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Web posted Thursday, May 30, 2002

Inspired by tradition
The state museum's juried art show includes traditional Native art and new interpretations of ancient forms

By RILEY WOODFORD
The Juneau Empire © 2002

Native artist Clarissa Hudson took influences from Hawaii and Jamaica, the Seminole and her own Tlingit heritage to create "Copper Woman," a regalia dance outfit that won Best of Show at the Sealaska Juried Art Show.

The show opens Wednesday, June 5, at the Alaska State Museum, with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. The 18 pieces, all by Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian artists, range from traditional basketry and carving to imaginative blendings of styles and media.

Juneau artist Mick Beasley created a carved eagle mask and then cast it in bronze.

Seattle artist Preston Singletary was inspired by the broadbrimmed, round traditional Tlingit hat to create a glass sculpture that looks like a bowl and serves as a lens, projecting the image of a Raven on the table surface beneath it.

"It's mind-boggling that it could even be done," said Don Bremner of the Sealaska Heritage Institute. "That's modern-day Native artists, working with different medium. You've got to admit it's amazingly beautiful."

The exhibit is tied to Celebration 2002, a Southeast Native gathering beginning June 6 in Juneau, and Bremner is serving as Celebration coordinator. He said 30 artists submitted 86 pieces for the show. A selection committee reviewed slides of the artwork and narrowed the field to 30 pieces. Haida artist, art activist and scholar Robert Davidson served as judge and selected 18 pieces by 15 artists for the exhibit.

Clarissa Hudson began her award-winnning piece in 1990 at a gathering of weavers in Ketchikan. In the 12 years it took to finish it, she moved from Juneau to Pagosa Springs, Colo., toured Europe with Na Kahidi Theatre and created dozens of other pieces - weavings, robes, carvings and beadwork.

"Copper Woman" includes five separate pieces, including a Chilkat ghost face pouch.

"Each one of those pieces is influenced by other cultures," Hudson said. "The headdress is inspired by Jamaican dreadlocks."

Hudson wove the headdress so the long warp fibers of the weaving are loose and hang down the back in the Rastafarian dreadlock hairstyle. Hudson said the capelet is fashioned after a Seminole Indian woman's capelet and sewn with patchwork.

She said the dance apron has the look of a long, grass Hawaiian dance skirt. The robe combines Chilkat and Raven's tail elements.

"It's a Raven's tail design I came up with," she said. "Raven's tail within a Chilkat border. It's not rectangular. It comes to a V at the bottom."

Hudson said she read the book "Copper Woman" by Ann Cameron before she began the piece and it left a lasting impression. The title of her piece also comes from the scores of copper cones she used to tip the fringe. She said she would love to have a live model wear the outfit at the opening reception.

"To hear this thing is phenomenal," she said. "It sounds like rain, all this tinkling, like subtle wind chimes. The grace of seeing the warp move and to hear this thing is so cool, and to see the light reflecting off the copper. I put it on my daughter and my eyes just got big."

Hudson has been busy preparing for the June 1 wedding of her son Kahlil, who was born and raised in Juneau. She plans to be in Juneau for Celebration 2002 and for the opening of the exhibit.

Hudson is currently weaving a hat for glass artist Preston Singletary, whose work is also featured in the exhibit. Hudson collaborated with Singletary several years ago on a totem pole that incorporates glass and carving and the two artists became friends.

Singletary's piece, "Raven Hat," took second place in the show. Peter Metcalfe of Juneau has used images of Singletary's glass sculptures to illustrate publications.

"Preston is outstanding in his ability to incorporate traditional Native motifs into an artform that is completely nontraditional - blown glass," Metcalfe said. "His work is transcendent."

Other work in the show includes Yvette Lynn Diltz' pencil drawing "Short Stories," spruce root and cedar basketry, beadwork and a traditional bentwood bowl. The first-place winner is "Owl and Humpback Shakee.at" - a mask-like sculpture by Richard Beasley of Juneau.

Don Bremner of Sealaska Heritage said he and others at Sealaska hope the show can become an annual event. The exhibition was created by the Sealaska Heritage Institute to enhance and encourage the production of quality art by people of Southeast Alaska Native heritage and to help raise the standards of Native art in Southeast Alaska. The show will be on exhibit through the end of September.

Riley Woodford can be reached at rileyw@juneauempire.com

Winning regalia: Tlingit artist Clarissa Hudson, formerly of Juneau, won best of show in the Sealaska Juried Art Show at the Alaska State Museum for "Copper Woman," which incorporates Raven's tail and Chilkat weaving and took more than 10 years to create.

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