The “Alaskan Buddies” Painting Series

I just completed two new oil paintings on canvas to add to my “Alaska Buddies” series. The Buddies are four Alaskan animals: moose, bear, eagle, and Husky dog, who are friends that go out and do Alaskan things like fat biking, skiing, and racing Mt. Marathon. A lot of artists have created something similar, but I feel these four animals really say, “this is Alaska.” My Alaskan art concepts date back to my days working as a production artist at Arctic Circle Enterprises, where I designed Alaskan products. Mitchell Godfred (my boss) would chant, “bear, moose, eagle, tree, mountain.” These were the acceptable themes that he deemed “sold well” on Alaskan merchandise. A.C.E products were not just for tourists. I remember people wearing A.C.E. gear to high school; it was pretty popular among Alaskans in college too. The product line from A.C.E. was cheap, good quality, and overall well designed. This is thanks to a great art team led by Mitchell Godfred, Lorraine Wyles, Jason Reynolds, Pam Clifton, and lastly myself. I didn’t get to illustrate much, being a 23-year-old production artist at the time, but I learned a lot, and my time at A.C.E. had a lasting effect on my art career. When I thought of painting anthropomorphic Alaskan animals, I remembered the art from that time and the other artists’ styles there.

Bike to Work Day

My animals are different from anything A.C.E. did. I started painting anthropomorphic Alaskan animals when I got to design a beer label for Midnight Sun Brewing Co. about 9 years ago. The beer was called “Feast,” and I got to brew it with the Chef and the brew team at the brewery. Chef Chris wanted to have a bunch of Alaskan animals sitting down at a Thanksgiving-esque feast. Later I made many other paintings featuring various animals drinking beers, riding bikes, and hitting the slopes. But I really wanted this series of paintings to scream Alaska, so I simplified the herd to the four animals in “The Buddies” clique. The newest paintings are “Fat-biking Buddies in McCarthy” and “Mt Marathon Racing Buddies.” I hope you find them enjoyable and slightly comical. I put the moose in the lead of the Mt. Marathon race because it seemed like it was the fastest of the four. Why doesn’t the eagle just fly? Well, because then he wouldn’t be a “buddy”. Stay tuned for more “Buddies” paintings in the future.

Feast

Mt Marathon Racing Buddies

Ski Buddies

I will be vending at an event tomorrow called the Alaska Summer Showcase at the Dena’ina Center. It is an Alaskan travel show put on by local celebrity travel writer, Scott McMurren. If you haven’t heard of him, look him up. He will help you find great deals on travel in and out of Alaska. There will be $25,000+ in travel prizes! Many Alaskan travel companies will be there to help you jump-start your summer by offering show-only specials. There will be food trucks out front and live music by Todd Grebe and Cold Country. They will even drive a brand new EV Chevy Silverado into the Dena’ina Center for your amusement. $10 admission gets you in and allows you to participate in all the giveaways. I will offer a chance to win a free art print at my booth. I hope to see you there!

On April’s First Friday, 4/5, from 5-7pm, I will return to Alaska Cycle Chic with the Fat Biking Buddies painting and another group of cycle-related wall art. The Jake Legs will provide live music while you sip and shop. If you haven’t been to an Alaska Cycle Chic FF, I highly recommend attending; it is always a fun event! It is in midtown, across from Dos Manos gallery, so you will be able to find parking nearby! I hope to see you there!

Fat Biking Buddies

Unveiling the Holiday Commissions of 2023

Now that we are through the busy holiday season, and everyone has opened their gifts, it is time to unveil the commissioned paintings that I had the pleasure to make for my patrons’ friends and loved ones. I had to keep them super secret up until now, so as not to spoil the surprise. The studio was abuzz with creativity, especially as the demand for custom paintings peaked in anticipation of Christmas. Successfully delivering each unique piece on time is no small feat, especially when working with the patience-demanding nature of oil paint compared to acrylics. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to all who entrusted me with their artistic visions, both this year and in years past! Collaborating on these projects is always a joy, as you generously share your personal narratives, allowing me to craft timeless paintings that encapsulate those cherished moments. Without further delay, let me present to you the seven commissions brought to life over the past couple of months.

