William Barstow’s Biography

William Barstow was born in Vermont and came to Alaska with his family in 1976 when he was 10 years old. A sometimes carpenter and commercial fisherman who currently makes his home in Talkeetna, Barstow is a former Junior Olympic skier, mountain climber, and river guide.

William Barstow’s Résumé

Byron Birdsall’s Biography

“Watercolor,” a Seattle art critic once wrote, “is largely a matter of technique, discipline and skill. Byron Birdsall is a master of all three.”

Instructions for the Care of Glass Jewelry

Always put on glass jewelry while standing over a rug, as dropping glass on a hard surface could cause it to break. Dangle earrings: Always wear the tiny rubber fasteners on the back of the wires so the earrings won’t slip out of the ears.

Glacier Glass

Since 1988, Glacier Glass has been made in Alaska by Anchorage born artist Liz Bowen. Liz draws on her inspiration of the beauty of Alaska, the native art of the Southeast, and the animals that she has encountered in her life in Alaska.

Carol Crump Bryner’s Biography

Carol Crump Bryner was born in Wallingford, Connecticut in 1945. She received a B.A. degree in Art History from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts and a Masters in Education from Stanford University.

Carol Crump Bryner’s Personal Statement

“My imagery comes from certain moments that become etched in my mind because of dramatic light or the way they evoke an emotion or memory. Architecture is important in my work and even though I paint specific places, I try to give a timeless feeling so that people feel a sense of involvement.

Bill Campbell’s Biography

Bill Campbell has been a potter for over 30 years. Across the country, his porcelain is admired for its spectacular color and elegant, crisp forms... each piece maintaining some of the energy of its creator.

Shannon Cartwright’s Biography

Shannon Cartwright, an Alaska resident since 1972, received her B.F.A. degree from the University of Michigan. She has illustrated four of Alaska’s top selling children’s books: The Alaska ABC Book, Kiana’s Iditarod, Mammoth Magic and The Alaska Mother Goose.

Robert Clayton's Biography

"I want my paintings to be honest and worthwhile fine art that pleases the eye and delights the heart. I especially love to capture the effects of light on scenes in Alaska because without it nothing else matters."

John Cook’s Biography

John Cook was born in Hollywood, California in 1947

Guitta Corey’s Personal Statement

For years I have collected Oriental paper just for the beauty of each sheet. In 1994 I began creating collage landscapes with those lovely papers. The fantastic qualities of the paper inspire creations which may be about a specific site or about places we may only have seen in our imaginations.

Guitta Corey’s Biography

Guitta Corey has lived and worked as an artist in Alaska since 1979. Her work is in private collections across the U.S., as well as in public buildings in Alaska.

Paula Rasmus Dede

Paula Rasmus Dede is an Aleut (Alaska Native) artist who has been working with beads since her childhood. As a small child she learned to single string trade beads from a small jar of her grandmother’s trade beads.

Susan Dranchak's Biography

Seeking simplicity in an ever changing world, I enjoy spending time outdoors exploring and observing nature. It is a rejuvenating ritual in my life that helps restore my perspective and maintain my balance. My response is to explore these feelings through my art.

Yasu Eguchi’s Biography

The gentle blending of Yasu Eguchi of the artist and the man is reflected strongly in the collage of muted colors and feathery shapes in his landscapes.

Susan Pennewell Ellis’s Biography

Susan Pennewell Ellis bring new perspective to all her work. Defining her mixed media pieces as “paintings on paper”, she invariably has an uncommon way of looking at common subjects.

Beth Flor’s Personal Statement

“Although I am a representational painter I do not aim for the precise reality of a photo-realist, but a reflection of reality that is like a memory, a poetic interpretation of the everyday.

Beth Flor’s Biography

Beth Flor was born and raised in Missouri. She attended the University of Colorado, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1972.

Jim Fowler’s Biography

After several years of exhibiting his paintings in Ketchikan and Anchorage, Jim Fowler turned from gallery art to book illustration, and for fifteen years illustrated childrens’ books and magazines, in addition to holding a part-time graphics job and raising two beautiful daughters.

Karin Franzen's Biography

Living in Alaska strongly influences the seasonal rhythm of my work.

Ayse Gilbert’s Biography

Ayse Gilbert’s personal landscapes focus on the fresh, still unspoiled character of Alaska while still subtly embracing architecture

Holly Gittlein’s Personal Statement

Born the daughter of a machinist in Colorado, I grew up around metal and a variety of metal working equipment. It was my uncle Kenny, an iron worker, who taught me how to use a stick welder as we built my first masterpiece: a very functional shelving unit for the “chop shop”.

Kathy Goodell's Biography

I have always been interested in art, interior, fashion, and jewelry design.

Steven Gordon’s Personal Statement

The focus of my painting for the past eight years has been to express my personal experience of nature, describing both the visual elements within the landscape and feelings within myself that caused me to stop and “see”.

