Douglas Winter Solstice Sunrise

After what seems like months of grey, the sun came out this morning (9am-ish) here in Juneau.  This is from out of my kitchen window, looking at Douglas Is.  The lighting changes every min. in the five hours of daylight right now.  I'm sure I'll do other scenarios in the near future.

Treadwell Store

This watercolor is based off of a Case & Draper photo of the Treadwell Store (Douglas, AK) from the Alaska State Digital Archives.

Beaver in regalia

For Beaver to go through his transformation to being Swiftwater Bill, I decided that he needed regalia.  For most of this, I was inspired by what people were wearing for Celebration this year.  (Celebration is an event every 2 years in Juneau for Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian nations to celebrate their culture.)

Extra Klondikers

Here are some of the other characters for my story that I've been working on.  They're all secondary, but still a lot of fun to work on.

"Places in Culture" Whale Tail Trail

This project is a fund-raiser for the life-sized 27-foot bronze whale that will be placed on the Juneau waterfront.  Nine other artists were selected to decorate other tails.

I created the concept, design, and illustrations.  Commercial Signs & Printing printed the pieces on vinyl film and laid the illustrations over the tail by hand.

The idea is that while people reflect on the individual locations around Juneau, they will remember, either consciously or subconsciously, that they are on Tlingit land.  Everyone has their own personal attachment to specific areas, but regardless, they need to have respect to where they are.

These are the illustrations that I used to fit into the U and ovid forms.  The ended up not using the tram piece.  The Mendenhall Glacier is on the back of the fluke.

Sam McGee

Another stab at a Robert Service character.

Coffee Shop lady

You'd be grumpy too if a bear kept destroying your coffee shop.

Dangerous Dan McGrew and Klondike Kate

Alaska State Museum On-Line Exhibit

For all of you that missed my exhibit at the Alaska State Museum last winter, click on the header for the link to the on-line museum.  Enjoy!  (...and all art is for sale.  I have prints of some pieces, but can always make more.)

Front Street Variations

I decided to play around with other lighting scenarios for Front Street.  I think I like these better than the actual one I did.  Oh well. 

Juneau-Douglas City Museum write-up

Big thank you to Amy Fletcher at the Juneau Empire for writing up this amazing article.  To read it, click on the link to the right under Press. Or go to 

http://juneauempire.com/art/2012-05-17/veliz-new-exhibit-focuses-juneau#.T7aN4jDC2eJ

Juneau-Douglas City Museum Exhibit

Eagle Sun with Mt. Jumbo

This was one of those rare, yet extremely rewarding instances where the art directed itself and made its own statement.  I was just thinking of creating a pretty picture of Mt. Jumbo, perhaps tied in with Eagle as the sun.  This view is directly across the channel from Mt Juneau, where I did Wolf in the Moon (coincidence, not intended).  With the moon piece, the mine is up and running, taking over the land; Wolf (moon) disapproves.  Here, both the pier and pump house are no longer in operation, and the Eagle (sun)  is triumphant. 

Eagle Sun

This is an idea that I had from the very beginning of my story, but just now got around to doing it.  It's to juxtapose Wolf in the moon.  I'll have the piece it's in up soon.

Last Chance

Even though a dominant culture can take over, there's still evidence of the native culture...as long as you look hard enough.  It was fun using a place that I walk by often and taking it back in time through historical photos.

4th Street

We live about 1/2 up this...which can still feel like a long, long climb.

Shrine of St. Therese

Eagle Dance

This is inspired from watching the Git Hoan Dancers last winter.

Front Street

This piece is mostly inspired by Front St., Juneau-past and present.

Wolf in the Moon

As we near winter solstice, I've been quite inspired by night scenes here in our little capital town.  This is also a vis dev piece for Klondike,  but with a Juneau twist.  While creating this, I couldn't help but wonder what impact reopening the AJ mine would have.

Alaska State Museum

Klondike Buildings

I found these in an old sketchbook, and finally was inspired to give them some color.

Mae performs the Fire Dance at the Monte Carlo

I re-did this scene from almost 2 years ago.  Soapy seethes with jealousy when Mae leaves him for Swiftwater to dance at the Monte Carlo.  He pretty much goes mental at this point in the story.

Mae Field

Klondike Kate's Fire Dance Studies

Historically, it was Klondike Kate who performed the Fire Dance, but for the sake of my story, I may switch it to my heroine, Mae Field.

Mamma Grizzley

I did these signs earlier this spring for a Sarah Palin inspired sandwich shop here in Juneau.  The bear was printed onto their aprons.  Hey, whatever sells for the tourists.

Orca drowns men on Lake Bennett Colored

I'm not sure if I'm completely finished with this one yet, but I'm going to let it sit for awhile to see if I still need to make adjustments to it.

Wolf Fixed

I'm still not completely satisfied with Wolf's human design.  He's a much darker character than my other Tlingit spirits.  I love the hat and staff, but am still struggling to make him more "wolf-like."

Eagle Chief Fixed

Back in November, I was inspired by a Tlingit Chief's Dance that involved this traditional headdress.  For the dance, the hat is stuffed with eagle feathers so they fly out as he dances around.  This naturally fixed my dilemma of having him too closely dressed like Wolf.  I also broadened his shoulders, making him much more "eagle-like."

The Importance of Being Earnest

Earlier this week I facilitated a workshop with the help of Perseverance Theater. The actresses are from their current production, "The Importance of Being Earnest." I took this opportunity to do some studies for my characters Madam Burnet and Klondike Kate from "A Klondike Tale." (Sorry Patricia, I had to make you meaner.)

Orca drowns men on Lake Bennett

This is the current piece I'm working on for A Klondike Tale. I'm about 1/2 way done with the rendering of it, so hopefully I'll have that posted soon as well.

In a last ditch effort to stop the Klondikers from continuing on to the mine fields that are rapidly destroying the land, he disguises himself as one of their boats that cross the lake, which is the headwaters to the Yukon River. Time is of the essence for the men because winter is setting in, and the waters are beginning to freeze up. As they're crossing, Orca transforms himself back into a whale, drowning the men.

Sketches

These are just a few sketches from my sketchbook recently. They were all done in either 5 or 10 min.

Baby Announcement

I painted this for a card we'll mail out soon to announce our new baby boy.

November Quick-Studies

This week's quick-studies.

White Moose Music

This is a logo I did for my friend Dean Shannon, who is an amazing singer.

2010 figure studies

Thought I'd share these studies that I did both earlier this year and yesterday.

Tourists

This little scene is inspired from the many tourists we had here in Juneau over the summer. Often, the cruise ships would provide some kind of character in costume or mini totem at the bottom of the boat ramp for the tourists to take their pictures with. Pretty much every tourists proudly wears some sort of apparel with "Alaska" on it, and couples ALWAYS match.

Swiftwater Bill Turn-A-Roung

I drew this a year ago, but thought I'd post it anyways to get myself motivated to really get working on this project again.

Pizzaria Roma menu board

Apparently I'm in the hand-painted sign business. Excuse the bad picture. Hopefully I'll get a better one once the sign is up?

More signs for Taku

Abandon all logic with a fish captain fishing for coffee.