kadmium

This week I started a class in Inpuiaq mask carving being offered by the Alaska Native Heritage Center here in Anchorage.

I found it pretty much by accident while browsing the Center’s web site back in December, and I’m really glad I did. The class is ten nights (Monday through Friday for two weeks) from 6:30 to 9:00 for $150 and was originally going to be taught by a man named Sylvester Ayek, an Inupiat from King Island, but something happened with his scheduling, so it’s now being taught by Bob Shaw and Joe Senungetuk. I was looking forward to taking the class from Mr. Ayek (based solely on his reputation), but the nice thing about having Bob and Joe teach it is that they teach a semester-long class in the same topic at the University of Alaska Anchorage, which is available to anyone in the community, not just UAA-enrolled students.

I think it’ll be interesting for me for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it’s an entirely different approach to sculpture than I have ever used. Even though I have a BFA in sculpture, I managed to get through the entire art program without doing much traditional sculpture work, including carving (wood or stone). The biggest difference for me is going to be working reductively instead of additively (starting with a big block of something and reducing it to a piece of art versus starting with a pile of things and attaching them together to make a piece of art). This will require actual planning and consideration of the final product, instead of having a vague idea, grabbing steel and welding until it looks right.

I’m also hoping to learn something about Alaskan native culture. I already know substantially more than I did before I came up here; native culture is a bigger part of everyday life in Alaska than in any other place I’ve lived. Alaskan natives aren’t relegated to reservations the way many American native cultures have been. They’ve worked out arrangements that allow them to maintain many aspects of traditional culture while integrating with modern society. It’s not a perfect system by any stretch. There are racism issues, modernization issues, and cultural clashes which seem to get highlighted anew every year as more people move up from the lower 48 with no understanding of the people who were here first. But there is movement forward.

I’ll be taking pictures throughout the class to show progress on the mask and will post them as they become available, but that may not be until after the class is completed. (A digital camera is on the short list of expensive things to buy.)