Foggybottomcoffee.com * 734-424-9630

  The idea for The Good Life came from an old couple who lived down the road from my wife and me in Saint Mary’s, Alaska. We had only lived in St. Mary’s for a year, but knew that though the couple was bent and elderly, they were famous for still taking excursions by snowmachine and four-wheeler out onto the land. The old man was a member of the Kazevnikov Family; no one presently living in St. Mary’s—even the eldest elder—could remember a time when the Kazevnikovs were not in the village.

  The Kazevnikov home was typical of what one often finds in the village—the yard was strewn with disused machines, pieces of metal, plastic buckets, discarded fuel canisters, sleds both broken and new, all that made it look to untranedWestern eyes like the location of a makeshift dump. However, to the owner of such treasures all this signified wealth.

  I had always been interested in the house and this couples’ lives, though I had never had interaction with them beyond a brief wave or nod. Their house had an energy about it, to me even more so than other homes in town. Often, they had bright laundry flapping in the breeze, contrasted with the angular buildings and dark black and white spruce as a backdrop to the scene. 

  One day I was walking by the house; down the steps came the old man. He was “going out  into the country” coming down the steps in his stooped way, struggling with a tote full of gear that he would need for the day’s adventures. His wife wasn’t with him. He was going out alone. This singular incident is what put The Good Life into motion. (Hit read more!)

  Over the months it took me to complete this painting, several things happened: The old man was found out of town after he had lain on the tundra all night and was taken to the hospital where he withered for a long time. Soon after, the woman passed away. For weeks, different relatives constantly occupied the house, though the energy of the old couple stayed, as did the bright laundry. Then, about two months after his accident, the old man also passed away.

  Saint Mary’s was incorporated as an Alaskan city in 1967. Less than a mile down the hill and closer to the river, lay the village of Andreafski. Founded in 1899, Andreafski served as a supply depot and rendezvous for the Northern Comercial Company’s fleet of riverboats that would ply up and down the Yukon River during the warmer months. Andreafski took it’s name for the Andrea family which settled on what became the Andreafski River; the Andrea family also built a Russian Orthodox Church.  

  In 1903, the Jesuit missionaries built a mission 90 miles downriver, on an island in a slough that connected two arms of the Yukon River. “Akalurak” as it was named—“In-Between Place”—had the main purpose of educating and caring for those orphaned by the flu epidemic of 1901. By 1915, there were 70 full-time students attending the mission.

  By 1948, a proper village had been established at Akalurak, though the slough had silted in almost completely. The villagers decided to move to higher ground, securing supplies from several Akalurak homes and an abandoned gold-rush era hotel to construct a new mission. In 1949, an unused 15’ x 30’ building along with some other materials were barged from Galena Air Force Base. A tractor was barged from Holy Cross and a Catholic mission-school was built at St. Mary’s.

  Andreafski and Saint Mary’s became a single incorporated city in 1980. In 1987, the mission officially closed, due to tensions between the students, the mission and the community. The Kazevnikov’s were present for all these changes and many more.