By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Local artists will showcase their works at the Sitka Public Library tonight, with a portion of the sales proceeds going to an endowment fund for the library.
The opening reception for the exhibition, “Re-Emergence,” is 5 to 7 p.m. at the library. The show will be up through May 26.
Twenty-percent of proceeds from sales will go into the Library Endowment Fund, and the fundraising show is one of the initiatives in honor of the library’s 100th anniversary.
Featured artists are Norman Campbell, Mary Goddard, Pat Kehoe, Sarah Lawrie, Stephen Lawrie, Galen Paine, James Poulson, Robert Rose and Margaret Steward.
Artwork by local artists hangs on the glass walls of the Sitka Public Library today. An opening is scheduled for 5 p.m. today. The show is a fundraiser for the Friends of the Library. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
The exhibit was coordinated by Campbell, Steve Lawrie and library director Jessica Ieremia.
Campbell said the library offered the wall space to the artists for the show.
“This is an inaugural event of something we hope is permanent,” Campbell said, of the use of the space for public art. “It’s the first time something like this has been done at the library – this is some dedicated space so artists have a chance to show their work. Hopefully, it will be ongoing and available to other artists to have a show.”
Campbell will show his pen and ink drawings and an acrylic painting. One of his works includes an image of the Mona Lisa.
“I included the Mona Lisa image because I was displeased with the use of art in a purely commercial manner,” Campbell said in his artist statement.
Sarah Lawrie will show her work from two projects. One is four tarot cards from a set of 78 that was commissioned by her best friend. Each each card is customized – through a collaborative process – in cut paper.
The project is still in the works.
“You never know quite what you’re biting off when you sign on to something like this,” she said today. “What I realized is that I really like the collaborative process and making someone happy.”
Every element of each of the 25 cards she has finished so far is symbolic, she said. She will show four of the cards for the week.
Lawrie’s second project at the exhibit will be some of the paper cuts she created for animation in the new visitor attraction: “Alaska Storytellers: The Russian Saga.”
Mary Goddard will show two copper collars. One is “The Phoenix,” created for the Trend Alaska Fashion Show in Anchorage, as part of an outfit designed by Cyndy Gibson. The other is also a collar featuring fiddleheads and ferns, and is finished with wool handspun from a Canadian artist Vanessa Aegirsdottir.
“Kind of the idea behind this piece is ‘motherhood,’ which is very fitting because today is my (late) biological mother’s birthday,” Goddard said. “It’ll be a nice tribute to her.”
Steward, who has studied with world-renowned Haida artist Delores Churchill for 20 years, will exhibit the ceramic cedarbark baskets she created at the art department at UAS Sitka Campus. Her glazed pottery baskets begin with a hand-thrown clay pot.
“I turn the pot upside down and this becomes the mold that I weave around,” Steward says in her artist statement. “Initially I used red and yellow cedarbark, traditional Haida twining and design. I continue to experiment with the interplay of the pottery form and weaving materials. Texture and design elements are introduced using wool, glass beads, pine needles, leather or copper wire. I am thrilled to link my work to the Haida and Tlingit women who have woven baskets on our island for more than 5,000 years.”
Artist statements for the pieces are available at the library.
Wine and light fare will be served. Those under 21 must be accompanied by a parent, guardian, or spouse of age. For information, call the library at 747-4020.
`
