When I was nine years old I had a burning desire to express my appreciation of nature through splashing color on canvas---and so I pestered my parents for a set of professional oil paints. When I was even younger I colored a lot in coloring books with crayolas; then started drawing my own pictures to color.
	I befriended a self taught oil painter, Mr. Peter Harry, who commercial fished with my father on the Akwe River, forty miles from Yakutat. I asked Mr. Harry if he would teach me how to paint like he did.
One early spring my father moved his commercial fishing venture from the Alsek River, twelve miles as the crow flies from the Alsek, to Akwe River. Here we stayed the entire summer until it was time for my brother and I to return to school in September; however, in mid-summer---as tradition would dictate---a bush pilot would fly us to Yakutat to celebrate the 4th of July with the community. While we were there Mr. Harry told me to buy the primary colors from the general store, some white lead, turpentine and linseed oil.  I also bought small paint brushes, found some used tooth brushes and even attempted to fashion brushes from my own locks of hair.
	Back on the Akwe we walked along the ocean beach and combed for pieces of plywood; we cut them into squares and rectangles, sanded and coated them with white lead.
From that point I began painting on crude plywood surfaces using a make-shift easel. The following Christmas my parents were convinced that I was serious about being an artist and bought me my first set of oil paints from the Sears & Roebuck catalogue.
	When I was twelve I did two large (48" x 48") paintings on the back of oil cloth (used for covering table tops).  My parents let me tack the oil cloth on the wall in the upstairs of our house. One of them was a painting of two deer standing in front of a tree line.  The other was the scene of a prospector panning for gold along a small creek that emptied into a pond where there were salmon, already blushed after they had done their spawning. In the background were snow-capped mountains.  I was in the sixth grade then and my teacher took the paintings and entered them in the Fur Roundy art exhibit in Anchorage, Alaska.  I won third place and an honorable mention with these entries.
When I graduated from the eighth grade my teacher, Mr. David Karsten, arranged for me to live with his parents in Holland Michigan so I could be further trained with various mediums from his high school art teacher, who was going to retire in a couple years. Here I worked at honing my skills and began to learn the techniques of working with water colors.  I really liked the challenge of water color; much of my work is done in this medium, however I will, once in a while, take out my oils and do several paintings. I have recently begun working with acrylics (only one so far).
	When I self published the first printing of This Is Yakutat, I did a water color painting (20" x 28") of the village of Yakutat for the wrap-around cover.  I also did paintings for several of the short stories in the book; these were shown in black and white in the book.
For the second printing the painting was used for the front cover, and the illustrations were also reproduced in black and white for several of the stories as well.

G'ukwl' atwook'eet 18x24 oil painting Original:  $315.00 Framed:  $360.00 Note: This painting is reserved for a potential buyer.  If  they change their mind I will make it availalbe for anyone. Prints available.  See chart below	Gukwl' atwook'eet are swans that are alerted to danger.  You normally don't see swans surrounded by trees as depicted here, and thus the reason for their alertness. They would feel more comfortable milling in ponds or habitat where they can take flight to saftey without abstructions.  In this painting they are ready to take off toward the only opening in the trees and are prepared to spead their wings in a split second while they swim from one end of the lake to the other.
X'oots is a brown bear in the Tlingit language.  This scene is between Point Carew and Ocean Cape where Mt. Saint Elias is located across Yakutat Bay. In the summer the bears will feast on the salmon berries along the tree line and strawberries snuggeled between logs.  In early spring they will dig from the soil roots to eat, and at low tides venture to the waters edge and turn over rocks for a variety of marine treats.  In the fall they will migrate to the rivers to fish for salmon to fatten themselves for their long winter nap.	Title: xóots              SOLD 18x24 oil painting Original: $ 325.00 Framed:  $ 370.00 Prints available:  See chart below
Title: Waas'eitishaa 22x28 oil painting Original:  $380.00 Framed:   $ 430.00 Note: Prints available:  See chart below.  I have a 22x28 print ready to go now.	Waas'eitishaa means the "mountian beside the bay." When Vitus Bering first saw it in July of 1741 emerge from fog he named it Mount Saint Elias.  Being Danish he gave it the name because it was a Danish holiday called Saint Elias Day.  It is the second tallest mountian on the American continent standing over 18,000 feet. It also sits on the largest piece of ice in the world, the Malispina Glacier.  When the Eyaks were migrating from the Copper River area, a story is told about how they used the mountain as a compus to lead them to Yaakwdaat(Yakutat) Bay.  The original word, Yaakwdaat, means a "Place where canoes rest."
