Art Seen: Drinking in changing landscapes

Alaskans love to take pictures. We are surrounded by such awe-striking visuals we just about can’t help ourselves. And if responses to photo albums on Facebook are any indication, folks who don’t live here are especially wowed by the images, even if they are not National Geographic material or art pieces in their own right.

It’s wonderful that a place like Kaladi Brothers is available for the many who’d like to share their collections with the community, and it’s a boon for their business, as well, bringing in additional customers and ensuring art on the walls. Photography exhibits grace the walls of both the old and the new stores this month, and although it is mostly traditional fare, there are a few pieces that strike my fancy as being on the more unusual side.

Genevieve Klebba has been shooting photography for many years now and is thrilled to be in the digital age. She was dubious, at first, but now thoroughly enjoys the quick results and ability to edit and print the images herself. The exhibit in the Kobuk shop is titled, “This Season That We Call Winter,” and her most interesting piece is one of the wintriest.

It takes a moment to realize what one is looking at while viewing “Sunset on Ice,” which is one of the appealing facets for me. The darkened craggy ice and snow in the foreground contrasts sharply with the warm sunset behind Mount Redoubt in the background, and it feels like an image that might be captured on another planet somehow. There are apparently others who agree that it is a special image. It won the landscape category in the statewide “Alaska Wild” photography exhibition in 2007.

It is also nice to see the hanging system in effect in the separate room. Works display well in the space.

Jeremy Reeve was born and raised here and has his work in the Sterling Highway shop. He’s placed inspirational quotes below each of his pieces and has numbered, rather than titled, them. Sometimes I feel the quote has a connection with the image, and other times it’s a stretch. Reading the quotes caused me to linger longer at each image, but I fear it may have prevented me from spending more time actually engaged with the photography.

The couple that go beyond standard fare are No. 7, “Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does change the future;” and No. 16, “Love and Time: The only two things in all of life and the entire world that cannot be bought, but spent.”

“Forgiveness” presents a butterfly, contrasting with crumbling blacktop and fading paint. The areas of color/texture become almost abstract design elements, and I am able to imagine the art as being about forgiveness, both in its painfulness and its beauty.

“Love and Time” is possibly of the bottom of a glass or bottle, and the liquid might be frozen or it might not. And I might or might not agree with the quotation, actually. I can think of many things to insert into a sentence like that. But it could be argued that any I might choose could, in an archetypal way, come under the umbrella of one or the other supernouns. Love and time might actually be considered as being bought, depending on the context of a situation, as well.

It’s probably a moot point, and I’m not sure Jeremy is asking us to ponder very heavily much of this, but rather sigh pleasantly, as we enjoy the beauty of this great state. He would someday like to be a freelance photographer and fund his travels through the sale of his work. A noble cause, and I wish him well.

Zirrus VanDevere is a local mixed-media artist and owns Art Works gallery in Soldotna. She has bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and education.

Art Seen: Keeping it simple on a whole new level

Chris Jenness came into my gallery many years ago, wanting to frame a number of small pastel drawings he had created. At the time, my inside exhibition room had rotating exhibits of many artists, just a few pieces from each. I expressed an interest in his work, and recommended that he show some of it in my gallery. He acted surprised that I would like it, but I have since learned that humbleness is just a part of his character. He has a creative well that seems always available, and the necessary energy to finish the projects he starts.

The exhibit that currently is running at the Kenai Peninsula College Gary L. Freeburg Gallery is from a series of acrylic works exploring the “Details” of comic strip panels. Whereas Roy Lichtenstein was known for painting large canvases of individual comic strip panels, Jenness takes it further, by looking even closer and dramatically cropping.

There is a kind of awe present when the application process of the paint virtually vanishes and all the viewer can see are large areas of perfectly flat color. Jenness’ design sense is basically flawless, and each of the works has enjoyable shapes and lines that seduce the eye. He certainly utilizes humor in his approach, as do most pop artists, although sometimes I am aware that it is an inside joke — and one I don’t necessarily need to get in order to enjoy the pure aesthetics of the piece.

The college at which I finished my bachelor of fine arts degree was the State University of New York at Oswego, where Lichtenstein taught for a while. There was an unprotected mural he had done in one of the stairwells in the art building. By the time I was there in the late 1980s, he had already gained quite a bit of notoriety, so I was amazed that the stairway was still in use and that the painting was completely accessible. But there is something necessarily accessible about pop art; images we are familiar with, but produced in such a way as to incite new feelings about them.

Jenness’ work certainly follows in that tradition. There is just enough of the recognizable to gain our trust, and enough precision and design sensibility to really appeal to our senses. As Lichtenstein said himself in an interview in 1997, “The subject matter helps because there’s a reference to reality. Some kind of reality, anyway.”

Jenness was born on the Navajo reservation in Arizona in 1973 and spent his high school years in a small town near El Paso, Texas. College and a biology scholarship found him, but he only stayed in the science building for two years before he shocked everyone and transferred to an art major. It was a good match, and he focused on the still-new genre of computer design. A couple of internships and lots of art classes later, Jenness graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University with a bachelor of fine arts degree and worked in the design arena for a while. The adventurous streak and teaching career of his wife, Carla, brought them to Alaska in August 1999.

A job in the composition department at the Peninsula Clarion helped pay the bills while Jenness continued to hone his art — both computer-based and pastel. He has worked part time and full time as a teacher, as well as starting his own commercial art business, Jenness Graphic Design, allowing him to work throughout the state, as well as nationally. He has had numerous solo exhibitions all over the Kenai Peninsula and in Anchorage, and continues to tap that creative well. His show “Details” is on display until April 3.

Zirrus VanDevere is a local mixed-media artist and owns Art Works gallery in Soldotna. She has bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and education.

Art Seen: Jury’s in — Biennial exhibit has plenty to consider

I recently had the interesting task of co-judging the Biennial Judged Exhibit at the Kenai Fine Arts Center this year, with Potter’s Guild president Charlie LaForge.

Each year it seems I get more excited about the range and quality that comes in, regardless of the format. Every other year is a “juried” exhibit, rather than “judged,” meaning pieces are selected to be included in the exhibit, and there are many that do not hang or display.

As was the case this year, all entered pieces are eligible, and the judge’s job is to choose the awards and honorable mentions. The competition is obviously much greater for the juried shows, and our guest juror is usually someone from out of our immediate area (in case he or she needs a quick getaway. Jurors are occasionally given a hard time for their choices, which are, of course, subjective, but always educated).

The following were given cash awards for their placement in this year’s exhibit:
Best of Show: John Lagoutaris, ceramics, “I Am Free in the Rapid River Waters of Destiny.”

• 1st Place 3-D: Shirley Seanor, pine needle weaving, “Jug With Lid.”
• 2nd Place 3-D: Heather Floyd, cast bronze using a lost wax method, “Sphere I.”
• 1st Place 2-D: Erica Miller, pastel, “Chasing the Sun #2.”
• 2nd Place 2-D: Joseph Kashi, digital photography, “Frozen Windows.”
• 3rd Place 2-D: Traci Knutson, Polaroid transfer over Palladium print with watercolor, “Melancholy.”
• Honorable mentions: A. Jane Alford, Allan Janonis, Andy Hehnlin, Clayton Hillhouse, Connie Tarbox, Donna Schwanke, Juanita Hillhouse, Kristin Edwards, Marali Sargeant-Smith, Pamela Mersch, Sandra Sterling, Steven Pannarelli, Tony Oliver and Tracie Howard.

I spoke with a few of the placers in the exhibit to try and get more of a sense of the processes that led them to the finished pieces.

Traci Knutson took a workshop on Palladium printing before creating the small but fascinating portrait of her dog. Palladium is a metal that is mixed with a chemical and acts as an emulsion that is then painted on a surface, in this case watercolor paper. It’s then developed using a large digital negative and long exposure times.

