Alaskan nature takes center stage in Las Vegas photographer’s new Summerlin Library exhibit

It’s not one’s material possessions that matter in life. It’s one’s spiritual connection to the Earth. That’s the message photographer Marcella Brendible is trying to convey with her exhibit “Experience Nature in a Different Light.”

The photography exhibit is set to be displayed during regular library hours Oct. 27 through Nov. 27 at Summerlin Library, 1771 Inner Circle Drive.

Brendible, a member of the Tsimshian Nation, was born in Alaska. Her early life there revolved around being in tune with nature: knowing the seasons and the foliage; tracking animals and dealing with extreme weather.

At 23, she went to work on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. The money was good, but the conditions could be brutal.

“The guy I was with said, ‘Do you want to go someplace warm?’ ” she recalled. “When we left Alaska, it was minus 85. When we arrived in Las Vegas, it was 60 degrees. It was just wonderful.”

She used her photography to set up her own business, matting and framing photos in Las Vegas. She also worked at Williams-Sonoma part time.

Then the Great Recession hit. Her hours at Williams-Sonoma were cut. A company for which she was doing bookkeeping on the side folded. Brendible lost her house, which was located in the shadow of Tivoli Village.

“Things just rippled. It was the first time in my life I could not get a job,” she said, citing fierce competition from many others also out of work.

Instead of being down, she said, she realized it was merely a change in her life and nothing to be feared. Drawing on her spiritual roots, she meditated, asking what she should do.

“I wondered, ‘What’s really going on here?’ So I sat in my morning meditation, and I got the answer: ‘Just let it all go.’ ”

She left Las Vegas in February 2010 and returned to her home in Alaska, Annette Island.

“It was my solace, my balance,” she said. “When I walked, I could feel the love, feel the connection and the support through nature.”

She saw her birthplace with new eyes and set about to capture the seasons she’d not seen in 38 years by using photography. Before picking up her camera, she starts by sitting on the ground and collecting her thoughts. Grounding herself that way, she said, allows her to be more in tune with nature.

She stayed on Annette Island just over three years, calling it her “spiritual sabbatical.”

The photos — there are just over a dozen — were taken on Annette Island, the only Indian reserve in Alaska. It’s home to roughly 1,000 people and only accessible by seaplane or boat. Annette Island has small, little islands surrounding it, some with only a handful of trees on them. Ketchikan is about 15 miles away.

Murial Sanders stopped in to see the exhibit when it was at the West Las Vegas Library in June and called it “awesome.”

“It was peace, and it’s another eye from a different angle,” she said. “I loved it — the color, the brightness, the scenery. I was thinking, ‘Wow, snow.’ And the way she brought the blue into all that white — beautiful.”

The exhibit’s photos include sunsets, foliage, flowers and a harbor before the boats set out for their daily catch.

Brendible said she wanted to show the diversity of nature and how it shifts and changes.

“One moment, this fog was here,” she said, pointing to one photo, “and the next moment, it’s gone. The sunset with the trawler — I watched him come all the way across here to the dock and then I followed him back — and then it was the last of the sunset, and the glow playing off the ripples in the water, and that bird came in, and I thought, ‘That’s it,’ ” — she snapped her fingers — ” ‘that’s the shot.’ ”

Brendible moved back to the land of her upbringing, reconnected with family and led a simpler life before returning to Las Vegas.

“A lot of people didn’t understand my journey home,” Brendible said. “This was to honor who I am, honor where I came from and honor that this is a gift that I have, this connection with nature.”

For more information on the library exhibit, call 702-507-3860 or visit lvccld.org.

To see Brendible’s work, visit marcellabrendible.com.

To reach Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan, email jhogan@viewnews.com or call 702-387-2949.