Alaska Railroad Releases 2020 Annual Art Print
ARRC
ANCHORAGE—The Alaska Railroad (ARRC) will release its 2020 annual poster/print at two public sale-and-signing events featuring Anchorage artist Jason Vukovich, who will sign prints and posters. Events include:
- ANCHORAGE: Saturday, November 16,
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Anchorage Historic Depot (411 W. 1st Avenue)
- FAIRBANKS: First Friday, November 1,
4-7 p.m. at the Fairbanks Depot (1031 Alaska Railroad Depot Road)
The 2020 art print artwork is Vukovich’s second Alaska Railroad commission. He created the artwork that was the basis for the 2016 ARRC print / poster as well.
Entitled Journeys, the watercolor painting depicts an Alaska Railroad passenger train moving along a steel deck girder bridge over a river packed with salmon making their annual journey upstream to spawn. Knowing a feast awaits, bears journey to the salmon-rich streams to fatten up before winter and hibernation.
“I was thrilled to be chosen to do another painting for the Alaska Railroad; and I wanted to show a classic Alaskan scene,” said Vukovich. “I chose salmon jumping up a waterfall, trying to avoid a brown bear waiting in the rushing waters¾a scene that unfolds along hundreds of streams and rivers that the Alaska Railroad crosses throughout Alaska.”
A life-long artist, Jason’s art education began as a first grader attending Saturday art classes; and endured to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. These days, he regularly participates in Anchorage First Friday art gallery openings; and his work can be found online at INPrnt.com and on Facebook (Jason Vukovich Art).
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Jason’s artistic skill contributes to an engineering design career that launched eleven years ago in Bellingham, Washington. In 2013, Jason moved his family to Anchorage, where he is a controls designer at Coffman Engineering. Jason’s journey to engineering and to Alaska came in a round-about way. He previously served as an infantry officer in US Army. After honorably separating from military service, Jason bartended, drove a forklift, and managed production at a dairy plant, before discovering a talent for design. Off-duty, Jason volunteers at the Alaska Zoo, where he finds artistic inspiration in the animals, and where some of his inspired works are available for sale.
The railroad’s annual art print program began forty years ago, when ARRC commissioned renowned artist John Van Zyle to produce an official painting. Since that 1979 beginning, the annual tradition (except in 1984, when no painting was released) has evolved into a popular collector’s item. More information about the Alaska Railroad’s annual art print program, including history and images of prints from the recent past, are available on www.AlaskaRailroad.com/Corporate > Click IN THE COMMUNITY > then Annual Print Contest.
Jason Vukovich
ARRC
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