Sculptures

Comparative Analysis of Native Art Materials

An comparison of customary and contemporary native art materials often associated with the feminine native arts. The old optometrist drawer includes glass beading, weaving, and skin sowing. Materials include: old optometrist drawer, glass seed beads, trade beads, calf and salmon skin, shells, coins, porcupine quills, cedar bark, rye grass, fox and beaver fur, qiviut, wool and felt, needles, and thread.

Birch Bark Study

Study of birch bark as a native art material. Focus of study includes birch bark textures, moss and lichen, and natural coloration.

Cedar Bark Study

Study of red and yellow cedar bark as a native art material. Focus of study includes textural comparisons between raw harvest coil of yellow cedar and plated woven mat.

Black Bear Square

Black Bear Square draws influences from the definition of Alaska Native Handicrafts and the numerous Alaska Native Art guides that emphasizes the regulatory modification of natural artistic materials to create authentic Alaska Native Handicrafts. In contrast, Black Bear Square focuses upon the essence of the raw material rather than the process of artistic creation of handicrafts.

Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square is an inspiration for Black Bear Square as the piece takes its own radical departure from traditional native art.

Ptarmigan: Upland Game Bird

Material study of ptarmigan as native art materials. Sculpture includes wings, tails, and feet of ptarmigan harvested in Interior Alaska.

Grouse: Upland Game Bird

Material study of spruce and ruffed grouse as native art materials. Sculpture includes wings and tails that surround a woven cedar and linen disk .

Significantly Modified

The piece incorporates many Yupik symbolism and motifs to represent the process of artistic creation from a natural resource to fine art. The main form of the piece is stylized Yupik hand with a large circular hole through the palm. This holed hand motif represents wise harvest and management of natural resources. Throughout the carved hand are wood burning images of the circle and dot motif which is a symbol of physical and spiritual movement between two worlds. Thus, "Significantly Modified" highlights the wise resource harvest of natural art materials and the transition from physical resource material to fine art.

State and Federal Management

Yup'ik style dance drums featuring the logos of both state and federal fish and wildlife management agencies in the state: Alaska Department of Fish and Game and US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Materials include tent fabric, bass wood, acrylic paint, and linen rope.

Ice SEals

Lost wax cast aluminum ice seals. Species represented include: ribbon seal, harbor seal, ring sealed, and bearded seal.

Coho Salmon

Tlingit style formline design of a coho salmon (Silver salmon). Lost wax cast aluminum salmon.

a School of Fish

Lost wax casting of bronze frogs in an Yupik artistic style. The frogs are crawling over a box featuring the Alaska administrative codes defining what fish are in terms of management. Reviewing over the definition, one will find that the state of Alaska defines amphibians as fish.

NOAA Fisheries Management

An Inupiaq geometric pattern designs stitched in customary calf skin. The pattern is a stacked checkerboard with the logo of NOAA Fisheries Management.

Kodiak Salmon Packing

Shipping crate lid for packed salted salmon roe. The shipping crate is from the Kodiak Salmon Packing company located in Larsen Bay on Kodiak Island.

Dissection of Chilkat Weaving

Exploration of the materials utilized for the creation of Chilkat blankets. Shadow box features an old dissection kit, dissection kit, cedar bark, mountain goat wool, and Chilkat weaving yarn.

Federal Eagle

Small button blanket featuring a stylized Tlingit tináa (copper shield). Lost wax cast aluminum featuring formline eagle wings and tail.

Miscellaneous Shellfish

The state of Alaska manages many species of shellfish including multiple species of crabs and shrimp. However, Alaska's commercial fisheries also harvest other species of shellfish including: clams, sea cumbers, sea urchins, scallops, squid, and octopus. These species are defined as miscellaneous shellfish in Alaska's state regulations.

The piece, "Miscellaneous Shellfish" illustrates one of the popular incidentally harvested shellfish species, the giant Pacific Octopus in form-line with abalone shell buttons.

Salmon smolts

Two three dimensional sculptures featuring a pink salmon and sockeye salmon smolt. The pink salmon does not have the black parr mark spotting that is seen on the sockeye salmon smolt. Materials include wool felt, river rocks, wood base, and cotton thread.

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