The skin used in this work is from a halibut that gave itself last fall. The generous gift has been feeding my family throughout the last year. The underside of the flatfish is white to blend into the light if something is looking at it from below. In contrast, its dark top blends in with the ocean floor if viewed from above. I tanned its white underside with Dr. Bronner’s soap and olive oil.

I made the black paint using a traditional recipe of chewing, then spitting out dried dog salmon eggs, mixing it with charcoal pigment from a fire. Before I made the traditional black paint, I smudged with Ayuq (Labrador tea). Later, I pulled off small chunks of sticky half-dried caramelized orange salmon eggs, scooping them into my mouth. The pungent flavor of raw fish was engulfed by saliva as I chewed, and the roe stuck to the edges of my teeth, like a Jolly Rancher. I was flooded by childhood memories of fish camp and spat the foamy mixture into a small glass jar, before mixing it with charcoal as so many have before me.

Ellam iinga (the eye of awareness) is a prolifically used symbol in traditional Yup’ik art, which I have reinterpreted here. As the Earth and her people call out for social and environmental justice, ellam iinga is desperately needed.

In this piece, I painted various forms of ellam iinga (the eye of awareness), inspired by the many meanings for the Yugtun word ella, from sky to sense. I thought about community, weather and awareness in global contexts, and of how Yup’ik perspective and language teach us the sense of weather as awareness of the universe.

$3000 or $1500 per panel