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Rie Muñoz |
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An Alaskan for 65 years, Rie (pronounced as "ree") 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. While living in California in 1950, she 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 Inupiaq children (see photo to right). 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. She received the University of Alaska's Honorary Doctorate of Humanities Degree in May of 1999. Her paintings, prints, and reproductions are carried by galleries throughout the United States and Canada. Rie Muñoz was born in southern California in 1921 as Marie Mounier. Her parents were from Holland and she spent a lot of her childhood there, where Rie was a common nickname. Rie passed away in Juneau on April 6, 2015. She will be greatly missed, but her art lives on for all to enjoy. |
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