Suacit

“Valdez Rising – Suacit (People of the Place That Rises Into View)”

This past September, our sculpture team at Classic Foundry in Seattle installed and then attended the unveiling of three of our works in Valdez, Alaska. These monuments resulted from the collaborative efforts of Classic Foundry-Seattle Art & Industrial, the Port Valdez Company Inc., the Chugachigmiut and Ahnah People (the regional Indigenous Alaskan Tribes) and the City of Valdez. 

Responding to a CODAWRX call for proposals in 2021, our team competed with 80 international sculptors for the $250,000 award, and our sculpture design was selected by a community arts committee and Port Valdez Inc.  

The three 6’x4’ bronze sculptures, placed at the entrance of Valdez’s new Naruluku Park at Meals Hill ,  memorialize the contributions of the town’s founders, the native peoples of the region, and the community of Valdez.

I began this project in 2021 and had the pleasure of working closely with Port Valdez Company’s president, John H. Clark.  Together, over the next three years, in several site visits and teleconferences, we interacted repeatedly with Chugash Tribal Elders, the City Council of Valdez, Mr. Bill Harris of Harris Construction, and City Manager, Nathanial Duval who directed the engineering of the park and installation site.  

In preparation for the competition I found valuable details of the founders’ adventures as well as the eventful Valdez history in three fascinating books, Hazelet’s Journal, by George Cheever Hazelet, Icebound Empire, by Elizabeth A. Tower , and Valdez Rises by Tabitha Gregory.

George Cheever Hazelet

Andrew Jackson Meals

This map shows the “Copper River Country” in SW Alaska, with Valdez, nestled at the foot of a massive (now disappearing) glacier that prospecting adventurers like Hazelet and Meals had to cross to reach pay dirt.

The Copper River Country

After conceptualizing the proposal, I assigned one of our team members, Armenian artist, Tsovinar Muradyan, to create the initial proposal graphics which I presented to the awards committee .

Concept Graphics of Entry way Monuments to Meals Hill Park, drawn by Tsovinar Muradyan

PANEL ONE, sculpted by another of our team members, Ukranian artist, Grigoriy Reva, depicts the indigenous Alaskans who inhabited the region, dressed in their traditional garb, and interaction with the early Russian Orthodox missionaries who established churches in the area.

Chugach Man, Chugach Dwelling, Russian Orthodox Church, Valdez

PANEL ONE, Valdez Monument, Bronze 6’x4′, Sculpted by Grigoriy Reva

PANEL TWO, sculpted by another team member, Armenian artist, Gegham Abrahamyan, depicts the busts of the three people who are permanently embedded in the Valdez history: Andrew Jackson Meals and George Cheevers Hazelet, the two gold prospectors who founded Valdez in 1900, and their native Alaskan guide Tl’ Adet (a.k.a. “Indian Charlie). To the right of their busts is a representation of their arduous, dangerous ascent up the Valdez glacier as they began their search for the gold fields. You will note that we changed the maquette rendition of Tl’ Adet from a Plains native physiognomy to that of the Inuit in the final work.

Concept Drawing, Ascent of the Glacier, Gegham Abrahamyan

Initial Clay Maquette, Panel Two, Valdez Monument, Gegham Abrahamyan

PANEL TWO, Valdez Monument, (Initial Full Scale Clay Rendition),Gegham Abrahamyan

PANEL THREE, also sculpted by Ukranian artist, Grigoriy Reva, depicts the spectacular natural environmental features of Valdez and its dramatic history over the past 125 years, including initial Anchorage-Valdez bi-plane flights by “The Spirit of Valdez”, Valdez’s dramatic recovery from disasters like the 1964 earthquake-tsunami that destroyed the town and the devastating oil spill of the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

The Spirit of Valdez, and the Chugach Tribal Star

The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, 1989

Panel Three, Valdez Monument, (Full Scale Initial Clay Rendition) by Grigoriy Reva

Classic Foundry Director, Romanian artist, Ion Onutan supervised the process start to finish, and American artist, John Kusma completed the patination before we shipped the sculptures and mounting posts from Seattle to Valdez.

Although we completed the fabrication of the monuments ahead of schedule in 2024, because the winter weather in Valdez, (with snow drifts as deep as 8 feet !!!!!), precluded any winter on-site work, we had to wait for the new park entrance area to be regraded and prepped for our installation until this September. I am pleased to say that despite torrential rain, we mounted the monuments just in time for the community’s official dedication.

On behalf of Classic Foundry – Seattle Art & Industrial, I invite you to visit our monument in Valdez and experience the gorgeous region with all its natural beauty. The fishing and hiking is wonderful and I promise you that you will never taste salmon or halibut like what’s available up there.

Gar LaSalle