Prelude; Winter in Juneau

The title to this print is "Prelude; Winter in Juneau," and is a companion print to the larger "Winter in Juneau" print.

Click on the image to make it larger so you can read it. The Eagle helmet is owned by Sealaska Corporation and was part of the annual report project we collaborated on in February. It was a fun challenge to write this artist's statement because I wanted to make it just as visual as it is conversational. I used some elements of an earlier draft and changed it a bit to make it flow more naturally.

It's kind of funny, but when I was working on the boat (Hey! That's what I did for years as a young man-- worked on a boat) with Photoshop the other night at nearly 4:00am, I fell asleep in the midst of it and am pretty sure I did a few edits while I was more asleep than awake. I remember waking up with my hands on the mouse, and the boat looked perfect, it had the precise mood I was looking for. I can do Photoshop in my sleep and don't know if that's good or bad.
Regardless, I like how it turned out and it is now hanging in the BSU Art Department's Visual Arts Center with the "Winter in Juneau" print for our 2009 Biennial Faculty exhibition. I made my print 44" x 60" to make raven feel heroic (as opposed to monumental).

I am in some pretty heavy duty company in the exhibition; I hope you're able to stop by and take a peek at the art. There are 25 of us and we work in a broad range of media. See you there!

McNeil Collaboration with Sealaska

My work with Sealaska has always been very challenging from a creative standpoint, because we're both very ambitious about our collaborative work. It is very fulfilling, because we're both fully engaged with the communities in Southeast Alaska. Since it's a work-in progress, I can't really say more about it except it has literally consumed almost my entire time for more than a month and it is very socially relevant art. After Sealaska publishes the work, I can say more about it. All I can really say is that it has been a grerat honor working with them again and I can't wait to see it in print.

It was quite the task to travel to Juneau, Ketchikan and Anchorage in late February; they were having blizzards in each place, yet I had to go to each place to make specific photographs. As if that were not enough, I lugged along my portable studio strobes and bag of photographic tricks. My high-end Apple laptop was also an essential tool for the project, using CS4 and Lightroom 2 was critical for both technical and creative work. Especially on-the-fly in hotel rooms, like in this photo at the Goldbelt in Juneau. Notice the driving snow out the window!

What was really cool is that much of the new work was shot using the new Canon 5D MKII 21 megapixel camera. I had a chance to run it through some very rugged paces and I must say, it did a great job of keeping up with my demands. I'm very impressed with it. When I get a break from everything, I'll make an entry about the new 5D.

My iPhone really came through in a pinch on the road. I could not find a friend's house, so I entered her address into iPhone, and it took me right to her front door in the snowstorm. Cool.

All this work is a basic reason why I haven't been able to post anything lately. Anyway, back to the art...