After launching salmon people into the skies, Crystal Worl is hoping to fill Alaska’s roads with whale tails.
Worl, a Juneau artist who earned national fame for her “Salmon People” artwork featured on an Alaska Airlines jet unveiled last month, is among six semi-finalists in the state’s 2023 Artistic License Plate Competition open for the public to vote on until July 31. In an interview Thursday, Worl said she’s observed the license plate competition the past couple of years and decided to join this year because of a creation she felt was fitting.
”I had a painting I did last winter and I thought the background would look really nice on a license plate,” she said.
Photo by Stuart Wood Juneau artist Crystal Worl shows the painting that is the basis for her entry into this year’s statewide Artistic License Plate Competition. She selected a portion of the landscape and repositioned the whale’s tail to make her entry fit the rectangular dimensions of a vehicle plate.
Worl, who is Tlingit and Athabascan, is widely known for her Indigenous art which is featured in locations ranging from the side of a Juneau Capitol City Fire/Rescue ambulance to a Sitka basketball court to a 125-foot-long mural in Anchorage. Her painting that inspired the license plate design features a Southeast Alaska coastline of waves and mountains, with a whale’s tail emerging from the water.
Altering the square painting to fit the rectangular frame of a license plate required some additional creative touches, Worl said.
“I wanted to keep as much of the landscape as possible of the mountains,” she said.
Worl also digitized the whale’s tale, and enlarged and shifted it so it dominated the foreground of the image.
While getting selected as a semi-finalist for a license plate might seem small in the literal sense when compared to her artwork covering the exterior of a 737-800 commercial jet, Worl said her interest and dedication to the range of her projects are consistent.
“I do a wide range of big projects, small projects and I treat them all the same,” she said, although she noted “the airplane was obviously way more work than the license plate.”
Alaska State Council on the Arts The six semi-finalists in this year’s artistic license play competition as seen at the official voting website, with the public able to rank their choices until July 31.
The contest is hosted by Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA), with voting at www.akarts.org/vote. Other semi-finalists are “Midnight Sun” by the Megan Brothers of Wasilla, “Fireweed in Denali” by Sabrina Kessakorn of Anchorage, “Whale” by Robin Lockwood of Wasilla, “Parhelion” by Tehya McLeod of Fairbanks and “Dusk Fireweed” by Amanda Rose Warren of Anchorage.
The winning artist will receive a $1,000 honorarium and exclusive rights to merchandise featuring their design. The remaining semi-finalists will receive a $250 honorarium.
The council is also hosting a youth contest for K-12 students, with six winners each receiving a $50 honorarium.
The winning license plate design will be unveiled on Aug. 26 at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer and will subsequently be available for purchase at DMVs statewide through 2027.
The council’s website notes “in keeping with Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, Alaskans are encouraged to cast their votes in order of preference.” Worl said the rules means people can express approval for more than one artist’s work, so she’s a fan of ranked choice voting in this instance.
“It depends on what it’s for,” she said. “I think it works well for certain things.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
