THE SALMON ARE COMING! Have you seen them? Don’t miss out on our own local natural wonder, check out Donkey Creek and other local streams. Learn more with Harbor WildWatch. Around here the salmon don’t migrate very far, they’re lucky to make it past human obstacles of culverts and drains. The Sockeye salmon of Alaska’s Bristol Bay drainage traverse thousands of treacherous miles up river to spawn in Lake Clark where I spent my summer art residency. We took a skiff down lake past the village of Nondalton where lake water drains into the Newhalen River to check out the indigenous (Dena’ina) and NPS fish camps. If you were Dena’ina you would know that the salmon are both Thanksgiving and Christmas all at once since it’s these fish that will sustain you most of the year. If you lived a subsistence lifestyle you would know how important it is that the salmon are coming. You would gather your family on the shoreline for harvest and communion as all your relatives have done before you. You would know how important it is that the rest of us respect the environment enough to keep the subsistence lifestyle a viable option for living on earth.

I’ll be giving a slide program for the Peninsula Art League in January 2018 about my experience in Lake Clark National Park & Preserve. The park encompasses rugged mountains, mosaics of alpine tundra, lakes and rivers and ever changing coastal environments. It’s all about salmon and bears, about water - both frozen and flowing and about the indigenous people that continue to live and honor the landscape. I’m looking forward to introducing you to this incredible place! Tentative presentation date is Tues. Jan 23rd, 2018. I hope you can join me, I’ll keep you posted.

(the bottom photo of sockeye is courtesy Lake Clark NP, the others are mine)