Balazs, Harold: The Motorcycle - Copper Sculpture: Abstract depiction of a motorcycle. 1983 - $20,000.00

The Motorcycle is a marvelous sculptural piece that was funded by the State percent for art program in 1983. The abstract copper motorcycle sculpture sits on the lawn outside the medium security facility, facing in the direction of the security gate, making an ironic statement of being ready to carry someone off to the freedom of the open road. It's unfortunate that it's so inaccessible for the public to view it. Getting through prison security is a bit of an ordeal: driver's licenses have to be submitted a couple of days in advance so they can run a security check.

Harold Balazs, the prolific Northwest sculptor, has another piece at the prison, about six other public art pieces in the Anchorage area, and a couple in Fairbanks. The University of Washington Press is publishing a book about this renowned Northwest artist and his life's work. It will have about 180 pages with about 190 images.  It will come out July 2010 to coincide with the opening of a retrospective" at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, Spokane, Washington.  

This show will be "the largest overview of the artist's over 50-year career, this exhibition is "a rich and wildly varied survey of Balazs's deep, unfettered, and wildly creative imagination: jewelry, major sculpture, a hand-made wooden boat, enamel works, folk furniture, children's toys, sketchbooks and handmade artist books, and photo documentation of significant public commissions."

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Northern Latitude Plant Materials Center

Percent for Art Commission

Wyne, Sheila: "Germinate" - Three section Wood and Steel Construction depicting grass and grain. 2004. Commission Price not Verified.

A scythe is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass or reaping crops. The wooden, organically-curvilinear shaft of a scythe is called the snath, and artist Sheila Wyne used several dozen of these  snaths in her installation named "Germinate," which is located at the Plant Materials Center in the Butte.

The three panel "Germinate" construction utilizes two classic tools of the agricultural trade to represent the motif of grasses and wheat. In addition to the snaths, dozens of steel trowels are used to create the kernels on heads of wheat. Trowels are most frequently used at the beginning of the growing season to make holes for plants and seedlings.

Part of the mission of the Northern Latitude Plant Materials Center is the development of a native seed industry and Wyne's art work beautifully incorporates the tools and captures the essence of agricultural plant growth from germination through cultivation.

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Mat Su Pretrial Facility Totem Pole

Name of Totem Pole- Unknown

Name of Artist- Unknown

Date of Commission- Unknown

 (probably mid or late 1980's)

Materials:Steel, aluminum

No plaque or inscriptions with artist information.

Standing approximately 25 feet high, a contemporary interpretation of a traditional Pacific Northwest Totem reaches to the blue sky outside of the Mat Su Pretrial Facility near the Palmer Courthouse. Observed from a distance, the totem looks somewhat like a stick figure man, a tall straight pole for a body, two arms sticking straight out the side, and above the arms, a human featured and shaped head.

Four iridescent turquoise and red seals occupy the lowest two levels of the totem, all swimming in an upward direction as if reaching for air or the sunlight. Each seal torso has a carved out human face with hinges on the side. Probably on a windy day the faces spin around when they catch the wind.

Stylized blue eagles perch on each end of the "arms." Cut steel feathers attached to the birds' sides suggest a bird in flight. A carved-out human face also appears in the center of each of the eagles' bodies.

At the top of the pole is an iridescent red human face with a blue band around the eye area. Ten blue feathers decorate the perimeter of the head.

I'm curious if there is an Alaskan Native myth that goes with this totem pole. Several online sites give the symbolic meaning of seals as: "Love, longing, dilemma, active imagination, creativity." The eagle represnts "divine spirit, sacrifice, connection to creator, intelligence, renewal, courage, healing, freedom, and risk-taking." Certainly the prisoners, families, attorneys, and security people at Mat Su Pretrial cycle through many of these human attributes as they experience incarceration and the criminal justice system.

I've made dozens of calls and emails trying to find out about this Totem Pole: to various people at the State Department of Corrections, Department of Transportation (which is in charge of Public Facilities,) the Alaska State Council on the Arts, several local people, etc.  I haven't yet looked in the Frontiersman archives, but hope to do that this winter. This unique Palmer work of art deserves a plaque and the artist deserves recognition for creating this unique Alaskan totem.