May in the Bear Gallery

Published on by fairbanksartsassociation

Exhibition on view: May 7–28, 2021

Gallery hours: Monday–Friday, 12–6 p.m.

Bear Gallery visitors please note:

COVID-19 mitigation measures: Fairbanks Arts’ board of directors has approved COVID-19 mitigation measures that include (but are not limited to):

  • Visitors to the Bear Gallery must wear a mask. We ask that visitors bring and wear their own masks at all times. No entry without a mask.
  • Social distancing of no less than 6 ft apart must be observed within the Bear Gallery.  
  • The current limit of visitors in the gallery at one time is 10 individuals.
  • Our COVID-19 mitigation plan involves the frequent cleaning of high-touch surfaces to ensure the safety of our guests, volunteers, and staff.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in this effort to stay open while supporting artists and arts supporters safely and responsibly.

TouchStone

by Klara Maisch

TouchStone is a collection of 100 paintings of rocks by Klara Maisch. In January 2021, Klara joined a global art initiative called the “100 Day Project,” where artists choose a creative project, commit to doing it every day for 100 days, and share the process online. Klara painted a personal collection of handheld-sized rocks from all over Alaska, including the Wrangells, Brooks Range, and Alaska Range and places closer to Fairbanks such as the Chena River, White Mountains, and Yukon River. Some of the rocks were originally “collected” in the form of photographs in order to leave the rock in place.

Klara started her “100 Day Project” by arranging ten groups of rocks based on shared visual elements of line, shape, color, texture, and form. She painted on sturdy 5” x 5” watercolor panels so she could easily carry the project anywhere and paint on days with limited time and space. Klara read books and online articles and talked with geologists to help connect visual observations with geologic processes. Posting the project on social media was a way to share art and science as equally important methods of inquiry while connecting with the many people who share the impulse to pick up a rock and wonder. 

Klara grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska, on the traditional lands of the Lower Tanana Dene people. She received a BFA in Printmaking and Painting from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2012. Klara seasonally instructs for Inspiring Girls Expeditions and guides for Arctic Wild. She is passionate about developing cross-disciplinary communication through art, science, and the outdoors. Her artwork has been featured in exhibits and public art commissions throughout Alaska as well as Washington, California, and Hawaii.

The Ten-Oh-Two

by Megan Perra and Caitlin Scarano

The Ten-Oh-Two is an artistic collaboration between Megan Perra and Caitlin Scarano that stories the ecology of the Porcupine Caribou Herd in ANWR’s 1002 area through visual art paired with poetry. The collaboration takes audiences through a year in the life of the herd and centers on Megan’s graduate work on caribou through the University of Alaska Fairbanks and other leading, recent caribou research. In the exhibition, art and poetry is presented along with the supporting science—spatial ecology, soundscape monitoring, and food ecology—in small subsections that complements the storybook flow of the exhibition.  

Given that the 1002 area is again being evaluated for drilling, this artistic representation of the area prior to the arrival of industry will act as a point of reference for future generations. The aim of the exhibition is to promote public understanding of caribou ecology and conversations around human-caribou interactions.

Caitlin Scarano is a writer based in Anacortes, Washington. She holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, an MFA from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and an MA from Bowling Green State University. Her second full length collection of poems, The Necessity of Wildfire, was selected by Ada Limón as the winner of the Wren Poetry Prize and will be released in spring 2022 by Blair. Caitlin is a member of the Washington Wolf Advisory Group and a current participant in the Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)’s In a Time of Change (ITOC) program. Learn more at caitlinscarano.com

Megan Perra is a wildlife biologist and researcher based in Fairbanks, Alaska. She is currently a graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks studying the effects of industrial noise on caribou on the North Slope. She has a BS in Zoology from the University of British Columbia (Okanagan), and a graduate diploma in Visual Journalism from Concordia University in Montreal. She has attended artist residencies in Iceland, Alaska and the Faroe Islands and her prints have been exhibited internationally.  You can find her online at @feral5creativeco or feral5creativeco.com

If you’d like to learn more about Megan and Caitlin’s collaborative process, watch their on-demand webinar, “Imagining the Porcupine Caribou Herd: A Dialogue between Wildlife Research, Art, and Poetry,” available below!