8″x10″, oil on panel

11″x14″, oil on panel

18″x9″, oil on panel

8″x10″, oil on panel

12″x18″, oil on panel

18″x18″, oil on panel

11″x14″, oil on panel

Big Paintings

I really enjoy making BIG paintings, but I only get to make them every once in a while, because I have limited storage space.  So, when I sell one, I get to make a new one. I’m talking about paintings that are at least 3 feet by 4 feet in size. They can take up a lot of space if you have more than five or six of them around. The biggest canvas I have painted is 12 feet by 6 feet, and it is hanging at a hospital in Bethel, AK. We recently donated a 5ft x 4ft oil painting called Spring Skiing to the Anchorage Museum, and it will be featured in the live auction at the Gala. I recently finished a new large piece of the same size called Denali Sunrise, and I already built a canvas for another large piece. 

Delivering Spring Skiing to the Anchorage Museum. Prints are available at my Etsy shop.

The new large oil painting, Denali Sunrise, 4ft x 5ft, oil on canvas. The original oil painting, and prints are available at my Etsy shop.

Artist are sometimes overwhelmed by a large canvas, but I have always liked the challenge. You don’t have to cram as much detail into the composition, and when you do, it makes the painting all the more powerful. Big paintings need big walls, and big rooms, so the viewer can step back and appreciate the whole thing. I love walking up to a painting from across the room and noticing that it has a ton of detail. It makes you realize how long it took to make. I was at a gallery in the Hermitage Museum and I looked closely at a historical piece a few years ago and realized I wasn’t putting enough detail into my artwork. That painting was just incredible, you could count the hairs on the mouse in the corner of it. After I saw those pieces, I had a moment of growth as an artist. I haven’t achieved the same level of detail as some of those Dutch old master pieces in the Hermitage collection. However, I have stepped it up a notch, and my style has changed over the years.

If you don’t have the budget for a large painting, as they cost more than small ones, I recommend you get out and look at some in public spaces. The Anchorage Museum has a great collection, and the Wells Fargo branch on C Street and Northern Lights Blvd has some really amazing Sydney Lawrence pieces hanging in the lobby.

My First Album Cover

About two weeks ago I signed my first record contract.  No, I am not recording music, I get to design a record album cover.  So you might ask, how does an artist get such a gig?  Well, I have been a working artist for close to 20 years, and I have never been invited to do one before.  I actually wasn’t asked to do this one either, instead I asked the musician if I could do it.  During the pandemic, Michael Kirkpatrick, who is a folk singer from Fort Collins, CO did a live stream concert every Thursday for what seemed like an eternity.  Maria and I started looking forward to these “funstreams” and rarely missed one.  I started to get to know Michael’s songs pretty well, and invited him to play at our cabin in McCarthy during his summer tour in Alaska in 2021.  When he was packing up after the concert, I asked when he would release his next album and if I could be the artist to design it.  I told him I would do a trade out for another house concert. 

Michael playing at our cabin

I was very pro-active, possibly even annoyingly so.  I sent sketches to Michael with possible concepts several times, then I realized I was pushing too hard, so I sat back and waited.  Every time I go to the cabin, I always bring all my painting supplies, so I can work there too.  The day after I arrived to the cabin a couple weeks ago, I got a message from Michael telling me he wanted to talk about compensation for a full record album design.  We are talking vinyl here, not a CD, or digital release, although it will be all of those things too.  I have always loved looking at the artwork on vinyl records.  A couple of my favorites are Elton John’s Yellow Brick Road, and Captain Fantastic.  I also love Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, and Led Zeppelin 4.  I went online and found out how much an album cover design normally costs, and I charged him that, minus the price of a house concert.  Michael now wanted to move on it, since he had already recorded the songs at the recording studio, and they are finishing up remastering them now. 

