Cassady Cowan stands with the SEARHC bear, one of many BearFest figures the high school senior has touched up or completely repainted. Cowan chose to repaint the bears for her senior project at the suggestion of Sylvia Ettefagh, who organizes BearFest and distributes the statues every spring.
Cassady Cowan had a grand plan for her senior project to bring some vibrancy to Wrangell.
Although her original plan didn't float, her backup plan bears repeating.
When Cowan, 17, was trying to figure out her high school project, her focus was on the killer whale mural on the retaining wall facing the water behind the Stikine Inn.
"I was going to make it brighter and make it look newer," she said about the mural. Ultimately, "it would cost too much (because of) the cracked paint. The temperature was right, and the weather wasn't playing out."
Cowan began thinking about a new project. She was working as a server assistant at the Stikine Restaurant at the time. During her shift, BearFest organizer Sylvia Ettefagh was having dinner and asked her if she would like to take on the task of repainting the bear statues that are placed around town from late spring until early fall.
Over the years, the bears have become weathered and faded, chipped and damaged. Although Cowan can't repair the damaged bears, she can repaint the others. All the statues of standing and sitting bears and bear cubs are made of fiberglass.
"So far, I painted the three little sport bears: Wrestling, basketball and volleyball," Cowan said. "I touched up the SEARHC bear (dressed in a Tlingit robe and holding a paddle), and I did the BearFest 2010 bear. Those are the ones I received and finished."
With four of the bears finished, Cowan has turned her attention to writing her proposal and finishing her presentation, which includes time-lapse video of her doing the work on the bears. However, she said, as other bears are brought it, she will continue to work on them. Senior projects require a minimum of 20 hours of work, but Cowan estimates she's put in 50-plus hours on the bears so far.
"On certain ones, I'm touching up (the paint)," she said. "On others, I'm painting the whole thing. On the 2010 bear, I had to redo that one. I didn't measure any paint and I had five different blues on that bear. I taped off some of the sea creatures (the bear is decorated with an ocean theme) that are big with a lot of detail. Then I painted the whole bear blue."
She then took off the tape and let the paint dry. After that step, she outlined the animals that she had taped off. She took pictures of the other creatures, so that she could paint over them and recreate them from the photos she took. "I would look at my phone and sketch the sea creature on the bear where (the original was). It looks better than it did before."
The biggest challenge Cowan has faced for her project is finding the time to paint between schoolwork and working part-time as a housekeeper at the Stikine Inn. When she does find the time to paint, whether during school hours or after school, she finds inspiration in her music.
"Cassady really loves making art," said art teacher Tasha Morse, who has given the senior a little advice, but is otherwise impressed with her student's talent and work ethic. "She can be found after school rocking out to some music while revitalizing the bears."
When it comes time to graduate, which Cowan admits is getting here faster than she thought it would, she will take one of two roads. She will either continue to train as a certified nursing assistant, a class she's taking through SEARHC at the hospital, or she will go to culinary school. She's in no rush to leave the island.
For now, she's content to keep working on the bears and finishing school.
"She has done an excellent job at matching paint colors and recreating the artwork that is on the bears to start," Morse said. "She is also working to patch cracks that have developed, and overall, I'm really proud of her hard work."
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