Anchorage

Stan: July 8 Anchorage

We’ve been her since Tuesday so here’s what we’ve done.

The 35 mile drive from Palmer to Anchorage was easy on the 4 lane highway. However, we missed our turn off from the main highway, and wandered in circles for awhile until we found the RV park. Once here I had to back in, which provides comic relief to others but a pain in the butt for me. This time I found a couch, of sorts, to help me out. Two spots from us was a couple from Main, the man gave me some pointers on when to turn the trailer and how to gauge when to reverse direction with the truck. He offered to park the trailer, but I declined, I have to learn sometime. The guy that helped me said he always had to park his friends trailer, that made me feel a little better.

Wednesday, we visited the anchorage Museum Of History And Art.

The main floor houses the Art Of The North, the museums permanent collection of art from early Alaskan explorers to contemporary work. This art occupies six of the main galleries. In the remaining galleries are two temporary exhibits – Light Motifs, American Impressionist paintings from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Shamans: Spirit Guides of Siberia, from The Russian Museum of Ethnography, St. Petersburg, Russia.

The permanent collection consists of paintings, drawings, etchings, and sculptures. Portraits of natives painted by artists accompanying early exploring parties, interested me more than the majority of the contemporary works.  One gallery contains what is called “Defiant Objects.” An informational plaque asks the question “What is art?” and then attempts to draw some comparison between native products and current attempts to, either mimic these native objects or produce artistic pieces adhering to a similar motif. The majority of pieces in the Defiant Objects gallery, lack craftsmanship and can be classified as art only because some “expert” has labeled them as such. We continue to find art more to our tastes at local art shows or small galleries, than in art museums. And, who’s definition of art do we adhere to? Well, gosh, we just know it when we see it.

The Shamans: Spirit Guides of Siberia exhibit consists of historical photographs, taken around 1902, symbolic artifacts and examples of the elaborate costumes worn by Shamans.

Many of the costumes are very well tailored from various animal hides and decorated with streamers of colored cloth and bead work. Various sizes of bronze and iron circular discs are threaded through a central loop with leather thongs and hung on the front and back of the costumes.  Symbols stamped on the discs serve to ward off evil spirts and proclaim the prowess of the Shaman – I’m guessing of course, but sounds good to me. Costumes are also festooned with small round and conical bells. On the back of some costumes, the Shamans wore iron crosses, representing the three levels of earth – upper, middle and lower. If this wasn’t enough, they also wore elaborate head gear, decorated with feathers, bits of fur, and iron objects. Small iron carabao antlers are fastened to the head gear; the greater number of antlers, the stronger the Shaman. I think any Shaman wearing one of these  get ups, could be heard coming from a long way and it might full fill its function and ward off the evil spirits.

There are twenty to twenty five American Impressionist Paintings in the Light Motifs exhibit.  I like most impressionist painters. To me, they were well trained and didn’t daub paint on canvas with no purpose in mind.  Much of the contemporary art we’ve seen, in the Smithsonian and elsewhere, seems to have been executed with no consideration to design and exhibit very little artistic ability.  The Impressionists, I think, were trying to do more than mirror the scenes they were painting. They tried to add a dimension of emotional impact, or the “feel” of their subject mater; I think they sometimes succeeded.  My favorite Impressionist in this exhibit, was John Singer Sargent. His paintings have a way of connecting on a personal level with me.  When I take a photograph, I can get the composition and exposer right, but I can’t capture the general atmosphere, or my own unique impression of what I’m seeing.  I guess that’s what these painters were trying to accomplish.  That’s why they were called Impressionists. You think ?

The Alaska Gallery,  is on the second floor of the museum. In Fairbanks, I was impressed with the artifacts we saw, but here in the Anchorage Museum, the collection is larger and more varied.  I’m still fascinated  with the native Alaskan craftsmanship and artistic abilities. I really got intrigued by the intricate stitching used in making all manner of wearing apparel; the same stitch is used for water proof seams in boat making. I never could get a close up picture, but it captured my attention none the less. One essential outer garment, is the seal gut parker. These are made from seal gut stitched together with overlapping seams to make them water proof. The hand stitching required to produce one of these rain coats, boggles my mind. For a substance level society, finding time to make all the items necessary for survival, such as, boots, gloves, hats, hunting gear etc., would seem to require more than the available time. Of course I  know  woman who watch TV with one eye while  stitching quilts together with the other. And their survival doesn’t even depend on it.

The Alaska Gallery covers Alaskan history from ancient times to the present. The last couple of hundred years of Alaskan resources development  is pretty well chronicled, the fur trade, gold rush, oil drilling, and now tourism, are all touched on. From the day the first explorer set foot in the Alaskan territories, exploitation started; it would take a much larger space to throughly cover it all. They’ve done an adequate job anyway. The majority of exhibits consist of photographs, manufactured articles and full size reproductions of the fur trading camps, gold miner cabins, early century domestic scenes, a section on WWII, and much more. I don’t always  remember everything. There was a large mock up of a section of the oil pipe line, which illustrated the technical difficulties that had to be overcome.

