Art of the Pacific Northwest - The Art of Juneau, Alaska

This is the third in the series. I have traveled to several Alaskan port cities just after my initial retirement. Unfortunately, our time there was so brief that we mostly gave our attention to the scenery and souvenir shops. Next time I promise to be more artfully observant.

Missed Opportunities

The Aquileans (2017), Photo by David Purdy

We missed these ten nearly-identical LED-illuminated sculptures (by Cliff Garten) while docked in Juneau, Alaska on our cruise in August of 2016. That's because they were installed over a year later in September of 2017 along with the fendering and mooring dolphins. A dolphin is a man-made marine structure that extends above the water level and is not connected to the shore.

We also missed much of the splendor of the Alaskan glaciers. The weather for our cruise must have been warmer than usual, as there was ice floating in chunks that kept our Captain from visiting certain areas. I was able to get some shots, though not as spectacular as those of a work colleague who inspired our cruise.

Paintings

I did find this watercolor by artist, Mark Vinsel that captures Tracy Arm - South Sawyer Glacier as it looked in 2003. It looks quite similar to my photo as if it could be the same glacier. The painting reminds me of the landscapes of Arthur Wesley Dow, mentor to Georgia O'Keeffe.

Here's another painting of a glacier by artist, Dianne Anderson. Note the rainbow-colored lighting on the mountains in the background. I don't understand what's going on in the bottom quarter of the picture, although it balances the mountain range. I'm guessing it's iced over water with an iceberg in the foreground.

My favorite of these paintings is entitled, Water and Mountains, Juneau, Alaska by artist, Gil Smith. It is watercolor and pencil on paper and was painted in 1959, the year Alaska became a state. The colors are quite vivid and saturated for a watercolor showing high contrast between the snow-covered mountain and the delicate reflection of the city in a wash of blue. This painting was hung in the Smithsonian American Art Museum at one time.

Besides paintings, Alaskan art often includes taxidermy and Native American artifacts such as beadwork, basket weaving, whalebone and woodcarving (masks & totems), canoes, paddles, etc. For now, let's move away from gallery art and focus on public art such as sculpture, including totem carvings.

Since we didn't have much time to explore art on our brief stop in Juneau, I am relying upon online research into the public art published by the city. To that end, I choose to highlight three bronze sculptures, some metalwork and murals, an absolutely beautiful stained glass window, and three bronze house posts and their corresponding carved and painted posts (totems) commissioned to three (Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian) carvers.

Bronze Sculpture

Alaskan sculptors love to capture native animals in their work. R.T. Wallen's Tahku, the Alaska Whale Sculpture is a 25-foot tall humpback whale breaching out from a circular infinity pool and fountain. Tahku was installed in 2018 (after our trip) for the 50th anniversary of Alaskan statehood. It weighs in at 6 tons!

Wallen also captured this brown bear in his bronze work, Windfall Fisherman. He captured the texture of the bear's coat very well and it almost glistens as if its fur is still wet.

Our final bronze sculpture is of Patsy Ann, the bull terrier who, from 1929-1942, faithfully greeted the people and ships coming into Juneau Harbor. In 2011, author Tricia Brown wrote the children's book, "Patsy Ann of Alaska: The True Story of a Dog", illustrated by Jim Fowler. Apparently, the dog was deaf but could still sense the surrounding activity.

Metalwork & Murals

I've discovered that Murals don't necessarily have to be painted or even pieced together with mosaic tiles. Some murals are actually 3D, like Ray Peck's 1988 metal wall sculpture entitled, Traditional and Modern Ways of Fishing.

I do, however, enjoy classic murals, especially when they tell a story or capture something historic or of cultural significance. Bill Ray Jr.'s Raven Discovering Mankind in a Clam Shell, painted in 1988, is such a mural.

Stained Glass

Transfiguration is a stained glass window created by Bruce Elliot depicting salmon spawning upstream. Notice how the small river flows upward leaving a few empty clear glass panes. Typically, you would see the entire window space covered in colored glass. This is an excellent use of positive-negative space!

