2007 Salmon Gallery


"Tommy Roe"

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By Dawn Garety
Anchorage, Alaska
Located at .

My wild salmon idea started on a cocktail napkin. No kidding. After an afternoon of pow skiing, the day was a wrap with pizza and beverages at Chair 5 Restaurant. I announced to a table of friends that I wanted to enter the Wild Salmon on Parade and needed help with an idea. A pen, a dozen napkins, several pitchers of beer and 6 ski junkies were the recipe for "Tommy Roe". I should have figured the inspiration for the our final concept would stem from skiing; the passion that keeps us glued together. All I needed to do was submit the idea on time, get selected, pick-up my salmon mold and... figure out how the heck I was going to construct a skiing fish! I had a couple things going for me. 1) Tommy Moe is my brother-in-law so I knew the idea would fly with him 2) Our family cabin in Girdwood has a larger collection of 1990s ski gear than Ebay 3) I had every ski buddy in Girdwood to utilize as a resource for ideas, tools and support.

Besides having a 4 ft. x 5 ft. salmon sculpture in my living room for 6 weeks, things went smoothly. Metal sculptor, Marieke Heatwole, helped me with the biggest challenge which was welding an interior metal frame to support the extending arms & legs. After that, I located all the same equipment that Tommy Moe wore in his 1994 Gold Medal Olympic Downhill run including Dynastar Coupe Du Monde race skis, Kerma poles, Smith yellow/black goggles and I painted one of Tommy's old Boeri helmets.

I'm estatic to be selected for the 2007 event. This project was a great get-away from my computer, which is how I make my livelihood as a graphic designer: www.artseriously.com. I also dabble in fine arts when I have time. This site hasn't been updated in awhile, but check out: www.bigbellyart.com. I'm a lifelong Alaskan with plans to continue living, working and playing from Girdwood. Maybe skiing and Alaska will give me the inspiration again for next year's Wild Salmon. Hmmmm, who knows, maybe "ROE"sy Fletcher!

A million thanks to Matt Underhill, Marieke Heatwole and Bob Mucha for helping me out.