Kate Boyan's Gallery: July 2016

Friday, July 1, 2016

SKY CURTAIN

Took a little trip to Anchorage and on a perfectly sunny summer day we walked around downtown and enjoyed the ambience of the big city. We were on 5th ave so Robert and I stopped into the Egan Center lobby where, an artwork that has been a favorite of mine for 25 years, is located. Beaded Sky Curtain by Jeanne Leffingwell, YES, IT IS MADE OUT OF SEED BEADS! I haven't been there in quite awhile and I thought it was very cool the way the trees have grown up around the curtain.
I know how hard it can be to capture the northern lights in beads. This is a stellar example of just that!

my version of northern lights with junk car.

THE BLUE BEAD

Can an old trade bead find new life in print? Could the saga of an 18th century blue Bohemiam bead be a book that will hold interest for children and artist alike? This book "The Blue Bead" is a fictional account of a young beadworkers experience with the gift of an old trade bead and how it finds its way into her life in present day Alaska. It is based in part on historical fact. Where a bead has been and who its previous owner was often remains a mystery. The 25 illustrations were laboriously beaded, each taking over 200 hours to complete, some much more than that. "The Blue Bead" has taken 10 years to finish and is an exquisite labor of love by author/illustrator Kate Boyan.