The Big Commission - Finished!

The Sunday before I left for Alaska, my art patron picked up the large commission I had worked on since last August for her. The finished panels turned out great - and my client was delighted with her pieces. The photos don't really do them justice. But here are the finished panels, which measure 2.5 feet x 3 feet each. The panels hang side-by-side, but the column of my blog page is too narrow for the photos to show up that way.



(top) Octopus with 2 Jellyfish; (middle) Hair Seal Inhua, Salmon, and Bubbles with Jellyfish; and (bottom), King of the Salmon with Bubble and Jellyfish. The King of the Salmon piece measures about 26 inches long, and 24" wide; he carries 8 small salmon on the fin-like appendages (they are about 3 inches long). The Octopus measures about 28" across her longest tentacles. The frames around the panels are about 2" deep. The masks are stained with oil-based stain, and the panels are birch plywood, stained with watered-down acrylic, and finished with paste wax.

After Tina picked up her artwork, I began a marathon of preparations to return to my home town of Kodiak, Alaska, where I began my new job on Friday, Feb. 1. I shopped for necessary items on Monday (including new boots for the muck & snow), and spent Tuesday packing. I made it to Kodiak Weds. evening, after an almost uneventful flight. We spent an hour on the tarmac in Anchorage, after a check light failed to come on. We taxied back to the gate, and sat playing trivia games for cans of pop, pretzels, and a few lucky airline miles. Our Alaska Airline flight attendants were great & cheerful, and we finally took off over 1 hour late, and arrived in Kodiak after dusk. I was bummed, as I had chosen a window seat to see the islands as we descended. Of course, all I could see were the lights of town. But my first few days home have been spectacular - sunny, everything sparkling under 8 inches or more of snow. More to come in another post on my temporary new digs, the scenery, the snow, and my new job!