“Sea Kin” - a print to support the sheldon Jackson Museum Alaska Native Artist Residency
When I applied for Sheldon Jackson Museum’s Alaska Native Artist Residency Program in December I pitched a project inspired by the Tacoma Wayzgoose Festival here in Tacoma. Every year Tacoma Wayzgoose accepts 12 artists to carve large scale 2x3ft linoleum relief blocks which are then printed live at the festival, and one print by each artist is raffled off to support the festival. My idea for the residency was to spend the residency carving a large linoleum block, then printing it with a steamroller as a community event, and selling the prints produced with proceeds going directly to the Native Artist Residency program. At the time I pitched the idea, federal funding for the program was in place, but in the few weeks leading up to my residency the administration pulled the residency program’s funding— funding which they’d been receiving for 30 years. Thankfully a private organization stepped in to fund this year’s residencies, but looking to the future with National Endowment for the Arts funding in jeopardy, I’m hoping the sales from these prints can help, in some small way, to continue the residency program.
This print was inspired by a dream I had shortly before leaving for Sitka. In the dream I swam all the way from Tacoma to Sitka, then upon arriving in Sitka I was out on a spit of land across the water from town and a huge tsunami wave tossed me into the sea. I was tumbling underwater, the ocean was opaque from the wave kicking up silt, and I realized I couldn’t tell up from down to find the surface and was going to drown, alone beneath the waves. I woke up in a start— it was one of those almost-too-real dreams that had you wake with your heart racing. Later that day I was ruminating on the dream and realized that while I felt alone underwater because I couldn’t see anything, I wasn’t actually alone. I was surrounded by kin: Salmon guiding me to the headwaters of a stream, kelp growing towards upwards to guide me to the surface, seals who could pull me along.
I spent the first week of my residency carving the linoleum, then we got our steamroller rental delivered and printed! The steamroller was a little smaller than the ones we use for Wayzgoose so I wasn’t sure if it would be heavy enough, but it worked perfectly and we ended up with nine prints. So many people came out to watch and it was such a blast getting to do another steamroller print!
If you’re interested in purchasing one of these prints, get in touch with Friends of Sheldon Jackson Museum, they’re available with a minimum donation of $250.00. Huge thanks to the Friends of Sheldon Jackson and the team at Sheldon Jackson Museum for coming on board with this (possibly) wacky idea— steamroller printing was something I don’t think had been done in Sitka before, and I’m grateful they trusted my vision!
If you don’t want one of the prints but still want to donate to the residency program you can do that here! It’s a great program that brings several Alaska Native artists and craftsmen to Sitka to create work for three weeks in the summer. They also do lots of other programming throughout the year focused on Alaska Native culture bearers, researchers, and artists. And if you’re interested in applying for the residency program, the application typically opens up in December!