Yande geiwu means to beach siene.  These men are "round hauling" for pink salmon on the beaches of Knight Island (Gunawaas) in Yakutat Bay.	Title: Yandei geiwoo 22x32 oil painting For display only. This one is owned by Joe and Connie Klushkan of Yakutat. Prints available:  See chart below

Size	Framed	Unframed
9x12	$87.00	$ 66.00
12x16	$ 114.48	$ 88.00
18x24	$ 189.00	$ 144.00
22x28	$ 218.48	$ 192.00
22x32	$ 245.98	$ 212.00

The section below are water colors, most of which serve as illustrations in my short story collection THIS IS YAKUTAT. There is a chart following which gives information about print sizes, prices, etc.

Original Water Color 20x28 Value: $ 560.00	This 20x28 painting belongs to Dayrl and Penney James . It graces their wall in a prominant place in their home in Yakutat, Alaska. This painting depicts a time when Yakutat was a booming commercial fishing village in the 1930'and 40's. There were no more than 300 permanent souls living here year around.  In the summer the population more than doubled by cannery workers and fishermen who lived outside of Alaska.  Tenders,vessels like the Italio and Alsek, would travel from Washington State to transport fishermen to Dry Bay and the Alsek River. At the end of the fishing week they would haul salmon to Yakutat where the fish were processed in the cannery.  A railroad track was built as far as Johnson Slough, ten miles from Yakutat, to transport fishers and gear to the camps on the Situk and Ahrnklin Rivers, and haul salmon to the cannery on a daily basis. The railrod was going to eventually extend about sixty miles to Dry Bay but never happened. Bellingham Canning Company bought the facility in the 1960's, but never used the train because parts were hard to get and too expensive with keeping up with maintenance problems. Most women worked in the cannery while the men fished so there was work to do for everyone in the village.  Orientals came to work for the summer and lived in bunk houses along the railroad track.  Prints are available. See chart below for more information.
Oriiginal Water Color 20x28 Sold Value $ 460.00	This painting was sold to Scott Newlund of Yakutat, Alaska.   From July through September Yakutat Bay is filled with all kinds of trolling vesells chasing silver salmon.  Prints are available. For information on how to order see chart below.
Original Water Color 14x20 This painting is for sale unmatted and unfrmaed at $ 175.00. Matted and framed:$225.00	During this period there was one large general store in the village.  It was owned by the same company that operaed the cannery, Libby McNiel And Libby.  Individual people had small stores in their homes.  Sheldon James, Sr. sold clothing, next door to him Emma Ellis sold soda pop and candy, Helen Bremner also sold bottled soda and candies, but also toys and fire works for the 4th of July.  J.B. Mallot started a small grocery store in his home and kept building onto it and today is one of the major stores in the community owned and managed by his children.  The general store for the community was the place to go, not only to shop but to socialize and meet people you may have not seen for a while. In the painting of Yakutat the store is the darker building between the large buildings on the dock.  Prints are available.  See table for more information.
Original Acrylic 18x24 Set-netters at mouth of Situk/Ahrnklin . Value:$275.00	This painting is owned by Robert Adams and his wife, Victoria who live in Juneau, Alaska.  Here is modern day scene of fishers tending their set-nets at the mouth of the Situk/Ahrnklin Rivers.  The far side is the Ahrnklin side. Today there are about 170 commercial fishing permits in the Yakutat area which streches from Yakutat Bay to Dry Bay.  About half of these permits are used by  fishers who make their living from the Situk/ Ahrnklin Rivers because it is much easier to access. Yakutat is ten miles distant and is connected by a road system. In the short story Pinch Me, referrence is made about having to drive to Yakutat to purchase supplies, etc. Prints are available (this is a darker version, the image can be lightened).  See chart for more details.