She transferred parts of the same image from Polaroid shots right onto the Palladium print using a water bath, and added some watercolor to finish the effect. Charlie and I were both drawn to the unusual psychology of the piece and were intrigued by the possible meaning of the artist’s choices. Upon questioning, Traci agreed that there were intense dynamics surrounding the work, as well as the animal that is no longer with us.

John Lagoutaris’ work was also quite striking in its symbolism and emotional qualities. He calls himself an intuitive artist, one who is not so much of a drafter, but interested in letting the foundation determine the outcome. He then moves along with the piece as it evolves. There were many layers of work, and numerous firings over the course of a year to achieve the surface he was shooting for. The soulful longing evident in the expression and the bold execution of the work helped to land its placement as Best of Show.

Joe Kashi’s photography is unmanipulated digitally, save for some range changes in the light to dark ratio. He frequently finds himself looking for interesting abstractions that are already existing in reality, and then capturing them like a found object. The windows are especially ripe for unusual aberrations due to the old single-pane glass and abundance of cooking inside Veronica’s Coffee House during frigid winter months.

Joe claims that what a photographer needs in order to capture these little gems are an open and still mind, and of course a keen eye. Oh, and also the ability to avoid the picturesque, unless it can be handled in a completely new way.

The exhibit stays up through the end of the month and then comes down to make way for the Kenai Peninsula Borough Student Exhibit. Gallery hours are 12 to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

Zirrus VanDevere is a local mixed-media artist and owns Art Works gallery in Soldotna. She has bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and education.

Art Seen: Last Frontier meets Far East in natural lacquer paintings

It was the Tai Chi that lured her in. Kathy Matta, of Soldotna, had a Chinese neighbor who liked to practice the mesmerizing physical art outside daily. Matta was intrigued by the practice, and eventually traded her English speaking skills and help with grocery shopping for his Tai Chi expertise. She eventually traveled to Fuzhou, China, for Tai Chi competitions, and was finally introduced to the art of natural lacquer painting.

It took seven years of returning to the area before contemporary artist Tang Minxue was willing to begin teaching her the strict and difficult discipline using what is considered to be one of China’s natural treasures. The subtropical climate is critical in the drying and polishing process, which usually takes a year to complete, but sometimes even longer.

Matta has been returning to study this art for nine years, and is interested in keeping the tradition alive and pure. Chinese television has produced two documentaries about her art and life in China, and numerous articles have been done on her life in Alaska. She says she lives in two of the best places in the world.

Matta grew up in New Jersey and studied at the NYC Graphic Center in New York. She is an accomplished watercolor and acrylic painter, but finds her most exciting niche in the lacquer painting she imbues with the natural pigments of mother-of-pearl, duck eggshells, silver and gold leafing and many colorful minerals.

The fresh natural lacquer is actually poisonous, related to poison ivy. It was originally used 700 years ago to coat coffins and housewares like pots and bowls, and was only later introduced as a painting medium. The visual effect needs to be experienced in person; a photo cannot sufficiently deliver the exciting effect caused by the luminosity of these mediums.

Because of the complexity of the pieces that are currently on view in a small but exciting exhibit at Frames and Things in the Blazy Mall, it can be difficult to discern which marks are the artist’s, and which are a pure outcome of the entirely unique materials. One gets the sense that the images have grown out of the medium, and as such have an organic birthright.

Her most successful and sophisticated works are those that have larger areas of visual rest but then also contain a solid composition, as in “Curiosity and The Drum.” Others could use a stronger design element to hold them together, with more effort toward breaking up the spaces more fully.

Matta is well-known for combining Native motifs with loving renditions of local animals, and the lacquer and eggshell effect is well-suited for describing our mountains and tundra. I would love to see what the artist could create nonrepresentationally with these fascinating mediums.

Matta’s variety of work can be seen in other venues in Alaska, including the Arctic Rose Gallery in Anchorage and Art Works in Soldotna. Her show will be on exhibit at Frames and Things until the end of March.

Zirrus VanDevere is a local mixed-media artist and owns Art Works gallery in Soldotna. She has bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and education.

Art Seen: Flowery felt

Clayton and Juanita Hillhouse have a joint exhibit going at the Kenai Fine Arts Center this month, showing concurrently as they have for many years now.

My first impression upon entering the gallery is that it is so crowded I am daunted by the task of taking it all in. I manage to look at each of the 46 pieces, as well as the 26 small “Pictures in Felt for Refrigerators” by Juanita. Clayton’s work is all digital photography; Juanita has chosen to mix in a few watercolors with her large offering of images in felt.

In her watercolors she seems to be going for a similar effect as she manages to get with most of her felt works — filling the space edge to edge. The approach is much more successful in the felt pieces, which on the whole seem to be better composed and have more natural rhythm. The wonderful texture of the felt material adds a sensual element that is quite unique.

“Basil,” labeled as sold, shows an uprooted plant floating in an organic box. The design is graphic and archetypal in its simplicity, and is rendered in muted, subtly varying hues.

Overall, her landscapes are more successful than her flowers, which tend to crowd into the frame. In “Autumn Color,” colorful, braided-looking trees reach to the sky through stratified layers of poofy felt, feeling somewhat akin to watching a sunny Tim Burton daydream evolve.

“Denise Lake in Winter,” a horizontal image similar to “Autumn Color” in its stratification and up-reaching trees, is much more somber and serene. It really evokes the feel of a quiet winter landscape, without being obvious or trite. I would love to see more of the landscape variety, but much larger, so I could really get lost in the cozy wonder of the luscious felt.

Clayton’s works are all photographs, and are united in an effort to describe Alaska flora with a whimsical, digital approach. Whether he simply allows the digital quality to be an element in the piece, or purposefully alters the image in Photoshop, his playfulness comes through.

Particularly pleasing are “Dandelion in Winter” and “Autumn,” which both feel like intimate portraits of the plants, and have similar extreme blurring in the dark background.

Once again, I feel the pieces crowd each other, and it takes effort to view every one. If I could jury this show, I would remove a third of it, and would find a complete exhibit remained, promoting the adage “quality over quantity.” I happen to know they were given less time than is customary for putting together an exhibit, and the KFAC space is a large one to fill. I applaud Clayton and Juanita for rising to the task.

Next month’s offering at the guild will be the Biennial Judged Exhibit. Any adult Kenai Peninsula residents are welcome to enter up to three original pieces between Feb. 26 and 28. All pieces ready to display will be exhibited, and there will be cash prizes for winning entries. The artist reception is planned for 6:30 p.m. March 6.

Zirrus VanDevere is a local mixed-media artist and owns Art Works gallery in Soldotna. She has bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and education.

Drawing on humor — Cartoonist says it all, 1 frame at a time

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Humor is a common accessory to fishing. There’s plenty of time to exaggerate a funny story while waiting for the fish to bite, or to share a joke when a day on the water inevitably leads to an evening at the watering hole.

David Booth, of Soldotna, has heard them all, he figures, in decades spent guiding fishing trips on the Kenai River and in Oregon.

“I’ve heard a billion jokes, sitting around with guides and people like that,” he said.

But instead of the standard fish story format, where humorous tales are drawn out as long as exaggerated fish lengths commonly are, Booth went in the opposite direction. He channels humor as succinctly as possible, without a word being spoken.

Booth is working on developing a career as a cartoonist. It’s something he’s done off and on as long as he can remember.

“When my mom found out I was really doing this she sent me some stuff I did when I was really, really little,” he said. “She sent me these things, drawings and little pictures, and some of them I was amazed I was trying to express such abstract ideas, like throwing baseballs and multiple frames and stuff. So I kind of went back in my mind and went, ‘That’s right, I’ve kind of been doing this for a long time.’”

Booth grew up in the Lower 48 and guided on the Rogue River and others in the Pacific Northwest for about 15 years. In the early 1980s he started traveling back and forth to guide on the Kenai, then moved here full time after about three years of back and forth.

