The 2017 the Machetanz Art Festival Free lecture on Friday and paid classes Saturday

Palmer- it’s time again for the Machetanz Art Festival at the Mat-Su College. Tonight at 6pm there will be reception at the Glenn Massey Theater. Stating at 7pm, the 2017’s Featured Artist, Ray Gamradt will have a presentation discussing his life and his craft. The lecture is free and open to the public. The classes start Saturday from 9am to 4 pm. There will be total of 20 classes available covering an array of mediums.

This is the 7th year for the festival and according to Talis Colberg, the director of the Mat-Su College and also the lead coordinator for the event this year, “it stated as a way to try to connect the college and the arts, and the things we do at the college with the arts, a brighter, broader spectrum of the community.”

It was named after Fred and Sarah Machetanz, one of the college’s major funders and historically, some of the community’s most prominent figures in the arts and local involvement.

“They’re people who really endowed this college with all sorts of things, their libraries, their paintings, their scholarship funds, and their property (240 acres to the College Campus after their death). This is our way of reinforcing that memory and that heritage that we have to one of the most prominent artists to ever come to Alaska,” Colberg said.

New to Alaska, Ray Gamradt will be presenting this year. He has a strong affinity from nature and draws his inspiration from the vast wonders of Alaska, which has famously captured visitors, now calling it home.

“I am simply thankful for every day that I can try to tell a small part of her whispered story through my art,” Gamradt said in his 2017 Artist’s Statement.

“He’s actually kind of a renaissance person in his own right. He has a master’s degree in engineering but he went full time into art instead over the last few years,” Colberg said.

According to Colberg, for the past 3 years the college’s goal has been to bring a featured artist to present to the public, free of charge. The Saturday classes’ prices range from $15 to $95. Having taken a few classes and seen his fellow students over the years, he also stated that there are plenty of regulars who plan for this festival every year.

“It kinda morphed over time from a tradition, becoming a festival and we’re trying to keep it going… There are people here who always plan to be here for it,” Colberg said.

Here is the list of classes on Saturday:

Full Day Workshops—9 am-4 pm

Shadows & Light Art in Charcoal

Pastels for Everyone

Beginning Watercolor Painting

Drawing for the Artistically Challenged

Make Like a Bee—Encaustic Painting Techniques

Fiber Painting

Intermediate/Advanced Watercolor

Mosaic House Sign

Painting the Poetic Landscape in Oils

Painting with Alcohol Inks Photoshop Basics

Shoot, Boot and Print—Digital Photography

Wool Needle Felting

Morning Workshops—9-11:45 am

Athabascan Style Beaded Brooch

Aluminum Sand Casting

Pyrography—Woodburning

Sumi-e’ Alaska Style

Lunch Break—12-1 pm

Afternoon Workshops—1:15-4 pm

Athabascan Style Beaded Brooch

Pyrography—Woodburning

Zentangle Basics 101

To register online, go to: https://register.asapconnected.com/Courses.aspx?CourseGroupID=14213

Call: 745-9721 for any questions regarding the festival.