Daily Sitka Sentinel

Decorated Buoys Keeping Brave Heart Afloat

By ARIADNE WILL
Sentinel Staff Writer

For Pat Kehoe, painting a buoy to showcase in downtown Sitka was a challenge.

“I wanted to have it (painted) all sides and underneath,” the Sitka artist said. “I ended up putting a hook in my ceiling and hanging the buoy so I could see it from the bottom.”

The buoy is a hard-shell plastic floats favored by Japanese fishermen for hanging gear, and which break loose frequently enough to make them common flotsam on Southeast Alaska beaches.

Brave Heart Volunteers seized on the idea of using these beachcombed artifacts for a fundraiser, and Kehoe’s buoy is one that was decorated for this purpose. 

The painted buoy project replaces the annual Brave Heart Bowls fundraiser, which was canceled this year because of the pandemic.

The buoys, decorated by amateur and professional artists alike, will be on public display throughout town until September, when they will be sold off in an online auction.

They are a part of Brave Heart’s Fill the Heart campaign, which will last through December.

Pictures of the buoys and more information about the Fill the Heart fundraiser can be found at braveheartvolunteers,org.

“We decided there was too much uncertainty and too many restrictions, so we decided to go with this online campaign,” said Brave Heart Voluneers Executive Director Angie DelMoral.

Decorated buoys hang from a utility pole in downtown Sitka today. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

The fundraiser – which aims to raise $35,000 – will culminate with an open house, to be held at the BHV Manager’s House (formerly the Pioneers Home Manager’s House) on Sept. 1.

The campaign has already raised $7,700, and Brave Heart is still receiving buoys from artists.

“Every one of them is so unique and beautifully made,” DelMoral said. “It’s been really exciting for us – every time we get a new one we ooh and ahh.”

Buoys are on display all around downtown Sitka.

“They’re hanging off of lampposts and in front of stores,” DelMoral said. 

Adrienne Wilber, a lifelong Sitkan, spotted her buoy near City Hall.

“I just saw mine this morning,” she said.

 Wilber said her buoy was inspired by the contagion that made the Brave Heart Bowls event impossible.

“The bottom is supposed to look kind of like the coronavirus,” she said, “and then the top (has) beautiful holes and ... green plants growing through.”

Wilber – like Kehoe – was asked to design a buoy by Michele Friedman, board president of Brave Heart Volunteers.

“I came home one day and there was a buoy on my front porch,” Wilber said. “I thought, ‘oh, that’s weird,’ and then I got an email from (Michele) that said, ‘Hi, was hoping you wanted to participate,’ and I did.”

She said she had some trouble thinking up a design, but said it felt good to participate in a community art project.

“To have them hung communally I found so fun,” she said. “It was something that was not isolating, as opposed to many things that are isolating, right now.”

Kehoe, too, enjoyed the project and hopes to grow the installation in the future.

“I’m wondering if we could take the same idea ... and see if we could do it again for future years and make a really unique hanging of buoys on those light poles downtown,” she said. “I would be willing to paint another buoy.”

The fundraiser also serves as a cleanup initiative. With no shortage of washed up buoys, interested artists will have a constant supply of canvases.

“There’s lots of old, dead buoys in the world,” Kehoe said. “I would love to see more a collage of buoys on each light pole. The more the merrier.”