality in this community.”

Art Seen: Point in the post — Photographer sends away for social involvement

These photos, by Michael Dinkel, are part of his “A Shortened History of Alaska” project.

By Natasha Ala, for the Redoubt Reporter

Michael Dinkel, of Soldotna, began photographing spawned salmon along the banks of the Kenai River in the 1990s using a 35-mm camera with black-and-white Kodak film. I first met Dinkel in the darkroom at Kenai Peninsula College, where he was meticulously perfecting the rich tonal quality of his salmon images back in 1998. When I recently again saw his spawned salmon images on Facebook, I was very interested to learn of the new direction he was taking with his work, and how he is combining his two-dimensional artwork with his more recent passion for writing.

Dinkel’s current work is a mail art project entitled, “A Shortened History of Alaska,” which combines a selection of images from his 20-plus years of black-and-white salmon photographs with his writing.

The mail art movement can be roughly traced back to 1915 when Marcel Duchamp and the Dadaist artists began sending each other artwork through the mail as an act of defiance against the established art venues, and as a statement that art was about the work and not defined by how or where it was presented. Later, the Fluxus artists embraced mail art in their theory of challenging the aesthetic assumptions of what art is and what art should be.

Mail art will sometimes consist of a small collection of artwork, sent directly to the viewer, thereby developing a direct connection between the artist and viewer. Mail art was also influenced by the conceptual artists who believed art was in the idea, not necessarily the object. Conceptual artists also used mail art to stimulate ideas amongst each other, ideas that sometimes addressed social justice or political issues.

Art Seen: Drawn to art — Kenai painter prefers depicting character of world around him

While living in Nome, James Adcox painted murals at several Bush schools, including this one of a wolf. Adcox and his wife now live on the central Kenai Peninsula.

By Natasha Ala, for the Redoubt Reporter

Talent meeting primed and focused resolve is the backstory behind local artist James Adcox and his journey into art. When James Adcox was very young, his parents, Tom and Grace Adcox, realized their identical twin sons had an aptitude for art. James and his twin brother, Jason, both showed early signs of aptitude in visual arts, which their parents encouraged and supported, not only through childhood, but into adulthood.

“In fifth grade my parents gave my brother an acrylic painting kit and myself an oil kit as a gift and that pretty much set us on our art paths,” said Adcox of his early influences. While most young boys growing up in Texas were collecting baseball cards, Adcox was collecting Norman Rockwell cards.

“Playground” is an oil painting by Adcox showing a girl holding onto a hand railing at a playground.

At a very early age Adcox said that he was drawn to portraiture and the depiction of the person in their environment. Fascinated by the human figure at an early age, drawing was his primary focus through high school. Pen and ink, chalk, and mostly black-and-white renderings heavily influenced by comic books was the focus of his high school years in art, he said.

After high school Adcox attended Collin County Community College in Plano, Texas, where he and his twin brother took the same classes together, shared the same textbooks and studied from the same art teachers.

Art Seen: Art every wear

Photos courtesy of Michele Conti. “Beloved” is a gown constructed with red roses.

By Natasha Ala, for the Redoubt Reporter

Fashion-minded individuals, with an appreciation for imagination, will want to take note of a rare opportunity to experience live performance art when artist Enzina Marrari will “activate” her dresses, now on display at the Gary L. Freeburg Gallery at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus, in an exhibit entitled “Della Terra.” The performance will be part of a closing event for the exhibit, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. April 5 at KPC.

The creation of each garment was inspired by the personality and unique qualities of the individuals modeling the garments. Marrari collected objects from the environment that she felt best embodied the character of her models. Most of the materials used in the construction of the garments were gathered from the Alaska landscape by the artists.

Marrari says that some of her models were close friends and others became so in the process of creating the garments.

There is a sophisticated feel of elegance and grace to her work. In “Beloved,” she has fashioned hundreds of red roses together into an evening gown that resembles a “Breakfast at Tiffanies” ensemble reminiscent of a gown Audrey Hepburn might have worn.

