Bridey Heing
Meet some of the winners of the Rasmuson Individual Artist Award
For the past 13 years, the Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Award program has supported the work of artists across the state, funding over 400 projects and providing recipients with over $3.5 million. Recipients, including Fellows and Project Awardees, receive grants to fulfill a large scale project in their chosen medium and other career development undertakings, such as international symposiums.
As in years past, the full list of recipients is a remarkable cross-section of Alaska’s vibrant and diverse art community, with representation from eleven different communities selected from 400 applications. Of the 36 recipients, 22 are from Anchorage, including the 2016 Distinguished Artist, Don Decker. Here, a few of Anchorage’s awardees reflect on the way their city has shaped their work, the significance of being recognized by Rasmuson and their upcoming projects.
Nathan Shafer, Fellow
How did you get interested in art?
I can't remember not being interested in art making. Nowadays it is just a little more precise in thought—less dramatic I guess—I couldn't keep the little anarchist teenager in me young forever. I think it was originally about acting out.
How do you feel Anchorage has influenced your work?
I rewrote my entire artistic practice when I moved back home. I went from building horror comedy websites and hybrid cryonic neurosuspension installations to working in Alaskan digital humanities. Plus augmented reality [AR] went mobile in 2009, which was the year I moved back and my first stuff with AR was Alaskan based: space weather, site-specific stories and the cryosphere, etc.
How would you describe the driving force behind your work? What does the intersection of art and augmented reality mean to you?
I just want to make interesting projects in the digital humanities using augmented reality. I like my work to be a reflection of the world I am a part of, for me that means working with local cultures, biomes and using AR to negotiate that.
What does your recognition by Rasmuson mean to you, as both an individual artist and a part of the Anchorage art community?
I don't think it is going to have any effect on the Anchorage art community, but I hope it might get a few more young artists interested in new media. A lot of the young artists who would come up into new media as they grow, tend to leave Alaska because the new media community is still forming—and it is not taught in the university system up here the way it is in other places—it just isn't a priority because not many adult artists do it; but there are a ton of kids coming out of high school that would eat it up if they knew it was available.
Can you share a little about the project you'll be undertaking?
I am producing a book about the three unbuilt futuristic cities in Alaska: Seward's Success, Denali City and Arctic Town. It is a really large collaborative project; I am building the AR and writing it with Patrick Lichty and Paula Lee. Joelle Howald is doing the illustration and Craig Updegrove is designing the layout. All in all, we have asked over 30 Alaskan artists to contribute speculative/alternate history fiction and/or conceptual/virtual art for the project. It will be published in 2018.
Libby Roderick, Fellow
Can you tell me a little about how you got interested in art?
Music and music-making have long been a part of my extended family culture. My paternal grandmother was a “Nightingale in the Trenches,” singing on the front lines with the WSO during World War I, and my maternal great-grandmother abandoned her domestic responsibilities as a young woman and ran off to New York City to sing! Some of my earliest memories as a child involve my mother telling my sister and me to sing loudly as we walked through the tall grasses of an Alaskan summer to scare the bears away. For me, singing is a way to move through the world and metabolize my experiences and responses to being alive on this earth.
I became interested in songwriting in my early 20s after being asked to open for a visiting performer (along with three other women). We performed two “cover” songs and the audience called us back to the stage for an encore. Rather than return, we hid out in the wings of the stage because we didn’t know any more songs. The performer encouraged us to form a band, and we did. Called “Voices,” the band performed acoustic and acapella music for several years, mostly on behalf of organizations working for social justice in Alaska. One of the band members requested that we write our own songs. I reacted instantaneously, viscerally and very negatively. And then stayed up all night writing my first song. When I sang it for my band members the next day, and they did not run screaming from the room, I realized I had found a natural form for my self-expression and began pouring out songs, eventually making six professional recordings.
How do you feel Anchorage has influenced your work?
Anchorage is a remarkably friendly, supportive community for creative souls. I am always delighted by the warm welcome we give visiting artists and grateful for the multitude of opportunities and experiments available to artists in this town. Support of the Rasmuson Foundation and other arts-friendly entities has been key in creating this fertile environment, as is the regular influx of young people. Being born and raised in Alaska has influenced my work even more powerfully. The energy of wild lands, waters and creatures and the presence of 10,000-year-old human cultures that recognize our interdependence with—and dependency on—those living systems infuses all of my work and serves as its inspiration.
How would you describe the overall message or inspiration for your work?
My overall message is the beauty, resiliency, and possibility of the human spirit and the living systems that support life on earth, and the urgent necessity of protecting our lands, waters, creatures and climate.
What does your recognition by Rasmuson mean to you, as both an individual artist and a part of the Anchorage art community?
