Five Stories of Water from an Unusual Summer in Alaska: It was a unique summer in Alaska. The hottest and driest on record, after many other hot and dry, record-breaking summers.

If you’ve sent me an e-mail in July-early August, then you probably got some sort of away message. This is the heart of summer in Alaska, and it seems that each year I spend most of the time with an away message on auto reply. I trade my computer and studio projects for living out of a backpack

One tool the science team uses to collect information is ISIIS. The In Situ Ichthyoplankton Imaging System (ISIIS) is dragged through the water and collects images from the shadows of organisms that pass through the camera slot. There are two camera areas, one big and one small. Each camera acts like a scanner and shines light through the water to record the shadows of the animals…

Before we begin, I should say that I am not afraid of adventure or doing something different at the expense of creature comforts. I love a good mountain expedition where you spend days on end with a small group of people not showering and having little privacy. I don’t have very much experience on the ocean, most of which has been in protected waters near Alaska – in Prince William Sound and the Inside Passage. Going out on a research vessel was a new experience I thought I’d like, but I really wasn’t sure. Enough people asked me if I got seasick that I was pretty nervous about that. Also, I’ve never quite felt at home on or in the water. I was a little nervous and excited when we left.

I’m not sure if there is a niche for travel journaling with a focus on art and natural history, or if I fill that, but I wanted to share my experiences with you. Perhaps you are also sitting in a lonely winter landscape on a too warm day (34 degrees?!) and as much as you love that, might appreciate a break from the scenery.

I posted about a trip to the beach with a few sketches over on my Patreon page

“Creative play” probably means different things to different people, and especially for artists. For me it is tied to “not working” though I think it can be an important part of the art and work process. To free me up I decide that there is no pressure to sell or even share whatever I am playing with. It often means trying something new as well. Maybe it will be the start of a series or a new technique, or maybe it will lead to nothing. Maybe I’ll stick it in a box and won’t decide to revisit it for several months or years, and then a snippet may become a solution to a problem down the road.

Last summer I was putting together a presentation on field sketching and natural journaling and consulted the internet on one of my art heroes, Hannah Hinchman. I have several of her books, but she doesn’t have much of an online presence. However I did find this lovely discussion on four kinds of nature journals quoted on Morning-Earth.org in their series on Artist-Naturalists. 

I have a solo show up in Cordova. It’s been up since the end of August but I wanted to share some photos with you, since I know many might not make it all the way there.

It is a similar body of work to the show I had in Fairbanks last summer, but with some differences, as happens over a year. So I want to give you a tour on my blog:

I’m excited to announce that I am on a podcast and it’s up for you to listen to. Gale Straub hosts a show called She Explores about inquisitive women in the outdoors, on the road, and besides. The podcast episode starts with Gale talking to Chevon Powell about an exciting upcoming event called the Refuge Outdoor Festival. Then we talk about my story of how I grew up spending time outdoors, how and why I moved to Alaska and got interested in science illustration. I also talk about why it’s important for me to make art in the wilderness and to participate in artist residencies on public lands.