“I’ve been questioning that decision ever since. I haven’t been Outside for 25 years. I need to remind myself why I’m here,” he said.

He supplemented guiding with cooking during the winter periodically in local restaurants. But eventually the lifestyle of both began to wear thin. Now age 60, the years of rough living have taken their toll, and Booth prefers to coax expressive looks out of the characters he draws, rather than wrestle 50-pound kings out of the river, and tend to computer programs and color designs, instead of hot ovens and spitting griddles.

“I decided I was gonna quit drinking, which, that is one of the downsides of being a fishing guide for as many years as I did. It becomes a habit and of course Alaska doesn’t beat that down. It kind of likes that. And I got to the point where I realized working in a kitchen, that’s not conducive to stopping drinking,” Booth said.

Booth found himself in a new stage in life — divorced, sober, without all his old friends from his drinking days, and in need of a new career. He decided to redraw new parameters in his life.

“When I finally quit guiding, about a year after that I decided I was just going to do this. I got to the point where I really couldn’t work all the jobs I used to work. I really used up my body pretty bad,” he said. “So I decided to just start cartooning. The more I did it, it appeared I had a real talent for it, and the humor. I have a pretty deep well of life experience and that’s what a cartoonist has to have.”

Booth works under the moniker of Cabin Fever Artworks, and Alaska themes dominated his early strips — wild animals, river guides and the like. Then he hit on polar bears and the controversy over global warming, which he used as the basis of his current strip, “Thin Ice.”

“Polar bears, whales and elephants are my favorite animals. Any one of them, I’d hate to see them go away,” Booth said. “When I realized there was a plight with the polar bears and the whole global warming thing was being dismissed as nonexistent, I said, ‘Well, this is something I feel like talking about.’”

The strip was brought to the attention of Polar Bears International, and is featured on its Web site, www.polarbearsinternational.org/cartoon-corner.
“Polar Bears International noticed my stuff and invited me into their family and said, ‘How would you like to be our official cartoonist?’ And I said, ‘Yahoo.’”
His work is focused on simplicity, being able to evoke a thought, emotion or expression subtly with his characters.

“I’m fascinated sometimes when I try to make one of my bears have a certain expression and body language and I can’t make it happen, and it’s because I’m trying too hard. The next thing I know, there it is. There’s what I’m looking for,” Booth said.

He’s experimented quite a bit with color, starting out doing meticulous shading with color pencils. Nowadays he’s moved most of his process onto the computer. He starts drawing an image by hand, then scans it into the computer and uses a variety of programs he’s taught himself to add colors, definition and other flourishes.

“I really love it, that’s the thing. It can be tedious in some ways to do it right,” he said. “The trouble is I’ll start out with a cartoon, part of it is really, really simple, then I’ll look at it then I’ve got to do this and do this and I need to add a background to it — there’s a lot of tricks to make it as cool as I possibly can. I’m learning more and more tricks every time I do them.”

Booth estimates he has 3,000 to 4,000 images. He can produce up to two or three cartoons a day if they’re simple ones, or he may spend a few days just tweaking one. He sells merchandise of his work online at www.cafepress.com/fishgod, and has a Web site, www.cabinfeverart.com. He hopes to one day have the strip syndicated. In the meantime, he’ll keep drawing what he has to say, one frame at a time.

“I see myself as a Buddhist, I guess,” Booth said. “It’s a Zen kind of thing for me. It’s challenging and satisfying to try to say everything in one picture.”

Art Seen — Better together

The truth is we need each other. I’ve lived on the Kenai Peninsula for 20 years now, and as far as I can tell, it has always attracted and bred artists. It is quite possible that the amazing beauty that surrounds us on every side is an inspiring element, whether the artist chooses to represent those images or something else.

I’m certain many artists throughout history have managed to produce interesting bodies of work without associating with a group designed to encourage and support them. But we need them, nevertheless, and they need us, as well. Our participation in artist co-ops may not be as intensive as being involved in the European “salons” at the turn of the last century, but they can certainly invigorate us and keep us working. The Kenai Potters’ Guild and the Kenai River Council on the Arts, each located at the Kenai Fine Arts Center, have gone through many changes and revolutions over the years, but still remain viable sources for artists.

The Arts and Humanities Council, developed to be an overarching source of support for the arts of any kind, functioned out of the KFAC for years and put on the Jail House Rock fundraiser (the building used to house the town jail). Eventually, fluctuating board membership caused the group to join with the Peninsula Art Guild, but then was revived as the Kenai River Council on the Arts when there was a big push in the art community for a new, world-class center of the arts in the central peninsula area. Although that dream has not yet been realized, the board has once again rejoined PAG and has been putting on experimental shows, as well as group experiments, exhibits and installations.

Last month, Joyce Cox displayed “Facets of Three-Dimensional Art.” It is an eclectic mix of materials and indicates an artist with a lively curiosity and a sure love for the object. She has a triptych that is a tribute to Louise Nevelson, an artist who may well be one of those aforementioned artists who worked in relative isolation and was able to put out quite an interesting body of work. Most of what she produced, although original, was quite similar throughout her career.

She built large, mostly bas relief sculptures (meant to be viewed against the wall, but have three-dimensional elements. It sometimes means “slightly raised,” and is pronounced bah-relief) amounting to various sizes of boxes to hold the myriad interestingly shaped wooden objects. If the pieces were not already of a similar color, she painted the entire sculpture one color, to help emphasize the form and the relationship between the objects. Her work is striking and poetic, and certainly has endured, both physically and in the public eye. I would love to see what she might have created had she been part of a supportive group of artists, how her work may have inspired others, and how their input may have encouraged her, as well.

We’ll never know, of course, but in an area that has as many artists per capita as a well-known artist community like Homer, I am thankful we have groups like the KPG, the PAG and the KRCA, and I look forward to their continued growth. If you are also feeling thankful for their existence, you might want to join the upcoming PAG meeting at the Kenai Fine Arts Center, at 10 a.m. Feb. 28. You don’t even need to be an artist to get involved, just have an interest in supporting the arts.

Marcia Beauchamp is a great example of someone who gave her time, intelligence and excellent managerial skills to the PAG board, and was not herself a practicing artist. She donated over a decade of service in memory of her mother, who had been an artist. When she moved to the treasurer position, Roy Shapley, a photographer and busy teacher, stepped up to the role as president. Recently, Roy passed away at about the same time as Marcia left the peninsula for Napa Valley, Calif. Although we miss them both immensely, they have left an organization in full swing and progressive motion. Roy was only 52 when he died, shocking a huge community of friends and co-workers. He and Marcia are models for all of us by their unselfish service and dedication to what they loved and believed in.

So if you believe in the arts and want to do what you can to support artists in our area, consider joining the effort. Because we really can’t go it alone.

Zirrus VanDevere is a local mixed-media artist and owns Art Works gallery in Soldotna. She has bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and education.

Art Seen: Practice makes perfect

Alyse Haynes has been drawing since she was 2 years old, and was diagnosed with autism at the age of 3.

Autism is a brain development disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. She is 17 now, and attends Soldotna High School, where she gets special life skills training and encouragement toward independence and community contribution.

Alyse is showing her work currently at Kaladi Brothers on Kobuk Street in Soldotna.

Many of the drawings are filled, almost edge to edge, with various figures. The effect of seeing a wall full of them is quite magical, and pleasingly textural. Her color choices are bright and varied, and she has an interesting sense of space, so that some of her works feel like a tapestry.
Intensive needs instructor Kim Jordan finds the artworks amazing, and says Alyse will often pull out her notebook to draw when she is feeling stressed.

Many of the drawings are repeated versions, with small variations, as if she is continually working on the perfect piece. It’s sort of a version of what we all do, isn’t it? Refine ourselves, little by little, always looking for an improved version, working out our lives like a ball of fine clay, or layering our experiences as in a long-worked oil painting.

