More Progress and History Behind the Masks

After my post last night, I kept getting error messages. My partner came home, and wanted to go out and get some dinner, so I had to dash out, thinking my post hadn't 'taken'. I was pleasantly surprised this morning, when I found the comment from Howard in my e-mail!

Actually, I never got to the subject of last night's post - callouses and turpenoid. When I first was invited to do this show last month, I started working on some pieces right away. The gallery wanted 25 masks originally, and I had talked her down to 15 (or more, if possible). I haven't spent alot of time carving lately, and I started getting blisters in my hands from the knives. Of course, I also got a few shallow cuts initially, my hands feeling clumsy. The callouses also help protect my fingers from cuts, since I use my thumb and edges of my index fingers as 'stops' for the blades sometimes, doing the fine detail carving. Despite have my nose full of sawdust, sneezing all the time. wearing band-aids, and having sore hands, I'm loving it!

Because I used oil-based stain for the masks, and was almost out of turpentine, I decided to try the turpenoid alternative. It still smells, but not a s strongly. I find that I'm like Elise, and probably most other oil painters - I love the smell of turpentine! I know it's not good to breathe, but our garage is airy. When the weather is warmer, I open the garage door to let the fumes out. I have tried water-based stains, but they just don't have the richness of color, or bring out the grain like oils do. I just mix oil paint with tung oil and turpentine, and get a stain that hardens and protects the wood, as well as brings the grain to life.

Below are the pair of Seal masks, ready to be assembled. Both will have hoops added, and some details added with paint later. The one on the left is also missing the kayak with it's hunter, which I have to re-do. (that's his little paddle to the lower right of the white mask). The mask on the right is just the seal's snout, with open mouth, revealing the seal's yua or human-being (spirit). All animals, fish, birds, and elements of nature had dual spirits - animal and human. Marine mammals have female spirits, and are depicting frowning, as are women in Yupik art.



These are the ready-to-assemble Negakfok or North Wind, and the Toothy Bird masks. They will also have hoops attached, that encircle the body of the mask, and some details added with paint.



These masks, as well as the three new ones I'm just starting, are all traditional Yupik masks. They are replicas in miniature of masks that were made in the late 1800's and early 1900's, before mask-making and traditional dances and ceremonies were banned by the Christian missionaries. The Catholics, Mennonites, and Baptists, as well as others, all had substantial missionary efforts in Alaska, which strongly affected the Yupik traditions, virtually wiping out their mask-making art. The art forms continued, but a watered-down version for the tourist trade. Fortunately, quite a few collectors realized the value of the masks, and saved them from being destroyed - which the Yupik ususally carried out as part of the ceremony. Masks were either chopped up and burned for firewood, or laid out on the tundra to erode. Shamans were often buried with masks and other ritual objects of their trade. We do owe these early collectors for the several hundred Yupik masks that reside in museums and private collections all over the world today. In the 1980's, mask-making has re-emerged as part of the Alaska Native cultural renaissance that has been going on state-wide.