BOX ARTIST
KETCHIKAN, Alaska — Peter Carlson has spent most of his adult life searching for what he wanted to say, and how he wanted to say it.
The 1982 Ketchikan High School graduate has communicated through his paintings, sculptures, gaming art, writing, theater, comic book art and stories, videogame design, and game storyboards.
After high school, he attended Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore., then worked as a longshoreman in Seattle, learned to bend glass for neon signs, and earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash.
“The whole time, I was looking for what to use to say what it was I had to say,” he said.
Carlson’s solo exhibit, “Plastic Boxes: scenes from a little world,” opened Sept. 7 at the Main Street gallery.
By Danelle Landis. Ketchikan Daily News. AP Photo.
LOCAVORE PROJECT
SITKA, Alaska — A locavore eats only food that comes from its immediate area, and on Baranof Island — provided you don’t move on four legs, have wings or live underwater — it’s a very difficult thing to be. But one Sitka woman decided to give it a try.
Kari Sagel, who is head librarian at Blatchley Middle School, went to the Aug. 10 Sitka Farmers Market aiming to stock up on enough locally grown or harvested food to sustain her for a week.
“I got to the Farmers Market at 10 o’clock, and I was just going to be a pig and take everything, no matter how many customers they had,” Sagel said with a laugh.
By Tom Hesse. Daily Sitka Sentinel.
BIRTHDAY CANOE TRIP
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Not many people would choose to celebrate their 80th birthday on a whitewater canoe trip.
But if you know Ron and Lou Davis or their former business, Canoe Alaska, you would not be surprised they chose a five-day trip on the Gulkana River to mark the milestone.
The Davises have been running the 47-mile stretch between Paxson Lake and Sourdough Creek since the 1970s. The river is known for scenic views and a mix of flat water and class three or even class four rapids. The Davises estimate they have done it 25 times. Two years ago, the couple decided to do something for other boating friends they always wished someone had done for them. They ran the river in rafts so their friends can run the rapids in empty canoes without worrying about spilling gear. They had so much fun they saw no reason to stop doing the trip this year when they both turned 80.
By Sam Friedman. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. AP Photo.
PUMPKIN FESTIVAL
JUNEAU, Alaska — The second annual Great Pumpkin Festival promises at least one smash hit this year – that is, with pumpkins launched via catapults.
New to Juneau’s state fair (The Great Pumpkin Festival) is a pumpkin chunking contest (called the Catapult showdown competition here). What exactly is pumpkin chunking? Well, it’s the “extreme sport” of building a catapult and launching a pumpkin to reach the furthest distance.
By Sarah Day. Capital City Weekly.
Moving for Saturday:
CROSS COUNTRY BIKER
KODIAK, Alaska — When Kodiakan John McDonald arrived in Key West, Fla. after completing his goal of riding his bike 6,200 miles across the country, he didn’t immediately feel relief or excitement.
Those came a few days later.
“I felt lost at first,” McDonald said. “It wasn’t what I expected, but when I met mom at the airport a couple of days later I got super excited and had more of the feeling I had expected.”
When McDonald left on his biking expedition after graduating this spring from Kodiak High School, his goal was to find and film the American dream. By doing so, he achieved his own dream.
By Nikole Klauss. Kodiak Daily Mirror. AP Photo.
Moving for Sunday:
NEW TEACHER
KENAI, Alaska — Jason Leslie is not a scientist. He’s a professional artist, a second-generation teacher, a father and a new Alaskan, but doesn’t think of himself as a scientist.
“I think my strength as a science teacher is that I’m not a scientist,” he said. “I think that really helps me a lot with connecting with kids and connecting them to science. I’m just an artist that thinks science is really cool and I think that’s probably the biggest thing, I just kind of just have an innate excitement about science.”
Leslie, his wife and 3-year-old moved to Kenai from New Hampshire just before the start of the new school year and, he said, just in time for the end of the dipnet season. Leslie teaches kindergarten through sixth grade students at the Kaleidoscope School of Arts and Sciences, a charter school in Kenai.
By Rashah McChesney. Peninsula Clarion. AP Photo.
AP, Anchorage.