“Drift” is a ballet-inspired piece incorporating driftwood.

Constructed out of stripped tree bark gathered from the beach at Point Woronzof after the big storms that blew down hundreds of trees last fall, Marrari has constructed a chic-looking ballerina outfit she titled “Drift.” Turning bark into a sophisticated garment presents not only aesthetic challenges but construction challenges, as well. Marrari has successfully mastered both, creating a classy garment that is well fabricated.

These garments were not created to be archival objects, but rather to be wearable or provisional pieces of art.

“‘Della Terra’ translates to ‘of the Earth,’ which identifies the thread of this exhibit — the ephemeral nature of the materials. The various garments are either made from material directly harvested from the Alaska landscape or reference some natural material that is largely impermanent, and as such, contains an element of unpredictability. The interest and beauty lay in the transition of the materials. As the elements dry, die or decay, the pieces change. They become reliant on the natural process of decomposition. I am fascinated by the beauty that evolves as something decomposes, deteriorates or breaks down, and this fascination has been a theme consistent throughout my career as an artist,” Marrari said of her exhibit.

Wildflowers for floral sweetness.

During the activation April 5, models will initiate a performance based on the concept of each of the garments. This one-night-only performance will be as ephemeral as the gowns — miss it and it will be gone. And as the closing reception for “Della Terra,” this is an opportunity for the audiences to meet the artist and view her magnificent creations up close and in person.

Natasha Ala has a bachelor’s degree in art and serves on the board of the Kenai Peninsula Art Guild. Ala also is the executive director of a Kenai Peninsula nonprofit organization.

Art Seen: Stories in stitches — Quilt exhibit is warm, inviting

“Sunburst No. 1” by Jack Ross.

By Natasha Ala, for the Redoubt Reporter

“And Every Quilt, a Story” is the name of the exhibit currently on display at the Kenai Chamber and Visitors Center. As in every story, this story embraces an ending. It is the last exhibit curated by Zirrus VanDevere, exhibits and culture coordinator, who is now off to New York to be closer to family.

When asked for final reflections on the exhibit, VanDevere shared, “It’s a very heart-rendering show. There is a lot of heart in quilts and it was a very heart-opening experience to be invited into people’s homes and listen to their stories and look at their quilts. It feels nice and very community oriented.”

VanDevere credits Jan Wallace, a local artist, as being very instrumental in her assistance contacting and inviting local quilters to participate in the exhibit.

 

“Crazy Quilt” by Mary Jean Koch.

I recently spent an afternoon with VanDevere as she took me through the exhibit and shared the history of many of the quilts. For each quilt in the exhibit there is a very touching story behind why it was created, for whom it was created or what story inspired the artist to create the quilt.

The first quilt we looked at together was entitled “Sunburst No. 1,” by Jack Ross. “This piece is also one that tells a story and I really like it because it was quilted by a man — dig it! It’s really quite beautiful,” VanDevere said.

“Sunburst No. 1” incorporates a large selection of men’s ties sewn into the quilt. Ross reflects on its meaning to him and his wife, Robin, in his artist’s statement:

“It is a memory quilt in a way because there are about a dozen or so ties that have meaning to us, such as the tie I wore when we left on our honeymoon, a couple I wore at work, African animals that remind us of our trip to South Africa, San Francisco highlights (Robin was born there and we started our honeymoon there and it is our favorite city), Alaska animals for our home here, Goofy because I am, multicolors because of my love for them, ‘Lion King’ for when we saw the live production in London and the Space Shuttle Discovery because I was part of the recovery crew when it made its first return from space in Edwards AFB.”

Next, VanDevere enthusiastically led to three quilts done by Mary Jean Koch.

“La Salida de los Esperitos de la Selva” by Beth Cassidy.