Tony Oliver will break out his form of art when he’s stressed, too. Or pleased, or energized, or intent. He’ll break out his camera pretty much whenever he sees beauty around him, which turns out to be almost all of the time.

He finds it easy to come upon inspiring scenes while he is hiking, biking, snowshoeing, canoeing, skiing, rafting and exploring our rich environs. Tony is a tech guy at the Kenai Peninsula Borough, and he spends a lot of his off-work time either working out, or working on that perfect shot.

He claims to be a “hobbyist” with his photography, but it is easy to see his eye is good, and his love for the subject is certainly evident.

His work is showing at the new Kaladi Brothers on the Sterling Highway, where you can see the occasional quiet black-and-white photo, as well as some really creamy, well-composed evening shots. All but one of the images was gathered locally, and although he does not create his work to sell it, it is available to purchase, as are Alyse’s drawings.

Zirrus VanDevere is a local mixed-media artist and owns Art Works gallery in Soldotna. She has bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and education.

Art Seen: Colorful variety at Kaladi’s shows

Both Kaladi Brothers coffee shops are alive with color this month.

Amy Warfle has photographs on display at the Kaladi Brothers on Kobuk Street in Soldotna. Although the majority of the pieces are wildlife or landscapes, the most successful are her human subject portraits. In “Abriel,” a child’s downturned face fills the image. Her eyes appear closed and her expression is befitting of a much more experienced and wise being.

In “Dress Up,” the subject, possibly the same young girl, sits in front of a large oval mirror in a big, white, floppy hat and a slip obviously meant for a woman. Her pose and expression are captured as the classic dress-up stance; the peripheral environment could not have been better planned (if in fact it was) as the metal chest, large woman’s dress shoes and perfectly aged door create the quintessential backdrop for the child’s play. It is either an expert studio shot, or just a really fortuitous catch.

The framing concerns me some; not just the lack of it, but also the fact that only one of these photographs incorporates a mat that could protect it against damage. Photos have a nonporous surface (unless they are digitally produced on porous paper), as does the glass these are pressed up against.

Moisture can get trapped between the two and make them adhere, sometimes irrevocably. Our environment is dryer than most up here, but I have still seen it happen many times. Using matting and backing board can also usually help with the rippling/waving effect that some of these pieces have occurring.

At the Sterling Highway branch, Donna Schwanke and Kathy Painter have a body of work on display that I first encountered at Odie’s sandwich shop. The two artists work in watercolor, Donna’s relaxed handling often in contrast to Kathy’s more tightly rendered painting (although “Counting Sheep” by Kathy is a wonderful exception).

What is interesting is most of the paintings were created jointly, and then signed with the name Vidalia Romeko. The combination works well. Excepting just a couple of them, namely “Berries and Cherries” and “Lemon-aide,” which have the cluttered, too-many-cooks-spoil-the-soup sort of feel, most of the joint ventures are strong, engaging and lovely.

Two particularly successful Vidalia Romeko pieces are “Landscape,” with rich deep tones and vibrant hues, and “Down the Creek,” in my estimation the best of the show. The latter is nearly fully abstract, but salmon shapes are discernible, and the energy created by the vigorous brushstrokes and the areas where the watercolor paints were left alone to do that crazy thing they do, is quite exciting. It is the kind of painting one could spend a considerable amount of time with and still feel one has not fully explored it. “Counting Sheep” is Kathy’s most successful solo entry, and Donna shines with her almost cartoonish and very playful “Tulips.”

Zirrus VanDevere is a local mixed-media artist and owns Art Works gallery in Soldotna. She has bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and education.

Yeah for clay — Nikiski students put process over product in art

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

When clay artist Terry Inokuma teaches a class, it’s about the process, not the product.

She keeps kids focused on learning each step of the process by not letting them know what they are making.

“I don’t tell them what it will be because kids have expectations of what it should look like so they jump ahead in the process,” she said.

She also teaches them to let their hands guide them by having students sculpt some pieces under the table without looking at their work.

“They separate their sense of touch from vision because we’re usually too dependent on our eyes,” she said.

But the beauty of clay is it’s a 3-D medium, which can appeal to kids who may struggle with other art forms, such as figure drawing.

“The two-dimensional world is so visually attached, whereas the three-dimensional world is allowed to be a little more abstract. It doesn’t have to be perfect,” she said.

Inokuma is finishing up a three-week stint as the artist in residence at Nikiski North Star Elementary School this week. The program, administered by the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Rasmuson Foundation, brings artists into schools to share their medium with students who may not otherwise be exposed to much art.

Inokuma is from Oregon. She’s done residency programs in her home district, and applied for the Alaska program after meeting a relocated clay artist from Homer. She’s been to Chenega on Evans Island, Teller, King Cove, Sand Point, Wasilla, Anchorage and Pelican. Her next residency will be at Sterling Elementary in January.

“The goal is to teach the basic methods of working with clay so as they progress through the clay world, if they love it, they’ll have the basics in working with clay,” she said.

At Nikiski North Star she’s working mainly with fourth- through sixth-graders, but has taught the primary grades, as well. There’s even an old kiln at the school to fire the kids’ projects. Being a clay artist, she’s had to improvise that portion of her classes before. In coastal areas she’s been to it’s usually warm enough to create a fire pit, but she’s also had to repair old, broken kilns, use a wood stove and create her own kiln with a burner and propane.

She has a clay day each time she does a residency, where she does demonstrations and her students exhibit their work to the public. Nikiski had its exhibition Friday. Inokuma said parents and teachers have been supportive of her work at the school.

“When I’ve heard from parents they come walking in with wide eyes saying, ‘What are you guys doing here? My kid’s coming home saying, ‘Clay is fun,’” she said.

Inokuma says parents should find a way to support the artistic tendencies all kids have, no matter what mediums they’re suited to.

“I encourage all parents to encourage the artistic sides in all of their children’s worlds, because everyone learns so differently and it opens up different avenues for children to learn,” she said.

Good luck in store — Prize winner passes thanks on to charity

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

An ivory statue meant to reward a lucky grand prize winner in a drawing held by a new local business will now pass its charm onto a lucky bidder at a fundraiser event for Planned Parenthood.

Carol Percival, co-owner of Tikahtnu Gallery and Gifts in Soldotna, gave away a Billiken figure carved out of mammoth ivory as the top prize in a drawing held to celebrate the store’s grand opening a month ago.

A Billiken is a jovial, bare-chested, usually somewhat portly figure with elf-like ears and a pointed head that’s thought to bring the owner good luck. Florence Pretz, a Missouri art teacher and illustrator, patented the design in 1908. Manufacturing of the figures began in 1909, and they were apparently sold as a publicity stunt for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. That may be how carvers in the Nome region came to incorporate the figure into their designs.

RoseMary Peterson won the statue in Tikahtnu’s drawing, but she didn’t have a place to put it in her home off Kalifornsky Beach Road, so she decided to donate it to Planned Parenthood in Soldotna for the organization to use in its auction fundraiser dinner Saturday.

“I just have no place to display it, and I thought that it would be a good cause,” Peterson said. “I used them (Planned Parenthood) before and thought it would be a good way to give them something back.”

Peterson said Planned Parenthood helped her get a mammogram when she couldn’t afford it.

Percival was happy for the figure to go to a good cause, even if it’s taking a roundabout way to get there.

“Now she’s passing on her good luck. I had a lot of admiration for her. So many of us would have just taken it home and said, ‘Thank you very much,’” Percival said.

“I hate to see him go, he’s been one of my favorites,” she said.

“He is extremely cute,” said Autumn Leach with Planned Parenthood when she stopped by the store Monday to pick up the statue.

