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The Business of – The Arts
Trio featured at BAC in August |
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| “Qaqsrauq, Yupik Loon Dancer”, 2001; limestone sculpture; Photo courtesy of the artist. |
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Larry Ahvakana and Joe Feddersen are individual moments in the flow of time. The pair will be featured at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts from Aug. 4 until Sept. 3, along with Jane Martin, a Bainbridge studio jeweler with a national following whose work is represented in galleries throughout the United States.
Both are washed in Native American tradition, polished by formalities of contemporary education. Uniting the two streams of influence into a single creative force, they each preserve the vitality of their respective tributaries as they explore new directions.
Ahvakana, an Inupiaq/Eskimo, was born into the rich culture of the most northern Inupiaq people. His parents were traditional people living in a time when Alaska was going through tremendous social and political change. Ahvakana is a well-educated contemporary artist who fuses traditional form and modern technique with an elegant simplicity. His medium includes stone, wood, bronze and other media. His work expresses the warmth, strength and strong cultural values of the Inupiaq.
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| “Shard # 3,” 2001; unique print; Photo by Richard Nicol. |
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Feddersen is a detailed and innovative printmaker. A member of the Colville people, he abstracts geometric imagery from basket and blanket designs of the Central Plateau region of the Columbia Basin in eastern Washington and applies various combinations of printing techniques. Repeated images are patterns appealing to aesthetic sensibilities; they are also portals drawing the spirit back to the land and ancestral memory. Feddersen’s prints are not reproductions of traditional design: they are offspring of traditional forms born through the midwifery of contemporary processes. They are the form and shape of tradition in this moment of time.
Martin is a Bainbridge Island studio jeweler with a national reputation. Using the technique of inlayed marriage-of-metals, she combines sterling silver, copper, nickel, silver, and brass. By using those metal pieces and tumbled gemstone beads, she creates individual wearable jewelry statements. The patina on the metalwork is lacquered; polishing is not needed.
Martin has been active in marketing fine arts locally, as well. In 1998 she and jewelry artist Laurie Lyall co-founded Art Jewelry Showcase, a premiere exhibition of original designs by Northwest jewelers. Art Jewelry Showcase is on Bainbridge Island every fall. In 1990 she founded Net Contents Gallery, a cooperative of fine artists, also on Bainbridge Island.
Her work has been featured is several publications, including Tim McCreight’s The Metalsmith’s Book of Boxes and Lockets.
Visit www.bainbridgeartscrafts.org for previews of the artist’s work.
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