Whether any of this commercial development was good for Alaska or the native cultures, is a question for the historians to ponder.  I look at what’s left behind from gold dredging, mining, road building and population growth in general, and get caught up by the technology and effort required to do it all. But in the back of my mind, I still wonder why it was necessary, and who benefitted.

Thursday.

We visited the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Below is a photo of the centers map. The Heritage Center is organized based on five cultural  groups which draw upon cultural similarities or geographic proximity.  You go in the main center itself and then follow a path through five village sites. At each site is a native guide to explain the culture, crafts and answer questions. The guides are from a village within the cultural area  represented by the site exhibit.

Center Map.

These sites have a typical dwelling and artifacts associated with that particular culture. The guides explain how villagers gather food, interact with one another and use the various artifacts on display. We got nosy and asked them questions about their personal lives. We asked them if they go back to their village – Yes they do; most of them try to make it back at least once a year. Do they miss village life – Yes and no. One young woman always goes home Christmas. And, the ones that do go back, try to make the visit coincide with hunting season, to help their families. One young man still likes hunting so he works long enough in Anchorage to buy a plane ticket home, once there, he does scrimshaw until he can buy a ticket back to Anchorage. He doesn’t really want to settle down.

Tinglit Dweling.

Story Teller.

Dancers.

The center has a Performance/Activity schedule starting at 9:00 AM and ending at 5:25 PM. There is Native storytelling, dancing, a native games workshop, hall of cultures tour and a lot more. We spent about four hours and probably should have stayed longer. Any way, it was an interesting day. We learned more about the various cultures and I bought an Eskimo drum I liked from a native drum maker. The native woman wear a light weight cotton parker, styled after the hide and fur garment worn in winter. It’s called a KusPuk, and Johnna wanted one, but the only ones on sale in the gift shop, were for children or to small for Johnna. They had patterns on sale, but not in adult sizes. Some where on the internet, well find a source for the ready made garment, or the pattern.

Drum maker.

Guide wearing Kuspuk.

Today, Friday, we went to the Alaska botanical Garden, just up the road from the RV park. They do grow  pretty flowers, and the tree leaves and ground cover are green , like I’ve come to expect. 

Forgot what they are.

Today is our last day in Anchorage; tomorrow, we move down the peninsula. One thing I like about Anchorage, it’s lied out North and South, East and West on a grid. I haven’t been lost yet. In fact, I went down town to have the oil changed in the pickup, BY MYSELF, and made it back to the RV park on the first try.  This is a no mean feat; I’m usually lost within two blocks of any RV park we stay at.

Johnna: July 5, 2005

Arrived at the Golden Nugget Camper Park at about 11:00 AM after the short 45 mile trip from Palmer. Went out to find an Italian restaurant for lunch, but ended up having BBQ. Spent rest of day planning the rest of our stay in Anchorage.
July 6, 2005

Spent the morning visiting the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. On display is an art collection from the time of exploration to contemporary works. Of special interest is contemporary sculpture works by native American artists. The exhibits on Alaska history are well designed and informative with special displays on native cultures.

There were three  special exhibits: One on how rain deer came to Alaska and another on the Shamans (spirit guides of Siberia) was very interesting. On loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a collection of American impressionist paintings was on show for the summer. Stan allowed as how if he had some extra money he might be tempted to acquire a couple of John Singer Sargent paintings. Besides Sargent, other artist included William Merritt Chase, F. Luis Mora, Childe Hassam, Mary Cassatt, Frank W. Beson, Ruger Donoho.

July 7, 2005

Visited the Alaska Native Heritage Center. On display were reproductions of native dwellings with spokespersons from each culture to explain about their dwellings, social structures and ways of life. Found it very interesting to talk to these representatives of their people. We were especially taken with the young lady representing the Athabascan people. The older lady which represented the Tlingit was very charming and knowledgeable. There were story tellers who told stories handed down from their ascendants, and a local highschool dance group performed Eskimo dances.

Various artifacts for every day living.

July 8, 2005

Spent a few hours at the Alaska Botanical Gardens. Most of the perennials were in bloom and putting on a great show. This is a small garden but well presented in its natural woodland setting. Worth taking the time to visit. The herb garden was quite extensive and also included eatable flowers such as nasturtiums and marigolds. Spent the afternoon hanging out at the trailer while Stan went off to get the oil changed in the pick up.

Nasturtiums and marigolds.

Columbine.

A pretty flower.

I have written a lot of words in this journal complaining about the weather during the last month and have neglected to write about the lovely weather we have had the last few days. No rain, no smoke; just blue skies with clouds forming over the mountains during the afternoon . Temps in the 70s. Forecasted to last through the weekend. Thought that should be on the record. Headed for the Kenai Peninsula tomorrow.