— by Margie Doyle —

Rie Muñoz sits with her dog Muncie in a field of lupine near her home. (Mark Kelley photo, 2008)

Rie Muñoz sits with her dog Muncie in a field of lupine near her home. (Mark Kelley photo, 2008)

Alaska artist Rie Muñoz died earlier this month in Juneau, Alaska.

“An Alaskan for 65 years, Rie is known for her bright, colorful paintings and good cheer. Her watercolors were not realistic, but they captured the spirit of her subjects. She loved people, and it showed in her work: Alaskans doing Alaska-type things, fishermen working, children at play, village life, legends, and dogs. Rie once said she never met a dog she didn’t like.” (from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner:)

Catherine Pederson, former owner of Darvill’s Fine Prints and the official dealer of Muñoz prints in the San Juan Islands, remembers the two occasions on which Muñoz and her son and partner, Juan, came to Orcas Island for print releases. Catherine was then the owner of Darvill’s Fine Prints shop, where Crow Valley Pottery in town is now located. She still has a number of Muñoz’s signed limited edition prints, and others are available online at DarvillsRarePrints.com.

Power Outage, Orcas Island by Rie Muñoz

Power Outage, Orcas Island by Rie Muñoz

“She released three or four new prints a year. To sell her prints, one had to be accepted as a print dealer. I felt honored to be accepted as a dealer of their prints; there was competition among the dealers for the purchase of her prints. Every dealer was allowed a number of prints before they became available to the public. It was a very exciting process to get enough, and to guess which prints would be the most desirable.”

Rie Muñoz briefly owned property on Orcas Island, but her home since 1950 was Alaska, mostly Tenakee, by Juneau. But on two occasions, she came to a print release at Darvill’s Fine Prints in town. Catherine Pederson remembers, “The print shop was jammed with people to meet her. She and Juan were very gracious. They were warm and outgoing, she always had a big smile and she genuinely enjoyed people.

Juan Muñoz says, “She was always sketching; always had a pencil in her hand.”

Catherine Pederson is one a limited number of authorized dealers of Muñoz prints; the sole dealer in the San Juan Islands. There are only three in Seattle, and a small number at Pacific coast galleries. Rie Muñoz kept most of her prints in the Northwest and Alaska. A number of Orcas Islanders are collectors who knew her work from early on. As well as “Power Outage on Orcas Island,” pictured above, she created the print “Hitchhikers, Orcas Island” (of two seagulls on a floating log).

As told in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner:

“While living in California in 1950, [Rie] decided to plan a trip. Looking at a map, she drew a line to the farthest and most interesting place she could afford on a shoestring budget. Rie chose Alaska, traveling up the Inside Passage by steamship. She fell in love with Juneau immediately and gave herself one day – until the boat was scheduled to return to the Lower 48 – to find a job and a place to live. Rie found both, and Alaska became her home.
“During her years in the Last Frontier, Rie visited and sketched every Alaska community on the road system and most of those off the grid. She held many jobs. Among them were journalist, teacher, museum curator, artist, and raising her son. One of her most memorable positions was on King Island in 1951, where she taught 25 Iñupiaq children.
“Rie studied art at Washington and Lee University in Virginia. Inspired by an ad in a matchbook in 1957, she took a correspondence course through the Famous Artists Painting Course program. In 1999, she received the University of Alaska’s Honorary Doctorate of Humanities Degree. Her paintings, prints, and reproductions are carried by galleries throughout the United States and Canada.”

Fairbanks artist Kim Krinke wrote on Facebook, “Alaska shall miss her interpretation of life here.” As will we all.

(Featured photograph by Mark Kelley, 2012)

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