VOL 01 ISSUE
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JULY 16, 2002
VOL 01 ISSUE
10 |
| FIRE STATION SCULPTURE: NEW MODEL FOR PATRIOTIC INSTINCT | ||||
 THE SAVE at Anchorage's
downtown Fire Station is the latest % for Art installation provided for the citizens of
Anchorage. Alaskans Jim Dault and Shala Dobson collaborated to bring a new element of
gestural expression to the town's growing collection of public bronzes. Dault
explained that of the two alternatives facing fire rescue personnel when entering a
burning building with people in it, The Save is clearly preferable. Through the
device of two door size frames (meant to imply a hallway), the sculptors focused
concentration on only the outstretched arms from each doorway. The larger, protectively
clothed hand of the rescuer is reaching to protect the nakedly vulnerable, smaller arm
with its sensitively spread fingers. Dobson and Dault have careers of
distinction, including notably their Toast Gallery of contemporary art and their public
art sculpture Tightrope Walker inside the PAC pedestrian overpass. |
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        -OPPORTUNITIES- 8/1 deadline FOUND OBJECT SEMINAR $265 Dobson & Dault will present a three day workshop August 9-11 at Kasitsna Bay outside Homer with Across the Bay Tent & Breakfast Adventure Company. 345-2571 8/12 deadline NEA ARTS LEARNING GRANTS Guidelines available www.arts.gov 8/30 deadline SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2003-2005 slides, bio and exhibition plan to: Anchorage Museum of History & Art, 121 West Seventh Avenue www.ci.anchorage.ak.us
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Dault demonstrated the finger-like qualities of the
flames reaching around the beam of the doorway and expressing danger with energetically
modeled form. The sculpture was cast in Arizona because there are currently no facilities
suitable to such large scale projects in Alaska. The two main elements of the group
each use over 400 pounds of material, which not only requires a big hot furnace, but a
whopping big crucible! Although The Save was conceived and developed long
before the lamentable events of 9/11/01, both artists agreed to commemorate the selfless
heroism of our contemporary patriots. The rescuer's gloved arm contains a list of names of
fallen firefighters. The doorframes are a little farther apart than originally planned which results in a longer, almost awkward distance between the two outstretched hands. One of two 1% for Art sculptures at the new station, The Save embellishes a small plaza at the northeast corner of the block. At far left, % for Art Administrator Jocelyn Young approves the installation following a final polishing by the artists. BUGBEE BRONZE’S MEMORIAL VIGIL The bronze Alaska Veteran by Cordova sculptor Joan Bugbee Jackson on the Delaney Park 'strip' at 9th Avenue & I Street was financed without % for Art money. This beautifully realized WWII soldier, raised to an imposing height, carries a rifle at the ready and assumes a conventional pose of stepping forward. It is shown with a floral wreath after recent 4th of July ceremonies. The dedication: "To those Alaska Veterans whose eyes have seen what the protected will never know." Draw close to the statue, shield your eyes and look up into the face of this soldier. The huge flag on the soaring Sitka spruce pole will be flapping above and beyond. Jackson's talents are fully realized in the modeling around the expressive eyes. Somehow she has managed to depict apprehension and resolution simultaneously, just as it occurs in the heroic personality. Try setting your mouth in the position shown at left and see how it makes you feel. Ms Jackson's bronze Alaska's Five Governors is part of the Loussac Library collection, and her Fisherman's Memorial in Cordova was dedicated in 1985. BIRDSALL PUTS STAMP ON DENALI Watercolorist Byron Birdsall is one of Alaska's signature artists, so much so that his Alaskana watercolors were used when the post office ran a series of stamps for each state. The distinction is merited, and Birdsall even has imitators in galleries other than Artique Ltd., where his new paintings of Winter subjects and small drawings from Italy are on display through July. Birdsall is one of those artists whose reproductions sell briskly because of their gregarious accessibility. Blended washes lightly glittered for backgrounds and reflections and discrete areas of summarizing color in hard edged foregrounds appeal to many who were first attracted to art by the Paint-By-Number sets. His subject matter is chosen from scenes familiar to most Alaskan residents. Reproducing his originals in editions of 750 has made Birdsall's lyrical landscapes available to the most modest budgets, and encouraged a secondary market in these 'prints'. Yet his original watercolors were offered at a very acceptably modest prices as well. Nearly $50,000 worth of originals were offered and purchased during this exhibition, many sold prior to the opening reception. Most of the two dozen watercolors were between one and two thousand dollars. The price per square inch ranged between $3.50 and $8 with the overall average at $5.65 per inch. Birdsall is surrounded by eager enthusiasts at the opening in the picture at left. WOODWARD’S NORTHERN EXCURSION Kesler Woodward recently joined PBS' Retracing the Harriman Expedition as a traveling artist and shows paintings and drawings from the excursion at the Decker Morris Gallery downtown. Several charming Prismacolor pencil sketches including the Siberian Pickup pictured sold to enthusiastic collectors at $600 each. The small drawings were vibrant and realistic. The larger works, some done with oil crayon, many depicting ice, were less warmly received. Woodward's decision to leave so much of his canvases showing the primer coat makes the images seem even colder. OKAMOTO NEW AMERICAN PAINTER Open Studio Press divides the country into regions and invites artists to be reviewed by different jurists for inclusion in their annual regional painters promotional catalogs New American Paintings. Jurists rarely select Alaskan painters from the more than 500 entries they receive in the Pacific Coast edition, most recently published January 1, 2001. Juror Carl Belz of Brandeis University reviewed artists from Seattle, Portland, California and Hawaii. Congratulations and best wishes to Alaskan artist Shintaro Okamoto for being included in the 2001 edition, #47. His new series of paintings, now exhibiting at the Decker/Morris Gallery, shows the chromatic development of repeated forms chosen from sources in scientific photography. A pronounced graphic quality is decorative, clinical, and emotionless, suitable to modern business settings. The paper chromatographs a la Jaq Chartier were gridded without relief. ZIGGY CELEBRATES FREEDOM Reader Matt Johnson writes from Anchorage: "My two cents... Its a great read, I like the strong opinions, and the humor." There are thorns with the roses also: "The photos could be sharper. Should be tack sharp and web-ready." From Europe, Alaskan expatriate Bill Ray (now working and exhibiting in Germany) wants us to know that "I have a new website www.billray.info and would greatly appreciate an updating of your link. Thanks for including me in your list."
Thank You and Welcome to new subscribers in Spenard. |
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text & photos © 2002 ArtSceneAK; artist's works pictured ©2002 to artists credited.
Anchorage muralist 'Ziggy' Ziglar returns from
the big house to the big wall as seen in the photograph of the mural in progress on the
side of David Green's Fine Furrier on 4th Street. A musher and dog team will be included
in the final product. 
