Water tower-inspired art parades through Palmer

PALMER — Various municipalities have partnered with local art communities for celebrations of some iconic local creature “on parade.”

Anchorage, of course, has “Salmon on Parade.” Chicago has “Cows on Parade.” But what about Palmer?

“Water Towers on Parade,” of course.

If you’ve patronized a local business there recently, chances are you saw tower-inspired are, or were in the same room as it anyway.

“Our local artists are the most creative people on the planet,” said Ralph Renzi, executive director of the Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber is the entity putting on the “Water Towers on Parade” celebration. The works will be up until Oct. 12, when they will be auctioned off as part of the chamber’s annual fundraiser. Renzi said the chamber’s board of directors organizes a fundraiser each year. Since it’s in the fall, it usually has a harvest-time theme.

“This year they decided they wanted to do something more Palmer-centric,” he said.

One of the board members had been intimately involved with Salmon on Parade and so Water Towers on Parade was born.

Kim Strickland is one of the artists who participated. She’s classically trained in the Roman tile mosaic style known as Tessarae. Her piece is a tile mosaic built from hand-nipped or cut porcelain tiles that are unglazed.

She said her boss at Cover Ups, owner Teresa Roy, knew she’d been looking for an opportunity to do some publicly displayed art. Roy also knew Strickland was a big fan of the water tower.

“I told her that I thought it was the emblem of Palmer,” she said.

So the opportunity was perfect.

“This piece that I did today was not in the Roman tradition, but that is my favorite style,” she said. “This piece is whimsical it doesn’t really have an opus.”

It’s hanging in Cover Ups, sponsored by that business and a smaller one that’s housed in a part of the same building, the Upholstery Gallery.

Renzi said the other pieces are everything from paintings to photography to wearable art.

“There’s a beautiful quilt hanging over at the Palmer Senior Center,” he said. “There’s a photograph that was transferred onto this huge sheet of metal.”

If any of that sounds like something you might want to own you’ll certainly have the chance. The chamber paid the artists stipends out of sponsorship money and intends to sell the pieces at auction Oct. 12. Instructions for how to buy tickets to that banquet are available at the chamber’s website.

“This is the one fundraiser that is put on entirely by the board of directors,” Renzi said, adding the money goes toward advocacy and education with the goal of increasing “business retention and expansion in the Palmer area.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270

or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.

Where do you find these water towers before they’re all sold off Oct. 12? The Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce has a list on its website, palmerchamber.net. There’s also a map there. But there’s a list:

• Turkey Red has artist Sierra Lehmann

• B. Bella Hair Design has artist Catelyn Dossett

• Active Soles has artist Bob Staggs

• Sidekicks has artist Greg Obeso

• Just Sew has artist Nicole Pease

• Wells Fargo has artist Kellie Coulson Davis

• NonEssentials has artist Donald Ricker

• Garden Gate has artist Kristy Bernier

• Palmer Bar has artist Jonny Hammond

• Cover Ups has artist Kim Strickland

• Palmer Museum and Visitor Center has artist Cecil Sanders

• Palmer Senior Center has artist Mary Thompson

• Matanuska Valley Federal Credit Union has artist Cheryl Lacy

• Alaska USA Federal Credit Union has artist Martha Happs