Palmer metal artist earns statewide recognition

WASILLA — Pat Garley’s metal artwork is on display statewide, from a life-size gold prospector and his dog in Seward to aluminum replicas of world-record vegetables at the Palmer Museum. So it’s no surprise that statewide recognition should follow.

Garley, a Palmer metal artist who works out of his Arctic Fires Bronze Sculpture Works foundry in Palmer, has been named as the recipient of a 2016 Governor’s Award from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Alaska Humanities Forum.

Garley will receive the individual artist award at a Jan. 28 ceremony at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center. Seven other Alaska recipients, both individuals and organizations, also will be honored at the event.

“I’m excited, I feel really, really honored,” Garley said Monday.

Benjamin Brown, chairman of the Alaska State Council on the Arts, said the council received eight candidates in the individual artist category this year, an area that typically sees more nominations.

“The individual artist really is the kind of the fire in the engine that drives artistic creation,” Brown said. “We want to celebrate that.”

Artists are nominated, receive letters of support and have their work reviewed by a volunteer committee, Brown said. Garley has been nominated in past years, Brown added.

“The committee looked very fondly on his work,” Brown, a Palmer High School graduate, said of Garley. “He is unique in his metal work and is admired across the state.”

Along with his life-sized bronze sculptures and smaller gallery pieces, Garley also is known for his work at the popular summer “Art on Fire” iron pours at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry. Even the sign at Radio Free Palmer has some Garley influence.

Garley said Monday he is busy working on new commissions that include a life-sized statue of Joe Redington Sr. along with a sled and dogs for the new Redington Jr./Sr. High School in Knik.

“It has been busy,” Garley said. “There are quite a few things going on these days.”

Other Governor’s Awards for the Arts recipients include June Rogers of Fairbanks, lifetime achievement; Nancy DeCherney of Juneau, arts advocacy; and Vicki Soboleff of Juneau, the Margaret Nick Cooke award for Alaska Native arts and languages.

Governor’s Awards for the Humanities recipients include Cyrano’s Theatre Co. in Anchorage, Steve Henrikson, the Alaska State Museum Curator of Collections in Juneau and Lucy “Ahvaiyak” Richards, an Iñupiaq language instructor in Barrow.

The Alaska Studies Educator of the Year award will be presented to Marc Swanson, the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area curriculum developer in Seward.

Contact reporter Steven Merritt at 352-2269 or steven.merritt@frontiersman.com