Windows of History

Valley Life editor

Tucked in his quaint, quiet Talkeetna studio, 82-year-old Curt W. Wagner Jr. isn't letting health problems slow him down. Despite a recent stay in the hospital, there is a giant canvas in front of him, on which the aurora borealis springs to life in hues of yellow and green.

Wagner is one of Alaska's treasures -- an artist whose work can be seen around the world, and more importantly, a link to the past and old-time Alaska.

Wagner was born in Anchorage and has lived in Talkeetna since the 1940s. Painting has always been a way of life for him, and the beauty and grandeur of the Talkeetna area is why he has never left.

"When I came through here I saw the mountain and wanted to paint McKinley," Wagner explained. "It changes every year."

Wagner learned from the masters of Alaska art, names everyone recognizes -- names like Sydney Laurence, Ted Lambert.

"I was born with it, but I studied under Ted Lambert for a while and I went to art school," Wagner said. "But really, I was born with it."

A humble man, Wagner isn't quick to show off his works, all of them originals on canvas. Stashed in the corner of his studio are his amazing sketches of the Talkeetna area in the early days. With price tags of almost $100, Wagner sells them quickly, but unless someone points them out to you, Wagner probably won't.

"Curt's paintings depict the landscape and the old buildings of Talkeetna. He captures the flavor of Talkeetna, and the way things used to be," said Ken Marsh, who has written a book about Wagner's life in art (see related story). "Curt's a transition to all those names you know who are gone now."

If a Hollywood director were making a movie about old Alaska, he would only have to look at Wagner's r/sum/ to find his star. Wagner has held just about every position a rough and rugged lifelong Alaskan could possibly hold -- he was born in Anchorage, worked on the railroad, fought in World War II at Guadalcanal, worked for the road commission cutting brush, helped establish a homesteading community while trapping and prospecting and he still is a renowned painter of Alaska landscapes.

Still, Wagner doesn't brag about his life. It's just not who he is. He doesn't even mention that the huge mural of Mount McKinley that hangs behind the bar of the Fairview Inn is one of his paintings. He doesn't mention that one of his works hung in the Anchorage International Airport for years, until it was renovated and renamed.

But leaf through the collections in his studio, and you'll find a life that is distinctly Alaskan. There are photos of old trapper cabins and homesteads that helped shape the Trapper Creek, Talkeetna and Petersville communities. There are sketches of areas like Cache Creek and beyond, where prospectors set out to become rich. And then there are the paintings, which weave everything together on one canvas.

"I use my pictures and my sketches, but you have to have a picture in your mind when you start painting," Wagner said. "A lot of what I paint depends on how I feel."

His first painting was sold to Don Sheldon, the legendary Bush pilot, for $25.

Through the years, his paintings have appreciated considerably, but during those first years, just making money was good enough. According to his journals, he even traded a landscape painting for $60 worth of wood one winter.

Wagner's legacy lives on in "Alaska Cache: The Work of Alaskan Artist Curt W. Wagner Jr.," a new book by Trapper Creek historians Ken and Robin Marsh.