The exhibition is scheduled to run until January 10th.
The director of the Clausen Museum in St. Petersburg, Lagudakis works with monotype prints, photography, acrylics and mixed media to create intricate and colorful works featuring animals and landscapes from Southeast Alaska.
When asked why he uses so many different materials and methods in his work, Ragdakis laughs and replies, “I mean ‘I can’t make up my mind’.”
The subject matter she chose was “kind of a coincidence. Over time, I found myself doing a lot of birds that I enjoyed. I’m a trained natural resources professional. was a forester and worked for many years as a field forester.”
She said she worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Oregon and Alaska before retiring.
Lagoudakis said her interest in birds began at an early age. Her father built an aviary in her backyard when she lived in Southern California, and over the years has housed a variety of interesting birds, including the Chinese nightingale, the Australian diamond pigeon, and the Brazilian and Venezuelan cardinals. I had
When Lagoudakis was in college, he brought home a Brazilian cardinal who worked at a nearby pet store and built a special cage to keep him secretly in his dorm room.
“I’ve been interested in birds for a long time,” she said.
Lagoudakis developed an interest in printmaking and began taking classes at the University of Alaska, Juneau many years ago.
More recently, she has been experimenting with gelatin prints, using different materials, including freezer paper, as templates and stencils, she says, pushing the method in new directions.
She also enjoys making intricate cut art pieces and incorporates them into her prints. but sometimes the stencil breaks when lifting it off the surface of the piece, resulting in an accidental monoprint. .
“I had to really decide what I wanted before I printed a single image,” she said.
She said that in the process of creating her kirigami works, she ends up with a lot of scrap.
“I didn’t have the courage to do much with the reduced linocut method of cutting out plates and making different colors. I started cutting (paper) in ,” Raghdakis said with a laugh.
She added that she cuts out old discarded stencils and uses them to collage her work in other mediums to enhance them.
“I keep taking what I did before,” she said.
About making prints with linoleum print blocks, Lagoudakis says: I like to engrave things and see how the image prints. ”
She doesn’t have a printing press yet, so she rubs each linocut print by hand with a tool called a baren.
Another project in the planning stages for Lagoudakis is creating an illustration for a book a friend commissioned her to do.
Her business name is Rabbits Foot Studios, reflecting the meaning of her Greek surname, which means “rabbit.” She sells her work through the ‘Firelight Gallery’ in Petersburg and has exhibited several times in Ketchikan.
Lagoudakis said one of her pieces from The Commons show, “Coupled,” featuring two crows, will be on the February page of the 2023 crow calendar. Another one of her crow pieces on the show, “Wake Up Call,” was featured on her 2020 crow calendar.
Her logo design was selected as the logo for the 2013 Area Arts and Humanities Blueberry Arts Festival. She also created the logo for the St. Petersburg Rainforest Festival and the St. Petersburg radio station KFSK.
She also recently submitted a linocut she created for a curated traveling art exhibition titled “Portable Southeast,” featuring Hammer Slough of Petersburg, where houses and warehouses are stacked above the water.
Lagoudakis said he has always been inspired by Alaskan artist Ron Senungetuk, who creates powerful artwork that tells a lot through simple, strong lines. She said it’s not like her more intricate and detailed work, but admires his sparse style.
Creating art has been a lifelong focus for Lagoudakis.
“I’ve always enjoyed artwork,” she said. “I’ve been drawing since I was little,” she said.
She adds: It’s a different way of seeing, feeling and expressing what I love in the world. ”
Of her artwork hanging in The Commons exhibit, she said: One is to stand behind them and look at them, but if you look closer, you can see three crows in particular. The entire work is a collage.
“It took me over a week to sit down with tweezers and tiny scissors and cut each piece,” she added.
Lagoudakis says that when making collages, he often cuts scraps from gelatin plate prints and uses them to add color and depth to the composition.
She said she would ask herself. How do I emphasize light, patterns, and what I want to draw attention to? ”
In his work as museum curator, Lagoudakis finds joy in watching children interact with exhibits and creating their own art while they are there, and inspires adults to explore creatively as well. said to encourage.
“I hope people feel that art can be made with many things and not be afraid of it, rather than something so inaccessible and unattainable,” Ragdakis said. , added, “Just jump in.”