Original Water Color 10X14 from The Smile Maker This is an original and is avaialable for: $130.00 unmatted and unframed	This water color depicts what camps looked like on the rivers where commercial fishing was praticed. The Situk River merged into the Arhnklin River and empted into the Pacific Ocean using the same mouth. In the rivers there were the inland fishers and the breaker fishers. People who fished in the breaks were special people; they had special talents and learned how to navigate between the foaming waves to lagoons along the ocean shores. It was in the pools where salmon congregated before interring into the rivers to spawn and to start a new generation that would make their way out to sea and return as adults five-six years later only to do the same thing all over again. Set nets were streched out in these lagoons to intercept salmon before they migrated into the rivers. This scene on the Ahrnklin side is a tent frame commonly used for the summer dwellings.  The weather beaten planks standing on the left side of the tent is a windbreak thrown together with drift wood collected along the ocean side of the sandspit.  This protected the flimsy tents from severe fall storms that sometimes were hurrican force.   This one is available as a print as well.
Original Water Color 14x20 A set-netter picking salmon at the mouth of the Akwe River. Value: $ 135.00	In the fall there may be a rare day when the weather is nice, but one never knows when a change can take place---sometimes without notice.  Small rivers like the Akwe are sensitive to heavy rain falls as the water can rise rapidly. This make it nearly impossible to keep a net in the water because of debris that keeps one busy keeping the net clean.  So one needs to take advantage of the good days when the fish are running strong---working day and night until the runs slows or stops or you drop dead from exhaustion.  This image is of a young set-netter picking salmon out of the meshes of his net near the mouth of the Akwe River. In the background is the Pacific Ocean. It is a good day weatherwise and plenty of silver salmon flooding from the ocean into the river. But the weather is going to change in the evening so he works feveroushly to catch as much fish as he can. This is also available in a print.  See chart below for details on how to order.
Original Water Color 14x20 $135.00	One of the Stories in This Is Yakutat is about a young couple fishing on the Alsek River.  The Alsek empties into the Dry Bay delta where the bay in turn flushes into the Pacific Ocean. In this water color image the mountain in the background is Mt. Fairweather which stand 15,300 feet into the heavens. The island in the middle behind the vessel is called Bear Island, but in Tlingit myth it was the whale that Raven caused to wash up on the beach so that people could have food during a long winter after a summer famine.  The Alsek River sweeps down from the Alsek Glacier several miles up river.  The vessel rushing down the river is an airplane engine powered scow that a guy by the name of Gunner Erickson used to haul salmon from the fish camps along the river to a tender anchored in Dry Bay.  In the story Something To Give you can get a feel of what it was like to live along the river and to expect Gunner to stop by your camp, or bring groceries and supplies on the way back to his camp near the mouth of the Alsek Lake. The skiff and punt are boats used to tend the set nets.  You can see the action of the salmon hitting the nets in the slough along the river side. The original is for sale and prints are available as well.  See chart and forms below to get more information and how to order.
Original Water Color 14.20 The Tale of Three Seal Hunters Value: $150.00	This painting is owned by Bert Adams, Jr. of Yakutat, Alaska In the olden days the people from Yakutat would travel 30 miles from Yakutat by skiff to Disenchantment Bay at the face of the Hubbard Glacier where the men would spend two weeks hunting seal.  The women would process the meat, render the fat and flesh and dry the hides.  The meat was smoked and presrved in its own oil in five gallon cans.  This time spent provided the community of Yakutat its supply of seal meat and oil for the entire year.  The next spring they would go back and do the same thing all over again. This painting depicts two inexperienced young men who went to hunt seal in this area unfamiliar  with the tricks of hunting seal because they were sent to a boarding school and taken away from the value of hunting with their uncles.  This is available in a print. See chart and form below for ordering instructions.