In September, Toni and I had the great pleasure of visiting a very special place -- the National Museum of Wildlife Art, located in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The building sits on a hillside overlooking a preserve where elk can be seen grazing on the valley floor far below. Outdoors, sculptures of a variety of animals grace the grounds, whetting one's appetite for the beauty within. A pair of foxes, a full-size grizzly, a cougar and many other denizens of the wild grace the property and dazzle the eye.
Inside the museum, the scope and variety of the art is almost overwhelming. Works by artists from around the world, paintings, tapestries, sculptures --- a huge variety of media --- welcome the visitor in every corner and on every surface. Names such as Ansel Adams, John James Audubon, Robert Bateman, Alexander Calder, Francisco Goya, Thomas Hinckley, Melvin Johansen, Rockwell Kent, Robert McCauley, Thomas Nast, Marvin Oliver, Pablo Picasso, Frederic Remington, Carl Rungius, Auguste Rodin, Charles M. Russell, and N.C. Wyeth represent many countries as well as the United States.
As we were headed for the exit, we inquired at the desk whether we had somehow missed any of the work of our favorite wildlife artist, Alaska's own Fred Machetanz. "No," we were told. "There is no example of his work here." The person at the desk looked on her computer and marveled at what she saw when she Googled Machetanz.
Before we left, we got the name of the curator of the museum and determined to contact him to ask about Fred Machetanz's absence from their collection. He, too, Googled Machetanz and was duly impressed by what he found. So we asked him if there were a donor or a lender of one of Machetanz's works, would the museum welcome it? He had a board meeting coming up in a few days and agreed to raise the question with them. After the meeting he emailed back to us with the ward that the acquisitions committee would enjoy the opportunity to consider a Machetanz piece for their collection. The subject would have to be a wildlife painting, more than likely a polar bear.
Thus it is that we write now to ask if there is someone here who would be willing to donate or lend an original Fred Machetanz work to the National Museum of Wildlife Art. Such a donation could serve a number of purposes for a donor. A professionally appraised piece might serve as a tax deduction; the donor's name would be permanently listed as the source of the work; the person in whose honor the donation is made would be forever identified as the benefactor; a very large audience would be introduced to the work of this venerated Alaska artist; and Fred Machetanz would have an example of his work in a place where it truly belongs.
Try Googling the National Museum of Wildlife Art and you will get a feel for this wonderful collection and see a list of the more than 550 artists represented there. There have to be people or institutions in Alaska who would proudly perpetuate the name and work of Fred Machetanz in such a prestigious setting by donating or loaning an original wildlife painting.
Don McDermott spent ten years as a high school teacher and principal and 20 years teaching at universities, 18 at UAA, where he was the first dean of education. He's been an AARP Driver Safety volunteer since 1990.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.