Jun 26, 2012 | Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, To Market To Market |
While her son Louis is on her back, Lily Hope washes down the whale's tail in the parking lot of the Juneau Arts and Culture Center - Juneau, Alaska
The Juneau Arts and Humanities is sponsoring a project to help bring awareness to the support of a large bronze whale’s tail to be created by local artist Skip Wallen. 10 polyuerothane foam resin whale tails are being embellished by 10 selected local artists. Lily Hope submitted a proposal; we were selected as one of the 10. We were going to create a modern Tlingit-influenced stylized form line design painting, however, that would require at least three days of sunshine, and by this Summer’s lousy weather pattern we’ve been experiencing in Juneau, we decided to create something a bit simpler yet elegant.
Lily begins spraying the toxic, smelly black spray paint
Each whale tail is being sponsored by a local business – Thank you to Huna Totem Corporation for sponsoring ours!
Lily completes the black; Clarissa begins to spray touches of red
All 10 whale tails must be completed by July 1st; 3 will be in Juneau’s Fourth of July parade. In September, the whale tails will be auctioned.
Modeling for a pretend magazine article - haha!
We had to wait for a couple of hours for the paint to be completely dry before attempting to move it and begin gluing buttons.
Lily begins gluing smokey-gray mother-of-pearl buttons
Lily finishes gluing the buttons, then each is nailed down to survive any weather
Louis helps nail down the buttons too!
Please tell your friends, neighbors and co-workers about the big auction on Saturday, September 15th at the JACC (Juneau Arts & Culture Center, i.e. the Old Armory), where all the wonderful creations will be auctioned off to the highest bidder!
Do we look proud of ourselves or what?
Thanks to all who are volunteering and participating in the Animal Parade and supporting this Whale Project, which will place a spectacular life-scale bronze humpback whale and fountain on Juneau’s waterfront, in recognition of Alaska’s 50th anniversary of Statehood. This will be an icon for Juneau, and the third sculpture of Skip Wallen in Juneau.
Many thanks to Kathy Ruddy for coordinating this event; thanks again to Huna Totem Corporation for sponsoring our particular whale tail!
May 6, 2011 | Acting Out and Musical Chairs, Poetry Alaskan |
10am Saturday - let the fair begin...! (High school art teacher, Miah Lager's "collage poetry" booth) Notice the banners, they are made of collage materials
The Canvas Community Art Studio and Gallery hosted the first “Poetry Block Party” street fair last Saturday, April 30th beginning at 10am to 3pm. They received permission from the City & Borough of Juneau to close off Seward Street between 2nd and 3rd Street (which is where The Canvas is located). The theme of this year’s block party (as they may continue as an annual event), was the writing of poetry through artistic means, whether it be the written word, visual arts, or performing arts.
Miah demonstrates the collage-making "poetry"
Most of the businesses within 2nd/3rd Street block (and 2 blocks down or around the corner) participated in the event. They include Silverbow Bakery where you could participate in the “Baking” Haiku Contest; Big Brothers/Big Sisters poetry chain; Nana’s Estates theme hats; Capital City Weekly’s found poetry; The Plant People poet tree; Copy Express fill in the blank poems; Juneau Public Library Haikubes (“Scrabble” poetry), poetry books, library card registration and prize raffle; The Canvas word necklaces, mixed media poetry paintings, window word painting and crazy quills; Art Photography write photo-inspired poetry; Memuluck Furs beading and sewing; CHOCO in the REACH window “Tailored Words” poetry through fashion; Nail Jazz airbrushed temporary tattoos; Wells Fargo coin toss poetry; Nana’s Attic decorate hats and visors with the Hat Lady; K3Radio/UAS Media Club record poems to be read on the radio and turn in Scavenger Hunt cards for prizes; Juneau Arts & Humanities Council sidewalk chalk art contest; Hearthside Books receive 15% off all Poetry Books during the Block Party; Jewel Box drop off a “proposal poem” by 3:00pm for a chance to win a Jewel Box gift certificate; and DJ Manuel music all day, freestyle session.
Sidewalk/street art
Creating poetry writing wands
Love and friendship bubbles
The DJ played awesome tunes...especially for hula hooping
The street fair also included activities for adults...!
Performances throughout the day included the Hula Hoop Collective, Free-style Session with DJ Manuel, Spirit Lodge Drumming, The Kinetics (hip hop dance group), and Open Mic hosted by Woosh Kinaadeiyi Poetry Slam.