Gretchen Hancock’s Personal Statement

I live on Vashon Island in Washington’s Puget Sound. You will find Vashon locales in my paintings: Fisher pond, SBC coffee, a friend’s lily pond, the local roads and beaches and the water that surrounds us.

Gretchen Hancock’s Biography

Gretchen Hancock has been painting for over twenty years. She studied with Edgar Whitney, Millard Sheets, Edward Betts and Arne Westerman. She has taught watercolor and drawing at the college level.

Ellen Harney’s Biography

Ellen Harney grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, one of five children. The Penny Pack Park in Philadelphia was her first wilderness experience. Not much in comparison to Alaska’s vast wilderness, but as a city girl, this is where her love of the outdoors began.

Ellen Harney’s Personal Statement

“Plein Air painting is the most invigorating, challenging and honest way to portray the beauty that surrounds us each day. My aspiration is to capture a particular moment of time and place in each setting.

Sandra Harrington’s Personal Statement

Abstract art has often been described in such various ways as a universal visual language depicting the image of spirituality, a direct artistic expression of emotion, and a rejection of representation and the material world.

Teri Jo Hedman's Personal Statement

Printmaker / Designer / Artist My art is about color and shape, pattern, movement and line. Ideas can stem from small details, a landscape, an animal or even a shadow.

Jerry Hepler’s Biography

Jerry Hepler works out of his home in Anchorage, Alaska. He uses soapstone to create simple and beautiful sculptures, primarily of Alaskan waterfowl. Since Jerry was a young boy, he has felt a deep affinity and respect for all birds, and is fascinated by their beauty and diversity.

Care of Soapstone Sculptures

In order to keep your carving beautiful, remember the following tips: 1. Always handle the soapstone very carefully. 2. While soapstone really is stone, it is very soft and scratches easily.

Sarah Holm's Biography

Sarah Holm strives to uncover balance and flow in her work. With an emphasis on drawing, she received her BA from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks in 1999 and laid the foundation for solid compositions in her glasswork.

Michelle Kaptur’s Biography

Michelle Kaptur was born and raised in Palm Springs, California. Her appreciation and fascination with nature lured her to Oregon where she graduated from Pacific Northwest College of Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Stephen J. Krasemann’s Personal Statement

I grew up in the north woods. In high school, I fantasized about heading down some northern mountain valley to become a mountain man living off the land.

Stephen J. Krasemann’s Biography

Coming from a long history of “hanging out” with wildlife, Stephen J. Krasemann shares his experiences with us through his artistic expression With thirty years of field experience recording nature, there's an infinite amount of memories waiting to be recalled and painted.

Barbara Lavallee’s Biography

A happy Eskimo child hides in the closet peeking out from under her mother’s parka, a Native dancer moving to the century-old music of a walrus drum or a hot tub full of friends on a snowy winter evening are just a few of the images Barbara Lavallee has offered in her popular watercolors.

Polly Lewis’s Biography

Polly Lewis is an Alaskan fiber artist. Her inspiration comes from vintage kimono fabrics, which she collects and combines with wool and other fine fabrics to create purses that are both beautiful and functional.

Susan Lindsey’s Biography

Susan Lindsey’s rich oils on linen combine creative design, unusual perspective and elegant patterns of light

Fred Machetanz’s Biography

Fred Machetanz was born in Kenton, Ohio in 1908 and first came to Alaska in 1935 to visit an uncle in Unalakleet

Kodiak Island Jewelry Artist

While skiing, hiking and kayaking near her home on Kodiak Island in Alaska, long time jeweler Lisa McCormick finds inspiration for her unique creations in her surroundings.

David McDonald’s Personal Statement

”In just taking the apple from the tree and eating the whole thing, there are no mistakes to be made.” Shoji Hamada It may have been tenacity, maybe blind luck, but I am fortunate to have discovered my avocation early in life.

About the Clay Shields

Twelve years ago, I began to experiment with what I call my Shield Mandalas. As always, I look to the natural world for inspiration. The shape of the shields is inherently organic, their contour made in a cloth sling, a natural arch.

Hugh McPeck’s Biography

Hugh McPeck lived many places before finally settling in Alaska, including New York City, where he studied at the famous Art Students League and Taos, New Mexico, home of many fine artists.

Diane Melms Biography

Diane Melms is a contemporary art quilter living in Anchorage, Alaska.

Diane Melms Personal Statement

Artist's Statement

Clark James Mishler’s Biography

Trained as a graphic designer, Clark James Mishler was first introduced to the photographic process in 1970 while studying at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles.

David Mollett's Biography

Known by the mid 1970s for his Fairbanks cityscapes, he soon began working in the hills and along the rivers surrounding the town and then moved on to the more dramatic scenery in and around Denali Park and most recently to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Anna Morgenthaler’s Biography

Anna Morgenthaler, a life-long Alaskan, developed a love of art at a young age. With an art teacher for a mother Anna started with crayons and hasn’t stopped since.

