Thirty years ago, in 1986, Ketchikan artist Halli Kenoyer participated in Ketchikan\u2019s (and Southeast Alaska\u2019s) first wearable arts show, but she didn\u2019t yet \u201cget\u201d it.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first 10 years of our wearable arts show, there were some unusual pieces but I didn\u2019t really connect with any of them,\u201d she said. \u201cNo one was doing weird stuff 20 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was fun and creative but the first show was \u201ckind of a rushed little thing,\u201d said wearable artist Diane Palmer, who was instrumental in getting that first show started, and has participated in every show since. Models modeled the wearable art, then it got put on a mannequin and then the wall, and the cycle continued.<\/p>\n
Then, in the mid 1990s, the show moved into a bigger space. They started using themes \u2014 the first one was \u201cArt as Armor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Artist Lezli Morgan said \u201cwe\u2019re not thinking big enough,\u201d Kenoyer remembers. Then: \u201cHoly cow. It exploded.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kenoyer created mosquito armor \u2014 a model wore a big, circular hat with lights to attract mosquitoes, and mosquito netting. It was delicate, and worn with a leotard, and \u201clooked awesome on the runway,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said \u2018Oh! It\u2019s more about entertainment\u2026 it\u2019s about having a good time. I know how to do that. And I just started making big, bold pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another important component of the show, Kenoyer realized, was \u201cnot taking ourselves too seriously, because my God, we\u2019re Ketchikan, which is kind of like Tijuana, Alaska. We\u2019re a border town. There are no pretensions, and we have a really good time down here. There\u2019s nothing stuffy about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palmer has won awards in the biggest wearable art competition in the world \u2014 World of WearableArt, in New Zealand, first held in 1987.<\/p>\n
In 2002, Palmer entered a double-sided mask in the competition and won third place in the \u201cAmerican Express Open\u201d section of the show.<\/p>\n
Ketchikan\u2019s show isn\u2019t judged, and both artists said they like it that way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always felt that by leaving it an open show, really, people didn\u2019t feel like they weren\u2019t good enough,\u201d Palmer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t (judge), and I think that\u2019s part of our special flavor,\u201d Kenoyer said.<\/p>\n
Both Palmer and Kenoyer regularly, maybe once or twice a month, find gifts of discarded items on their porches, or hanging from their front door. Kenoyer\u2019s gotten 1000 test tube tops from the hospital, for example, or tomato cages, which are always useful. Palmer\u2019s dental hygienist saved her the little red polish containers hygienists hold on their fingers.<\/p>\n
For Palmer, her pieces grow from what people give her and what she finds \u2014 the theme gets incorporated later, if it does.<\/p>\n
This year, in an homage to that first themed, inspirational year, Kenoyer made a six-part rhinoceros based on a woodblock etching by Albrecht D\u00fcrer, an artist who in 1515 had never seen a rhinoceros, but had created one based on the description of someone who had. That image was on the invitation for the armor-themed show 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year I just feel like the quality of everybody\u2019s pieces, even first-year applicants, it was amazing,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cPeople took a lot of time and it was really amazing how these first-time people were putting together these beautiful, beautiful, structured pieces. This year just struck me like \u2018Wow, everyone\u2019s stuff is just great.\u201d<\/p>\n
What happens to the pieces afterwards? Well, this year, Palmer dismantled some of her previous pieces and used them. The theme was \u201cAlchemy,\u201d so that melding fit with the theme, too. It ended up looking steampunk, she said.<\/p>\n
Kenoyer offers them to her models first. And she\u2019ll usually burn her biggest piece at a solstice party in Juneau. One model turned a seahorse inspired by the edge of a 1500s map into a lamp. Another piece is at the public library.<\/p>\n
The models, Kenoyer said, are integral.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can make this stuff and I can toil away at it in my studio one day at a time, but it\u2019s a hunk of paper and a bunch of wire until you put a model in it,\u201d she said. \u201cThe model takes it to the next level. They\u2019re the one that interprets it and gives it a freaking life.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year she was \u201cfull of despair\u201d about the initial attempt to create the rhinoceros out of six separate pieces. \u201cThey just kept working at it, and they made it work,\u201d she said. \u201cThey absolutely made the piece.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palmer works as a Certified Public Accountant, and she gardens and does assemblage and found art the rest of the year. For her, wearable art is a seasonal thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t start wearable art until November each year. It\u2019s dark, and rainy, and it\u2019s a really good inside thing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the heart of winter when the wind is terrible, and the rain is just ridiculous\u2026 that\u2019s when we all put our heads together and talk about wires, building frames, different kinds of ways to bond fabric\u2026 not five or 10 people, but more like 30 or 40,\u201d Kenoyer said.<\/p>\n
Palmer loves the kids\u2019 involvement. Elementary school kids come during the Saturday matinee, and this year, kindergartners did a song and dance with wearable art hats. Other kids participate in the main show.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives kids that young \u2014 they get a little bit more confidence, out on the stage,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cThey might be scared at first, but there are older people in the back, and models cheering them on, trying to build up their confidence. It\u2019s great, because they just blossom when they\u2019re out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kenoyer also works with middle-schoolers at Ketchikan Charter School on their wearable art, which has led to some unusual, creative thinking, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s cool for me, because it\u2019s like you realize this thing is going to live on, because we\u2019re starting out young,\u201d Palmer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a town that supports the arts the way Ketchikan does, it\u2019s my way of saying \u2018thank you\u2019 back,\u201d Kenoyer said.<\/p>\n
Next year\u2019s theme in Ketchikan is \u201cCon-fusion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact staff writer Mary Catharine Martin at maryc.martin@capweek.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thirty years ago, in 1986, Ketchikan artist Halli Kenoyer participated in Ketchikan\u2019s (and Southeast Alaska\u2019s) first wearable arts show, but she didn\u2019t yet \u201cget\u201d it. \u201cFor the first 10 years of our wearable arts show, there were some unusual pieces but I didn\u2019t really connect with any of them,\u201d she said. \u201cNo one was doing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":16927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-16926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16926"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=16926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}