A conversation with Andrea Larko

For those of you who are not familiar with the name, she is an aspiring young artist who is taking the fishing industry by storm. She has a style all her own and it's a fresh look to an industry saturated with several other very talented artists. Everywhere you look in your local flyshop you will find prints, stickers, apparel, buffs and even reels with artwork. Andrea has recently joined Simms and has two designs on their women's apparel and with more to come. There are some reels from Abel featuring her work coming sometime this summer as well. Vedadoo sling packs have had her mark on them for some time now and she has a vast array of amazing stickers and prints available on Etsy! I bought a few stickers awhile back and my wife and kids were very impressed with her dynamic and upbeat style. She calls her work of intricate patterns and symbols within the shape of a particular fish, zentangle.

When not in her studio, Andrea loves to wet a line on some of her local rivers.

I have been biding my time for a great subject to write about to get me back in the game. I have been a little rusty and haven't been writing as much as I would have liked. I feel my health is slowly improving so it's time to get back on-board and start hitting the keyboard more often. I took some time to do some fishing this spring for my beloved steelhead, but this year the always unpredictable Michigan weather lived up to it's name and most of my fishing happened to be on days below freezing. Andrea agreed to do an interview for an article and within a few days we were talking on the phone.

Andrea is an easy going person and the interview turned into a casual conversation not so much about questions and answers, but just a comfortable conversation about two passions we both share, fishing and art.

The Mayfly sticker fit perfectly on my home made fly tying stand.

The Zentangle Salmon went on my articulated fly Box

The brown trout sticker (my favorite one btw ) went on another articulated fly box. As you can see her stuff is simply "freaking awesome"!

Andrea hails from a small town called Indiana in the state of Pennsylvania. Since an early age, Andrea had gone fishing with her family often. She has three sisters who all share her passion as well and her family has an annual camping and fishing bonanza every fall for king salmon and big browns. Speaking of Browns, the Brown trout is her greatest love of all. She find so much beauty in the vivid colors that make up the Salmo trutta.

3 out of the 4 Larko girls in waders.

Her parents were always the outdoorsy types who passed that passion down to their four daughters as well as being independent women.On the picture above you can see the olive green back with the yellow underbelly with her special touch of over sized spots in black, brown, and bright red. The fins are another distinct touch. She has an great grasp of the true detail of the trout, but made it her own style. Her signature is definitely the zentangle, when you see it you know it's from her hand.

Andrea favors pen and ink drawings using rapidograph pens and digitally coloring the drawing to get her finished piece. The rapidograph is an excellent pen and they are refillable. The pens are somewhat expensive, but once you have the pen the only expense is refilling them. She does like several other mediums. Oil painting is her all time favorite, but it is more time consuming.When not making awesome fish art she likes to dabble in other nature subjects.

One of her artistic influences is Scott Naismith, a Scotland artist whose color theory artwork she absolutely adores. Throw out the old color wheel, it was a hot mess!

Another favorite is Czech artist, Alphonse Mucha whose distinct style is known as Art Nouveau. I personally can see his influence in her work. Alphonse did some stained glass work and many of his pieces have a similar look with fancy scroll work giving it a very vintage look. He did many advertisements and posters for plays and such. His work was all over Europe in the early 1900's.

a sample of Alphonse's work

As far as the classic artists go she favors Claude Monet with his "Water Lillies" as one of her all time favorite pieces. She is also fond of Vincent Van Gogh. She loves all art from street and graffiti work to the classics.

Andrea started fly fishing about six years ago when her boyfriend bought her first fly rod. From the first moment she saw someone fly-fishing she was drawn to it. She loved how graceful and elegant it looked besides it certainly looked fun. She has become an accomplished fly fisher and loves dry fly-fishing for browns and brookies the most. Naturally the appeal of tying flies soon followed as part of the addiction. Some of her favorite patterns are black stones and caddis flies.

A brown trout with connect the dots for spots!

Someday she hopes to make a trip to Alaska and just be a part of the rugged wilderness adventures. Her fish bucket list includes the arctic grayling, which she could cross off it she gets the opportunity
visit the last frontier.

Andrea's rendition of the arctic grayling.

Two other fish she hopes to tangle with someday are the Tarpon and Bonefish.......

Black and White Tarpon head.

Zentangle Rooster fish

Zentangle Permit. This appears on Simms Women's Solarflex shirt and won best in women's apparel at ICAST last year.

Last October Andrea quit her regular job to pursue her artwork full-time. She wanted to do what she loved for a living and is following her passion. Getting in the mix with some of the fishing industries top notch companies is a great start and she doe have her prints and stickers for sale along with some original pieces and prints for sale. She has a BFA in illustration from the Rochester Institute of Technology. If you are into art prints get them now while some of her limited edition prints are still available. All are numbered and signed, printed on acid free paper and only touched with the use of gloves so the artwork will last for a good long time and make an excellent addition to any man cave or woman cave for that matter. Depending on the style of decor that your spouse prefers her artwork would look great anywhere in an anglers abode. She has a new design for Simms that will debut this years ICAST and will be in addition to two more designs next spring. Currently she is working on a sling pack for Vedadoo that she will hand paint and it will then be sent off to a charity auction.

Andrea with a big beautiful male Brown Trout.

