February 2012 – Redoubt Press & Tiles

Swan2-22-12small — Tundra Swan, Six-Inch Sq.

Tundra Swan, $75
Some years, while migrating, a pair of tundra swans stop over at the lake where I walk our dog near the university and native hospital. They are huge and the other smaller ducks like to hang around them since the swans dig up quite a bit of stuff from the lake bottoms. It almost looks like paparazzi around beautiful celebrities. The same lake is frozen right now and last week there were nine moose scattered around the trails. Had to make detours. Even our huge american bulldog is wary of the moose since he took a couple of stomps while protecting my girlfriend from an irrate moose at another park.

The tundra swan is the third new tile design that I recently made for the upcoming Fur Rondy festival that starts next week. They will also be in Octopus Ink downtown for a March Show.

Bald Eagle, Six Sq. Inch, $75
Collagraph printed, multiglazed, cone 6 oxidation. Cook Inlet glacial clay.
I see a bald eagle about once a month. They like hanging out at small lakes where ducks are found. The lake inlets usually remain unfrozen but the area gets small and the concentration of ducks attracts predators. During salmon season, scores of bald eagles can be seen along some rivers.

Fur Rondy starts the end of this month. It’s a winter get together around the start of the Iditarod sled dog race. I like to have some new designs to sell, so the previous post’s raven, this post’s eagle, and next post’s tundra swan were made for the Rondy. One of the local malls hosts Alaska native artist from all over the state where all kinds of traditional and contempory native arts and crafts can be sold.