Teasing tourism
By Jeff Lund | You can't take yourself too seriously.There always are opportunities in life to take bitter things and turn them funny - you just have to have the right frame of mind.That was surely behind the Ketchikan Area Arts and Humanities Council's "Curio" event at the Main Street Gallery on Sept. 5. It was an opportunity to honor all that the tourism industry and tourists specifically, add to the summer experience in Ketchikan - with tongue gently in cheek.The show invited Ketchikan artists to create works celebrating the kitschy artifacts sold in the town's tourist traps - or pieces of satire damning them.What better way to send off another tourism season and welcome the fall?Executive director Kathleen Light said the tourist-inspired art has been a hit with locals and cruise ship passengers."(The exhibit has been received) very well," she said "The spirit was to amuse, and that was achieved."I'm not what one would can an "art guy." I appreciate the craft and vulnerability that comes with sharing inspiration, but other things usually come above visiting galleries on my hierarchy of wants. If I do end up face to frame with art, I don't always "get" it.See full column at:http://www.capitalcityweekly.com/stories/091714/ae_1220408048.shtml