No, I’m not on the road to Alaska just yet. But I hope to be in the next few years. Friends of mine and I are talking about it.
This blog post is about one particular aspect of Alaska though … an Alaskan artist named Fred Machetanz and his experience with native Alaskans/Eskimos.
I first heard about Fred Machetanz years ago when a friend of mine was in Alaska and attended an art exhibition of his. My friend then started collecting Machetanz art prints … the more she saw, the more she collected, until she had more than 190 unframed prints stored as an investment and about 14 framed prints hanging on the walls in her home. Sometimes she purchased multiple copies of each print … each with a different edition number of course. She loved this guy and his art!
Unfortunately, my friend passed away a few years ago. I inherited her art collection which included all 200+ of her Machetanz limited-edition prints. My favorite is hanging on my wall at home now … and I’ve been selling the rest, slowly, over time.
Fred Machetanz in his High Ridge studio, 1950. High Ridge is between Palmer and Matanuska, north of Anchorage, Alaska.
You can read about Fred’s history HERE and HERE. There’s lots more stuff online too. The name “Machetanz” appears to be Czechoslovakian. Fred was born and raised in Ohio, USA, and moved to Alaska as a young man. He is one of Alaska’s most famous and loved artists.
Sourdough
He is known as a classic Alaskan painter, meaning that he painted scenes, people, and animals from the “early days” of Alaska … the early days when Europeans were first exploring and coming to live in the area.
Significantly, almost every person depicted in his art was someone known to him, someone he met, sometimes someone he knew well. Reports are that the dogs were too, though I’d bet the polar bears weren’t close personal friends of his. 🙂
Kyrok, Eskimo seamstress
On the artist’s proof of “Kyrok”, Machetanz wrote, “Kyrok was a good friend since the time I first went to Eskimo country. She was a great-grandmother and could remember when Alaska was sold by Russia to the United States. Here she is working on a ground squirrel parka to give to one of her granddaughters.”
Fred and his wife Sara lived in Eskimo villages for a time and got to know and love these people and their way of life. This Alaska Film Archive FILM shows winter fishing. I’m told that Kyrok is the woman in the film (at 1:15) who is jigging for fish through ice.
Another interesting film is THIS ONE showing life in a village, a chief and others dancing, fish set out for drying, and other activities of the people of the village (and yes you’ll wonder who the hell the woman is with the high heels and the purse and the coifed hair, but we must just shrug and continue, eh?, she’s probably a very lovely person). But to continue with this story … here (on the right) is Fred Machetanz’ painting of that very same dancing chief, Chief Alaranna. Fred first saw Chief Alaranna dancing in Nome in the 1940’s and eventually created this painting of him. The Chief’s hair was pure white, but appeared yellow because of the warm light from the fires surrounding him.
Three of my “Chief Dances” prints went to three separate Alaskan Eskimos. One was a woman who told me that her grandfather had gone seal hunting with his kayak and spear, but never returned … which was not uncommon. The man left behind a young wife and a baby boy. Chief Alaranna took in the young wife and baby boy and raised them as his daughter and grandson. Years later, that grandson married and had children … one of those children was the woman who related this story to me. She knew Chief Alaranna well in his old age and she loved him immensely, thinking of him as her great-grandfather. She had always wanted a copy of this Fred Machetanz work, since she knew Fred too when he had lived in their village. I was so happy she got one of these prints.
What Every Hunter Fears
The print above may be similar to what happened to that woman’s real birth grandfather, though he had a kayak and did not have a sled and dogs. When a sheet of ice breaks away from land, and you’re on the sheet of ice, you can only hope that it drifts back to land. You can’t eat your dogs or you would have no way to get home even if you did drift back to land. This was real life for Eskimos back then.
And yet, there was lots of joy and beauty in life then and now. The people in those small communities took care of each other. They celebrated and danced and laughed and told stories for generation after generation.
Story of the Beads
As mentioned, I’ve been selling these prints little by little. I have a website HERE, but I don’t advertise otherwise. My intent is to get a fair price for the prints but mostly I want to find them good homes. Most buyers are from Alaska and many buyers knew Fred.
The framed prints are very heavy because of the frame and the glass. When I sell one, I have it professionally crated and shipped which isn’t cheap, but the buyer pays for that. When I sell un-framed prints, I package them myself with many layers of heavy cardboard, strongly reinforced corners, black plastic garbage bags taped to within an inch of their lives in between layers of the cardboard, and lots and lots of the strongest packing tape I can buy (the final package is at least an inch thick). The folks at my local USPS location say they wish I would teach other people how to pack things! I’ve sold/shipped about 123 unframed prints with no problems. What would be the point in skimping in packaging and having a print ruined? The stories I’ve heard from almost every buyer about the real life people and places in Fred’s art make his art work so extraordinary and make the people in his art seem like friends of mine.
So … this is what I do with some of my time when I’m not towing my trailer all over the Pacific Northwest of the USA. 🙂 When I got home from my most recent camping trip, I drove north (about 2 hours) to Marysville, WA, to meet people who were interested in buying seven prints. They met Fred several times in Alaska, they were now living in Washington State, and were the nicest people. We stood and talked in the grocery store parking lot for an hour! And yes, they bought all seven prints which made me happy but even better than that they seem like friends of mine now.
Besides online sales and driving around meeting wonderful people, one of these days I’ll get to Alaska with my trailer … what a story that will be to share with you!
I think it’s fascinating that what each of us learns and knows in life comes to us from so many various sources. This is one of the reasons why I follow other people’s blogs and why I can get so caught up on the internet. Just google some foreign country or some activity (like “quilling“) or music/dance or anything at all and let your mind be open.
The very large print below is the one that’s framed and hanging in my home. With all that ice in this piece, the image could seem so cold. Although this online image doesn’t do it ANY justice, rest assured the print hanging on my wall is so comfortable and warm and wonderful.
Tender Arctic