Shaping her own success

VICTORIA BARBER

September 19, 2008 at 1:55PM AKST

Local artist Gertrude Svarny has won the 2008 Governor’s Award for the Arts emphasizing Native works. She was one of six recipients of the awards, which recognize a variety of artistic achievements, selected by the Alaska State Council on the Arts and Gov. Sarah Palin.

“I was surprised when I received the award, I really didn’t think it would happen, but it was quite pleasant,” Svarny said. “It makes me feel that my work is appreciated, and I think that every artist needs that.”

Svarny is a self-taught, Unangan artist who was born and lives in Unalaska. Nominated by Alaska State Laureate writer and former Unalaska resident Jerah Chadwick, Svarny was one of about 50 candidates for the award.

“The committee was very impressed by the quality of her work,” said Charlotte Fox, executive director of the Alaska State Council of the Arts. “Her use of soapstone and alabaster and the different materials she uses, they’re particularly exquisite.”

Fox said the committee was also impressed by what Svarny “accomplished in a relatively short time, when most artists begin to make art in their teens and 20s.”

Svarny began weaving at 48 and carving at 51. She said that she learned to weave in a way that was “kind of backwards.” The art was passed to her from her daughters, not her mother, Alice Hope, an accomplished weaver from Unalaska and originally from St. Paul Island.

Svarny said that the reason she didn’t learn to weave as a child was that, while she was interested in drawing and pictures, she was intimidated by the complexity of weaving.

“It looked so difficult and intricate that I said ‘Oh, Mom, I couldn’t do that,’” said Svarny. However, when her daughters were learning to weave in high school, she was finally convinced to pick it up and has continued since.

“I like the connection it gives me to my ancestors, the thought that they sat down and wove just as I am doing now,” said Svarny, whose intricate baskets can take from three months to a year to complete. “It also gives me a sense of satisfaction because it’s kind of peaceful, and gives me peace of mind when I am weaving.”

Three years after beginning to weave, Svarny was inspired to carve. One day, she came across a piece of bone thought that it looked as though it had a recognizable form in it.

“I asked my husband, ‘Do you see that? A face or something?’” said Svarny. Using the tools she had on hand – a scoop for making melon balls and a small knife – she made her first attempt at encouraging form to emerge from object.

Today, Svarny uses electric sculpturing tools, as well as sand paper and files, and works in whale bone, ivory, wood, baleen, soapstone, alabaster and African wonderstone.

Her works, which include baskets, sculpture and bentwood hats, have been featured in exhibits throughout the U.S. and in Russia, and they are permanent parts of museums and collections such as the Anchorage Museum, the University of Alaska museum in Fairbanks, the Rasmuson Foundation collection and numerous private collections.

The Museum of the Aleutians featured Svarny’s work in solo retrospective show, “Tanang Awaa: Work of My Country,” in 2006. In “The Art of Gertrude Svarny,” an introduction to the exhibit, author Ray Hudson wrote of her work that “past and present are interwoven. ... She pays perpetual tribute to the adults she knew as a child and a young woman. She reaches beyond her own memory into the ethnographic record to recover fragments of a past culture and she makes them whole.”

Svarny said that while her art explores contemporary and traditional designs, her Unangan ancestry remains her most powerful influence.

“When I started, I tried to do things as traditional as I could,” said Svarny. “But then I thought – things would have changed as the years went by, through the years there would have been different designs.

“I have to give my ancestors and my people credit because they were very, very artistic. I’m in awe of the work they’ve done with the tools they had,” said Svarny. “I often think, ‘How did they ever do that without an electric tool?’ It must have taken them so long to use just the things they picked up from the beach.”

While Svarny has gained prominence for her work, she said she is still surprised by the creative process.

“I’m always amazed by what comes out,” said Svarny. “I have this vision and if it turns out the way I want, it’s like a miracle.”

The state Council of the Arts will hold an awards banquet for Svarny and the other 2008 recipients of the Governor’s Award in Anchorage on Oct. 23.

Victoria Barber can be reached at 907-348-2424 or toll free at 800-770-9830, ext. 424.