The timeline was tight since I was planning on staying here in McCarthy for about a month.  I said I might get it done by the timeline he wanted.  I went to the tool-shed to look for pieces of plywood and other support materials that would be large enough to make a good album cover.  My original intention was to do these on canvas, about twice the size of the print version, but I didn’t have that here.  Instead, I found a nice piece of Baltic Birch plywood that I know would work well.  For a primer, I had a gallon of spar urethane, and I remembered using that for a cool piece I made in college.  Before I put a ton of time into a large album cover on experimental supports, I wanted to see how it would work, so I made a couple of test panels.  I painted a PBR on one and I was satisfied that it would be sufficient quality for the album design. 

The following week Michael and his band Violet Pilot came to McCarthy to play at the Golden Saloon.  I have never heard the band play live before, so I was really excited.  I asked the band if they wanted to go on the glacier the next day.  Sean McCauley, the drummer, was really excited and wanted to go swimming in a pool out there.  I was skeptical that would happen, but I said, “Bring your swim shorts and we will see…”  We had a slow start, since they played until after midnight — it was an epic performance!  They brought all the energy of a rock band and rocked like they were playing a show at a major sports stadium, instead of a backwoods bar.  I helped drive their equipment to the other side of the Kennicott River, then we went out on the glacier.  I couldn’t find the blue pool for a long time and I was afraid that Sean wouldn’t get to swim on the glacier.  But we saw over in the distance a wedding happening, low and behold at the blue pool!  We waited while drinking some glacier water using red vines as straws, then walked over there in our ice crampons.  A guide was letting two people go in and we kind of watched them do it, to see how to go about it safely.  Getting in and out is a problem, but the guide had a camping mattress and a safety line secured with an ice screw.  I had a stick and an extra jacket.  So I laid out the coat on the ice for entry and exit.  And  those crazy rock musicians went for a dip!

The blue pool on the glacier

We were late getting back to McCarthy town and I wanted to bring the band up to my cabin for a beer and chill session, but they all ate at the Golden Saloon, since it was included as part of their payment.  Michael came up the hill to the cabin and we talked about the album cover.  It was 80% done at this point and he was very happy with how it was going.  I made a few changes to the concept after discussing it with him.  I made a quick meal from some stuff I had on hand and then we went back to town after I made Michael help me with some heavy lifting chores.  I will be wrapping up the album design in the next week and when it is all approved and production ready I will blog about it again.  Showing off the final product when it is ready!               

Album cover design work in progress

Album cover design work in progress

When to Buy Art Directly from an Artist vs. through a Venue

My corner at Dos Manos Gallery in Anchorage, AK

Have you ever bought something on eBay using the “Buy it Now” feature? You might feel like you are paying more, but you don’t have to wait, and you don’t have to risk someone else buying the item.  Maybe the bids will price the item higher than the “Buy It Now” feature, and you’ll end up getting a bad deal. Buying artwork is very much the same way. I am often pulled aside at one of my art shows, and asked in a quiet way if it would be better to wait until the show comes down to purchase the art directly from me, that way I get a higher percentage of the overall price. My answer is always, “If you love it, and you want it, buy it now through the venue.”

When I hang artwork at a gallery, brewery or coffee shop, I am working with that venue as a partner. I want to be invited to have art shows there again, and I also want that business to succeed. Rent, employees, and other overhead costs are part of the reason I pay a commission to the “house”. They sell my art for me, so I don’t have to be there in person to sell it myself. Galleries would not be able to exist without their cut of the sale. Breweries and coffee shops have a pretty fine margin, and selling artwork helps supplement the high costs of paying employees and buying ingredients. Galleries curate artists, which may seem as easy as approaching one and asking to be represented, but there are actually a lot of artists competing for a limited amount of wall space. The galleries will represent the artists who sell more work, and reject the ones whose artwork stagnates. Please buy directly from the venue, it helps me get more space on the walls, and leads to more solo shows. As Dos Manos always says, “higher tides float all boats.”

