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!
Last week Maria and I went out to McCarthy to enjoy a getaway at our cabin. We often refer to our little house in the woods as our Camp David. It’s a place for the Executive Branch of our household, Maria and I, to escape the daily routine. March is spring in some places, but it is definitely winter in Alaska. When we leave the cabin in the fall, we set it to “winter mode”, we don’t shut it down for the winter.
The winterized cabin is a bit different from the summer version. In summer, we have a rainwater collection system, a hot shower, a French drain, pump-driven running water in the kitchen, and we can drive all the way to our front door. In winter, we have a nice snow trail. We used to ski in and carry all our gear, including all the food and water we would need while staying at the cabin. Now we bring our Ski-Doo and easily transport our stuff and water up the hill on the trail to our front door. We park the truck three miles away at the foot bridge, where road maintenance ends, and where we can find parking.
The water systems are all “winterized,” meaning they are filled with RV antifreeze. We still have running water though, but it’s a bucket-to-bucket system. Nice enough to wash our hands, but not quite like pumped water from our 300-gallon summer system. We have to dump the slop bucket that’s under the sink drain. It’s always a good idea to do that when it is only half full. The shower hoses are also filled with RV antifreeze, so that is out. Instead, we use a big Rubbermaid tub, and heat water with a teapot, for a quick pour-over bath, which we may do once or twice during our stay.
In the summer, I may burn wood in the stove once every few days during the shoulder seasons. In winter, we get in and fire the stove up right away, and for three days, we don’t let it go out. It was -26F outside when we woke up on the first morning; the ambient air temperature inside the cabin was about 55F. Until it hits 70F inside, I keep the fire cranking. On day three, the cabin logs were warmed, and I let the fire go out for up to four hours before it dropped below 60F inside. I have a lot of wood, since the 10 acres are densely wooded, but I figure the amount I have stockpiled is good for about two months.
The solar panels work in winter, and I even turned on the refrigerator when the house warmed up. Electric lights are a major bonus during winter; a few years ago we used candles and flashlights. Evening time is now a joy, and we play games and even watch movies! I like winter; it is peaceful. Hearing a loud plane overhead is rare, and the quantity of people is maybe 10% of the summer crew. In summer, you can hear the buzz of McCarthy even though we live 2 miles from town. In winter, the birds and the fan from the woodstove are all we can hear.
In summer, the Kennicott Glacier is brown, and the Root Glacier, Gates Glacier, and Mt. Blackburn stand out, glowing white and blue. In winter, everything is coated white with snow. Porphyry Peak and Bonanza Ridge look phenomenal! But the snow diminishes the grandeur of the 5,000ft icefall. The area is gorgeous, but different.
I am always slightly worried the whole time I am in McCarthy in the winter. So many things could go wrong. Injury, fire, blizzards, and other unknowns that in the summer would be bad, but wouldn’t jeopardize life. I feel like I need to leave a change of clothes in the woodshed in case I have to leave the cabin in a hurry. I already leave the key to the snowmachine in the ignition, in case of an emergency.
Blizzards can be disconcerting since the road only gets plowed when the airstrip is not usable, meaning there could be a week or two when the road is basically impassable. Or I worry about a meltdown. There is a thing on the McCarthy Road called road glaciers, which is when a culvert freezes up, and the excess water pours over the road and freezes, sometimes being feet deep of ice. If it warms up, it becomes slushy and unstable, which can cause difficulty in traversing. I have heard about people getting stuck for hours or sliding to the edge of the road and flipping their rig! I have tire chains for such situations, but I hate using tire chains because they’re hard on the tires and wheel wells!
We didn’t have a blizzard or meltdown this time, thankfully! And we drove in and out basically easier than in the summer. The ice road can be amazing when you have good luck. And we had an amazing time! We went to Kennecott, XC skied all over the glacial lakes, drove the snowmachine on three different rivers, and basically had a blast! I can’t recommend visiting McCarthy in the winter due to all the things I mentioned above, and I’ve pulled the plug on trips when I knew I would be driving in a blizzard. But it’s really fun if all the stars align and a winter trip happens. Did I mention how beautiful the stars are in the winter? I saw some faint Aurora, but the Milky Way and the constellations are spectacular without any light contamination.
I am glad to be back and working on new paintings in the Anchorage studio. Enjoy these longer days and get out before the snow all melts down!
