Season of Change | Sami Ali

September 8, 2023 Karinna Gomez

SEPTEMBER 2023
NORTH GALLERY
Season of Change | Sami Ali

I paint outdoors from life almost every day, and doing so I have witnessed the seasons changing, from the marsh grass growing back in the spring, to the cattails shedding their feathery seeds in the winter, to the bend of a thick branch under the snow load. These paintings reflect the beautiful changes I have witnessed around me, each piece painted on site. However, while this show is outwardly called “Season of Change," inwardly I also had a season of change.

I turned 50 in 2022, entering the autumn of my life. Suddenly while painting from a spot on a marsh, I felt wholly connected to autumn and begrudged winter. And what a long winter we had, with relentless snow and dark days. The decaying leaves, the broken branches, the migrating birds, all of them suddenly speaking to me in a different way than I had ever heard before. Winter is on the horizon.

Part One: Stand Still
This series of 15 landscapes was painted from the same vantage point over a period of 13 months. The paintings aren't meant to be maps of the landscape but rather an expression of the constant evolution of change around us. While we go about our daily lives, so do the birds, the trees, and even the water. If we ever stood still, this might be what we would observe.

Part Two: Autumn
These paintings of Potters Marsh in autumn comfort me as I enter the autumn of my own life.

Part Three: In Everything
Everything has a season of change. And for many living things, there is a final season.

www.samialiart.com
Instagram @sami_paints_

Virtual Exhibition Tour

GroundTRUTH | Klara Maisch

February 18, 2022 Karinna Gomez

Klara Maisch, *Chugach Mountains - Painting on Location,* May 2021, oil on linen, 30 x 60 inches. Ahtna and Eyak Lands, Bagley Ice Valley, Chugach Mountains, Wrangell - St Elias National Park & Preserve. Accessed via basecamp

FEBRUARY 2022
GroundTRUTH | Klara Maisch

Klara is an artist living and working in Alaska. She seasonally instructs for Inspiring Girls Expeditions and guides for Arctic Wild. Klara is passionate about transdisciplinary thinking that involves art, science, and the natural world. Her work has been featured in exhibits and commissions throughout Alaska, as well as Washington, California, and Hawaii.

Artist Statement
Over the past year I visited landscapes throughout Alaska to create large oil paintings on location. These place-based paintings highlight landscapes experiencing the effects of large-scale climate change, including glaciers, recent forest fires, and the northern edge of treeline. Sometimes the signs of change are subtle, such as the relatively simple shape of a tree consumed by a higher intensity fire. Often they are more dramatic, like a newly revealed system of ice tunnels at the toe of a melting glacier. Painting on-site is a way to be in direct conversation with these places.

I am fascinated by the processes that transform and shape an environment, and choose painting sites where I can study the patterns of these events. Each painting is constructed and deconstructed on location and anchored upright with lines or laid flat in the snow or tundra while I work. I apply oil paint in thin layers, so the painting is dry enough to roll up for transport in a few hours. I often add finishing details once I re-stretch the canvas back in the studio.

In science, "ground truth" refers to information collected via direct observation while on location. Although scientific research informs the art, the process of painting outside adds layers of awareness and connection. Traveling through a landscape requires focus and attention to detail, revealing subtleties in the surroundings that are unique to that position and instant in time. Painting outside pushes this immersion further, as I interpret the processes that shape a physical environment through the flow of lines and inferred energy in my work.

Landscapes are a window into vast timescales and complex systems of interaction. Creating this work allows me to contemplate: How do we pay attention to our surroundings? How do we respond to transformation and change? How are we impacting the future?

The exhibit is made possible by a Career Opportunity Grant from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. The work is also supported in part by the Ma Johnson’s Historical Hotel, The Explorers Club, and Discovery.

To learn more about Klara and connect with her online, visit Klara’s website and follow her on Instagram and Facebook.

Virtual Exhibition Tour

Summer Paintings | David Pettibone

October 21, 2020 Karinna Gomez

OCTOBER 2020
NORTH GALLERY
Summer Paintings | David Pettibone

David Pettibone is a figurative painter. He received his BFA in painting from The Rhode Island School of Design and his MFA from The New York Academy of Art. He regularly exhibits and has taught painting and drawing at various schools and institutions in both New York City and Alaska.

Artist Statement
Nature has always been the thread that sews my paintings together. Instead of being a part of nature, we see ourselves as existing in tandem with it: separate but together. This is, of course, an illusion. The complexities of our relationship with nature are infinite and they run the gamut from peaceful to the sublime and from pleasant to the horrifying. From large, figurative narratives to small, plein air sketches, my work explores the many levels of our relationship with nature and seeks to convey the visceral emotions that come about when we are reminded of just how connected to our environment we truly are.

https://davidpettibone.com