The Billiken will be raffled off at the organization’s fundraiser dinner at 7 p.m. Saturday at The Crossing in Soldotna. The theme is “Food from around the world.” Only 80 tickets will be sold, 50 of which were already spoken for by Monday. Tickets are $40 per person or $70 per couple. Call Jackie or Jen at 262-2622 for more information or to buy a ticket.

Peterson had been planning on presenting the good-luck Billiken to Planned Parenthood herself, but was sick with the flu all weekend and couldn’t make it Monday.

“I probably should have hung onto it. Oh well, he’ll bring me good luck long distance,” she said.

Percival, a retired educator, opened Tikahtnu Gallery and Gifts with her daughters, Tara and Amber Lathrop. Tikahtnu, which is a Dena’ina word for Cook Inlet, sells scrubs for medical professionals, and almost everything else is handcrafted artwork and crafts made in Alaska.

“I have always wanted to do this,” Percival said. “I love these Alaska arts and I knew a lot of arts people and crafters who are very talented and thought it would be a nice idea to open a gift store.”

Many of the items the store sells are made by people on the central Kenai Peninsula, including handmade jewelry by Mindy Chamberlin of Sterling, Loraine Larsen of Kasilof and Laurie Cleary of the Kenai area.

Percival contacted the artists she knew and advertised for more artwork to get inventory for the store, and she approached craftspeople at the weekly summer markets.

“I thought, ‘Well, what do they do with all their wonderful goods during the winter?’ Maybe I can suggest to help them out in the winter,” she said.

She has work representative from art traditions across Alaska, as well as children’s toys, journals, greeting cards, hats and purses, and is on the lookout for more items.

“I’m constantly trying to increase our inventory with more variety, but definitely this is the place to buy your made-in-Alaska gifts to send Outside,” she said.

That’s been one of the biggest hits with the store so far, that almost everything sold is made in the state, she said.

“I am so pleased with the response,” Percival said. “People come in and say, ‘Oh, this is a nice store.’ Or I tell them it’s all made in Alaska and they say, ‘Oh, thank you for doing that.’ So many people are tired of buying things made in China, so people’s response has been wonderful.”

Percival put out comment cards to get shoppers’ input on what they’d like to see in the store.

“I’m really interested in it being something new and different for the local people,” she said. “… Considering the economy and the time of year, it’s going well. It’s going to take time for the communities to know we’re here.”

Percival created a store she likes to be in, and hopes others will like to be there, as well.

“I like to surround myself with this kind of thing. It makes me feel warm,” she said. “I just admire these people so much.”

Art Seen: Artistic challenge ‘found’ in KPC gallery

“Works from Found Objects” is as the name suggests, a show of a number of individual works that include found objects. What isn’t readily apparent is that the objects hail from a single source.

Drew O’Brian was cleaning up the Kenai Peninsula College machine shop and made an offer to Joy Falls, another faculty member, who teaches sculpture and ceramics. She was thrilled with the idea of utilizing some of the mostly metal objects in her own art, as well as offering them up to the other art faculty members. The culminating project stands as a cohesive faculty exhibit on view in the Gary L. Freeburg Gallery until Nov. 13.

Cathleen Rolph’s singular contribution is a totem-sized “fetish.” It is called “Oath Taking Figure and Sacred Trust,” and is a joy to absorb. She has driven large nails and spikes of many styles and types into a wooden post that feels as if it is splitting from the pressure of it.

The abstract “face,” however, feels quite serene and compassionate. It reminds me of Francis Picabia mechanical drawings from the Dada era; especially the effect of the red paint applied to the inside of the post where it is split apart, so that it is visible and protected, all at once. Also Picabia-ish are the multiple gears surrounding the “neck” area.

Celia Anderson, currently appearing to be the most prolific of the bunch, has become increasingly political and heartfelt with her work. She tackles issues as serious as poverty, genocide and AIDS, but presents them with such cunning aesthetics that you don’t feel preached to or hammered down from the weight of it.

In “Darfur,” dyed material is the base. The process is called arashi shibori, a Japanese technique of creating the fabric surface by folding, wrapping and binding it on a pole, and then utilizing a reductive method termed “discharge dying.”

To this she has added rusty chain and a good-sized broken bone that was amazingly also acquired in the machine shop scavenge. The center of the piece is the pure black of the material, providing a polarizing and psychological dimension in relation to the subtle Conté crayon drawings of skeletal shapes on the right side. The work is beautiful, the message, unsettling.

Similarly, in the acrylic on canvas “Holes in the System,” the colors and brushstrokes are luscious and inviting, yet the yearning in the subject’s eyes is painful to witness.
He looks as if he is being squeezed by the top and bottom edges of the canvas. His pockets are turned out and empty, and metal discs flow to either side and right off the canvas to the surrounding wall space.

The discs could symbolize money or coins, and have the movement of an energy flow, outward and dissipating. The darkness surrounding him and the constricted composition evoke a desperate feeling.

There is an ominous tone to William Heath’s “Monument,” as well. The colors are cold and crisp. The machine in the photograph seems to tower over us, even though the image is of moderate size.

I get the sense that all of the artists are uncomfortable with these difficult times, and that there is an underlying tension with hints of angst to be found among the otherwise pleasing arrangements.

During World War I many writers and artists were aware of a growing discomfort with the way things were headed, and it showed in their work. Dadaism was an organized effort to throw the world’s deeds back into its face and ask “why?” thereby exposing the nonsensical nature of war and violence, and the political machinery that creates it.

Ellen Chambers’ cozy constructs in this exhibit inform me that although there are sharp differences between many of us, we are all interconnected and can find some sort of balance if we learn to work together. We just have to stop taking sides.

Zirrus VanDevere is a local mixed-media artist and owns Art Works gallery in Soldotna. She has bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and education.

Art Seen: Guilded age — Photo group exposes new show

The Kenai Peninsula Photography Guild is a diverse group of beginning or advanced, and amateur or professional, photographers. The majority of the members are from the Kenai Soldotna area, but they welcome new members from all over the peninsula and state.

KPPG is open to the public and designed to be a forum for people who are interested in all aspects of photography, from pinhole cameras to the advanced digital SLRs.

The guild was the brainchild of Greg Daniels and Pat Dixon and started in 1996. M. Scott Moon, Bill Heath, Greg Daniels and John Demske were also at those initial meetings and still remain active. Their annual group show is currently on view at the Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center.

Some of the exhibited pieces give explanations in regard to process, materials and occasionally even intent. It is interesting to me, especially when viewing photography, to be made aware of the processes involved. It can often give me a richer sense of the work. The show would have hung together more fluently if this were a consistent element. I am quite impressed with the size of the exhibit, however, and can see that the Photo Guild is quite alive and well.

“Weathered Sunset” by Erik Massey captures the feel of the beach softening in the sunset. The planks of an old dock and, for that matter, the vividly purple Mount Redoubt in the background, seem as natural of an occurrence as the waves on the shore. I get frequent requests for more Mount Redoubt images at my gallery, and this piece does a nice job of presenting it in a nontrite manner.

I thoroughly enjoyed Traci Knudsen’s “Untitled — Palladium Print” for not only its visual interest, but because I just love “untitled” pieces that are actually titled. I have often used this whimsical practice. Perhaps it is the Dadaist in me.

Roy Shapley’s “Tidal Ice” is a great example of solid composition mixed with sensate movement. I feel solidly rooted in the sand, but dizzy with the movement of the water. It is a classic silver-toned black and white print, an old friend in an exciting new world of photography. The composition of “Untitled/Orchid” (there we go again! I love it!) by Brandi Petrey is interesting to me, but the digital technique seems somewhat forced. I guess I prefer to feel like the manipulated effect is a happy accident, like it seems to be in Clayton Hillhouse’s “Journey, Seward” and Brandi’s other piece “In Bloom.”

