"The country itself… it’s grand. It’s so damned grand… It’s like trying to paint Niagra Falls or a brilliant sunset or the Grand Canyon or some other visual aspect of nature which can only be described by people who have lived in it, have soaked it up, have been in that environment long enough to assimilate and understand it… It is very hard to look at something with your mouth open and at the same time try to think in technical terms: how do you control this image, how do you present it? How do you compose it so that it is the most effective?"
-Karl Fortess, WPA artist who visited the Alaska Territory in 1937