Totems

The exterior of the Sealaska Heritage building in Juneau is decorated with 40-foot metal panels created by Haida artist Robert Davidson to symbolize the supernatural being he calls, "the Greatest Echo". In August 2018, three local Alaskan totem artists installed three house posts (totems) in front of the building. Each artist (Stephen Paul Jackson, TJ Young, and David Robert Boxley) carved his post out of cedar then used them to create bronze sculptures. The wooden posts were later painted and displayed as totems. Boxley's carvings of the actual house inside the building are equally impressive.

Another three totems that were either restored or recurved by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a U.S. Forest Service program, between 1938 and 1942. The CCC employed over 200 Tlingit and Haida men to preserve the stories captured on these magnificent totems. In 1940, Haida artist John Wallace carved the Four Story Totem (35-ft tall telling 4 stories) that sits outside Juneau-Douglas City Museum.

       

The Governor’s Totem was carved by artists, Charlie Tagcook and William Brown, and stands outside the Governor’s Mansion. In 1941, Tlingit carver Frank St. Clair, aided by two CCC-employed carvers, carved Auke Village Recreation Area’s Yax-te (Big Dipper) Totem. In 2010, the rotting pole was taken down and later recarved by master carver Wayne Price.

Art of the Pacific Northwest - The Art of Portland, Oregon and Other Regions

This is the second in the series. I must admit that I've stayed in Portland only once. It was a last-ditch effort to fly out of Portland for my honeymoon in the Caribbean when Seatac Airport was fogged in. We made our flight, but alas, and after all that effort, our plane landed in Seattle. Another time, on our way somewhere else, we stopped briefly in Portland to visit a huge fabric store. Of course, we also drive through the city on our way to California every year, stopping in Canyonville. Apparently, I missed a lot of great art!

Portland Metro Region

This post will delve into the art of the state of Oregon and its seven regions. We'll begin with the Portland Metro Region. Since I love sculpture and especially bronze statues, let's start with the Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden in Portland's Grant Park. It's a fountain containing life-size statues created by Lee Hunt of three of Cleary's literary characters (Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, and Henry's dog Ribsy) splashing around in the water. Henry's cat, Nosy would never be found in a fountain! It's the city's homage to one of its local writers who was born in McMinnville, OR and grew up not far from the park. 

The Oregon Holocaust Memorial located in Portland's Washington Park dedicates and documents both the victims who died in extermination camps at hands of the Nazis during WWII and their surviving family members from Oregon and Southwest Washington. Besides the wall, there are bronze sculptures of everyday objects left behind by those who suffered this tragedy. The memorial is a collaboration of designers, writers, artists, and landscape architects and is owned by the American Jewish Committee. 

Many countries have erected memorials of the holocaust, including 31 states in the United States. On an excursion in Berlin during our Baltic cruise in June 2019, our bus drove by the rather stoic Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Though visually impressive and vast, the monument doesn't mention any of the names of the victims and never acknowledges any specifics of their extermination.

The Ox Cart (1885), Van Gogh

At the Portland Art Museum, you can see lots of iconic artworks by well-known artists -- Waterlilies by Claude Monet (1914-15), The Grand Canal, Venice by Thomas Moran (1899), Number 12 by Jackson Pollock (1950), The Seine at Argenteuil by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1874), and Charrette de Boeuf (The Ox Cart) by Vincent Van Gogh (1884). I enjoy discovering paintings by Van Gogh that I haven't seen before, and not in the two Van Gogh books that I own. The dark colors are similar to those of The Potato Eaters (1884).

Seattle has Jacob Lawrence and Portland has muralist, artist, and teacher, Isaka Shamsud-Din. His Rock of Ages exhibition runs through August 2021 at the Portland Art Museum. His 2019 Juneteenth Calendar is also available online.

I consider murals to be one of the best ways for public art to be displayed. I also appreciate bronze sculptures and statues commemorating local heroes and animal wildlife. On our road trip through Oregon in February 2020, I enjoyed spotting dragon and cattle sculptures along Interstate 5 near Yreka, California. While researching public art in various Oregon cities, I was surprised by how little art is being funded outside of private art galleries and art alliance groups. I included Portland (a much larger city) because of the diversity and breadth of its art, although it was difficult to downselect for my post.