Keeper Nott's Artist Statement

I've always been in love with fire. According to my parents I would even dance in and around flames as a small child. I was never really interested in "art" while growing up and going through school. It was only after discovering there were arts in fire that I became instantly hooked. I was awestruck by craft based art forms, particularly ceramics and glass and the idea of using my physical self and fire to create functional items.

Kelly Perry’s Biography

Kelly Perry is a 25 year resident of Anchorage, moving here from California in 1980. Her lifelong interest in ceramics started at an early age and she was encouraged and tutored by her artist father.

Deborah Porter's Biography

Deborah Porter is captivated with flowers! She was born and raised on her parents homestead in Fairbanks Alaska. Growing up and living in a land that is very dark for seven months of the year - set the stage to satisfy an inner need for bright bold and especially colorful paintings.

Silver and Copper

Rick Potter is a Chugiak jewelry artist working in the Japanese style of “mokume gane”. In Japanese, mokume gane means “wood grain metal”. Alternating layers of sterling silver and copper are bonded together.

Linnea Ratcliff’s Biography

Linnea Ploch Ratcliff has been interested in art since an early age which led to the pursuit of her art career with studies at the University of Alabama and University of Utah.

Linda Schwamm’s Biography

Linda Schwamm was born and raised in Alaska and also spends time in Arizona and the coastal northwest. Her quilted pieces are hand dyed using a variety of techniques including mono printing.

Michael Sosin’s Personal Statement

I love the glass blowing process, and it is not just because it is hot, dirty work, that somebody had to do. I was passionate about it from the moment I first gathered molten glass from the furnace.

Sharon Spencer’s Biography

Sharon Spencer’s love of stone and passion for stonecarving are the dual forces which fuel her work. Born in Salinas, California, this lifetime Northern California resident began her love affair with carving almost 25 years ago.

Sharon Spencer’s Personal Statement

Stone for me is very exciting, it’s alive and it has a spirit and life of its own. For the past 25 years I have been exploring the “life of stone”.

Scott Switzer’s Biography

Scott Switzer has devoted himself to painting on a full-time basis since 1981. With the exceptions of a few years spent in Washington and California, Scott enjoyed living close to his birthplace, Billings, Montana, for most of his early years.

Francis Switzer's Biography

Francis Switzer was born in 1986 in Billings, Montana. Since he was very young Fran has always had an aptitude for art and, like his father Scott, is a gifted oil painter. In 1999 he moved to Alaska with his family where his student artwork began to draw the attention of his teachers

Wild Iris Designs

Marilee Clack Tande has been designing jewelry in her home in Anchorage, Alaska, for six years

Michele Usibelli’s Biography

Michele Usibelli resides in the quiet enclave of Woodway, Washington, located north of Seattle, in the waterfront city of Edmonds

Eva Vischer's Biography

Inspired by Alaska's flora and fauna Eva designs and creates lovely handmade gift cards. 

Cammie Walker’s Biography

Cammie Walker lives and works from her home/studio at Kashwitna Lake, in the upper Susitna Valley of Alaska. Walker moved to Alaska as a child in 1972.

Patricia Walsh’s Biography

Seeking adventure, I left Chicago and headed North to Alaska in 1977. During the ensuing years I have been fortunate to travel throughout the state enjoying the dramatic landscapes of the Aleutians, the glaciers of the Wrangells and the vastness of the Brooks Range.

Nelda Warkentin’s Personal Statement

Early in my career, I decided to work in the abstract. Creating abstracts using traditional techniques didn’t excite me. After experimenting with various paints and techniques, I developed my own style - ‘layered painting’.

Judy Warwick’s Biography

Judy Warwick, a resident of Fairbanks since 1969, has been working in the medium of glass for many years. Much of Judy’s work is achieved through a combination of kiln work, glassblowing, sandblasting, etching and cold work.

Rod Weagant’s Biography

For the last 25 years, Rod Weagant, a landscape painter, has traveled the Yukon and states of Alaska and Washington recording, on canvas, the intense beauty of the mountains.

Rod Weagant’s Résumé

Marianne Wieland’s Biography

Arctic themes pervade Marianne Wieland’s work, legacy of the years she flew to the villages of Nome and Kotzebue as a stewardess with Alaska Airlines.

Elizabeth "Billa" Woollam's Biography

I enjoy the watercolour medium more than any other. It is very challenging, with instantaneous results and no room for error.

Lori Wylie's Biography

Lori Wylie has taken her love of art in a new direction with textured metal using stainless steel, aluminum and copper. With goggles on, wrapped in protective clothing and sparks flying, she is able to cut, grind, polish and paint metal into three dimensional works of art that are not only eye catching but also mind boggling as the metal transforms its appearance from viewing it at different positions while the light's reflections change as well.