|
 Monica O'Keefe's acrylic landscape of Favorite Channel won her best in show at the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council's first-ever juried art exhibit. Her piece and the other 28 entries can be seen at the JAHC gallery throughout the month of July. O'Keefe's latest landscapes can be viewed at the Back Room of the Silverbow Inn. |
|
Southeast Alaska artists have been painting views of Favorite Channel for decades.
But still, there's something about Monica O'Keefe's acrylic vision that struck a chord with well-known Alaska painter Kes Woodward.
"There's a freshness," Woodward said. "One of the things I look for in real, representational Alaska landscape paintings like this is whether the artist is experiencing the place or whether they're seeing it through the filters of other artists."
Woodward, guest juror for the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council's first-ever juried art exhibit, chose O'Keefe's "Favorite Channel" the best of show out of 28 pieces. The tiny foot-by-foot painting is acrylic on board.
The exhibition opens from 4:30-7 p.m. Friday during the monthly First Friday Gallery Walk and runs through the month at the JAHC gallery, 206 North Franklin St.
|
| Tasha Walen and Lincoln Farabee's glass work is on display at the Juneau Artists Gallery through July. |
|
"You feel like (O'Keefe) was kind of awestruck by this particular quality of light, and the beauty of the place, and the time of day," Woodward said. "She was somehow able to channel that and get it on the canvas. It's a kind of magic that sometimes happens with pretty straightforward, representational work."
Honorable mentions were: "Oh! My God! I Just Saw A Dog in My Landscape," by Jay Crondahl; "Vertical Portrait 1," by Barbara Craver; "Emotions," stoneware ceramic series of faces, by Matt Voelckers; and "Retro Splat," by Tasha Walen.
"All these pieces stood out as being particularly original, particularly well-executed, and just making strong personal statements," Woodward said. "That's what I was looking for most of all, not just competence."
Other artists in the show include: Diane Baxter, Mihael Blikshteyn, Sean Fansler, Dan Fruits, Andrew Heist, Jim Heumann, Stan Hubbard, Sandra Mander, Pua Maunu, Barbara Neal, Magil Pratt, Sue Ann Randall, Rob Roys, Paul Voelckers and Richard Zagars.
|
| Tasha Walen and Lincoln Farabee's glass work. |
|
Woodward was a curator at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau from 1977 to 1978 and 1979 to 1981. He spent two decades teaching at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, before retiring in 2000.
He chose the 28 paintings for the show from about 75 prints, slides and digital images. He juried the top 28 last Friday at the JAHC gallery.
"It's always a little bit of a mystery what this stuff is going to look like in person," Woodward said.
"The real theme was Alaska," he said. "It's such a wide variety of media. I was looking for statements that are original and well thought-out and well-crafted."
• Annie Kaill's, 244 Front St.: Sherri McDonald, renowned in town for her finely detailed and entirely paper landscapes of Juneau and Southeast Alaska, is the featured artist at the store during the month of July.
• Back Room at the Silverbow, 120 Second St.: O'Keefe, the best of show winner in the JAHC's juried show, also will exhibit her latest landscapes at the Back Room at the Silverbow Inn.
"The Air Out There" is a collection of "two-dimensional images which attempt to represent a three-dimensional world, and it is air that fills that three-dimensional space between the tangible objects," O'Keefe wrote.
"The Air" will include watercolors, gouache and acrylics, as well as limited-edition giclees.
• The Canvas, 223 Seward St.: Rick Clair, known for his colorful and often surreal fantasy landscapes, will exhibit "Terra Incognita: Flashbacks and Dreamscapes" from 4:30 to 7 p.m.
• The Creating Place, 226 Seward St.: Montgomery Mahaffey, host of the storytelling program "Left Hanging" at 7 p.m. Tuesdays on KTOO News/104.3 FM, will read from her book "Ella Bandita and Other Stories" during First Friday.
Mahaffey will narrate brief scenes every half hour from 4:30-7 p.m.
• Juneau Artists Gallery, 175 South Franklin St.: Glass artists Tasha Walen and Lincoln Farabee, fresh from their glass-studies in Murano, Italy, will be the co-op's featured artists in July.
Founders of the Juneau-based Basement Studios, Walen and Farabee spent four weeks at the glass studio of Dave Penso. They studied small-scale glass blowing, glass grinding, jewelry design, torchwork bead making and lampworking.
Murano, an island on the outskirts of Venice, Italy, has been filled with glassmaking businesses since 1291.
"In the past, artists were very hushed about their knowledge, but now you can find Italian glass artists teaching all over the world and a few are opening their studios in Murano for teaching," Walen said in a press release.
For more, visit www.basementstudiosalaska.com.
• Skeins Fine Yarns, Senate Building, second floor: Glasswork by Melissa McGregor, ivory and bead earings by Lee Ann and Don See, and silk and velvet scarves by Bobbi Daniels will be on display starting July 6 from 4:30-7 p.m.
• Korry Keeker can be reached at 523-2268 or korry.keeker@juneauempire.com
