August 2018

Collected Treasures: Six Alaska Wildflowers

By Karen Stomberg

&

20 Years of Woodcuts

By Sara Tabbert

On View: August 3rd- September 3rd

Opening Reception: Friday, August 3rd from 5-7pm

 

 

Karen Stomberg is a botanical artist and lives in Fairbanks, Alaska with her husband, musician Gary Westcott. She no longer lives off the grid in a remot

e cabin or in the woods. However, insistent wildflowers populate her yard and her year-round rambling with husband, friends and dogs on nearby forest trails keeps her connected.

Karen is a long time educator who is happy teaching in the confluence of art, science and history. She was an art specialist, then an art coordinator for the Fairbanks North Star School District for 25 years. She has been an instructor at The University of Alaska Fairbanks, was an educational consultant for Project OneTree Alaska and has taught art, art education and STEAM education at institutes and workshops for teachers and students of all ages around Alaska.

The process of drawing these plants and digging into records surrounding them has been a satisfying and engaging process.  It is clear to her that one beautiful

plant at a time, carefully preserved, one meaningful piece of evidence, collected in exuberant ease or in wet, cold, mosquito-infested, Pilot bread-eating misery makes a difference.

Collected Treasures: Six Alaska Wildflowers is a group of eighteen drawings made from a study of six iconic Alaska wild flowering plant species: Wild Iris, Wild Rose, Bunchberry, Twinflower, Fireweed and Monkshood. Her work is drawn from live and historic specimens.

Karen is the recipient of a Fulbright Memorial Fund Award, An Arts Educators Grant from Rasmuson Foundation in 2005 and an Individual Artist Award from the Rasmuson Foundation in 2017. The Alaska State Council on the Arts has supported her personal art making and art education career through Travel Grants, Career Opportunity Grants and Workshop Grants.              

 

 

Sara Tabbert is a printmaker and mixed media artist from Fairbanks, Alaska. She returned to her hometown in 2000 after college and graduate school in the Midwest. Though her work extends beyond paper, woodblock printmaking continues to be the foundation of what she does. Tabbert’s large scale commissions can be found in and on public buildings throughout the state. Her efforts have been supported by grants from the Rasmuson Foundation and the Alaska State Council on the Arts. In addition to residencies in the US, Canada, Argentina, and Italy, she has been a summer and winter artist in residence through the National Park Service in Denali, as well as in Zion and Isle Royale National Parks. Next summer she will be an artist in residence on the Chilkoot Trail.

Sharing art with young people is one of her priorities and she has worked actively over the past ten years as a teaching artist with schools from the Seward Peninsula to the end of the Aleutians. Her work will be exhibited in 2020 in a solo show at the Alaska State Museum.

 

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August Gift Shop Artist of the Month

                                        Deb McQueen

 

 

Deb Mcqueen is an award winning seed bead artist residing in North Pole, Alaska.

As a self-taught artist Deb has studied the beadwork and bead making styles of many cultures, both historical and current.  She has mastered many bead techniques and is still learning others. Deb’s art incorporates natural stones and objects along with semi-precious gemstones.

Using new and antique seed beads as her palette Deb is able to create the flow of water or the wave of wind through a grassy field. The scenic natural beauty of Alaska greatly influences her art.

Deb’s art has been accepted into numerous juried art exhibitions.  She has received several Honorable Mentions, 3rd and 2nd place awards as well as a few of the coveted Juror’s Choice awards.

Deb’s art can currently be found in Fairbanks Arts Association’s Cabin 13 Artist Co-Op. Check out more of Deb’s work at debmcqueen.com, or on Facebook at Bead Art by Deb McQueen (@debmcqueen).

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 Watercolor Corner Artist of the Month

                                            Janice Cleworth

 

 

Janice has spent most of her life in Fairbanks and is married to Jerry Cleworth. They have two daughters and five wonderful grandchildren. After college, Janice worked for the school district as a Speech/Language Pathologist.

Her first actual lessons in watercolor were at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in 2006. Since then, she has taken lessons with Tom Nixon, painted with friends in California, and taken workshops sponsored by the Fairbanks Watercolor Society. Although she has had an interest in art since childhood, she did not pursue it until she retired. She also enjoys singing, quilting, and other fiber arts. She loves to meld the things she has learned from watercolor into quilted creations.