The times to approach me to buy directly from me is if you see the piece on the Internet and want a more personal experience than buying it online. In that case, you can schedule a studio visit. Also, if you want a special piece made just for you, or if you saw a piece that has already sold at a venue and want a similar one, or if I am not currently showing anywhere and you want to buy artwork you previously saw at a venue. Don’t wait to ensure that I get a larger cut of the profits. While I do appreciate the sentiment, I prefer that you have instant gratification of owning that piece that caught your eye. I wouldn’t show my artwork at a venue that I didn’t think was a fair deal. If you wait, there is a chance the piece might sell to someone else.

The moment you are inspired to buy artwork is a special thing, if you wait until later you may not have that same feeling. Your wall will possibly stay unadorned, and it can become a constant thing on the back burner of your mind. Meanwhile, the piece of art sits in a cabinet unseen and waiting to find its final home. My goal as an artist is to see all my pieces find good homes, where they will be properly taken care of, and valued by the patron. When pieces leave the studio to good homes, that inspires me to make more art. When I bring home a lot of pieces at the end of an art show, I also consider not showing at that place again. So don’t delay, “Buy it Now,” you won’t regret it, and I will applaud your decisive decision to be a patron of my artwork! 

So, where can you currently buy my art in person? This blog post was written on March 23, 2023.

• Dos Manos Gallery
• Turnagain Brewing Co. until April 6th
• Alaska Cycle Chic starting April 7th, until May 4th
• My studio by appointment
• Arctic Comic Con May 6 & 7 at Dena’ina Convention Center
• Girdwood Forest Fair July 7, 8, 9

Cheers to original art, and to partnerships between artists, galleries and patrons! 

Chiefs Kingdom

The Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LVII (for those of you who are not so good with roman numerals), that is Super Bowl 57 in 2023.  I am sad for all my friends who are Eagles supporters, but maybe they can win again at another time.  Instead, we celebrate the KC’s victory with a painting of the Kansas City Chiefs on their home turf, GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. 

Where were you when the Super Bowl was on television? I know that one of my friends was at the game. I bet a lot of you boycotted this pillar of American culture and went outside to do something interesting like skiing, skating, or fat-biking.  I used to do that: watch about 15 minutes of the game, catch the halftime show, eat a plate of nachos, some wings, chips, and whatever, then go outside and do something fun.  But now I like watching the game. In fact, I watched almost all the playoff games and a lot of the Monday, Thursday, and Sunday regular season games.  I don’t follow any specific team, but normally root for good football. I like to watch the athletes do amazing things, and I like the sound of the crowd getting all excited about the sport. I do enjoy the commercials during the Super Bowl and the halftime show. My favorite halftime show was Lady Gaga in 2017.  There have been so many good shows, it is hard to remember them all.  

This year I was on a roadtrip to visit my grandma and my uncle in eastern Washington. I spent Saturday in Walla Walla, Washington with my grandma, she is 90 years old! We then drove to Pullman, to visit my 96-year-old uncle.  My uncle was hosting a party for the Super Bowl and had invited over three other guests. The food was good and the excitement was there! I was most happy that the game was close and not boring. The Super Bowl menu at my uncle’s party included: ribs, potato salad, baked beans, potato chips, and a superb tray cake for desert.  We were all skiers, so the cake celebrated that sport. It was a pretty good spread. 

I had a lot of discussion about which beer to put in this painting. I thought maybe a Boulevard Brewing beer, but I saw that most people drank Goose Island IPA at GEHA Field.  So, I thought I should leave it up to imagination.  You have whatever beer you want, and I put it in a Kansas City Chiefs cup that you would get at the stadium. 

