Born in Anchorage, Alaska and raised in the Bristol Bay village of Pilot Point, Andrew Abyo (uh-BY-oh) is a Sugpiaq carver who seeks to learn and pass on his cultural traditions. He wants his three children and others to have a greater understanding of the Sugpiaq culture and its rich history. “My goal is to bring out different things that you normally don’t get to see, other than in a museum.” Now based in Anchorage, Andrew is known for his in-depth historical research, which helps […]
Alaska Native Artist
6 posts
Hanna Sholl Sugpiaq artist My name is Hanna Sholl, my Sugpiaq (Alutiiq) name is Agasuuq, meaning cormorant. I was born in Kodiak, Alaska to Sophie Frets (Hansen) and Bruce Burns. My maternal grandparents were Walter and Edna Hansen. I introduce myself in this way to honor my ancestry, homelands, and relationships, each of which informs my art. With my artwork, my hopes are to always honor the resistance and creativity of our ancestors, combining present day with traditional methods. Currently I am working primarily […]
Interviewee: Preston Singletary Interviewers: Stacy Chavis, Katelyn Zuray Date of Interview: 11/13/2020 Location of Interview: Zoom call Note- This transcript has been edited. The edits were made to remove false starts and vocal fillers. The edits have been made with the intent of making the transcript easier to read, and to make the intentions and meaning of Preston more clear. Katelyn Zuray You’ve spoken often about your upbringing in Seattle and your Filipino-Alaskan Native heritage. How was your art influenced by your heritage, your oral […]
Lily Hope Who has been the most influential person in your journey as an artist? That one is kind of easy. My mother Clarissa Rizal. R-I-Z-A-L. (She) was an artist my entire life. I just talked to my sister about this yesterday, but we can’t remember her ever doing things that we wanted to do with her. Like if we were like” hey play Yahtzee with us!” She was like, “oh come over here and you know stir this dye pot or put these buttons […]
Sheri:- Well, first of all thank you so much for taking time to, you know, out of your day and your day off to meet with us and, um, you know we’ve had a chance to go over some of your, your work, different interviews, and, uh, the importance of a native artist but I think want to give you a forum to kind of go over a little bit of your own bio, and then we have the questions, so um, um, don’t know […]
