Friday, May 23, 2014

"She was companion, and someone to hold in the dark nights on the trails.  She had always been nearby and with her was a crystalline clarity of the Mammoth from which she was borne. Her spirit was lost in ice and frozen for thirty thousand years until discovered by a young shaman.  A section of Ice Age Mammoth tusk then sculpted into an 'Amulet' from a vision.  She was ill in his dream, emaciated and shocking but powerful as all deities are from another ghostly dimension.  It was such as the shift of life took on this air of old age in the spirit realm offered to the few, in life, gifted to visit.  She was lost again, from the Shaman at the end of his life, and buried in the muskeg tundra deep in ice and melted winter.  Centuries had passed in sleep, until the sea had thawed the iced burial tossing the grave onto the beach. She had been found and now held in the warmth of the living as sunlight once again gleaned her saturated iced ivory.  She has stories to tell, just listen to her as you hold her, one of the time of the Mammoth, and many to follow in the hands of ancient hunters and people of magic, of times lost to extinction, yet clearly a time of mystery"  

Friday, May 9, 2014

"He walked out at night, during high winds to not disturb the dogs. It was too early for anyone to notice he had done so. His walking stick of Diamond Willow, he had taken as driftwood many years ago that came out from the Yukon river. He found it one Spring while gathering wood for his lodge, and was pleased to use it to help him get around. He walked now for many hours to the south, accompanied with only his Amulet, an ivory carving he made during his Shamanic life when he traveled from village to village.  Now he was lame, and old with suffering often too intense to bear. He had left this village for the last time now, with his Amulet of a man, to be his guide to his departure as it had done during his best years.  He rested now for a while, near the roots of a driftwood cottonwood to block the building winds and finished his last salmon as he looked out over the Chukchi Sea.  The Amulet was warm, as it remained under his tunic, as he now held it in his hand, an old friend whom never left his side.  He walked on now, up to the hills, to overlook the sea and the faint smoke of the village to the far north as a swan soared overhead.  Sitting now in the wind he removed his tunic and cloak, to his side, he removed all clothing in his song of departure as the Arctic helped his ascension...the Amulet grew cold now, frozen in his hands to be frozen still, a thousand years later." 

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

"It was named St. Lawrence Island, out in the middle of the Beirng Sea, between Siberia and mainland Alaska.  I have always disliked this name, it has nothing to do with it's true name, a name that remains unknown to this day at least for me. I am in preference to realize this old name for such an important place, and perhaps eventually it will come to pass that it shall be 'renamed' again more appropriately.  It is like so many historic and prehistoric native locations that have been named in English or other, that requires this change. When I am asked about these locations, I never divulge the new common conquered titles, instead as close as I can to offer it's true namesake, not St. Lawrence Island, but perhaps 'Yupik Island.' 
"Woolly Mammoth Ivory discovered in beach gravels above the Arctic Circle of Alaska, utilized to perpetuate motif lost and now extinct in the Arctic and elsewhere now is my endeavor.  This motif is ancient Yupik, of Siberia and Punuk Island Alaska within the Bering Sea.  These ancient Yupik artisans were the most elaborate culture within the circumpolar region of the Arctic, and are very noteworthy with their cultural identity. My interest is to continue these traditions developed within my studio, to offer anyone with an interest in such 'Amulets' as I am the only artist offering such wondrous treasures "  
Centuries with so many revolutions around the sun, when nomadic hunters in their seasonal sojourns from their summer camps to winter stay, found them on the trails of Caribou, Bear, and Seals.  They were experts in country, as they traversed all of it with a knowing of what they could find to survive such long winters and mosquito infested summers. Threats were and still are common place in these regions as they lived out their lives successfully with a technology very well suited to such environment.  Small, lightweight projectile end blades were 'flaked' off larger chert cores blanks that they found in rivers and beaches.  Designed so well with balance to effectively take Caribou, Bear and other creatures in their region.  War was also occasional and had been deadly accurate with such stone points well placed, but Humans whom they were, come to no surprise from our extensive track records as evidence still can be discovered from their passings.  

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

"All along the Alaskan beaches for hundreds of miles from the Bering to the Chukchi Seas, the beaches are devastated by erosion. Call it 'Global Warming,' or other, but where there were once beaches that I recognized in some regions are altered and gone. Ancient prehistoric and historic village sites along with historic hunting and fishing encampments are now underwater and in the sea. I am not positioning myself to collect, save for photos that I can use in the future to replicate motif that is considered extinct.  My studio is the only one from the Arctic that offers such designs from lost Arctic cultural horizons" 
"Reverse of Arctic, Alaskan Human Figure Amulet revealing the skeletal motif of a Shaman deity depicting a vision of an 'OBE' as was typical of ancient Shaman intentions. (Five inches in height, a dramatic version of an out of body experience, 'OBE' into a vision realm. Amulets are very rare, but were often passed down from many generations unless they proved to be ill-effective, then were buried with the last holder, ultimately frozen and well preserved in permafrost ice until thawed and resurfaced naturally or archaeologically)."