Tangible testament of Palmer love

We did a giant Palmer Community art piece this weekend at the Midsummer Garden and Art Faire. The Museum gave us the space and the tent and we supplied all the materials and set-up. The individual art paintings came from our community!!! There are now over 310 separate illustrated inscriptions on the large canvas, thanks to hundreds of elders, millennials, moms, dads, and kids. It was a joyous time to watch each person make their own individual “mark” on this Palmer Community project. Some added flowers or stars or rainbows or mushrooms. Some painted their pets. Some added a yeti or an owl or a blue fox or a purple bear. There’s a moose, some snowmen, checkmarks, and happy faces. There are so many flowers and trees. Some portrayed themselves on the canvas. One very small girl decided to put herself on the painting—not at her short eye-level— but way up on the very tip top of Pioneer Peak! This community masterpiece is very large—but the gusty Palmer winds were larger—so volunteer helpers stepped up to hold the canvas down. The cover art on this column shows the joy that was shared with the Palmer Renaissance Painters. No doubt the city or chamber or museum or a local business will want to display this piece as a tangible testament to the local love that always wins—in the Palmer Area. Free and inclusive events like this Midsummer Fair, are a big clue to why our community generates great care and loyalty.

Fabulous Fiber Festival This Weekend—This weekend is one of the most colorful events of the year— because it involves beautifully dyed skeins of yarns and fibers of all sorts. It’s at the fairgrounds in the Livestock barn. There will be sheep and goats and other furry animals. There will be food trucks and demonstrations and lots of fiber artists. Some of the classes create the very cutest needle felted woolen bears, wet felted gloves, tiny rusty red fiber foxes, gorgeous colored felted flowers, brilliant fiber dying, and mystical fiber blending. The overall event is free and fun and yet another delightful gathering in our community. Talent and fiber is the common denominator at this festival. The Valley Fiber Arts Guild is full of lovely knitters and spinners and weavers and lace makers and spindlers….it’s all kind of magical and wonderful. We are so lucky to be able to see their work!

Big Music Weekend at Spring Creek—This is the annual festival weekend at Spring Creek, Farm. Spring Creek is Louise Kellogg’s old farm, off of Palmer’s North Farm Loop Road. It is now known as the Kellogg Campus for the Alaska Pacific University. The 700 acres is dedicated to Louise’s vision of learning from nature.

The music festival is “The Picker’s Retreat.” It is a family friendly event featuring 30 acoustic bands, with a variety of music, including blue grass, old-timey, country, folk, Cajun varieties. In addition to the good music there will be workshops in yoga, silks, juggling, along with square and contra dancing. Pack up your family, your camping gear, your instruments, good food and your good spirit.

Thank you Palmer Post Office—The big old pot hole in the parking lot has finally been patched with sweet, new asphalt. And the ruffled poppies, vines, and flags are so welcoming. The flower beds and hanging baskets are made possible by the Palmer Northland Pioneer Grange and the Palmer High School Future Farmers of America.

Barbara Hunt is both Palmer writer and artist. She works hard to keep the robust pulse of Palmer, Alaska. She shares the good stuff in the weekly Palmer Alaska Buzz Column in the Mat Su Valley Frontiersman and daily on the Palmer Alaska Buzz Facebook Group. Her “Palmer Buzz 2022 Community Calendar” is available at NonEssentials on Main Street. Contact at bhunt@mtaonline.net or text 907.315.3222