Both teams were very good this year and it was a great show. The Eagles played very hard, but Coach, Andy Reid, played it super cool running down the clock and putting it all on the line as Harrison Butker nailed the field goal with only 8 seconds left on the clock. Making it virtually impossible for the Eagles to comeback.  Raise your glass not only to the KC Chiefs, but to the great sport of American Football! Cheers!   

This original oil painting, and signed prints are available at my Etsy shop.

Chiefs Kingdom, 14″x11″, oil on panel

Drinking on the Southside

Yesterday was a great day to go to the south-side of town to grab a beer at Midnight Sun Brewing and  Turnagain Brewing. My art show is up at MSBC for the month of January, and yesterday the brewery busted out dusty bottles of Sloth Belgian-style Imperial Stout from 2017! For those in the know, Sloth is one of the best beers MSBC has ever made. A Russian imperial stout that was originally brewed as part of the Seven Deadly Sins series in 2007. The brewery hasn’t brewed it since 2017! Sloth has a rating of 95 on Beer Advocate and is rated as the 90th best Russian Imperial Stout in the United States!  It is big, bold, dark, black, and has a nice Belgian yeast note to it. If there is any left on draft today, I would get on down there and get a glass.  If not, you can always find something noteworthy from the big offerings from MSBC.  I made this painting of Sloth in 2016 and it immediately sold. Limited edition prints are available at my Etsy shop. If you prefer an original oil painting, rather than a print, I can paint a custom one for you.

A 6oz pour of Sloth Belgian-style Imperial Stout

Meanwhile, right down the street, an amazing sour beer called Solera Eclipse was released today at Turnagain Brewing!  Since Maria and I are in the Mug Club at Turnagain, we had the opportunity to stop by to get first dibs on this amazing beer yesterday.  It is a pineapple and blueberry sour that originally was brewed in summer 2021 and was released in early November 2021.  Every year there is a contest called the Turnagain Tartside Challenge, and Anchorage home-brewers come by Turnagain Brewing to get a gallon of mostly fermented sour wort from the Solera. The idea is to flavor, finish, and package the wort to make a delicious beer. In 2021 I was the winner of this contest with the concept behind Solera Eclipse. Ted Rosenzweig (owner and brewer at Turnagain Brewing) and I conferred, and I designed a label, and Ted packaged the beer for individual bottle sales. It has to be one of the tastiest sour beers I have ever had, and today it is released again. At $7 for a 12oz pour or $7 for 12oz bottles to go, it is a good deal. My original recipe called for a whole pineapple and 1lb of blueberries per gallon!  Little to say, the fruit in this beer is very expensive, and I am unsure how much profit can be made when using so much fruit here in Alaska! I have included a picture of Ted stealing a sample from the barrel on Halloween in 2021.  I wanted to show off my original label and bottle design, because the packaging is different this year.  The pineapple brings the flavor, and the blueberries bring some aroma, and a great color!  

Anchorage is a great beer drinking town and I hope you brave the cold to get out to one of our lovely brewery destinations to revere our beer! Cheers to beers brewed in the North! 

Check out the Paintings my Customers Commissioned for Christmas, 2022

It’s that time of year when I show you all the paintings my customers commissioned during the holiday season. This is definitely the busiest time for me in the studio, as people tend to order more custom paintings in time for Christmas, but each year I manage to complete every single one on time! That’s not an easy feat, considering that oil paint takes longer to dry than acrylic. Thank you to all who commissioned paintings this year, and in the past! It’s always great to work with you on these projects, as you share your personal stories with the artist, and trust me to capture those special moments in timeless paintings. So, without further ado, here are the 11 commissions I painted in the last couple months. I provided links in the captions for the ones that are available as prints at our Etsy shop.

20″x16″, oil on canvas. Prints available at our Etsy shop.

30″ x 24″, oil on canvas. Custom silhouette portraits available at our Etsy shop.