William Heath’s “Sunrise and Fog” has both ethereal and earthy qualities. The color is evocative of emotions one might feel while viewing the splendor of the scene. It’s hard to put a name to, but it’s palatable and somehow able to touch an inner chord. It is a photo that I could enjoy in my own home, with repeated viewings, like a visual meditation.

Sandra Sterling comes close to this effect in “Visions,” but I find myself distracted by the human subjects doing mundane things in the scene.

Mary Albright has also approached this effect in “Peaceful Evening,” which also has human subjects, but who are looking serene and suit the image better. I find myself wanting to crop out a large portion of the sky in order to approximate the feeling I get from the Heath piece, however. The scratches on the Plexiglas are also kind of distracting.

John Demske’s “Energy” is certainly filled with it, and the angle and lens distortion add to the effect. Printing on canvas creates a unique texture and I find myself wishing he had not glazed his pieces (put glass over them) but had allowed the canvas its due by leaving it bare. His other two works, “Heavy Snow — Six Mile Canyon” and “Winter Forest — Portage Valley” have equally interesting texture and would also do well without glazing.

“Waste Can II” by Rachel Lee (the youngest entrant and daughter of Joe Kashi) is a fantastic “grab” of mundane beauty. There are numerous shots in this exhibit of dewdrops on flowers, most of them interestingly composed and with nice plays on focus. None of them compare, in my mind, to a shot like this that can take you out of your predispositions and make you wonder at the beauty of absolutely common objects as seen through the eyes of an explorative photographer. Her “Burned Tree” is another intriguing work, but I find the inverted example displayed next to it to be sort of unnecessary.

“Tapeats Creek I and II” are sensual palladium process prints by Kristin Mitchell. There are a number of this type included, owing to a recent workshop locally. I find I want to climb inside of her images and explore. The rough edge created by the process is typically inviting to me, as well.

The abstraction quality in Joe Kashi’s “The Crossing’s Doors” provides delicious textures and understated colors. Genevieve Klebba’s “Inside the Tidal Pools” interests me, not only because of an almost archetypal split-shot effect (horizontal lines break the image almost directly in half), but because I discovered a bountiful goddess image in flesh tones reflected in the foremost tidal pool, which just plain old makes me happy.

Photo Guild meetings are usually held the first Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. Interested folks can e-mail wheath@acsalaska.net, or call Bill at 283-5015.

Zirrus VanDevere is a local mixed-media artist and owns Art Works gallery in Soldotna. She has bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and education.

Arts and Entertainment week of Oct. 8

Events:

Ongoing

• Artists Without Borders in the 4D Building in Soldotna has a group show, “The Color of Music,” on display through October.
• Art Works in Soldotna has watercolors by Sherri Sather on display through October.
• The Funky Monkey coffee shop in Kenai has watercolors by Pam Mersch on display through October.
• Kaladi Brothers on the Sterling Highway in Soldotna has art by Amy Warfle on display through October.
• Kaladi Brothers on Kobuk Street in Soldotna has artwork by Emily Grossman on display through October.
• The Kenai Fine Arts Center in Old Town Kenai has “Experimental Exhibit” on display through October.
• The Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center has a group exhibit by the Kenai Photo Guild on display through October.
• Veronica’s coffee shop in Kenai has photographs of Veronica’s through the seasons by Joe Kashi on display through October.

Thursday

• The fourth annual Central Peninsula Hospital Auxiliary Holiday Bazaar will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Denali Conference Room. Call 714-4544.
• The Crossing in Soldotna has a sake tasting event at 7 p.m. Tickets are $50, with advanced reservations required. Call 262-1906.

Friday

• Central Peninsula Hospital Auxiliary Holiday Bazaar, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Denali Conference Room. See Thursday listing.
• The Kenai Peninsula Orchestra will hold an Evening of Classics concert at 7 p.m. at Christ Lutheran Church in Soldotna. General admission is $10, or $5 for kids 12 and under. Call Susie at 260-3210, Tammy at 283-0781 or Maria at 283-3024.

Oct. 15

• Peninsula Take-A-Break for women will hold a brunch from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Solid Rock Conference Center on the Sterling Highway with music by Renee Rysdyk, information by Judith Reese about breast cancer screening, and Anna Jarrett will share her story of “survival and the courage within us.” Contact Cindy at 260-6262 or Susan 335-6789 or e-mail tab-reservations@hotmail.com.

Oct. 16

• The Kenai Community Library will host a “Reflections on Statehood Reading” from 6:30 to 8 p.m. with 12 community members reflecting on the larger meaning of Alaska’s statehood by sharing an original selection or poem. Call 283-4378.

Oct. 17

• Triumvirate Theatre will perform “Lame Ducks and Dark Horses,” a locally written political parody poking fun at Sarah Palin, Uncle Ted, John McCain, Barack Obama and more, at 7 p.m. at the Peninsula Center Mall in Soldotna. Visit www.triumviratetheatre.org.

Oct. 18

• “Lame Ducks and Dark Horses” at 7 p.m. at Triumvirate Theatre in the Peninsula Center Mall. See Oct. 17 listing.
• White Lion will perform at Hooligans in Soldotna. Tickets are $23 in advance or $25 at the door, available in advance online at grovetickets.com and koots.com, and by phone at 877-71-Grove.
• The University of Alaska Anchorage faculty trio Alaska Pro Musica, consisting of pianist Timothy Smith, violinist Walter Olivares and clarinetist Mark Wolbers, will perform at 7:30 p.m. at Christ Lutheran Church in Soldotna. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $10 for students and are available at Sweeney’s, River City Books, Northcountry Fair, Already Read Books, Funky Monkey and at the door. Call 262-4084 or visit www.performingartssociety.org.

Oct. 25

• The Fraternal Order of Alaska State Troopers will hold a concert with Juice Newton (“Angel of the Morning,” “The Sweetest Thing” and “Break It To Me Gently”) and Gary Puckett (“Young Girl,” “Woman Woman” and “Over You”) at 7:30 p.m. at the Renee C. Henderson Auditorium at Kenai Central High School. Tickets are $33, available at Whitey’s Music Shop. Funds raised benefit the Safety Bear, CSI Forensic Science Camp, Children’s DNA Identification Kits and youth sports on the Kenai Peninsula. Call 283-9302.

Coming up

• The Soldotna Senior Center will accept entries into its 12th annual juried amateur art show, held in conjunction with the center’s fall bazaar, Nov. 7 to 8. Entries can be dropped off from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 4 and 5. Categories are oils, pastels, watercolors, and drawings; needle arts, beading, quilting and sewing; and three-dimensional. The entry fee is $6, with a maximum three entries each person. Call Mary Lane, 262-8839.

Nightlife:

DJ

• The Riverside in Soldotna has live DJ music every Friday and Saturday at 10 p.m.

Live music

• The Clam Shell Lodge in Clam Gulch has Three-Legged Mule on Saturday night.
• The Funky Monkey in Kenai has folk music on Wednesday night.
• Hooligans Saloon in Soldotna has rock covers and originals by 9-Spine at 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
• The Maverick in Soldotna has acoustic classic rock by the Free Beer Band at 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
• Moosequito’s in Sterling has acoustic music by Sonny on Wednesday night and Paul Davis on Friday night.
• Mykel's in Soldotna has acoustic music by Dave Unruh from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
• The Place in Nikiski has bluegrass music by Them Other Shuckers around 7 p.m. Friday.
• The Rainbow Bar in Kenai has rock covers by Tuff-e-Nuff at 10 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
• Veronica’s in Kenai has open mic music at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, and acoustic music by Chris Pepper and Friends at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Karaoke

• 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays at the Duck Inn on Kalifornsky Beach Road.
• 9 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays at the .406 in Kenai.
• 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at Hooligan’s in Soldotna.
• 8:30 p.m. Friday at the J-Bar-B in Kasilof.
• 9:30 p.m. Monday at the Maverick in Soldotna.

