Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
— 33 —
History by the Wall
TWO HOURS INTO THE
mural I turned to Jon Van Zyle and said, “So what do you think? Is
it going well?
“Yeah, I guess so. Hell, what do I know, I'm just here.”
Jon isn't exactly the dictatorial type.
Jon Van Zyle, as any Alaskan can tell you, is the artist of record for the Iditarod Trail
Sled Dog Race. Every year he produces a painting that is reprinted as that year's poster, all
of them evocative of the cold and the dark and the eleven hundred grinding miles of trail
from Anchorage to Nome.
Today it's August, it's Seward, the sun is up and will be for the foreseeable future, and
Jon, depending on which story you believe, has been either dragooned into or has himself
volunteered this year to do the master design for Seward's Mural in a Day.
This event was masterminded by local artist Jennifer Headtke, who was visiting her sis-
ter in Lompoc, California, one year and saw the murals on the walls of the public buildings
there. Local artists had pioneered the mural-in-a-day to foster community spirit and keep
the kids off the streets. “Why can't we do that in Seward?” she said, and repeated herself
enough times when she came home that she found other interested artists and a few gener-
ous sponsors and, well, now Seward is starting their sixth.
“Each mural has its own theme,” Jennifer says on a drive through downtown Seward.
Local artist Susan Swiderski designed the one on the wall of the museum at 4
th
and Jeffer-
son, based on the famous Fourth of July footrace that traces the trail straight up local peak
Mt. Marathon. “That one actually took three days,” Jennifer says ruefully, but it is a mir-
acle of energy and motion, with the bay and mountains as a glorious backdrop. “The Dawn
of Aviation” is on the Elks building at 4
th
and Washington, and it isn't just a mural, it's a