“Mary Jean is a 91-year-old woman who quilts every day. Every day she gets up and quilts. When I met with Mary Jane and she told me the stories of her quilts I was moved, it was a very intimate experience for me,” VanDevere said.

There is fine stitching work on her piece entitled “Crazy Quilt,” and I am quite impressed with the fine technique and attention to detail in each of her handcrafted stitches. The fabrics of the quilt looks to be from an assortment of outfits that have been deconstructed and sewn together with artistic license in a fun and fanciful manner.

The exhibit also includes a rare showing of three quilts by the late Beth Cassidy, who was skilled in fiber arts and had exhibited her work widely across the country.

“This is the work of an award-winning artist who showed her work at the Cochran Museum and all over the U.S. I like the stretch between Cassidy’s highly accomplished work and showing a wrinkled blanket,” said VanDevere, pointing to a threadbare and much-loved baby blanket on loan for the exhibit from the Boyd family.

In Cassidy’s quilt, “La Salida de los Esperitos de la Selva,” which, literally translated means “the exit of the little hopefuls from the jungle,” Cassidy depicts the departure of spirits from the forest and emblematically portrays the destruction of a rain forest. Symbolic animals are e

“Secret Dreams” by Terri Shin.

mbellished and attached to the quilt, along with miniature cloth dolls and fragments of South American-patterned fabric. The quilt is playful yet foreboding.

The juxtaposition between quilts that were created to be art pieces and quilts that were created to be family treasures holds one thing in common — they share the stories and tell of the personal journeys of those who created them.

“I’ve drawn here together an array of pieces from the area that I find interesting to share on a larger scale, though I’ve learned that sharing quilts can be a very intimate experience, both for the designer and the viewer. Quilts tend to come from the heart and are best if received with an open heart,” VanDevere said.

VanDevere’s heartfelt contribution to the arts of the Kenai Peninsula will be greatly missed.

Natasha Ala has a bachelor’s degree in art and serves on the board of the Kenai Peninsula Art Guild. Ala also is the executive director of a Kenai Peninsula nonprofit organization.

Art Seen: Dare to share — Artists make personal public in entering juried exhibition

“Raven Man” by James Adcox

By Natasha Ala, for the Redoubt Reporter

Creating art is a very personal and introspective process of exposing ideas about how one sees themselves and their place in the world. For an artist to take the next step and share this tactile manifestation of their ideas can be a gut-wrenchingly painful experience, leaving many artists feeling venerable, particularly to public scrutiny.

Yet 28 local artists — some emerging and others well established — braved baring their souls in the Kenai Peninsula Art Guild’s judged “Biennial Exhibit,” which is now showing at the Kenai Fine Arts Center.
Submissions for the “Biennial Exhibit” were judged by seasoned artists Marion Nelson and Becky Holloway. Nelson is an exhibiting encaustic artist who has practiced art her entire life.

“The creative process is endlessly fascinating to me, no matter the medium or discipline. I love artistic problem-solving, often giving myself assignments such as a limited color palette,” Nelson said.

Holloway is an accomplished potter.

“Using texture and exploring its interaction with slips and glaze has been a focus in my work. Recently, altering forms — changing them from the round, wheel-thrown shape — has become a new direction to explore,” Holloway said.

Art Seen: Waxing creative — Enthusiasm for encaustic artwork does not wane

Above and below are test samples of encaustic pieces — melted and manipulated beeswax — created during a workshop over the weekend in Kenai.

By Natasha Ala, for the Redoubt Reporter

There are very few forms of painting that require blasting your artwork with a blowtorch, applying 175-degree burning hot wax and carving into your paint with sharp objects. However, that is exactly what local artists learned to do at a recent encaustic painting workshop offered by Anchorage artist Janet Hickok in Kenai.

