A Time to Dance
International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, AK
October 2008
A Time to Dance at IGCA
This work was inspired by the spirited dance of Sandhill Cranes and features their acrobatic movements. When viewed as a series, the pieces depict the sequential movements of a single adult male crane as he jumps and whirls through an ever-changing seasonal context.
In each piece, custom hand-dyed and screen-printed silk organzas are combined with seasonally specific plant motifs to create a habitat for the cranes that is distinctive to each point in time. The richly textured cranes are constructed from recycled clothing – tweedy wools, silk, linens, and lustrous acetates. The innovative use of mulitple layers of loosely draped sheers produce ethereal environments as shapes, patterns, and colors interact.
A Time to Dance - April 28th
After wintering in the southern United States and northern Mexico, Sandhill Cranes migrate north and arrive in Alaska in late April. It is the end of winter. The snow is melting. Soft grays and browns color the landscape, and the only signs of plant life are the budding willows – “pussywillows”.
A Time to Dance - May 17th
By the middle of May, tiny green leaves are unfolding on all of the deciduous trees and shrubs. The alders are adorned with long hanging catkins which produce pollen to fertilize tiny immature red cones. A few remnant dead leaves and cone clusters hang on from last summer.
May is the first month of spring weather, typified by scattered rain showers. The clouded sky and distant mountains glow a rich blue violet, and when the occasional cloudbreak permits, a ray of sunshine will stream down and cause the tiny tree leaves to glow like jewels against the ominous sky.
A Time to Dance - June 6th
By the end of June, all of the trees are fully leafed out in fresh bright greens. Every kind of plant is making an appearance and the earliest wildflowers are blooming.
A curious thing happens at this time. Over a period of only a few days, the aspen leaves turn from fresh spring green to silvery gray-green. A close inspection reveals that leaf miner insects are tunneling their meandering pathways between the leaf surfaces.
A Time to Dance - June 21st
Solstice. Spring is transitioning into summer. The woodlands are dotted with the pink blossoms of wild roses. In Alaska, this is the time of the “midnight sun”, when the sun never sets if you’re north of the Arctic Circle, or just barely dips below the horizon for a few hours in more southerly regions of Alaska. It is light 24 hours a day.
A Time to Dance - July 2nd
July is the height of Alaska’s short summer when temperatures can reach into the 80′s and rich greens dominate. Wild irises proliferate in the wetlands.
A Time to Dance - July 19th
There is a saying about fireweed that when it has bloomed to the top, only 6 weeks remain until winter. By the middle of July, the lower blossoms in the fireweed spikes have already bloomed and are transitioning into elongated seedpods, the center part of the spikes are in full bloom with the remaining flower buds attenuating to fine point on top.
Already there are snippets of fall colors here and there – browning willow leaves, a few touches of red on fireweed and highbush cranberry leaves, and the golden browns of mature grass seedheads.
A Time to Dance - August 4th
The days are growing noticeably shorter now, the temperatures cool, and its raining more frequently. These are the signals that tell us to start preparing for winter. Down in the low-lying areas the blueberries are ripe and ready to pick. The common companion of blueberries, Labrador Tea crushes under foot releasing its exotic aroma.
A Time to Dance - August 16th
Highbush cranberries are the first plants to turn brilliant colors – their leaves to bright oranges and reds. They glow on forest floors even as the tree leaves are still predominantly green. Clusters of bright red berries dot their branches. Autumn, even with it’s ever-increasing bright colors, can also be a drab time with gray rainy days.
A Time to Dance - September 9th
No time of year is quite as glorious as early September. There’s a period of a couple of weeks when tree leaves are uniformly a fresh bright yellow. Fireweed and other shrubs contribute blazing reds on the forest floor. On a sunny day, its seems as if the whole world is electric and energized. Cranes mass together to begin their southerly migration.
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