I am deeply grateful for this recognition in that it provides a burst of support and community for putting my music out into the world again. I stopped full-time touring several years ago because I felt a strong pull to live in my home community and offer whatever resource I’ve got to help us find ways of using our differences as a source of creativity in response to the big challenges of our times: the climate crisis; racism; and other issues. I believe creativity is our best hope to finding solutions to these daunting problems. This opportunity will allow me to focus on my own creativity, which is a source of sustenance for me.
Can you share a little about the project you’ll be undertaking?
My focus will be on a few things. Going back into the studio to record a handful of the most in-demand songs from the past several years, bringing my digital presence into the 21st century —updating my website; creating video clips from live performances; etc.—and expanding my collaborative performances with artists, scientists, philosophers and policy makers in Oregon and elsewhere who are interested in a sustainable future and with whom I have collaborated before.
Chad Taylor, Project Awardee
How did you got interested in art?
It all began with a 35mm still camera from my step-father. It was the camera he carried with him through the Vietnam War. I carried that camera with me for years. At 15, I spent the summer on the Appalachian Trail. I documented everything. When I began to sort through the slides, all the landscape shots blended together, creating a blur, where the ones that resonated with me and had some weight were the ones I kept precious memories of, the ones that portrayed the human condition through my new found friends from distant lands; people that were free to convey unhindered emotion.
How do you feel Anchorage has influenced your work?
When I first came to Anchorage in ’97, I felt strongly that it was a city divided. I felt totally stranded at the time, hanging out on the APU campus. This encouraged me to explore the idea of a united city through environmental awareness. Anchorage was a love-hate kind of relationship for a while. In all, I would say that Anchorage has been truly transformative in my thinking on how to make a place better for all.
Geography specifics aside, I think both Anchorage and Alaska in general have influenced my process quite a bit through responding to local materiality. When I say local I mean stuff that gets shipped up here and then has no monetary weight to it to be shipped out of here—so it’s left here for us to figure out. It’s kind of like a hoarder’s dream; once things get here, they are never leaving because it’s too damn expensive to ship it back. In the end we have all kinds of goods to be repurposed.
How would you describe the driving force behind your work? How did you start working in landscapes, and what is it you hope to convey with such large scale interactive works?
I traveled to Alaska in ’97 to study Adventure Leadership at APU in the hopes of becoming an alpine guide. Before and after, I have always aligned myself with being a guide of sorts. It probably has something to do with coming from a lineage of great teachers. I treat every designer/client relationship in a way that mines the true nature of their desires and what it means to connect with a space in the most intimate way. It’s the choreographed procession through the landscape that I find compelling, regardless if it’s through a manmade landscape or the raw beauty of Alaska.
What does your recognition by Rasmuson mean to you, as both an individual artist and a part of the Anchorage art community?
The support of the Rasmuson Foundation is a major act of validation, but it is also a serious boost in confidence knowing that others appreciate the efforts dedicated to the works we pursue. That unto itself is a great feeling since five years ago, I was denied an award with my initial application. With the support of the Rasmuson Foundation and its jurors, there is this sense of propulsion, a sense of not only performing, but delivering … This sets in motion a datum line that will be hard to maintain. That’s OK—we like hurdles and challenges.
Can you share a little about the project you’ll be undertaking?
Our studio currently resides in a 12-stall horse barn that built in the ‘50s and was impacted by the ‘64 earthquake. We are slowly but surely attempting to make improvements to the space to make it perform at a higher level. It’s truly Alaskan, warmed by a wood stove and as crooked as they come. This “Alaskana” charm reverberates through all the work we produce, regardless of scale. The limiting factor in our work has been the lack of appropriate finishing equipment. With the help of this grant, we hope to expand the spray finishing capacities of our projects, hopefully delivering a more polished piece to our supporters. With the expanded capacities of the studio, we intend to create pieces for the inaugural “Anchorage Design Weekend” as well as for an event at the Alaska Botanical Garden.
Thomas Chung, Project Awardee
How did you got interested in art?
My interest in art started when I was in high school. My ceramics teacher was so encouraging about a sculpture I made that I really felt excited to pursue sculpture. That interest spread into all facets of art making. That experience is also why I teach art. For me it's a special privilege to be able to be in the same position that my teacher was for me. I have been teaching painting, drawing and sculpture at UAA for the last three years.
How did you end up in Anchorage? Do you feel your time in Alaska has had an influence on your work?
The funny thing is that although I've lived in more places than I can list off the top of my head, I have always wanted to settle down and I have been so grateful that I am finally at a time in my life where I can put down roots. I truly feel I've found my home here in Alaska. It is absolutely the most incredible place I have ever been and I never want to leave.