It’s time for the Great Alaska Craft Brew and Barleywine festival here in Anchorage, Alaska! This annual event happens in the dead of winter every year. Well…every year, unless we happen to be having a pandemic. In our defense, even the Germans cancelled Oktoberfest that year. Fortunately, now that the ‘Ronassance is over we are back on track to have the barleywine-guzzling, beer-swigging, bagpipe-marching, hootenanny drunkfest that is the GABBF.
I want to talk about what is appropriate to wear to the this shindig. First off, dress warm! Today we woke up to -19F degrees outside, here in Anchorage, and that is not a pleasant temperature to be wearing skimpy dresses and no coats. Downright dangerous when waiting curbside for a ride home! Fortunately, there is a coat check at the event, so you can stash your outerwear and emerge from your parka to show off the good looking attire underneath. Men and women probably want to wear different things, although I am sure Johnathan Van Ness would totally rock a gorgeous beer themed dress to the fest. Beer leggings are probably more for gals than for guys. Lederhosen are traditionally dude wear, and if you have a pair, now is a good time to show off your German heritage. Of course brewery gear is a great idea. T-shirts, sweatshirts, ball caps, beanies, brewer button down shirts, and, although most people won’t see it unless you get really really drunk, brewery brand underwear. Yes, Ted at Turnagain Brewing, you should wear your special Turnagain Brewing boxer shorts. Clark Pelz from Cynosure Brewing wears an elaborate western button up shirt with a hop pattern embroidered on it, he looks very stylish in it.
If you wonder why the rubber chicken is a GABBF staple, then you can read about it here in my previous blogpost. The rubber chicken necklaces are a gift from Phil Farrell, a long time attendant, and BJCP beer judge at the fest. Pretzel necklaces serve two functions: they look cool and keep with the German vibe, but also feed the hungry beer drinker. It is important to eat a lot of food when imbibing in as much beer as you probably will drink at this event. I suggest preloading with greasy, heavy foods that coat your stomach, so you won’t get the spins before the session is over.
We offer a lot of my artwork on beer themed clothing at our RedBubble site. We also have two kinds of beer-themed socks available at our booth. Did I mention I will be there selling my art? Have a drink, or three then stop by and visit me! I want to see your cool beer apparel. There just ain’t nothing quite as cool as seeing someone slurping the suds while wearing cool beer duds. So grab your pretzel necklace, eat some fries, get on down at Dena’ina Center for the big beer and barleywine festival!!!
My mother has always been an intrepid traveler, and her travel bucket list included Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Armenia and Georgia. None of these places were even on our radar, until my mom invited us to join her on a five-week trip to the Caucasus region, which refers to the area between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Scott and I had our 20th wedding anniversary coming up, so we decided to celebrate it in Turkey, and then we met my mom in Armenia for the rest of the trip.
Turkey
My mom had gone to Turkey the previous year, so Scott and I were on our own. After doing some research about the country, I learned that Turkey is big, and the places I wanted to visit were long distances apart. I didn’t want to rent a car and drive for 7 hrs at a time, and I felt overwhelmed by the task of booking airfare within the country, all the hotels, transfers, excursions, etc. So, I Googled “Turkey tours” and found a tour that included Cappadocia, Antalya, Pamukkale, and Ephesus on toursturkey.com. After reading positive reviews on TripAdvisor, I contacted the tour company, and they took care of everything. We ended up traveling around the country by airplane, private car and van, and an inter-city bus. Turkey has tourism on lockdown! Everything worked like clockwork, exactly as stated in our itinerary.
We spent two days in Istanbul before our tour began, and visited all the most important sites, such as the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, the spice market, a boat ride on the Bosphorus River, Topkapi Palace, Basilica Cistern and the Grand Bazaar. Jetlag was a real struggle. At 4am on the third day our driver met us in our hotel lobby and took us to the airport for our flight to Kayseri, and our tour around Turkey began. We saw caves, underground cities, spent a couple nights in a hotel room that looked like a cave, experienced a Turkish hammam, enjoyed a much-needed day on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea, saw the well-preserved ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus, and soaked in mineral hot springs. While we were relaxing at a hotel bar next to the pool one evening, the lounge singer randomly sang Wonderful Tonight, which was the song at our wedding for our first dance as husband and wife. Perfect song to hear on our 20th wedding anniversary trip!