There were a few food vendors including the "Urban Eskimos" Gallery selling Kettle Korn and the classic Cotton Candy
Restaurants and food vendors included: Silverbow Bakery’s beer garden; Chef Stef word cookies; Lola’s Filipino BBQ and desserts; Wild Oven organic artisan bread; Glory Hole alphabet soup; Pie in the Sky trade an original poem about pie for a free cookie; and Urban Eskimo kettle korn.
Painting body poetry
"Scrabble" poetry - roll the words and create a line of poetry (as seen in the photo below), then write your line down on a paper "leaf" and tie it to the tree for everyone to read...
An example of a line created from Scrabble poetry...
For more information on the Canvas Community Art Studio & Gallery in Juneau, visit their website at: http://www.canvasarts.org/
Mar 26, 2011 | Honoring Others, North Tide |
The Barrow Dancers performed for a full audience at Juneau's High School Auditorium
Lis, Greg and Leif pulled me out of the house last Saturday night, March 19th. I could have continued weaving on my robe, finish my homework due on Sunday, prepare for my business trip this week, or gone to the movies with my mother and brother; even though I love the dances of the Far North people, I was reluctant to go to the performance because of my stack of responsibilities. Of course, I was glad to have gone. The way of “Eskimo” dance is very different than any other kind of dance I have seen or have done; a happiness is reflected in the dances and songs of these people. The first time I had seen Eskimo dancing was about 25 years ago when the King Island Dancers performed at the ANB Hall here in Juneau. I was pleasantly surprised at how my spirit was uplifted by this kind of dance and song. I hadn’t heard anything like it. There is a quality that is highly spiritual – those are the only words I can find to describe the experience, a happy, spiritual experience. Watching the Barrow Dancers was as equally another spiritual experience.
A young man dances solo this story while the men drum with women sitting behind them singing the chant.
The Barrow Eskimo Dancers are all Inupiaq Eskimo. They are the oldest dance group in Barrow, Alaska and love to pass down their traditional motion dances that tell stores of life long ago and modern times. They are an all-ages group with over 60 members varying in age from two years old to almost 100! Some begin training while still toddlers and others join when they are in their 60’s.
The women wore purple, cotton kuspuks (traditional dress) and the men wore white shirts with bolo ties; every member wore black pants tucked into the traditional mukluks
The locally-derived songs of the Barrow Dancers were composed largely by original dance group members the late Walter Akpik, Sr. and Warren Matumeak and their forebears, and have their roots in the north central North Slope of Alaska. Other, more recently composed songs and motions were composed by some of the other dance performers. May of the recently-composed songs are performed with a smile (one dance, for example, mimics the pre-flight briefing of airline stewardesses). Some songs have been borrowed and exchanged with groups from as far away as Savoonga and Chukotka in the Bering Sea and Arctic Canada.
Dancing the famous "Walrus" dance!
“Even though most of our elders have passed on, what they taught us still lives on in many of the dances we do. Especially during practices when we are learning new dances or bringing back old dances. Teaching the young ones the songs and dances makes me feel like we are passing down our culture and the knowledge so that it lives on when we are gone.” Fred Elavgak.
Grandma Priscilla and grandson dance in friendship
Barrow is the northernmost city in the United States being 320 miles above the Arctic Circle. It is a desert averaging less than 5 inches of rain a year, a land of harsh extremes with extended darkness, strong winds, dense cloud cover and unforgiving temperatures. Archaeological sites in the area indicate the Inupiat lived around Barrow as far back as 500 A.D. Some remains of 16 dwelling mounds from the Birmirk culture of about 800 A.D. are still in evidence today on the shore of the Arctic Ocean.
Priscilla's son has created some of the dance groups new songs and dances
The Barrow Dancers participated in the inaugural parade for President-Elect Obama on January 20, 2009 in Washington, D.C. They have performed as a group as far away as China and are very excited for their first performance in Juneau.
This was such a cool dance, I just had to add another image of it!
The Barrow Dancers performance in Juneau was sponsored by Alaska Airlines and co-sponsored by the Driftwood Lodge.
Alaska Governor Sean Parnell dances with the Barrow Dancers - it was one of the highlights of their performance - you can see that everyone was digging it!
Governor Parnell's wife was also asked to join the dance - such an honor!
During the audience invitational dance, I got to take a close-up of the drummers
Backstage you can see a small portion of the big crowd who joined the dancers on stage during the audience invitational dance
A surprising number of audience members joined in the invitational dance - so much fun!
The Barrow Dancers stood for their Honor Song as the Tlingit Dancers joined them
Lyle James leads his Tlingit dancers to welcome the Barrow Dancers
The Barrow and Tlingit dancers merge as one