Other

• BJ’s in Soldotna has free pool on Wednesdays.
• Hooligan’s in Soldotna has a nine-ball pool tournament at 9 p.m. Thursdays.
• The J-Bar-B has free pool on Sundays, a horseshoe pit in the beer garden, and a cash drawing at 6:30 p.m. Saturdays.
• The Maverick in Soldotna has a pool tournament at 8 p.m. Fridays.
• Moosequito’s in Sterling has a dart tournament at 8 p.m. Thursdays.

Promotions, bar manager brings life to the party

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

It’s a Friday fall night at Hooligans Saloon in Soldotna. Summer crowds have come and gone, and the locals need a little incentive to spend some time, and money, at the bar. It’s up to bar manager Molly Blakeley-Poland to give it to them, by dreaming up contests, themed events and other promotions that make a bar stool far more enticing than the couch at home.

“In the wintertime (you need promotions) because people are tight on money and because it’s not summer anymore. Summer is easy because the tourists are here and it’s just a no-brainer. We don’t do any promotions in the summer because people are coming no matter what. Plus, I think it’s important to keep everything young and fun for the area,” she said.

The weekend before included a wet T-shirt contest. This Friday night would be a foam party, with crowds in swimwear dancing to a live band in a room covered with plastic sheeting and filled with chest-high bubbles from a special foam-making machine Blakeley-Poland ordered for the occasion.

A phone rings. It’s one of the bartenders, asking if he can get into the spirit of the evening by wearing a thong.

“I don’t care. But make sure to shave,” she tells him.

She wasn’t talking about his face.

So it goes for Blakeley-Poland, the life of the party.

“I love doing promotions because it’s just like you’re a party planner constantly,” she said. “The crappy part of the job is when people are down on you, but my new theme in the bar is ‘be happy or be gone,’ for everybody — customers and employees.”

Blakeley-Poland has helped with promotions at Hooligans since she moved back to the area from California in 1996. Her mother, Sal Hoskins, owns Hooligans, so Blakeley-Poland pitched in to help. She’s had her own business ventures in the area, including Sassafras and the roller rink, but these days she’s even more involved at Hooligans, since she accepted a promotion to bar manager at the end of the summer.

It gives her an outlet for the party-planning skills she acquired in California. She worked for Party Land in the Del Mar area, which gets hired to put on parties for the well-to-do, like creating balloon arches for the San Diego Chargers.

“I’m a certified balloonist. That’s something I’m sure I’ll use for the rest of my life,” Blakeley-Poland quipped.

Creativity and an open mind are necessities of the job, and the bar promotions job is a necessary one, since bars in Alaska can’t do drink specials, which is an easy customer draw in the Lower 48.

“We’re not allowed to do specials on drinks unless we do them always, so we just have to be innovative about how to do things,” she said.

“I just research promotions for bars and pick out my favorite stuff. It’s kind of actually really easy, but I don’t want to give away all our tricks,” she said.

When planning a promotion, it’s important to know what will appeal to people. Around here, there are a couple of sure-fire options.

“If it involves skin,” Blakeley-Poland said, which explains the foam party.

“And everybody loves a contest. It doesn’t matter what kind of contest it is,” she said.

She’s got a couple lined up for the winter, including a karaoke contest Wednesday nights where the winner gets $50 and entered into another contest to play and sing with an actual band. There’s an eight-ball pool tournament Thursdays, where the top three finishers get a chance at $10,000 if they make an eight-ball break. On Sundays and Mondays for football season, patrons get a ticket with every drink, even water, with tickets drawn for prizes and the chance at $25,000 on Super Bowl Sunday.
Themed events also do well.

“We had a huge bachelorette party for all women — married women, single women, it didn’t matter. If you were a woman, we had a bachelorette party,” Blakeley-Poland said. “All women, and even some men, were wearing veils and all the accessories that normally go with a bachelorette party. People had a blast.”

Blakeley-Poland said she’s planning some big acts in 2009. Hooligans is now a sister bar to Chilkoot Charlie’s in Anchorage, so Soldotna has a chance to book whatever shows come to Koots. That’s how the bar got the rock band White Lion, which will perform Oct. 18.

There are some challenges to putting on a good bar party. People having too good a time can ruin it, especially if the police have to stop by. Having to coordinate with other bars is important so two aren’t holding an event the same night.

“It’s a small community, but I think if we all work together I think we can do just fine,” Blakeley-Poland said.

Hooligans went through a period of noise complaints from people living in the trailer park behind the bar, but that hasn’t been an issue lately, she said.

And the business of hyping wet T-shirt contests and general drunkenness runs the risks of drawing complaints of another nature.

“I’m on the radio all the time for this stuff, so I’m kind of surprised I don’t run into more of that, but I really don’t. I’m in for this stuff every once in a while and think, ‘OK, I’m going to get in trouble.’ And, nope. It’s a small community. There’s just as many bars and churches, so, you know,” she said.

At the end of the day, or night, it all comes down to having a good time.
“Our customers are faithful, and that’s what’s really cool really. They want to come out every weekend and have fun and not cause problems. They’re awesome.”

Dramatic cause — Theater group offers scholarships for young actors

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Acting up. Now it’s a good thing. Triumvirate Theatre is offering a unique opportunity for students with a flair for the dramatic to have a steady outlet to indulge in their talents and make money doing it.

The organization is accepting applications for Class Act, a troupe of elite student dramatists in grades seven through 12 who will sing, dance and act their way to college scholarships.

Up to 10 students will be accepted into the drama troupe, which will stage three to five productions a year, giving students a chance to develop their theatrical skills and earn scholarship money.

“We decided to do this because I wanted to see a core group of kids that could put on high-quality performances,” said Joe Rizzo, with Triumvirate Theatre. “And I was looking for kids that this is the thing they want to do more than anything else, and I thought they should be rewarded for that monetarily. That’s why we have the scholarship.”

Class Act students will earn money from every performance in which they participate. Half the proceeds of every Class Act show will be divided evenly among the performers and go into an interest-bearing account. Once students graduate and go on to some form of postsecondary education, whether it’s college or vocational training, their portion of the money will be forwarded to their school of choice as a scholarship. Students will get an equal portion of the proceeds of each show they participate in, whether they had a lead role or ran the light board, Rizzo said.

“The idea is that every show will have every kid in it, unless a kid can’t be in it for whatever reason,” Rizzo said. “We’re assuming that this group of kids, this troupe is their priority; it’s what they do.”

The amount of time required will be comparable to participating in a school sport. What they get out of it should far exceed what they put in, Rizzo said.

“The performing arts is lot more than just standing on the stage and doing a soliloquy from Shakespeare. Kids learn how to present themselves, which is always important in job interviews, and it helps them to teach other people different things. It improves their writing, it improves their reading, and you could even show statistically it improves their testing,” Rizzo said.

“And a kid doesn’t have to go on to be some professional actor to have the arts enrich their lives. There are a lot of people in our community that every year get together with friends and do community theater. I don’t think that anything the kids learn in this troupe is going to go to waste.”

For Triumvirate, Class Act will take performance capabilities to another level.

“With this particular group, if auditions go the way I hope they go, I think they can do just about anything. What we’re basically looking at is a group of 10 kids that are all triple threats — they can sing, dance and act,” Rizzo said.

With a stable group of talented, dedicated actors, productions can go together much more quickly and smoothly than school shows usually do, Rizzo said. A big musical may take eight to 10 weeks to stage as a school program. Class Act should be able to put on an elaborate show in just three weeks.

Rizzo already has his eye on some ambitious productions for the group to tackle, including “My Fair Lady,” and “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.”

Class Act performers will also be expected to participate in Triumvirate’s Drop of the Hat Players, which provides free entertainment at fundraisers for community needs, such as children with serious illnesses or families who have lost their homes to fire.

“The work they do with the charitable arm of Triumvirate will help them apply for other scholarships because a lot of scholarships today are based on service,” Rizzo said.

