Multidisciplinary artist Sabrina Kessakorn’s winning design for the Alaska Artistic License Plate competition features an alpenglow Denali juxtaposed to fireweed in the foreground.
“I really want the subject to be wildlife, because that’s what’s important to me … I couldn’t think of an animal that fit everywhere in Alaska, so I thought, ‘Okay, plants.’ And fireweed is so perfect,” she said. “The idea of having fireweed, despite them being colonizer plants, they are native and they are beautiful and come up everywhere … I wanted to cultivate this feeling of appreciation for our landscapes.”
Kessakorn is a native plants technician in Anchorage and runs her small business Fetching Constellations, where she combines her passions for photography and art. Her license plate design will soon be rolling out statewide; in addition to physical plates, there will be merchandise available for purchase.
“Now we’ve got about a whole two hands worth of products, we just got water bottles shipped up here, so I think those will be out in stores,” Kessakorn said. “I was told Walmart should have all the products, Fred Meyer will have some products.”
Kessakorn worked and lived in Denali for two summers, where “every day felt unique, they said.
“Every single morning I had to wake up at 4 am at the latest and watch the sunrise over this amazing valley, and that was my favorite color scheme ever, and I was always dreaming about it,” Kessakorn said. “There’s not enough purple in this world.”
When she was up north in Denali, they were part of Composing in the Wilderness, a program connecting musicians to Alaska’s backcountry that combines science, art and music altogether.
“[Composing in the Wilderness] went further than that and got artists to create artwork inspired by music that was inspired by Denali,” Kessakorn said. “At that time in my life, I was really struggling between choosing between art and science, I really felt it was either-or, especially in college.”
The event happened to fall on her birthday, which Kessakorn says was a transformative experience for her into becoming the kind of artist that she wants to be.
“I think a little bit of history doing graphic design and then moving into spiritualism and falling in love with conservation has really formed this really fun style,” Kessakorn said. “Now I’m getting into block printing which feels like a really perfect medium between all of those things.”
Sam Davenport is a writer residing in Anchorage. She's a leo and a plant-person, and loves spending quality time with her dog, Aspen. She is a Real Housewives fan and has been called a Bravo historian.
