Some Older Masks of Mine

I am so happy to be playing with inserting photos into my blog! Since I am at work (naughty me) , I am limited to inserting the photos that I happen to have stored on my hard drive here (naughty, naughty). They aren't the greatest photos - I haven't Photoshopped them or anything. I had a cool website that I put together when I first moved to Seattle, before my unemployment insurance ran out, and I had to go back to a 'real' job. But the site crashed a few years ago, as did our computer hard drive, and I (dummy) did not have backups of all the meticulously-edited photos of my work that I used on the website.

This is a Shaman mask/figure which I made probably over 10 years ago. He was inspired by a Yupik shaman figure. I have made a number of figures since, which I guess you could call 'dolls'. I have made some female shamans, whom I call "Magic Women".

I made the hand 'masks', below, for a friend who gave them as a wedding gift. I made a similar pair of hands a few years ago, for a co-worker who commissioned them as a Christmas gift for her husband. They are inspired by a pair of traditional Yupik masks which would be held in the hands, upright, like dance fans.

Here is an original piece called "Evening Star". I used parrot feathers sent to me by a friend.

I still make masks, but also have a body of mixed media pieces. Much of my work is influenced by the Yupik and Alutiiq symbology found in the traditional masks. My heritage is Alutiiq (Koniag). I use found materials in my work, ususally cottonwood bark for the body of the piece, and other driftwood, including yellow and red cedar, alder, and spruce root. The feathers are all 'legal'. A good friend of mine has numerous pet birds: parrots, cockatiels, chickens, and he saves feathers for me. I've also aquired feathers from my nephews and friends who hunt, and from dead birds (like ptarmigan) found in the wild. For pieces that I sell, I use store-bought feathers or from domestic fowl.