Two magenta colored salmon are swimming in a turquoise stream. A yellow spotted halibut and humpback whales are surrounded by swirls of  rainbow colors. Ravens and blue herons are flying through fire and waves of color, and two bright orange fox are strolling across a background of electric blue.

These are some of the animal designs on silk created by Juneau artist Fumi Matsumoto. The show “Fin, Fur and Feather's” Animal Designs on Silk, a collection of works inspired by the fish, animals and birds that inhabit our corner of the world will be displayed at the Canvas Gallery for the month of August.

The artist was born in Japan and raised in Berkeley, California where she graduated from the University of California with degrees in art and education. After she visited Denali Park in 1979 and was impressed and inspired by the awesome grandeur of  the wilderness and its magnificent wildlife, she  moved to Alaska.

“A passion for fishing and interest in birds and animals first brought me to Alaska and once I saw the wonderful wildlife here, I was hooked! This place where salmon, moose, caribou, whales, eagles, bears and wolves run free is a nature lover's paradise. I moved to Alaska and this has been my home for over 30 years.”

Fumi has a thirty year career teaching art to students from elementary school to university level in both California and Alaska. She works in a variety of mixed media and sculpture including clay, handmade paper,  photography, recycled materials, found objects, and silk painting.

“To me the creative process is the most enjoyable aspect of art. I love to come up with an idea or a design and work out the challenges involved in executing the work.  I usually like to work quickly and freely, but I found this difficult to do when painting with silk dyes using the “ wax resist process,” which is a technique that has been used for centuries in many cultures around the world to produce beautiful textile arts. Not only is the technique unforgiving, because mistakes are difficult to remove or repair, but it takes time to go through the various stages of the process.”

The design is first drawn in pencil on silk and then gone over with liquid wax and allowed to dry overnight. Colored dyes are painted within the waxed designs and salt or liquid media is used to create unusual textures and washes in the background. The painting is rolled up between layers of newsprint paper and steamed to set the dyes, The silk is then carefully washed to remove the wax and excess dye, ironed and placed in frames.

“The silk dyes allow expressing the subject matter with such bold and brilliant colors. This is different from my subtle Japanese palette. The images are tighter and confined within the white lines  where the wax resist was applied, but I try to give each of my subjects a sense of movement and a feeling of  the 'spirit' of the animal. I want my love, fascination and respect for each creature to be expressed in the finished work.”