Artist Statement

I have three four day workshops in wood block printing to my academic credit with an unfinished BA from University of Alaska. My education in printmaking came from "apprenticing" to my late sculptor/printmaker husband, Melvin Olanna, whose woodblock prints are in three of Alaska's museums. We printed in an Eskimo village on the Bering Sea coast of Alaska with pine wood and Speed Ball oil based inks. While the Canadian Arctic Eskimo prints were a comparison, the Canadian model is a government program with no relation to Alaska. I was primarily a professional sculptor for 30 years showing widely so wood block carving has been a nice side venue to give me an expression in color.
When M. Olanna died in 1991 I moved into Nome and began block printing larger editions still in relief ink until learning Japanese water based brushed ink method, reduction and multiple block techniques through short workshops. These, new to me, but still primarily traditional block printing methods, have opened a wide exploration suitable to my expressive and technical abilities. While much of my work contains Alaskan animals, I see them as symbolic carriers of universal themes. My work is about the flow of energy: relationships.