ASL Art Walk: September

Jena Floyd

8 of us met at Occidental Park. We strolled near the Puget Sound with the slightly red sun settling down for the evening. There was a space (in the park) where various artmakers displayed their masterpieces, many of them colorful, novel, and innovative. We started our evening by hitting this gallery that held black and white grainy photos reflecting the realness of people in various cities. Some of us had a bit of wine provided by the photographer -- which was a nice way to start our evening.

Then we strolled over to Stonington Gallery where it houses a lot of Native tribal art, mostly locally made. We were amazed by the size of some works and how they carved wooden things... Some are made of glass, some come in various mediums such as fabric and handmade paper. Some of us ended up standing before a huge wooden totem pole titled "Raven, Brown Bear and Dragonfly" created by Scott Jensen. We were awe-stricken by the size, so colossal that it touches the floor and almost to the ceiling of the spacious, stark-white gallery. This piece of work deserves deep, genuine appreciation so I am going to extrapolate from what I’ve learned about

What fascinated me is that the totem is still in process.  Yes, the artist has been carving it for 12 to 14 hours per day since early September. It’s like a living, breathing art piece in a gallery that houses mostly finished art pieces. The recently-carved totem pole celebrates an Alaskan Native tribal group known as Tlinglit. To further celebrate and the culture and tradition of the group, the artist replicates the process of carving that was done by the actual tribal members in 1850’s.

Speaking of the appearance of the pole, it is all wooden and no color has been applied. It’s actually up for sale, costing $75,000. The price tag itself, unsurprisingly, caused strong (and reasonably nonchalant -- appreciating artist’s laborious, meticulous work) reactions in our group. One attendee remarked with a light banter note, “I could just call Tom Cruise to purchase this thing for me.” Another said, “No kidding. That price makes much sense. It’s all hard work. It so deserves a good home somewhere.” The totem pole pretty much steals the show from other works given its size and detailed carvings. You could see how amazing it looks.

 

Regardless of the price tag, the conversation led us to ponder the actual value of works themselves, may they be based on the passing of culture, stories, history from our ancestors to us to our future generations, despite the origin of our nationalities.

After admiring Scott Jensen’s "still-in-process" totem pole, we moved on to few other galleries and peeked through a window of a glass-making studio as it was closing. We were bummed but knew there’ll be another artwalk coming in October.

Various works that we saw prompted good conversations based on our experience as art appreciators and artists. Some of us have traveled across Europe and saw centuries old masterpieces; one spent 6 months at an art school in France; other browsed several art museums (free admission!) in Washington, DC.

The event ended the evening with hugs and knowing nods, agreeing that some of us will be at next month’s artwalk.