I ended up in Anchorage after I finished graduate school at Yale. I left that program feeling pretty disillusioned with the art world in New York City. There was and still is a very trendy idea of painting there that I did not want to buy into for my own practice. I have always been a nature person and the idea of living in a major city did not appeal to me either. I applied to a few colleges to teach at and UAA was the first to offer me a job. I was fortunate because it was the only school I wanted to teach at. I knew no one in Alaska, had never been there before and had no ties to the place besides the part time job. I came in the middle of winter. It was a memorable experience to be sure, but I have loved it here from the moment I arrived.
My time in Alaska has had a transformative impact on my work that I couldn't be happier about, and it's also transformed who I am as a person. Underlying my interests in culture, sexuality, race and psychology is the fundamental question: What makes us human? I find snippets of answers in our relationship with nature and more specifically animals. Alaska is a place where I don't feel I am at the top of the food chain. When I am out in the woods here there is a sublime sense of spiritual peace in that understanding of connectedness. This summer I was having lunch on a riverbank alone and a grizzly bear walked right up to me out of nowhere from the river. He stopped and we stared at each other for awhile before he moved on. I assumed I would be killed, but it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. Moments like that find their way into my work, and are precious to me. It feels magical living here: where a beluga whale will jump out of the water beside me at Earthquake Park, where I have to squeeze by a moose to get to class.
I have always been interested in Native American culture. One of my favorite things about living in Alaska has been the privilege of knowing and befriending so many Alaska Natives and getting to hear their myths, try traditional foods and learn about the various cultures of the rich and diverse tribes represented here. I am captivated by the myths, the imagery of the stories and the traditional lifestyles here that are very much alive. My most recent paintings have been illustrating various moments from those stories that I have been told.
How would you describe the driving force behind your work? Your painting are remarkably impacting—there seems to be such a sense of danger, or foreboding. Is that something you set out to communicate?
The driving force behind my work is spiritual. Sometimes it is cathartic, akin to the exorcising of a demon. Something I tell my UAA students is that art is a way of communicating and expressing something that cannot be expressed in words. At it's best it can be as infinitely complicated and profound as life itself. For the longest time my work functioned as a coping mechanism for me. It was a manifestation of the inner darkness and pain I sensed in not only myself, but the world I existed in. As my work has grown, and I've been able to process a lot of the issues I addressed in regards to social, sexual and racial alienation, I sense that my work is becoming more than that. The only way a shadow exists is because it is created by light. I am grateful to be in a place now where I can create work to express the boundless beauty that comes from that understanding and maturity.
What does your recognition by Rasmuson mean to you, as both an individual artist and a part of the Anchorage art community?
It was a wonderful surprise to discover the quality of artists and intellectual thought that thrives here in Anchorage. The acceptance and support I have felt in the art community here sustains me. The idea that my work could have an influence not only on other artists, but the Anchorage community as well is thrilling. With the support from the Rasmuson Foundation I feel that the potential of my work can truly blossom, that I can garner more exposure and that my art can affect more lives.
I am inexpressibly grateful for the blessings that have come into my life this year. I never in my wildest dreams expected such abundance and support for my art. In the fall I start in my new position as the full time professor of painting at UAA. I have an upcoming solo exhibition at the Anchorage Museum, and have been showing in Anchorage, Alaska, and the Lower 48 more than ever before in my career. The Individual Project Award from the Rasmuson Foundation is going to allow me to travel to all the far corners of Alaska that I have longed to see and experience. It will allow me to meet and learn from people and artists living lives I cannot even imagine. I feel that I will be better able to represent Alaska and Anchorage with the knowledge and experience I will gain from my travels. It will be a privilege to take part in the subsistence lifestyles of the small villages I will visit, to offer art classes to the local schools, to learn from Native artists and elders. The connections I make across the state will be valuable assets in terms of collaboration and support on both sides. The recognition from the Rasmuson Foundation fills me with a joy that comes from understanding that I have truly found acceptance and a home more exciting and wonderful than I ever thought possible.
Can you share a little about the project you'll be undertaking?
My project entails a series of trips to various locations in Alaska where I can observe the unique ways in which traditional lifestyles and culture intersect with contemporary life. I will be traveling to Point Hope to watch the whale hunts, I will be visiting my contacts in Barrow, Kodiak and the village of Ninilchik to observe and take part in the subsistence lifestyle of Native and immigrant families there. I will also be spending time with Native artists in Kotlik and Sitka. I will photo document throughout my trips and transcribe the stories and myths I am told. Upon returning to Anchorage I will assemble my writings and photos into a series of 10 paintings that are inspired by my travels and the people I have met. Having the opportunity of getting to know some of Alaska's most profound inhabitants would be the fulfillment of a dream that few people ever get to experience. My art is my way of sharing those experiences.
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