When she isn't painting fish, or tying flies Andrea will most likely be found on the river, her favorite being the Yellow Creek Trout Club where she can fish for a vast variety of freshwater species, but most of all her favorite, the Brown Trout.

It was an honor and a privilege to be able to chat with Andrea for this piece. She was easy and fun to talk to and I did get to throw in the teaser that the current world record brown comes from the Big Manistee River right here in Michigan where there have been several monsters caught. I could here the awe and excitement in her voice. If she ever happens to be out this way we should try for a monster brown on the Big M....

Black and white Crappie chasing a shiner. Love the fins and the detail of the markings. Almost looks like puzzle pieces.

Clicking her name will bring you to either her Etsy or Instagram page.

Pebble Mine, Alaska's Decline?

From the onset, When I heard about the Pebble Mining Project in Alaska I felt like this was the classic example of Corporate greed trying to make a buck regardless of the circumstances. The more I read the more upset I became. I have been scouring the Internet for a good 2-3 weeks and this is what I would like to share with you.

There are several reasons why Pebble Mine should NEVER EVER happen, but when it comes to making huge freaking piles of money then rules get changed, people get bribed, and the rich get richer leaving the garbage and crap for the people to swallow.

Alaska is our last great wilderness! Many people live there as well as the abundant wildlife. There is a huge food chain and an integral part of it is the Salmon. If part of the circle is broken then the whole ecosystem could fail and crumble. The food chain would evolve and a new ecosystem would form, but many of the species in the former one would have ceased to exist if not just in Alaska, but maybe worldwide.

Photo By: Ben Knight

The Adversary (Predators):  Anglo American, Northern Dynasty, Rio Tinto Group, and Mitsubishi Conglomerate intend to build the worlds largest mining operation at the headwaters of Bristol Bay. The mine would be the #1 producer of gold and #5 producer of copper worldwide. They claim to provide jobs and increased revenues to the region of southwest Alaska. They also claim they will follow all regulations to the strictest guidelines and no harm will come to the environment from their mining. The size of the open pit mine would be over  3 miles long, 2 miles wide and almost a mile deep, with an underground mine similar in scale. The escapement needed would basically connect two mountains with rock and soil to create a dam to store the 50 plus billion tons of toxic waste created by the mining site.

I have some HUGE problems with this already. There has never been a mining operation that has not harmed the environment and there has never been a mine of this magnitude built anywhere in the World! There is a risk of seismic activity in the region with shifting fault lines and volcanic activity.

You cannot determine where and when a quake or eruption could take place in an active region like this and if one did happen the consequences would be catastrophic!!!

The Victim (Prey): The Bristol Bay region is a wild region filled with natural marvels largely untouched by human ambition. The area is roughly 40K sq miles area with nine rivers and numerous streams flowing through the landscape towards the Bering Sea. The Bristol Bay area is home to the worlds largest Sockeye Salmon runs, as well as the Chinook, Silver, Chum, and Pink Salmon. The proposed site is also on the shore of Lake Iliamna, the largest lake in Alaska and eighth largest in the United States.

The Wildlife Defenders: The biggest group of people in opposition to Pebble Mine are 80% of the  people who live in the region. The Pebble mine group has been targeting the youth of Alaska stating there is no future for them unless the mine is approved. Their propaganda machine is also promising lump sums of cash. Sounds like they are trying to buy votes, but that is bribery and also illegal! Also included in the fight against Pebble Mine are lodge owners and fishing guides, conservation groups nationwide, local, state and federal officials, commercial fishing groups, seafood processors and sport fishing organizations like Orvis, Trout Unlimited, International Federation of Fly Fishers and the Renewable Resources Coalition.

To see the full list, and the numbers will surprise you is here .


The Inevitable: If the group proposing Pebble Mine does impact the environment. The way of life in Alaska may die as well unless it just follows suit and continues to rape the land because it became ruined. Salmon are the be all, end all of life in Alaska. More than 40 other species survival depends on the Huge runs of Salmon that bring food and nutrients the mammals, marine life, birds, and even the soil itself. Besides the wildlife much of the Alaskan economy is built around the Salmon and tourism, mainly through fishing and hunting. The group proposing Pebble Mine already has a poor track record with the environment and has already paid fines in excess of $45k for prospecting without proper permits and spilling chemicals into the watershed. If the Salmon die, the wildlife dies, the tourism dies, the fishing industry dies. It would be driving a huge golden and copper stake right through the heart of this great land.

My Plea: This is a battle here!, and the people of Alaska need our support. The land and the wildlife need our support!!! We cannot stand idly by and watch this vast and beautiful wilderness to come to harm.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can reject a permit request for dumping mine waste in the Bristol Bay watershed. To urge the EPA to refuse this permit and prevent the destruction of the world’s greatest wild Salmon habitat, click here to sign the petition – it takes less than a minute and you can even remain anonymous.

Within an hour of me finishing this blog I read this from several sources:

HUGE NEWS! The EPA has released its draft Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment Report today, May 18th. See it here: http://ow.ly/b0Agj

The report finds that Bristol Bay is a one of a kind global fishery that produces 46% of the world’s sockeye, and that massive hard rock mining would eliminate and damage fish habitat and streams, even without an accident or catastrophe. We knew that and now so does the rest of the world!!!!!!