At a Glance
American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon by Steven Rinella.
What charity or cause are you passionate about?
Alaska Public Media, Food Bank of Alaska.
What do you do in your free time?
Backcountry snowboard. Whitewater pack rafting.
What’s your favorite local restaurant?
Rustic Goat. Don’t tell anyone, though.
If you could domesticate a wild animal, what animal would it be?
We’re adopting a retired husky from the National Park Service kennels… I think he’s a little bit wild… That’s kind of like a wild wolf.
At a Glance
American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon by Steven Rinella.
What charity or cause are you passionate about?
Alaska Public Media, Food Bank of Alaska.
What do you do in your free time?
Backcountry snowboard. Whitewater pack rafting.
What’s your favorite local restaurant?
Rustic Goat. Don’t tell anyone, though.
If you could domesticate a wild animal, what animal would it be?
We’re adopting a retired husky from the National Park Service kennels… I think he’s a little bit wild… That’s kind of like a wild wolf.
Off the Cuff
etween helping her fiancé track wolves around Healy for three months last winter while working on his PhD in spatial ecology and their trip this summer, spending a week or two at Ruth Gorge in the Alaska Range, Sarah Glaser experienced a burst of creativity. In addition to designing the cover for this issue of Alaska Business, she spent six weeks in Nashville building a soccer stadium.
Art is her life, and welding is her trade. After growing up in Moose Pass, Glaser learned to weld at the state technical school down the road in Seward. For the last six or seven years, she’s mixed construction with illustration. Her website sarahkglaser.be offers her full-color drawings of wildlife, backcountry sports, and aerial landscapes as prints, stickers, and apparel. She says she takes enjoyment from surprising her audience with details hidden in an image. Among her next projects is a harvest handbook for St. Paul Island.
One other note: her name is pronounced “glasser,” no matter how it’s spelled. “I’ll answer to ‘glacier,’” she says. “I’ve always wished it was Glacier rather than Glaser.”
Sarah Glaser: When I’m doing art and I’ve been inside all day, I get outside after work and ski and bike and hike and run.
AB: What’s your greatest extravagance?
Glaser: I’m 32 and I’m still collecting toys. I have surfboards and pack rafts. I just got a whitewater hard shell kayak… Big kid toys for playing outside.
AB: What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done?
Glaser: We do a lot of big Alaska trips. We were super fortunate, my partner and I, to go from Arctic Village to Kaktovik a couple of years ago… Last summer (or the summer before), I had a knee injury and we paddled from Whittier to Cordova. That was really cool.
AB: Is there anything you’re superstitious about?
Glaser: Maybe some kind of karmic “what goes around comes around.” Went caving when we were in Tennessee… and I was very superstitious that if I took a rock or a stalagmite from the cave that some kind of karmic retribution would happen.
AB: Dead or alive, who would you like to see perform live in concert?
Glaser: Any live music right now is really amazing. I don’t have a very good concert bucket list, but I just went to a square dancing night with a live bluegrass band, and that was super fun. Learned to square dance.
AB: What’s your best attribute and worst attribute?
Glaser: My best and worst attribute is that I care a lot about everything I do, which means that I pour a lot of time and energy and effort into it, and that also means that it’s hard not to pour a lot of time and energy and effort into it.
Glaser: Taking an illustration course on children’s book illustration… I’ve done some instructional illustration books and it’d be fun to hone those skills… There’s a lot to learn.
AB: Other than your current career, if you were a kid today, what would your dream job be?
Glaser: I’m very intrigued by metal working art. Took some jewelry making and blacksmithing courses last fall when we were in Seattle… those were very fun. Metal and fire are very fun. 
