Waves of memories are encapsulated in my latest portfolio of work. I introduce my first collection of wild Alaska salmon supplemented with my own personal anecdotes, an ode to my upbringing and family’s livelihood….
It’s May and the fisherman are getting ready to leave the docks. Think of it as spring training in the MLB but this is the big leagues of catching fish: commercial salmon fishing season. Every year my dad would prep his gear and crew for the 3-month salmon season in a tiny village in southwest Alaska where we set our nets out from June-September. So releasing my latest art collection during this particular time of year rings nostalgic to my upbringing in a 3rd generation fishing family!
Salmon garner a level of respect from me and so many others in the industry who have grown up sustained by them. Plus, we live in a pretty fake world which is why having a story is everything: conscious consumers want an authentic story behind what they consume and I think one of the most authentic foods you can eat is wild salmon. It’s truly one of the most remarkable animals in the world—in both its rich nutritional content and it’s impressive life cycle. Think about it: a pen pig is ready for slaughter at 250lbs in just the first 6months of its life, whereas salmon reach maturity in 3-5 years with a mere yet mighty 7lbs to them—all the while getting lots of exercise and dodging predators for years! So, when my dad catches them in their prime on their way to the spawning grounds to pass on their rich genes—YOU are eating those fish that have survived. It’s survival of the fittest out there and your body can’t help but feel that transfer of energy every time you consume this wild species. One just can’t feel the same way when consuming pork or other meat. Still an enigma in the midst of all the scientific gains we have in this modern day, biologists have yet to pin down their lives in the wilds of the open ocean where they roam free and become adults.
Did you know there are 5 species of wild salmon? You probably are most familiar with the King salmon which I highlight first from my collection. I know their markings and many other things about them, thanks in part to my fishing days with the family. Interestingly, it’s taken +30 years of being an artist and fisherman’s daughter to do my first salmon painting though! Maybe I was just refining my skills all those years to undertake the creation of this beautifully mysterious yet so pivotal species in our ocean food chain. Or, maybe I was so surrounded by salmon my whole life that I got jaded by their presence, so creating other things with my art was an escape from them—up until now.
Chinook (a.k.a. King Salmon)
2023 / 58x22” / Acrylic + oil / $4700 original (framed and ready to hang) email me HERE to inquire about buying originals / Shop my selection of smaller hand-signed prints HERE
This species is the biggest yet least abundant, the most delectable and sought-after out of all 5 species. We would not catch that many in our net or hardly at all, so when we did catch them we would keep them for our own family consumption. If it was a female, my dad would cut open the belly and take the eggs out which were each about the size of a pea. He loved boiling them and putting lemon and butter in there for a high protein- jumbo-pink-Caviar Delight (I made up that name for it haha). Sometimes we would catch the rare “white king” which had pale pink to white flesh and tasted just as oily as the regular king flesh but, as far as I can remember, were even more mellow in salmon flavor. I remember breakfasts from childhood as my dad would often make me king salmon and rice before I headed off to school in the mornings. I didn’t think much of it because I was born into this type of life, but how lucky I was when I look back on that time to think that king salmon was more of a staple in my house than a delicacy. -Whitney
Humpy (a.k.a. Pink Salmon)
2023 / 25x16” / Acrylic + oil / $3200 (framed and ready to hang) email me HERE to inquire about buying originals / Shop my selection of smaller hand-signed prints HERE
The humble humpy! The most plentiful out of the five species of salmon. Most salmon that are ready to spawn get a very dramatic humped back but the Humpy has a perpetual more noticeable hump throughout its life than the other 4 species of salmon. I remember when we had a massive paycut on our commercial salmon prices in the early 2000s--my dad was getting paid $.10 cents/pound, probably the lowest ever! Historically, pinks have always been the lowest cost. The processing plants generally make canned salmon out of pinks—pretty much every canned salmon you see in a grocery store is from the bountiful and budget-friendly pink salmon. Just as nutritious as it’s counterparts, the Pink has a mild flavor and semi oily taste.
-Whitney
Coho (a.k.a. Silver)
2023 / 25x16” / Acrylic + oil / $3200 (framed and ready to hang) email me HERE to inquire about buying originals / Shop my selection of smaller hand-signed prints HERE
The Silver gets its name from the shimmering silvery coat and has a taste as fine as silver—smooth and oily like the King but less pricey which is nice! Sometimes I would get the king and silver mixed up because big silvers look similar to small kings. Both kings and silvers have the same tail thickness and their scale coat looks pretty similar but the silver doesn’t have the prevalent black freckles along its back like Kings do. -Whitney
Sockeye (a.k.a. Red)
2023 / 25x16” / Acrylic + oil / $3200 original (framed and ready to hang) email me HERE to inquire about buying originals / Shop my selection of smaller hand-signed prints HERE
The Japanese are the main buyers of this prized species of fish—enjoyed best as sashimi grade, this is the salmon you will see in an authentic Japanese sushi house. Prized for its fresh salmon flavor and quintessential deep red salmon color, the sockeye is best enjoyed raw with soy sauce and wasabi. Because of its lower oil content, it is less forgiving when heated which is why I still stick to King, Silver and Pink when it comes to enjoying the cooked dining side of salmon species.
I remember when we got our highest price per pound in 1988 the year after I was born. My dad told me it was around $2.50/pound, so adjusted for inflation today would be over $6/pound for a fisherman! As several middleman handle our fish between when my dad catches it and when
the end-customer consumes it, seafood, much like other food product, has a higher price towards the end. -Whitney
Chum (a.k.a. Dog)
2023 / 25x16” / Acrylic + oil / Whitney L. Anderson / $3200 original (framed and ready to hang) email me HERE to inquire about buying originals / Shop my selection of smaller hand-signed prints HERE
Ghastly or beautiful? The markings of the Chum salmon are quiet the dichotomy depending on the way people look at it. The army green streaks are very faint as they swim out in the wild up until they are about to spawn—that’s when they look drastic as depicted in my painting. Their scale coat and more bland taste make the chum particularly the most unique—or odd dog—out of the five species of salmon. The chum acquiring its nickname “dog salmon” by fisherman was due to the abundance of the other far more rich tasting salmon species and at that time chum salmon was fed to the dogs. So, it’s now wonder we have such a strong lineage of sled dogs, many if which participate in the famous Iditarod sled dog race. Suffice it to say, it has a less fresh taste so it is best put in canned foods. Its hardy flavor makes it fitting to eat as a dried fish, which is how my dad enjoyed it. To put some life back into the dried version, he would eat it with a slather of butter on a round of Pilot Bread. I remember as a child I would be sitting nearby and watching him partake in this brash Barbarian-like snack—no doubt spurred on by our Viking ancestory. -Whitney