My intention had been to look for art installations in small, quaint villages like Port Townsend, WA. Unfortunately, many of the smaller budget cities promote and commission art to decorate their traffic boxes on downtown streets and in neighborhoods. You'll also see many bus shelters with etched glass.

Mt. Hood & Columbia River Gorge

The nearby volcano in the Cascades Mountain Range is depicted in Mount Hood by Childe Hassam (1908). This is an example of the art of the Mt. Hood & Columbia River Gorge region.

Another painting of Mt Hood is this one by German-American artist, Albert Bierstadt. It may also be seen at the Portland Art Museum.

Oregon Coast

Central Plain (2020), Darren Orange

The Newport Visual Arts Center presents its Online Art Show, containing the works of local artists of the Oregon Coast, such as Darren Orange, who paints abstract landscapes that are also somewhat impressionistic.

Check it out! 

Willamette Valley

Here's some art from the Willamette Valley, Eastern, Central, and Southern Oregon. Jackie McCartin's paintings of vineyards are colorful landscapes celebrating the wine country of this beautiful valley. They are reminiscent of the paintings of Don Tiller, whose work I saw in his gallery on my recent visit to Port Townsend.

Eastern Oregon

Artist, Steve Henderson painted Shades of Turquoise, a painting of the Wallowa Mountains of Eastern Oregon. The colors and softness of his landscape are reminiscent of the artist, Arthur Wesley Dow, art teacher and mentor to Georgia O'Keefe.

Central Oregon

Bend, Oregon has a wonderful site called, Art In Public Places. Here are two of my favorites from this amazing collection of outdoor art in Central Oregon.

Southern Oregon

I found this watercolor entitled, Skywatchers by Southern Oregon Artist, Betty Barss. I hope you enjoyed this tour of art from Oregon. Stay tuned for more art from the Pacific Northwest and artists from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and finally British Columbia.

Art of the Pacific Northwest Series -- The Art of Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula

One of my readers asked that I publish an in-depth series, so I am posting about the Art of the Pacific Northwest. It will include art from cities in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, Western Montana, and British Columbia. For example, in my Murals post, I included a somewhat famous building in Portland, OR, where, like Seattle, art is everywhere! Much of the art in the four remaining areas I have never seen in-person either because I didn't stay long enough or it wasn't installed until later. As always, I will try to find a personal connection to the city and its art to make it a more interesting read. 

Let's start with Port Townsend, my all-time favorite Washington vacation getaway spot. It's scenic, historic, recreational, relaxed, and family-friendly.  We enjoy staying at Fort Worden State Park and renting the officers' housing.

Here are two photos that I took and translated into art using the PRISMA App on my phone. The first is of the Olympic Peninsula landmark, Point Wilson Lighthouse (est. 1879) in the style of Piet Mondrian. The second is a view of Puget Sound's Admiralty Inlet from the Officer's Row at Fort Worden State Park, across the parade ground. Notice how the photo app created two focal points for the resulting artwork -- (1) the pink coat of the person climbing the stairs and  (2) the simple white triangle of the sailboat off in the distance.

[from my Art Around Us post in May 2019]

In the past, the starkly furnished houses only displayed black-and-white photographs from the turn of the century when it was used as a military base. Now that they have been renovated, new artwork has appeared. We were pleasantly surprised to see large needlepoint versions of Pinkie by Thomas Lawrence and Sir Thomas Gainsborough's Blue Boy displayed side-by-side in the dining room. My niece and I appreciated them. BTW, prints of these flank the entryway of the Cleavers' home on Leave it to Beaver.

My niece and nephew chose Port Townsend as the backdrop for their weddings, carrying on the family tradition of visiting this treasured place and adding to our collective memories. This photo shows another view of Pt Wilson's lighthouse complete with a moody sky, windswept shore pines, and local groundcover.

There are museums at the fort and in town, some taking donations for entry or with reduced rates with seasonal passports. We've gone to PT for years and hopefully this year I can check out the Jefferson Museum of Art & History (if it's open).

