Heat Wave

The ink on paper image is from Harkrader's 'Drawings from Life' at the Mountain Lake Symposiums and Workshops from the decade of the 80's. This drawing is American artist, Keith Sonnier, whom the artist captured while Sonnier spoke.

Since the Dark Skinned Angel has only recently started to focus on my blog, we will recap history along the way. During the month of September and October, 2009 the Montgomery Museum hosted the 'Mountain Lake Workshop Retrospective', thanks to Ray Kass, Founder and Director of theMountain Lake Symposiums and Workshops (http://www.raykass.com/html/artists.html). The museum partnered with the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge to bring this historic exhibit to the New River Valley, home of Mountain Lake.

The above drawing of Sonnier was one of nine Harkrader drawings in that exhibit. There are a total of 33 drawings from life from that decade. Other drawings include; John Cage, Ray Kass, Donald Kuspit, etc. These historic drawings are available for exhibit and acquisition. More details in a future blog.

There is a heat wave--but you will have to visit Charlotte to catch the wave, for there it is a balmy 40 F. Harkrader recalls one temperature experience in Girdwoood Alaska (OMG, you say--another Alaska story?). The temp had been -50 F for 3 weeks. The weather then warmed up to 40 F in a 4 day period (90 degrees). There was 2 inches of ice on the 'inside' of Harkrader's cabin windows. Unocuppied vehicles parked on a slanted lot at Aleyeska Ski Resort slid downhill and pancaked sideways on the rapidly melting ice. Today he is in Charlotte. Harkrader brought his watercolors for quickies.