Community/Nation/Tribe: Tlingit Athabascan from Raven moiety, Sockeye Clan
Materials/Processes: Digital Illustration; Digital fabrication
Themes: History; Health; Contemporary life
Online Resources:
Statements/Bios in Artists’ Words:
My Tlingit name is Kaakeeyaa. I am from Raven moiety, Sockeye Clan, from the Raven House. From my father’s side I am a child of a Thunderbird and from the Chilkat region in Southeast Alaska. From my mother’s side, I am Deg Hit’an Athabascan from Fairbanks Alaska. I live in Juneau as co-owner of Trickster Company with my brother Rico. Trickster Company promotes innovative indigenous design focused on the Northwest Coast art and exploration of themes and issues in Native culture. In 2013 I earned a Bachelor’s of Fine Art in Jewelry Metals and an Associate’s of Fine Art in Moving Images from the Institute of American Indian Arts.
In 2020 I completed a 3-year apprenticeship with Robert Davidson studying Tlingit and Haida design as it applies to painting/2D work. My apprenticeship has given me a stronger understanding and foundation for classic formline design (aka Pacific Northwest Coast Indigenous design.)
I am a storyteller, an entrepreneur, and an artist. As a visual artist I create mixed media work with graphic design, printmaking, and painting. I mix media work with beading, painting, graphic design, fashion design, and traditional skin sewing. In recent years I have designed public art, such as mixed media murals, video projections, water-jet cut steal medallions installed into sidewalks, and elements of interior design of public spaces all within Alaskan communities. In 2020 I completed a design on the side of an Juneau’s Capitol City Fire Rescue ambulance, a steal cut medallion installed downtown Juneau, and in 2021 I installed a 60 foot by 25 foot mural of Tlingit activist Elizabeth Peratrovich on Juneau’s downtown library building. In the past year I completed three public art projects: my art in 19 resin panels were installed as guard rails in the newly renovated Juneau International Airport, I painted a basketball court in Sitka, and painted a mural 125 feet by 48 feet in Anchorage.
The stories I share in my art are often Tlingit Raven stories, other themes are in relation to subsistence and living off the land. The purpose of my art is to share an ever growing experience with elders, masters of traditional arts, and community members studying art, culture, and language. My creative process is a means to bridge my existence between two worlds; the traditional worlds of Tlingit and the modern world. I create art to share my ancestral knowledge of creation and life and to pass old values on to the new generations. I aim to bring attention to Indigenous issues relevant to Alaska, such as protecting the environment and wild life in Alaska is something that affects the entire global. I want to explore what modern technology has to offer and how we can use these tools to bring attention to environmental and political issues and solutions that affect Alaskan communities. In my artistic creation I am seeking opportunities to progress forward in modern art and life while practicing and perpetuating traditional values and continuing cultural practices and way of life.
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