On a clear, warm day in Haines last weekend, the trails that run through the heart of town were busier than normal. Local artists were posted up in the woods, carving, crocheting and playing music.
The sound of a button accordion rang out – courtesy of Nene Wolfe, who was perched on a sunny platform. Sky Skiles accompanied her on an electric okedo, a kind of Japanese drum.
The pair were participating in Live Art on the Trails, part of a two-week art festival put on by the Alaska Arts Confluence, a local nonprofit.
Wolfe jammed out on a number of upbeat tunes – and said she only started learning to play about a year and a half ago. She said it was a “total accident.”
“I had never in my mind even dreamed of touching one, or didn’t know anything about them or anything,” she said.
Wolfe said she was initially looking for a button accordion for her dad in Anchorage when she got in touch with Marge Ford – who she called the “Queen of Accordion in Alaska.”
“She said, ‘I have something for you.’ And then she showed me this, showed me how to use it, gave me a lesson,” Wolfe said.
“It brings a lot of joy,” Wolfe added, laughing, after playing a high-pitched trill.
Nancy Drake said she’s mostly a portrait artist – but she’s branching out to illustrate Alaska landscapes, too. She said she’s lived in Haines for six years, but that until recently, it hasn’t been easy connecting with other artists.
“Through this program, I’ve been meeting a lot of other artists,” she said. “And people that are stopping by are interested in art, and so it’s been really fun.”
Deeper in the woods, formline artist Cody Hotch was perched on a bench etching a design into a small, flat piece of wood.
“I’ve been designing for like, two-and-a-half years,” he said. “But I’ve been kind of in and out of carving and doing all that stuff since high school.”
Hotch was carving a small formline raven that he started the same day. He said his plan was to outline the bird before defining its various shapes – and then sinking the background so the design would pop out.
He added that, in Tlingit culture, ravens represent shape shifters.
“So you put lots of different faces and stuff in there. And then, usually within the designs, they put a lot of like human-esque figures, since he can transform into a human, too,” he said.
Just down the way, Baylee Pearson was also hard at work. A printmaker, she was carving out a new design she’d recently sketched — an image of several salmon hanging on coat hooks above a few pairs of Xtratufs.
“So this is my original sketch, and then I was able to transfer it over here,” Pearson said. “I’m hoping that all the fine details will pop out eventually. So I’m trying to carve around them.”
She was trying out a new material – hard linoleum, which she said is a bit less forgiving than the rubber she usually uses. As visitors stopped by her table, she joked about trying something totally new during a public demonstration.
“I was like, might as well do it today, while the pressure is on, right? Maybe not the best idea,” Pearson said.
She’s one of many local artists preparing for a market at Tlingit Park this coming weekend, which will mark the end of the ArtFest. She’ll be selling printed clothing items, plus paper prints of the design from her newly carved linoleum block.
