This summer I returned to Homer Alaska for a solo exhibition of paintings at the Bunnell Street Arts Center. The collection of paintings in this exhibit are a series of new landscape paintings and Alaska Native icon portraits in which I take a deeper look at the cosmology and world view of my Alutiiq/Sugpiaq ancestors.
I push my limits with color saturation while attempting to keep the work balanced, quiet and meditative. The Alutiiq people believe all things are imbued with a soul and are connected through a source of divine and universal energy. With this in mind, I bathe the subjects in my paintings in a source of light and color. You can read my artist statement for this exhibition below.
Homer is a popular destination for visitors from out of state and many of my paintings found a home with these visitors. Alaska artists are sometimes isolated from the rest of the world and it is always encouraging to see that my work resonates outside the borders of our northern territory.
Through this exhibition I was commissioned by a couple from the Netherlands and I’m pleased my work will soon a find a place in Europe. Many thanks to Bunnell’s director, Asia Freeman, the supportive gallery staff and Homer’s art loving community. Here is a slideshow of the pieces on display in June, 2019 and my exhibition artist statement.
Artist Statement
“By combining elements of Christian iconography with Alutiiq tradition, the artist suggests that they are equally important. She is asking us to consider traditional Alutiiq beliefs on the same level as Western beliefs” The Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository, Kodiak, Alaska
My ancestors from Kodiak Island were both Alutiiq/Sugpiaq and Russian/Estonian. The Russian occupation was swift and devastating for the indigenous people and living creatures of the region. Lost and repressed language, cultural knowledge and spiritual traditions are slowly being rediscovered and brought to light.
With this new series of landscape paintings and Christian icon inspired portraits, I take a deeper look at the world view of my Alutiiq ancestors, finding affinity in many ways with my own.
Alutiiq cosmology is built on the belief that all things, living and inanimate possess a soul, are infused with spiritual energy and are interconnected. In my paintings, both landscape and portrait, it is my hope to reveal this spiritual energy through color and light, representing landscape, plant, animal and human life as equals.
In the spirit of inclusion and inter-connectivity, I acknowledge the duality of my history, past and present, native and non-native and build upon assimilated symbols of Christianity, inspired by traditional Alutiiq culture, creating work that exemplifies a world view I share with my ancestors.