The first order of business in an encaustic workshop is reviewing the safety procedures: Don’t set your heat gun or blowtorch down near flammable materials, have a fire extinguisher close at hand, make sure your wax stays at below 210 degrees as to avoid toxic off-gassing, make sure you are working in an area with proper ventilation, and wear gloves at all times to reduce the pain of hot wax dripping on your skin.

Encaustic painting is a process of applying layers of pigmented hot liquid beeswax to a hard surface — usually a wood, terracotta, cardboard or other such firm, organic, porous surface. Encaustic art is an ancient form of painting used by both the Egyptians and Greeks dating back over two thousand years. There has been a recent resurgence of interest in this art form popularized by the work of contemporary master artists, such as Jasper Johns and Diego Rivera.

There is certainly a unique esthetic quality to an encaustic painting.

“Working with heated and pigmented beeswax is captivating because its fluidity, translucency, luminosity and inherent charm leave countless opportunities for inspiration. I relish interacting with the painting by working and reworking the wax, most often in an unstructured and impulsive manner, until it feels finished,” Hickok said.
Hickok began working in encaustics seven years ago when she reluctantly attended a workshop in Girdwood. Yet she was immediately captivated by the expressive qualities of the art form.

Janet Hickok, an encaustic artist from Anchorage, led the workshop.

Art Seen: Study in creativity — Art students display mastery

“Red and Black Landscape,” by Chris Banas.

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

Kenai Peninsula College art students have joined together to offer another solid exhibit at the Kenai Fine Arts Center, and looking at the roster of names, I would expect as much.

Topping the wow tree is Chris Banas, with a series of landscape pastels that are honestly exquisite. He has captured the essence of the local scenery in a studied and confident manner, allowing the medium to really have its way while at the same time orchestrating the marks and colors masterfully. It is this kind of ability to make drawing look so amazingly simple yet entirely mystifying that regenerates my love for it again and again. “Red and Black Landscape” by Banas will not soon leave my memory, and has my nod as the greatest piece in the lot.

Some pretty fine rendering also is going on in Melinda Nelson’s “Dreaming of Poppies” and Victoria Worral’s “The More the Merrier.” Both come off as being about more than simply drawing from life, although I suppose if you referred to them as Drawing From Life, it would feel more suiting, as they seem to suggest a more emotional dynamic.

Art Seen: Spice of life — Mixed-media offerings pack plenty of punch into small space

By Natasha Ala, for the Redoubt Reporter

It is often said that variety is the spice of life and it seems that Zirrus VanDevere is intent on capturing a zesty breadth of emotions in her work, currently on exhibit at the Corner Café — formerly Mugz Café — in the Blazy Mall in Soldotna.

In this small collection, VanDevere uses a variety of materials and mediums to express a roller coaster of human sensations. This gamut of emotions also is echoed in her choice of titles — “Addiction,” “Freedom,” “Defiance” and “Angel Dew” — all loaded with strong, expressive sentiment.

In this collection, VanDevere has attached found objects to canvas, printed straight photography and explored painting on alternative surfaces. In these dozen or so pieces, VanDevere successfully uses the expressive qualities of her materials to explore a diversity of emotional themes.

“Thwarted Destiny” is among mixed-media work by Zirrus VanDevere on display through February at the Corner Cafe in the Blazy Mall in Soldotna.

In “Thwarted Destiny,” an acrylic painting on a wooden rolltop desk cover, three frisky goats fill the picture frame in a jovial composition reminiscent of the classic Three Muses.

The corrugated surface of the painting adds an element of whimsical fun. The colors are integrated in such a way that the painting is not competing with the unusual surface on which it is applied. Painting on alternative surfaces can present technical and aesthetic challenges for artists but VanDevere successfully merges her art and materials in a way that enhances the fun and whimsical feeling of the piece.

Art Seen: Rare sights at ‘Rarefied Light’

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

“Things We Leave Behind” by Laura Avellaneda-Cruz.

