July: Madara Mason


Four and Twenty Black Bears

new paintings by Madara Mason

The Alaska House presents a collection of new paintings by Madara Mason from Fairbanks, Alaska. The paintings in this series are mostly black bears but you should count them to see if you spot all 24!  See this new series of works and join us for live music and refreshments.

Normally, when I’m creating a new series of paintings, I explore elements of style and color and subject matter varies from painting to painting. I decided to try something new for this show and chose black bears as my subject and allowed my style, medium, and color palette to change from painting to painting. It’s a challenge, though, working with a single subject, so there are a few other subjects thrown in just for fun. The title of the show comes from a dream I had last winter, where a shadowed figure was singing the traditional Sing a Song of Six Pence nursery rhyme, but the line about the “black birds” was replaced with “black bears”; the rest of the song appeared to be the same. You’ll find references to the rhyme throughout the show, but make sure you count to see if you can find all 24 bears.

First Friday
July 1st, 2016
artist reception 5-8 PM