Class Act applications can be printed from Triumvirate’s Web site, www.triumviratetheatre.org. They must be filled out, including an essay, and mailed by the postmark deadline of Oct. 31. The audition process will be held Nov. 4 to 8.
More information about Class Act can be found on Triumvirate’s Web site, or call Rizzo at 776-1163.

“The reason I wanted to do this is I would like a crackerjack troupe to work with. I think the results will be amazing. And Triumvirate’s philosophy has always been about helping kids and using our resources to send kids to college. We’ve been doing it for years,” Rizzo said.

Arts and Entertainment week of Oct. 1

Events:

Ongoing

• Artists Without Borders in the 4D Building in Soldotna has a group show, “The Color of Music,” on display through October.
• Art Works in Soldotna has watercolors by Sherri Sather on display through October.
• The Funky Monkey coffee shop in Kenai has watercolors by Pam Mersch on display through October.
• Kaladi Brothers on the Sterling Highway in Soldotna has art by Amy Warfle on display through October.
• Kaladi Brothers Kobuk Street in Soldotna has artwork by Emily Grossman on display through October.
• The Kenai Fine Arts Center in Old Town Kenai has “Experimental Exhibit” on display through October.
• The Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center has a group exhibit by the Kenai Photo Guild on display through October.
• Veronica’s coffee shop in Kenai has photographs of Veronica’s through the seasons by Joe Kashi on display through October.

First Thursday

• First Thursday events include a reception for Amy Warfle at Kaladi Brothers on the Sterling Highway in Soldotna from 5 to 6 p.m., a reception for Artists Without Borders’ group show “The Color of Music” in the 4D building in Soldotna from 5 to 7 p.m., a reception for photographer Joe Kashi at Veronica’s in Kenai from 5:30 to 7 p.m. with open mic music at 6:30 p.m., a reception for the Kenai Photo Guild’s show at the Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., a reception for Emily Grossman at Kaladi Brothers on Kobuk Street in Soldotna from 6 to 7 p.m., a reception for watercolorist Sherri Sather at Art Works in Soldotna from 6 to 8 p.m., a reception for watercolorist Pam Mersch and live jazz by J.D. Uponen at Funky Monkey in Kenai from 6 to 9 p.m., and a bluegrass jam at Christ Lutheran Church in Soldotna from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Friday

• Musician, composer and recording artist Scott Cossu and a guest artist will perform a concert at 7 p.m. at the Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center. Cossu’s background is in jazz and rhythm and blues, which he combines with classical training and study of ethnic music from Sudan, Thailand, China, Romania and Ecuador. Admission is $8 for students and seniors and $10 for adults. Call Laura at 283-1991 for more information. For information and listening samples from Cossu, visit www.scottcossu.com.

Saturday

• The Kenai Chamber of Commerce’s annual Beer and Wine Fundraiser will be held at 6 p.m. in the Old Carrs Mall in Kenai with live music, live and silent auctions, food and fun. The theme is Oktoberfest. Tickets are $50 per person, includes dinner plus beer and wine. Contact Tina Baldridge at tina@kenaichamber.org or 283-7989.

Oct. 10

• The Kenai Peninsula Orchestra will hold an Evening of Classics concert at 7 p.m. at Christ Lutheran Church in Soldotna. General admission is $10, or $5 for kids 12 and under. Call Susie at 260-3210, Tammy at 283-0781 or Maria at 283-3024.

Oct. 15

• Peninsula Take-A-Break for women will hold a brunch from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Solid Rock Conference Center on the Sterling Highway with music by Renee Rysdyk, information by Judith Reese about breast cancer screening and Anna Jarrett will share her story of “survival and the courage within us.” Contact Cindy at 260-6262 or Susan 335-6789 or e-mail tab-reservations@hotmail.com.

Oct. 17

• Triumvirate Theatre will perform “Lame Ducks and Dark Horses,” a locally written political parody poking fun at Sarah Palin, Uncle Ted, John McCain, Barack Obama and more, at 7 p.m. at the Peninsula Center Mall in Soldotna. Visit www.triumviratetheatre.org.

Oct. 18

• “Lame Ducks and Dark Horses” at 7 p.m. at Triumvirate Theatre in the Peninsula Center Mall. See Oct. 17 listing.
• The University of Alaska Anchorage faculty trio Alaska Pro Musica, consisting of pianist Timothy Smith, violinist Walter Olivares and clarinetist Mark Wolbers, will perform at 7:30 p.m. at Christ Lutheran Church in Soldotna. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $10 for students and are available at Sweeney’s, River City Books, Northcountry Fair, Already Read Books, Funky Monkey and at the door. Call 262-4084 or visit www.performingartssociety.org.

Oct. 25

• The Fraternal Order of Alaska State Troopers will hold a concert with Juice Newton (“Angel of the Morning,” “The Sweetest Thing” and “Break It To Me Gently”) and Gary Puckett (“Young Girl,” “Woman Woman” and “Over You”) at 7:30 p.m. at the Renee C. Henderson Auditorium at Kenai Central High School. Tickets are $33, available at Whitey’s Music Shop. Funds raised benefit the Safety Bear, CSI Forensic Science Camp, Children’s DNA Identification Kits and youth sports on the Kenai Peninsula. Call 283-9302.

Coming up

• The Soldotna Senior Center will accept entries into its 12th annual juried amateur art show, held in conjunction with the center’s fall bazaar, Nov. 7-8. Entries can be dropped off from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 4 and 5. Categories are oils, pastels, watercolors, and drawings; needle arts, beading, quilting and sewing; and three-dimensional. The entry fee is $6, with a maximum three entries each person. Call Mary Lane, 262-8839.

Nightlife:

DJ

• The Riverside in Soldotna has live DJ music every Friday and Saturday at 10 p.m.

Live music

• The Funky Monkey in Kenai has bluegrass music by Them Other Shuckers on Tuesday night, folk music on Wednesday night, jazz by J.D. Uponen on Thursday night and jazz by J.D. Uponen and Don Weller on Friday night.
• Hooligan’s Saloon in Soldotna has rock covers and originals by 9-Spine at 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
• Kaladi Brothers on Kobuk Street in Soldotna has acoustic music by Neil Gallagher on Friday night and Batter Brown on Saturday night.
• Kenai Joes in Kenai has acoustic classic rock by the Free Beer Band at 8 p.m. Friday night.
• The Maverick in Soldotna has acoustic classic rock by the Free Beer Band at 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
• Moosequito’s in Sterling has acoustic music by Adam and Sonny on Wednesday night.
• Mykel's in Soldotna has acoustic music by Dave Unruh from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
• The Place in Nikiski has bluegrass music by Them Other Shuckers around 7 p.m. Friday.
• The Rainbow Bar in Kenai has rock covers by Tuff-e-Nuff at 10 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
• Veronica’s in Kenai has open mic music at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, and acoustic music by Mike Morgan at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Karaoke

• 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays at the Duck Inn on Kalifornsky Beach Road.
• 9 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays at the .406 in Kenai.
• 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at Hooligan’s in Soldotna.
• 8:30 p.m. Friday at the J-Bar-B in Kasilof.
• 9:30 p.m. Monday at the Maverick in Soldotna.

Other

• BJ’s in Soldotna has a Brown Bears hockey pregame party Friday at with a beer, taco bar and ticket to the game for $15 from 5 to 7 p.m., and free pool on Wednesdays.
• Hooligan’s in Soldotna has a nine-ball pool tournament at 9 p.m. Thursdays.
• The J-Bar-B has free pool on Sundays, a horseshoe pit in the beer garden, and a cash drawing at 6:30 p.m. Saturdays.
• The Maverick in Soldotna has a pool tournament at 8 p.m. Fridays.
• Moosequito’s in Sterling has a dart tournament at 8 p.m. Thursdays.