Book signings part of First Friday
Book signings, live music, paintings and sidewalk chalk will make August’s First Friday a fun summer evening.
Local author Cassie Miller and illustrator Ari Marquardt will be at The Babbling Book and Dragon’s Nook signing copies of their new children’s book “Mother Moose,” a collection of classic nursery rhymes recreated with Alaskan themes.
The Pilotlight restaurant will also host a book signing by Dan Henry, author of “Across the Shaman’s River,” which delves into the history and culture of Chilkoot and Chilkat Tlingits and the story of John Muir’s visit to Alaska.
Alaska Rod’s will feature artwork by Emma Barr, a painter from Whitehorse who often works in the style of the Canadian Group of Seven, seven well-known Canadian landscape painters who initiated the first major Canadian national art movement from 1920-1933.
Anyone can participate in a sidewalk chalk art contest in front of Alpenglow Pizzeria and Rusty Compass, drawing anything that fits the theme “wild things.” Alpenglow will also host the grand opening of its garden terrace eating area.
Alaska Arts Confluence will feature a show by Yuko Hays called “My First Year at Studio Incamminati, Drawings and Studies.”
“I am happy to share some of the artworks I created in my 2017-2018 school year at the Studio Incamminati, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The first year we focused on drawing with charcoals,” Hays said. “This coming year we will start painting with oil. All the classes are small, one instructor for every 6-8 students. I am fortunate to be in a supportive art school. By the time I graduate in three years, hopefully I will have gained skills and deeper appreciation for art.”
Ampersand AK will display playing cards decorated by 52 locals who picked them up last month for the First Friday show “Playing Hands: Cards, Tricks & Parlor Games.”
Port Chilkoot Distillery will feature art by Merrick Bochart, and Haines Brewing Co. will show work from Robin Grace and Tim Shields.
The pair “will show the results of a nine-month collaboration spanning the Mojave Desert, Oregon’s coastal forest and Mud Bay, Alaska. In a variety of multi-media pieces combining photography, knitting and assemblage they will explore the hidden world of lichens, the strange little botanical collaborators that add intense splashes of color and intrigue to the natural world. And there will be odd bits of desert junk, too,” according to the artists’ statement.
Alaska Arts Confluence Creative Director Carol Tuynman said Wayne Price and other carvers will work on a totem at Silver Cloud Studios in Fort Seward before it is shipped to Juneau for installation. “The totem is a commission to bring awareness to the trauma of domestic abuse,” Tuynman said. Cherri Price is opening a gift shop with original carvings by Wayne Price and his new T-shirt line “Save the Kings!” at the same location.
The Magpie Gallery will feature singer Matilda Rogers and guitarist Nora Prisciandaro. Second Nature will feature earrings and necklaces by artist Craig Ansell. LaLoft will have a sidewalk sale, and Lynn View Mercantile will host a Double Shovel Farm Flash Green Market from 5:30-8 p.m. The Haines Sheldon Museum will be open for First Friday goers to view John Hagen’s six-week spotlight photography exhibit, “Wild Things.”
August features plenty of live music
Haines residents will celebrate original music this month as three singer/songwriters from across the country will perform in the Chilkat Center.
Guitarist Jason Feddy will take the stage Aug. 18, hosted by the Haines Arts Council.
Feddy, a former radio personality from the United Kingdom, has written songs for film and TV. He has toured the world in a rock’n’roll band and as a solo artist. A fluent Hebrew speaker, he serves as a cantor in a temple, and runs song-writing workshops for high school students of different religions. He now lives near Los Angeles making music and leading bands, including Joe Cocker and Beatles tribute bands.
On Aug, 24, singer Christy Hays will return to Haines with singer and songwriter Isaak Opatz. Haines Arts council president Tom Heywood said Hays, a former resident who now lives in Austin, Texas, has performed here numerous times. She now spends summers in Montana, where she met Opatz, a guitarist described on his website as a “mountain man,” whose songs “teeter on the edge of sentimental-songwriter’y-sad-n-lonely stuff.” The two will play original music together.
“Christy’s music is gritty and introspective and rich with imagery,” Heywood said.
Tickets for both performances, presented by the Haines Arts Council, are $15 general admission and $12 for Arts Council members, available at the door. Both shows begin at 7 p.m.
Muir comes to life at Chilkat Center
Naturalist, author and glaciologist John Muir will come to life in Haines Saturday in a performance, “The Spirit of John Muir.”
Actor Lee Stetson started portraying Muir, known as the “Father of the National Parks,” in 1983 in Yosemite National Park, and has since toured the U.S., Canada, Scotland and Japan. Stetson was also filmed as Muir in Ken Burns’ six-part documentary “The National Parks – America’s Best Idea” and film “National Parks Adventure” released in 2016 about the camping trip between Muir and President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903.
Muir, who died in 1914, was best known as an early advocate for wilderness preservation in the U.S. He helped preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and others, cofounded the Sierra Club, and wrote letters, essays and books describing his experiences.
Stetson said 35 years ago, he was working in theater in Los Angeles and discovered the John Muir Trail. A friend sent him information about Muir and Stetson said he was “immediately smitten by the truly simple, poetic and eloquent truths” of Muir’s writing.
“Muir is still so incredibly relevant to current day,” Stetson said. “He moves people to have a better understanding of the planet. He was among the first the send the alarm for the difficulties our planet is still facing.”
“The Spirit of John Muir,” sponsored by the Haines Sheldon Museum, is a “free-wheeling show about occasions where most of us would have lost life and limb,” Stetson said. It will feature some of Muir’s adventures in Yosemite, like freezing in a blizzard or boiling in a hot spring, riding down a canyon wall in an avalanche, and climbing ice beneath the Yosemite Falls, according to the show’s description.
“This show’s theme revolves around the health and invigoration one acquires when one fully and joyfully engages wildness,” it said. The performance will also touch on Muir’s experiences exploring Alaska’s glaciers and ice caves.
“The Spirit of John Muir” is set for 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 4 at the Chilkat Center. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Tickets, $12, are available at the Haines Sheldon Museum and the Babbling Book.