8″ x 10″, oil on panel

11″ x 14″, oil on panel

24″ x 12″, oil on panel

14″ x 11″, oil on panel. Prints are available at our Etsy shop.

10″ x 8″, oil on panel

10″ x 8″, oil on panel

10″ x 8″, oil on panel

10″ x 8″, oil on panel

8″ x 10″, oil on panel

Sales Channels for Selling Art: Pop-Ups, Art Shows, Galleries, and Online

December is here, and it is now officially crunch time to get your holiday shopping completed.  As an artist, I have mixed feelings about the holiday season.  On one side I make more money at this time of year than any other time. On the other side, I have to work almost every weekend at in-person vending events, such as pop-ups.  We sell art primarily through these channels: in person at pop-ups/craft fairs, at galleries, art shows at venues around town, and online.

Vending in person at pop-ups and craft fairs is an interesting opportunity for both the buyer and artist. I get to meet my clients, and can help them find the art they are looking for, or let them know about art pieces I may not have brought with me, but are available on my Etsy shop. In which case, they can pick up the artwork when it is ready a few days later at the studio (if you are lucky, you might get invited in for a home-brew ;). It is a lot of work setting up and taking down the booth, and has to be calculated in to our work day. Most of the time, there is no fee for us to sell at pop-up events, except credit card processing fees, and the cost of a couple beers, if the event is at a brewery. Sometimes breweries waive my tab, which always makes me very happy! Craft fairs charge a few hundred dollars for a booth. By the way, I’ll be selling my art at a pop-up at Anchorage Brewing Co. along with several other local makers on Saturday, December 3, starting at 2pm.

Selling my art at a pop-up at Anchorage Brewing Co.

Galleries are a way to work with sales people and meet a larger audience.  However, galleries take 40% – 50% commission, which makes sense, since they have brick-and-mortar overhead.  After dropping off art to a gallery, the artist doesn’t have to do any work except keep track of what the gallery has and what they will need when something sells.  Unfortunately, the gallery only has a certain amount of space, so artists are limited to sell only what the gallery is willing to put on its walls. Galleries have sales people that work to sell the art. This is a major benefit, especially since artists are not always good at selling their own art. I’m very happy to have my art at Dos Manos Gallery!

My art at Dos Manos Gallery

Art shows at venues like breweries, restaurants, and coffee shops are another way for an artist to reach an audience. This is a bit more than a pop-up, but less than complete gallery representation. It is super fun as an artist to have a reception at your art show. Everyone is there to see the artwork, and that is really rewarding. The artist often has to handle all the sales, if the venue doesn’t want to process art sales, which is a hurdle for the buyer, and leads to fewer sales.  Art shows last about a month, so you are committed to that venue for a longer bit of time than a pop-up.  Most art show venues don’t care if they sell anything, or not, so you often don’t get a sales person, like yourself at a pop-up, or an employee of a gallery. Sometimes nothing sells at all at an art show venue. Most of the time people go to the venue for the real reason it exists: food at a restaurant, or a haircut at a stylist, or beer at a brewery.  Or they go to see your artwork. Most likely, if they are already on an artist’s mailing list, they already have artwork from the artist and may be there to support the artist personally and not to purchase art.  My next art show will be at Midnight Sun Brewing Co. in January.

At my art show at Midnight Sun Brewing Co.

Online selling is a good way to sell art.  It is also very challenging, but if done correctly, can be quite profitable. You can sell direct from your website, this requires expensive web hosting, and secure checkout. SEO is a problem with that.  There are a few other online venues: Etsy is one of the best, but there is also Fine Art America, iCanvas, Redbubble, and Deviantart. The listings are time consuming and require a keen eye for detail.  Art purchasers don’t like to see typos in a listing — it makes them feel that the artist is careless. There is often a lot of communication before a sale is made, and if it isn’t handled correctly, the sale is lost. It is tedious to manage an online site for art sales.  Some of these websites require the artist to make and mail all the art, like Etsy.  Other sites, like RedBubble, or Fine Art America print all the merchandise, and mail it. But these sites take a much bigger cut for those services.  Buying art online is really easy, you can do it from your phone, however, it is hard to tell what you will receive. This is fine when ordering a t-shirt from Redbubble, but a bit disconcerting to the purchaser when buying expensive originals, or fragile pieces. We just sold an original painting to a client in France, and I was really proud of the Real Art Is Better team, that my artwork was being shipped all the way to the cultural center of Europe.  We’re offering a 20% discount, and free domestic shipping right now at our Etsy shop for a limited time.

