February at Bear Gallery

Join Fairbanks Arts in the Bear Gallery for our February exhibitions: The Art of Rug Hooking by Kate Lamal and Alaska Love Through Art, Life, and Adventure by Raeann the Artist. 

Kate Lamal found rug hooking to fill the creative gap left after a career in a technology field. It allowed her to use the images stored in her memory and in her pictures of life in Alaska to create useful art for the home—rugs, upholstery, seat covers, and wall hangings. It is a medium that asks to be touched because of the tactile richness of the wool used to create these pieces. Hooking allows experimentation, and easy correction of wrong decisions. Kate not only designs her work, she also hand dyes all of the fabric used in the pieces.

As part of her exhibition, Kate Lamal and friends will be hosting a drop-in rug hooking workshop in the Bear Gallery on Saturday, February 12 from 1-3 pm. 

Raeann drove to Alaska from Pennsylvania in 1994 when she was 18. Since then, she has created a body of work that portrays her love for Alaska developed through 27 years of hiking, backcountry snowboarding, commercial fishing, mountain biking, and remote cabin living. Raeann started creating art at an early age and has been dabbling throughout her life with a limited educational background in the arts.She is grateful to share her work and hopes to encourage people to get outside and appreciate nature. Painting and drawing Alaska’s beauty is a way she can express her love for this amazing place in which we live.

These exhibitions are on view in the Bear Gallery from February 4–26, 2022. The gallery will be open from 12–7 pm on Friday, January 7 for the opening day. For the rest of the month, join us in the gallery Monday–Saturday, 12–6 pm. Visitors are required to wear a mask and practice social distancing and the gallery currently has a 15-guest limit in place.