Operation Arctic Care: Kotzebue, Alaska

I was one of the artists for U.S. Air Force Art Program, and I had the honor of accompanying servicemen and servicewomen participating in Operation Arctic Care, which is an annual joint mission between Air Force, Army, and Navy to provide medical care to remote villages near Arctic Circle in Alaska.

===========================

Operation Arctic Care is based in Kotzebue, Alaska this year. From there, the military personnel fly out to about a dozen outlying villages to perform medical checkups.

Kotzebue, Alaska (population: 3,135, temperature 20 degrees Fahrenheit/-7 degrees Celsius) is dramatically different from my hometown of Los Angeles, California (population: 3.8 million, temperature: 70 degrees Fahrenheit/21 degrees Celsius), even though they are both in the United States. I have gathered and borrowed all the winter clothing I could find, and after two stopovers (since there is no direct flight), I have arrived at snow-covered village – within a day, I was transported from second largest metropolis in the U.S. with year-round sunshine to one of the most remote areas of the country with harsh, long winter in the tundra.

The sky was white, the sea was white, the land was white.

The soft, diffused light cast no shadow while the air was cold, and when it snowed or when the wind picked up, it got even colder. It was beyond what I have ever experienced, and I had to figure out how to paint landscape that has so little color. The sky got somewhat bluish after sunset (at around 10:30pm), though not a true “midnight blue” or pitch-blackness of the night that I’m familiar with in all the other parts of the world I visited.

Two birds happened to fly by when I was doing the sketch while looking out the window from inside the only hotel in town – and those birds were the only flying creatures I have seen throughout my stay except for planes and helicopters. Speaking of helicopters, I’ll post my experience of riding on the Blackhawk in another post….