Someday in 1985, whereas longtime Fairbanks artist Nancy Hausle Johnson was in New Mexico along with her household, she wandered into an artwork gallery in Santa Fe. “There was a tile of a polar bear, however with New Mexico colours,” she recalled. “Actually shiny pinks and yellows. I believed, ‘It’s chilly up North. There needs to be blues.’” It was a watershed second for her. “I noticed that tile and got here dwelling and began engaged on tiles, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Greater than 25 years later, Hausle Johnson’s artwork tiles may be discovered throughout Fairbanks. Whether or not as single tiles or within the type of photos composed from a number of tiles, her work depicting Alaska’s wildlife and surroundings adorns partitions at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, the Alaska Fowl Observatory, Noel Wien Library, Pioneer Park, many native faculties and numerous houses. This month she is sharing exhibit area at Ursa Main Distilling in Ester along with her shut buddy, grasp metalsmith Thomas Hart.
Among the many objects on exhibit on the distillery are coatracks she made in collaboration with Hart. His hand-crafted hooks are mounted on Hausle Johnson’s tiles, that are affixed to wooden backings, creating lovely but helpful artwork items to hold in houses. That is in step with her choice for artwork that serves a utilitarian function.
“I just like the tiles as a result of it’s purposeful artwork,” she mentioned about her creations. “You need to use it and nonetheless be inventive with it. However the tiles are nice for backsplashes and tabletops. You may put your artwork and your concepts on there. And it’s fairly sturdy.”
Hausle Johnson’s mom was a self-taught porcelain artist who made artwork obtainable to her daughter, gently encouraging her with out ever being forceful. “She’s the one who took me to my first oil portray courses,” Hausle Johnson mentioned. “She took a sculpture class, and after I got here dwelling from school she mentioned, ‘Oh Nancy, I’m taking this sculpture class. Why don’t you come down and take this sculpture class with me?’ She was a beautiful mentor, rising up.”
Hausle Johnson took artwork courses in school, and earned her second diploma in artwork schooling for first via twelfth grade. She dabbled in display screen printing and glassblowing, however discovered her preliminary area of interest in pottery “as a result of it’s purposeful.” Making tiles, she mentioned, was a pure outgrowth of this.
Hausle Johnson, who grew up in Seattle however by no means loved city life, met her husband Jerry Johnson whereas working as a fireplace lookout for the U.S. Forest Service. He had attended graduate college at UAF and when he was provided a job with the Geophysical Institute in 1980, he requested if she needed to maneuver to Fairbanks. She eagerly agreed. “Our daughter was 5 days previous after we bought within the truck and got here north.”
A part of what directed Hausle Johnson into artwork was her husband’s profession. A scientist, he was usually going to different elements of the nation and even abroad for prolonged durations “and he at all times needed the entire household to go together with him,” she mentioned. Whereas she usually labored as an alternative trainer, the household’s frequent prolonged absences made it inconceivable for her to take a place full time. “So I simply began engaged on the artwork and stayed dwelling and raised the youngsters. And I don’t remorse it. I’ve three very nice children.”
As soon as she started making artwork ties, Hausle Johnson constructed her enterprise from the bottom up. “I began promoting on the College Ladies’s Affiliation bazar. I had just a few tiles,” she remembered. “Folks would see them and ask, ‘Are you able to do that for me?’” From there it unfold by word-of-mouth alone. Solely lately has she arrange an internet site.
As of late her work is in excessive demand. She prefers to work with individuals in Fairbanks, as a result of she will be able to go to the location the place her tiles will probably be put in. If it’s a kitchen backsplash, as an example, seeing the bodily area it’s going to occupy influences what she creates.
She begins with a drawn sample of the deliberate work, which she brings to job web site to make sure the sizing is appropriate. “Then I switch my sample onto my tiles. I put my black line on, after which I glaze it.” She makes use of carbon paper beneath the template to get the traces on the tiles.
Subsequent she makes take a look at tiles to ensure she’s chosen the appropriate colours. “On a regular basis you place into it, you’ve bought to select the appropriate colour the primary outing. It’s not like a portray the place you possibly can return and paint over it. You’ve bought to select the appropriate colour.”
She then places the tiles in her kiln, the place they’re fired for 10 hours, and funky for at the least 10 extra. Then, if she must make changes or add colours, the tiles are despatched via a second firing. And on uncommon events, a 3rd.
The photographs Hausle Johnson creates usually lengthen over a number of tiles and mirror life in Alaska. “All my inspiration for my tile stuff, I simply go outdoors,” she mentioned. She’s created scenes of individuals snowboarding, cleansing salmon and taking part in hockey. Animals are ceaselessly proven, together with caribou, foxes, birds, and extra.
“Proper now I’m actually stepping into landscapes,” she mentioned. “I need to have the ability to do some tiles the place individuals will say, ‘Oh, that is Homer.’ or ‘That is the Brooks Vary.’”
“Now, after I see the sundown,” she added, gesturing in direction of her studio’s panoramic south going through view of Goldstream Valley, “the very first thing that runs via my thoughts is, that is this colour, that is that colour. And that’s enjoyable.”
“I’ve thought of retiring, however I actually get pleasure from it,” Hausle Johnson mentioned of her work. The individuality of every piece retains her eager to strive new concepts and see what she will be able to create subsequent. “It’s like an authentic portray. You may reproduce them on playing cards, however there’s one authentic portray. And that’s what lots of these tiles are turning into.”
Nancy Hausle Johnson may be discovered on-line at alaskatileart.com. Her present with Thomas Hart runs via the tip of November at Ursa Main Distilling, 2922 Parks Freeway. She can also be on exhibit this month in Valdez at Growler Bay Brewing Firm.