| Alaska, 1982 | |
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"Next to it, along the beach is a tiny little shop selling books, herbs, handicrafts, posters. I browsed a bit, then in the back I heard [chief scientist] Terry Bruns's voice. He was with Abby, the proprietor, examining locally made prints. This was in a sense the heart of Unalaska.
"Abby knew all the artists and the story behind each work. She brought out a folio of some luminous, magical prints done by Aleutian artist Betha Gutsche. In them spirits walked the local landscape, realized painstakingly in what Abby called sequential lithography, where one color is printed, the block carved, another color printed, more carving done, and so on. The block is destroyed in the process.
I was deeply moved by them. Afterwards I walked to the church and back to the graveyard at the other end of town, less than a mile away."
(c) Copyright 2002 Andrew Alden, licensed to About.com, Inc. This picture is also available as a free wallpaper image.