It has taken me awhile to warm up to this current “Rarified Light” exhibit currently on display at the Gary Freeburg Gallery at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus. “Rarified Light” is an Alaska traveling photography show put on by the Alaska Photography Center each year, and it has been around for many years. In days past, it was more edgy and involved more photography-based mixed media than it does now, and it was much easier to be wowed by the imagery.

My first thought upon greeting this exhibit was that the juror (they are different each year), Cig Harvey, has a thing for people, and for their hands. Some of the portraits are especially engaging, like both of Michael Conti’s selections, “Riley” and “Enzina.” And Lauren Holmes’ “The Next Generation” is “loaded” with meaning, capturing a small Native boy on a coffee table with a big gun and looking like he’s ready to take the world on, while elders sit in the background.

Art Seen: ‘Up and Coming’ — Developing local artists hone skills, perspectives

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

“Filling” by Claire Rowley is on display along with work by Ben Hastins and Joel Isaak at the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center through Feb. 15.

I was given the opportunity to present an exhibit of my own choosing recently at the  Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center, and was thrilled to invite three young artists who I’ve been watching for some time now. These three, Claire Rowley, Ben Hastings and Joel Isaak, stand out as artists who are producing consistently, exploring their respective mediums bravely, and presenting work that is able to really speak to others, both aesthetically and conceptually.

In “The Russians,” Claire Rowley has drawn and watercolored on vellum sandwiched with Plexiglas so that the effect has depth and added structure. Four male figures smile out at us or look on with a sort of happy indifference. The stenciling behind calls forth the feeling of both old wallpaper and jungle forests.

She has repeated some motifs in her “tribe” imagery — the folded arms and cozy groupings of its members giving a very intimate sense of the subjects while also suggesting the universality of the groups that define us.

In “Filling,” the subject appears to be the artist herself, holding her hands out both receptively and in a gesture that reads as “it is what it is.” In the background we see writing that declares, “That which fills your heart, fills your life,” and the subject’s heart is in fact in the very center of the frame, causing us to get only a glimpse of her neck and chin, rather than her whole portrait.

Fall into Winter — Readers capture seasonal sights in Redoubt Reporter photo contest

Best in Show: “Ice Formation,” by Vickie Tinker, of Soldotna.

Editor’s Note: Thank you to all our participating photographers! Selected prints will be invited to participate in a photography show in October 2013 at the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center.

Plugged In, by Joe Kashi, for the Redoubt Reporter

Generally, the “Fall into Winter” photos that caught my eye were photos in which the traditional “rules” were disregarded in order to capture the strongest possible composition.

Edward Weston, certainly one of the 20th century’s premier photographers, once defined good photographic composition as the “strongest way of seeing.” Good composition is not a set of cliched rules to be followed to the letter in the same uninspired manner used in filing out a tax return.

Using the EXIF data found in the photos, I was able to gain some general information about the cameras and lenses employed as well as how the various photographs were exposed. However, don’t fear Big Brother — your EXIF data does not include names, unless you intentionally programmed them into your camera, nor location data unless you have an activated GPS in your camera, and only one winning photo had either name or GPS data. (By the way, deployed military and their families are all advised to deactivate the GPS in any camera because posting photos that include GPS data can result in dangerous security breaches for both service personnel and their families back home.)

The basic lens, camera and exposure EXIF data allows us to draw some helpful technical conclusions that complement the more evident aesthetic and compositional ones.

Perhaps most significantly, so far as I can tell all of the placing and honorable mention photographs apparently were taken using large-sensor cameras, mostly digital SLR cameras of varying ages, although some Olympus Micro Four-Thirds cameras also did well.

We can draw two possible conclusions from this — either technically adept photographers with an already-practiced “eye” tend to use large-sensor cameras because of superior image quality, or the superior image quality of large-sensor cameras simply resulted in better-looking photos regardless of who took them. I believe that the former alternative is the more nearly correct conclusion — the photographs that most caught our attention show the experience and good “eye” of our successful entrants.

Judge’s selections