On the stretch of East Fourth Avenue where the road dips toward the Anchorage jail, an eight-foot-tall heart made of dusty plastic vodka bottles pulses in the wind.
It's hard to miss: A tenth of a mile of chain link fence festooned with empty booze bottles -- Rich & Rare Whiskey, Monarch Vodka, McCormick Gin -- all arranged in the shape of hearts, skulls and the state of Alaska and the words NO BOOZE.
The land belongs to Ron Alleva, the owner of the Grubstake Auction company and six acres of land adjacent to the jail and Brother Francis Shelter. Alleva has long been a vocal critic of social services, like the Brother Francis Shelter and Beans Cafe, clustered in the area. He says they enable chronic alcoholics rather than help them.
But the display -- half art-installation, half warning -- is mostly the work of Harry Mezak, a slight 57-year-old from Bethel who is himself a recovering alcoholic.
Tuesday afternoon, Mezak was crouched on the sidewalk fitting twists of wire into holes drilled in the sides of Monarch Vodka pints and half-gallons. He listened to KWHL on a Walkman while trucks roared.
He says the heart made of bottles is for the drinkers he still knows.
"I want to show people I care for them, but this ain't the way to go," he said.
All of the bottles -- by Alleva's count there are 1,500 to 1,700 of them -- are litter recovered from Alleva's property since the start of the year.
Alleva wanted to use the trash to create a public protest.
"I just starting putting bottles up," Mezak said.
He didn't think they looked very nice, so he started arranging them in shapes: A smiley face with a nose made of an empty bottle of vanilla extract, a skull with an empty bottle of mouthwash in it.
Now there's a map of Alaska, with the Aleutian Islands constructed out of small one-ounce shooter bottles.
Mezak, a slight man who looks younger than his 57 years, is originally from Kwethluk, on the Kuskokwim River. He later moved to Bethel, where he began to struggle with alcoholism. He has a criminal record and has served his time.
"Drinking gets you into trouble," he said. "You can't control yourself."
He says he quit drinking in 2009. He points at the Anchorage Jail to explain why.
Mezak ended up in the sleep-off facility there a couple times after he moved to the city in 2009.
"I thought, 'this is enough,' " he said. " 'This ain't right.' "
Two years ago he got a full-time job with Alleva in the Grubstake Auction yard.
Alleva says Mezak is a hard worker who never misses a shift.
Now, Mezak finds pleasure in camping and hunting and wakes up without hangovers.
The fence-and-bottle project makes him think that maybe there's a bit of an artist inside of him too.
He says it's strange being around all those reminders of the drinking life. But the bottles are empty.
"I don't have no desire," he said.
His latest creation is a large arrow and the word JAIL pointing at the adjacent Anchorage Correctional Complex -- meant to symbolize the relationship between booze and incarceration.
"I'm going to add a question mark at the end," he said.
Reach Michelle Theriault Boots at mtheriault@adn.com or 257-4344.
By MICHELLE THERIAULT BOOTS
Anchorage Daily News