PA Arts Sunday - November 15, 2008 - Part One - Rasmuson Awards

This past week, the Rasmuson Foundation of Anchorage, announced their Fall 2008 Individual Artist Awards:


Anchorage - Rasmuson Foundation announced the year's final recipients of its Individual Artist Awards. Twelve artists will share $58,917 to undertake specific projects that benefit them as individual artists and advance the development of their work. Projects range from poems and illustrations for installation in city busses, to the publication of novels and music CDs, to equipment and opportunities for advanced study.

Artists receiving Project Award grants are:

Gretchen Diemer (Wasilla) will promote her book, Between Fire and Water, Ice and Sky, a full-length volume of poetry to be published by NorthShore Press later this year.

Sharon Ennis (Anchorage) will create 22 digital paintings to be placed on People Mover buses and launch an accompanying website.

Garry Kaulitz (Anchorage) will participate in the Second China Sanboa International Printmaking Exhibition, Symposium, Workshop and Tour.

Margo Klass (Fairbanks) will create an Alaskan Book of Hours consisting of eight major constructions, four representing the season in their fullness and four representing transitions between seasons in Alaska.

Emily Kurn (Anchorage) will produce a CD with up to 15 new songs that explore personal and intimate themes of the artist's family.

Lance Lekander (Anchorage) will purchase an etching press to create print editions and explore new artwork.

Maia Nolan (Anchorage) will take four months off her full-time employment to complete her first novel.

Sheryl Reily (Ester) will create several large mixed-media pieces executed in a variety of disciplines and prepare the work for three solo exhibits.

Monica Savage (Petersburg) will travel to the 2009 American Craft Show in Baltimore to build new relationships with galleries and small boutiques.

Elise Strauss (Anchorage) will attend a master beadmaking class and the International Society of Glass Bead Makers Conference in Miami, FL.

Wayne Thompson (Homer) will photograph the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes in Alaska for an exhibit at the Ptarmigan Art Gallery in Homer. The photos will also be featured in a planned book of photographs emphasizing the artistic views of sand dunes.

Monty Mykolas (Fritz Creek) will create a short film using lapse photography to create the experience of the passage of time on film.

You can click on the html links above, to find out more about most of these Alaskans and their work.

I'm especially happy for Maia Nolan, Emily Kurn, and Gretchen Diemer, all of whom I know. I've got a lot of respect for the photography of Wayne Thompson, whose work is easy to find in Homer.

Looking at the artist sites, this is my second acquaintance with the work of Fairbanks sculptor Margo Klass. I saw her exhibit, Constructions, at the Bunnell Street Gallery in Homer, back in 2006. Her Lives of The Saints exhibit (with texts by Frank Soos) will be mounted at Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage, beginning in February.

images:

Iced Pilings, by Wayne d. Thompson
Reliquary of St. Sid, Patron Saint of Surfeit, by Margo Klass