We use all of these methods to sell art. And I find pop-ups to be the most work, but also the most profitable, especially when I am at a brewery. Not so much when I am vending at a craft fair, because there’s more competition from other vendors, and beer art is not everyone’s cup of tea. Galleries are good because they get the word out to art collectors, and help with establishing your brand, and the gallery does all the work.  Art shows are fun, especially at the reception when the artist is honored, but most often you only sell a small percentage of what has been hung, and it is a lot of work moving artwork around and taking it back down. Online is a lot of setup and a ton of work when it comes to packing and mailing, or requires faith in the offsite production of reproduced items.  We find that all these methods are working to keep our business running. All have their pros and cons. It’s a matter of getting it all out there, whatever the method.              

Tok Thai Food

Tok Thai Food by Scott Clendaniel, 20″x16″, oil on canvas

My Aunt Barbara took a photo of a raven sitting on top of the Tok Thai Food establishment on her drive back from a visit to McCarthy, and I got her permission to make a painting based on her photo. According to a review on Yelp, Tok Thai Food has the best Panang Curry in Alaska.  I’m going to get some on my way back from McCarthy next time.  This roadside restaurant is an enigma, and I don’t know much about it. All I could find online were the menu and a bunch of positive reviews. The official website’s title page calls it Tok Tdai Food.  I have always had a good meal there, but is it really “t’die” for?  So, why is Tok Thai Food in Glennallen, and not in Tok?  The questions keep on rolling. Why is the best food in Glennallen, Thai food? Why is the best Thai food in Alaska located in Glennallen? Who owns this place? Who is making this delicious food?

What I do know is that I love stopping at this crossroad on my way back from McCarthy, and taking a minute, or 20 to get out of the truck, get some gas, and have fresh food. Making a stir fry from old cabbage, a spotty squash, and some canned chicken at the cabin in McCarthy may fill my belly, but it is far from what you get at Tok Thai Food. I think it’s the location that makes it so special. Strategically located at the T, where the Glenn Highway meets the Richardson.  If you are going to Chitina to dipnet, or want to go to Valdez, you drive right past it.  If you want to go to Tok, Whitehorse, Haines or Seattle, you will also drive right past it.  It is four hours from Anchorage, and four hours from the Canadian border, perfectly located for lunch.  

I painted this iconic sign because it represents returning to civilization. After a month in the Wrangell Mountains, a hot meal is welcome.  The Radio Shack sign in Glennallen advertising hot pizza is alluring, but they don’t actually have hot pizza, or at least not when I have been there.  The Freeze has long since closed its doors. The IGA may have some sandwiches and deli snacks, but it is far from excellent.  The raven in this painting symbolizes wilderness to me, and the bright yellow manufactured plastic sign, humanity.  After washing hands in the gas station, and getting a crispy fried egg-roll, it feels good to know, that yes, they do sell auto parts within the Glennallen city limits. This painting is about the balance of going to the wilderness to reduce stress by leaving the trappings of the city behind, while in the wilderness there is a different kind of stress of knowing you only have what you brought with you. It is good to change it up, find the ataraxia (Greek for balance), remind yourself what is important in your life, and you will find your inner peace.        

The original oil painting on canvas will be on display, and available for sale at my art show at Dos Manos Gallery in June and July. The art opening reception will take place on First Friday, June 3, 5-8pm. I will also have some prints available.