Another tradition is driving or walking to one of the beaches to watch the sunset. You may also visit nearby Fort Flagler on Marrowstone Island and hike to see the old military bunkers there or at Fort Worden, where there's a Marine Science Center down on the dock, adjacent to some of the camping sites.

We also bring colored chalk and draw our own temporary family art on the sidewalks in front of our rental house. Another family tradition!

I spent some time on Father's Day weekend sketching faces and figures with my grand niece. I was inspired by her T-shirt with the face of an alien creature and decided to make one of my own. There was a crazy old nautical spotlight perched atop a closet in one of the rooms we were staying in (The Crow's Nest) at the Palace Hotel. I sketched it into my drawing as some sort of shrinking ray (note the miniaturized horse).

Now for art in and around town...

Also overlooking the inlet, and between Pt Wilson and Pt Hudson, is Chief Chetzemoka Park. Since 1996, the S'Klallam Indian Chief is memorialized in a bronze statue by Dick Brown.

Like the famous "Mitt" sculpture outside Seattle's T-Mobile Park, Gerard Tsutakawa (son of George Tsutakawa) also created the bronze "Salish Sea Circle" (a.k.a. "The Big Nut") for Pope Marine Park.

Downtown, at the bottom of the stairs leading up to Rothschild House State Museum and the Bell Tower, is the Haller Fountain, affectionately known as the Greek sea nymph, Galatea. The statue was once damaged beyond repair, then re-cast in 1992 after a community fundraising effort. She reminds me of Edvard Eriksen's iconic Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark, which also suffered vandalism (See my Baltics post). The steps leading upward remind me of the (Gustav) Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway.

On our recent Father's Day trip to Port Townsend, I visited the studio of acrylic landscape artist, Don Tiller. Here is his version of Galatea. I spent a while in his gallery admiring all of his bright canvases and marveling at the movement and the arrangement of colors. We discussed how he sketches his buildings then paints modified versions into his whimsical compositions. He is not a Plein-air painter. All of his paintings are sealed with the addition of a clear topcoat which gives a consistent finish to the varied layers of acrylics.

I was able to take away a few photographs and purchased some souvenir postcards that included bales of hay, as a nod to my brother who enjoys the subject matter. Tiller's colors are warm oranges and yellows that remind me of Van Gogh's wheat fields. 

As with many photos taken in a gallery setting, one can't help but get the sheen of the light reflecting off of the surface. You get the idea of the finish I was talking about.

I was also able to visit the studio of abstract artist, Milo Redwood. I opened the door to his shop and found him sketching and taking advantage of the natural light between the windows and a red curtain. In the window, you can see the green painting with the word, 'Pisces' painted in red in the top right corner. I wish I had seen it before I wrote my Zodiac post.

Milo was working on some small colored pencil designs on Crescent board that had been covered with two coats of black gesso. I told him that they would make great art projects for my fifth-grade students. He recommended using Prism brand pencils. Like researching the hardness of chalk pastels, you need the right softness so that the color adheres properly to the gesso.

We talked about Picasso, Pollock, and Mark Rothko, who he related stories about when a colleague of his met the artist.

Another impressive piece is Leafwing, a steel sculpture installed in June 2006 along Larry Scott Trail, and created by Russell Jaqua who sadly passed away from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) one week after its dedication.

One of the most recent installations is Matt Babcok's Great Blue statue of a blue heron (with clock) that as of 2015 lives outside the PT Community Center. It bothers me that the clock is at an angle, but I guess it had to be rigidly attached to the canted pipe of the bird's beak.

We stayed in the old Palace Hotel, a city landmark located at the corner of Tyler and Water Streets. The Captain Henry L. Tibbals Building was built in 1889 and housed many businesses over the years. Each room is named after a call girl who worked there when the hotel was a brothel (1925-33), one of many manifestations. It is said to be haunted by at least 10 spirits.

While spending time with family in one of the common area sitting rooms, I enjoyed staring at the uniquely patterned stained glass windows.

Even the third-floor ceiling had large stained glass panels.

So that's Port Townsend in a nutshell! There's much more to see and do. And it's fun to explore and discover hidden treasures. We've been going there for over 30 years and I can still find something I haven't seen.