Profiles

Real stories about fascinating people across North America. 

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Profiles

Cardboard Canvases: Artist Frederick Stivers

There is a quiet disarray that surrounds most of Fredrick Stivers artwork. It reminds one of the ripples left on the surface of a stream right after some trout has lunged at a mayfly. You know something arresting is lurking nearby if you know where to focus.

That’s because Stivers is known for sketching hauntingly realistic images of the wilderness he loves on any surface he can find. If you squint your eyes enough, you could swear that the wildlife and characters he encounters along the streams he fishes, the duck blinds he haunts, and the forests he roams are alive in his art. They could turn and give you a knowing smile at any minute.

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5 Min
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Profiles

A Strange Beauty: The Art of Kyler Martz

A certain raw surrealness clings to the shores of the Pacific Northwest. It is a place that has its feet both firmly rooted in the past and the future, in the sun and the rain, in the unruliness of nature and the sparkle of its cities. This dichotomy is most evident in the grizzled sense of humor of one of its residents, artist Kyler Martz.

For over the last fifteen years, his colorful, fantastical creations have turned heads and helped define the quirkiness of the region. Working in a wide variety of mediums-prints, sculptures, murals, tattoos, books, and others, his retro-style art immediately captures your attention.

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5 Min
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Profiles

Steel, Fire, and Tradition: Blacksmith Neil Kamimura

At first glance, Kamimura can seem intimidating. His burly arms are covered in tattoos, a serene gaze emanating from a face framed by a bushy black beard and long hair often worn in a bun. His worn leather apron is a testament to the long hours he spends daily inside the T Kamimura Blacksmith Shop on the Big Island of Hawaii. But like the ocean breezes so common here, his smile quickly dominates the room, especially when he begins discussing his life’s passion, making stunning blades in paradise.

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5 Min
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Profiles

Reborn Refuse: The Art of Allie Spurlock

Walking along Baranof Island’s rugged and rocky beaches can be an adventure. On the leading edge of the Alexander Archipelago, it often bears the brunt of the Gulf of Alaska’s ever-changing weather and moods. But that unpredictability excites artist Allie Spurlock each time she leaves her studio in Sitka to explore. See, for her, a day spent roaming the tree-lined beaches is like a treasure hunt, and she loves finding her version of treasure in the form of washed-up trash.

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3 Min
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Featured

Martin Buser: The Racer Comes Home

Running a string of sled dogs in the cold arctic night on the Iditarod Trail is not for the faint of heart. Ripping over frozen undulating terrain, dimly lit by an ever-bobbing headlamp, a musher must alternately trust that his team is not heading towards disaster while cheering them on as they plunge further into the darkness. They tread on a razor’s edge at times. Mushers often tie themselves to their sleds to ensure that if things go south, they are not stranded on the trail as their dogs continue to race forward. There is little time to soak in the icy beauty that surrounds the sled. Instead, one must focus on the next checkpoint and the ultimate goal, Nome. The race is infamous for breaking the will of even the heartiest, and many a musher has called it quits mid-race. But not Martin Buser.

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5 Min
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Field Notes

Dispatches from the North: Kotzebue Sound Salmon

“Fish are hitting already, splashing. Seals surface nearby. Andrew whoops, “Rich!” and roars down-current to find a spot. I wring my sopping gray gloves, curl stiff cold fingers around the lines, and start pulling in salmon.”

Seth Kantner has fished commercially in Alaska for 49 seasons. He’s also a best-selling author, wildlife photographer, and wilderness guide. During changing seasons in the arctic, we’re excited to have Seth writing for us about his life in Alaskan Arctic and on Kotzebue Sound. Read the first of the series exclusively on The Filson Journal.

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5 Min
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Profiles

Mary Goddard: Imprints of Copper and Community

Carved into silver, the fiddlehead catches my eye as light reflects off a displayed cuff’s surface. We are standing in Mary Goddard’s studio in Sheet’Ká (Sitka), Alaska. On the wall, seemingly fresh splotches of paint sample shades of green that seem to bring the most northern rainforest into the small space. Copper sheets, large unfinished tina’as, and a formline eagle and raven sit waiting to take flight on her worktable.

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5 Min
Man transfers trout from one pond to another
Profiles

Revival of a Trout Hatchery

Cold water creeks and rivers course through Appalachia like veins and arteries. Over the eons, their breadth and depth have carved through earth and stone to spread life across this mountain chain. Forests of rhododendron, maple, and dogwood trees line their banks, along with healthy carpets of lush ferns. Beneath the surface of these streams hovers of trout swim year-round, and whenever Ty Walker of Smoke in Chimneys wades into the water and casts his fly, he now holds the trout in higher esteem than ever.

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3 Min
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Profiles

Oceans Initiative: on a mission to protect marine life

Conservation scientist Erin Ashe, PhD, says we all have a “cetacean story”: the moment in our lives when we realize that whales and dolphins—the spellbinding mammals she studies—exist. Ashe was four years old when hers happened. A family of orcas swam below her aunt’s cliffside home on San Juan Island in the state of Washington, announcing their presence with the unmistakable whoosh of air being exhaled through blowholes. Ashe was awestruck, and insatiably curious about the 12,000-pound creatures—a feeling that would direct the course of her studies and, eventually, her life’s work.

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2 Min
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Profiles

Filson x Rugged Seas

The idea was simple: collect used bibs, give them a good cleaning, then cut and repurpose the materials to give the bibs a second life. In practice, of course, it’s never that easy, but by building on the expertise of manufacturers and businesses in and around their hometown of Cape Elizabeth, ME, Rugged Seas has been able to grow from a home-based operation to one that involves not just their local community but also working waterfronts up and down the coast.

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3 Min