CappadociaAntalyaEphesus
Then we flew on an Armenian airline to Yerevan, and met my mom there. Yerevan is the capital of Armenia, and is nicknamed the pink city, because many buildings are built from pink tuff bricks. We had a fantastic guide in Armenia who loves her country, and knows a lot of history. We visited ancient temples, and monasteries, tasted wine and cognac, rode the world’s longest aerial tramway, saw a cave where the oldest pair of shoes was discovered from 4,100BC, and went to a UEFA soccer game between Armenia and Croatia. I had to scalp tickets for it. Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity.
UEFA Soccer GameTemple of GarniMt. Ararat
We crossed the land border from Armenia into Georgia very easily and quickly, and arrived in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Tbilisi was built next to mineral hot springs, and is divided by the Kura River. We had a different guide and driver in Georgia. In Tbilisi we enjoyed Georgian cuisine, soaked in a hot springs banya, tried wine ice cream, and went to an amazing Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra concert. Then we left the city and drove to beautiful Lake Paravani and visited a small village on the lake that had a monastery with only seven nuns. The nuns earn money by making and selling artisan cheeses and chocolates. We saw several more monasteries and fortresses, and walked over a kilometer through Prometheus Cave, but the most impressive place in Georgia is the cave city of Vardzia, built by King Tamar to protect Georgia from invaders. Soldiers lived in the caves and when anyone tried to invade, they could never get past the surprise attacks from the soldiers at Vardzia. King Tamar was a woman whose father insisted that people call her King, not Queen. During her reign, Georgia enjoyed an era of prosperity.
TbilisiVardzia
We flew from Georgia to Azerbaijan, and on the drive to the hotel from the airport, we could tell that Azerbaijan had more wealth than Armenia and Georgia, mainly from all the oil. We spent a couple days exploring Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The city is beautiful! The architecture was inspired by European styles, and also incorporates Muslim elements. We saw a mountain that is literally on fire, because gas fumes from the ground have been burning there for 2,000 years. I also learned that the Nobel brothers made a lot of money from oil in Baku, and invented the oil pipeline there. We also saw the world’s first oil well in Baku. Then we left Baku and spent three days on the road, exploring little villages, vineyards, very old temples, and petroglyphs that are 34,000 years old.
Modern buildings in BakuYanar Dag Burning MountainWorld’s first oil well
We flew from Azerbaijan to Uzbekistan, and arrived to our hotel at 3am. The next day we had a city tour at 9am of Tashkent. After the city tour, we had a break for twenty minutes before the food tour began. The food was delicious in every country, but I really enjoyed the food in Uzbekistan. My favorite dish is called Samsa, which is a flaky dough pastry filled with lamb, beef, onions and spices, and baked in a clay tandoor oven. The main bazaar in Tashkent has been there since the 15th century, and we spent some time there browsing all the baked goods, spices, produce, and dairy products I had never known about. We were no longer on a tour in Uzbekistan — it ended in Azerbaijan, but my mom had booked an excursion for each day. We took the fast train to Samarkand, which used to be the capital, and saw incredible architecture there. Amir Temur was a great ruler in Uzbekistan and conquerer who successfully conquered countries on three different continents, and brought back architects, artists, animals, and many other things to Uzbekistan. Under his rule, many beautiful schools, mosques and palaces were built in the 1300s, which are still there today. The next day our excursion took us to the mountains where we visited two ski resorts. Uzbekistan is encouraging foreign investment by giving developers tax breaks, so several new ski resorts are being built by European companies.
RagistanShah-i-ZindaRagistan Light Show
On our way back home we flew through Istanbul, and had a layover overnight, so we booked a hotel on the Black Sea. My mom went on her own to Qatar. We were hoping for a beach day, but it was very windy and chilly, so we just went for a walk on the beach and relaxed in our hotel. Our flight to Amsterdam was delayed, and we missed our connecting flight, so we had to spend a night in Amsterdam. Luckily, the hotel had a nice spa, we enjoyed a tasty dinner and an incredible hotel breakfast. The last two flights home via Chicago were long and I vowed never again to fly to/from Europe when the direct flight from Anchorage over the North Pole is not available.
The Caucasus region is no longer a mysterious, unknown place to me. The countries we visited are vibrant, the people are friendly, the food is incredible, the scenery is beautiful and the history is interesting. We traveled a part of the Silk Road, and visited places where civilization began. I’m grateful to my mom for encouraging us to travel to places that most American tourists don’t visit, but after going there, I can highly recommend these destinations.
Real Art Is Better! 