October 07, 2008

"A Dena'ina Day Around Cook Inlet"

Fairbanks artist salutes Dena'ina with stained-glass tribute

MAMMOTH PROJECT:  Piece is 26 feet high and 17 feet wide.Fairbanks artist James Grant worked to finish installing his large stained glass piece titled "A Dena'ina Day around Cook Inlet" at Anchorage's new Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center this week.

Grant's central panel depicts Cook Inlet area Dena'ina Athabaskans at subsistence tasks--berry picking, drying fish, hunting seal and beluga whale. Suspended below are images of Alaska game animals. Below that hang a man and woman in traditional dress. The man is shown singing, accompanying himself with a rattle. The woman is beating a plank drum.

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