About a dozen people during Wrangell’s annual Bear Fest this summer were busy painting dead fish or drying out their fresh new prints with hairdryers in Wrangell’s Nolan Center. The room was mostly quiet, except for the hairdryer blowing and a gentle chatter between people every now and then. Fish from the Fourth of July’s Scrap Derby lay in a cooler full of ice. There’s also rubber molds of salmon and halibut on a table to the side in the large room.
We’re at a gyotaku workshop. It’s a traditional form of Japanese art with deep roots. Before photography, fishermen used it to record their catch, by painting, pressing and printing.
Bear Fest is filled with events like a pie contest and presentations on the most obvious — bears. But this art project is part of a larger effort to engage the community in creative activities.
Wrangellite Carol Rushmore just finished her second print by using a real salmon.
“My first one was a disaster because I had too much paint,” she said. “That one’s a little bit better, but I still need to refine it one more time to see if I can get a little cleaner.”
So, she’s about to try a third time.
Printing for all ages
Along with salmon and starfish, there’s unique designs made with glue guns and leftover ornaments that people can paint over and print on paper too.
Joan Sargent, one of the organizers for the gyotaku workshop, discussed the challenges and successes of the art project. She said she caught a starfish during the fish derby a couple weeks prior.
“See how you get a texture all the way through? The spines on them holds it up way too high,” she said. “So all you got is these little pokey spines, and it doesn’t really show up very well. I’m sure an expert could figure out how to make a starfish work.”
Besides figuring out how to successfully print the starfish, she said it’s really fun that kids are here.
“I think it’s really cool,” Sargent said. “I mean, we’re looking at maybe three-year-olds. I think that one’s maybe three or four over there.”
She said she and the other organizers have been wondering how they would pull this off with kids because. . .they’re kids.
“What color do you want?”
Amber Wade points out where she wants Michael Bania to stamp her gyotaku on July 30, 2025 (left); handmade designs made with glue and other supplies for printing (right) (Colette Czarnecki/KSTK)
Once a person finishes their print, local artist and children’s book author Michael Bania waited at a table to stamp each print. She’s spent a lifetime making art. The stamps have bears on them that she designed herself. They also say Bear Fest. She said she imitated totem art to create the bear design.
She asked each person who came up to her, “What color do you want?”
One of them, Amber Wade, asked, “What colors do you have?”
“We have red, black and blue,” Bania said.
Wade chose red.
As participants continued creating their art prints, there’s a sense of excitement and pride. Some of the fish start stinking up the room, so they’re tossed. But for the organizers, this workshop is about more than fish, it’s about creativity being kept alive in the island town.
