These are some of the process photos for my MFA thesis show Honoring the Ordinary. Thousands of yards of read thread, 300 yards of Muslin Cotton Fabric, and nine tons of sand.
Cast Cotton paper dry salmon. Now part of the Sheldon Jackson Museums permanent collection.
Story telling installation, based on first memory. Fleece blanket fort with a four foot moose hide drum from the NOFA children’s workshop I taught.
Porcupine Quill beaded Abaca hand pulled paper, and Hand made flax paper female figure.
Had a fantastic workshop at the New York Organic Farmers Association children’s program. We scraped fish skins made pouches and worked on stretching a four foot wide hexagonal moose hide drum. I brought in examples of my fish skin pieces for them to see. They were a great group of kids.
End of semester review. The table is a video of me harvesting a deer and is projected onto a deer hide table, with deer meatballs, cranberry punch, sugar cookies, and fry bread.
In September I conducted a workshop with the Fairbanks Arts Association and the Anchorage Museum in conjunction with the Dena’inaq’ Huch’ulyeshi exhibition that traveled to Fairbanks. It was a one day workshop with great students and lots of learning. 
In May I conducted a salmon skin workshop at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington DC as part of the Arctic Spring Celebration. It was a great experience working with so many amazing people. We made pouches out of Chum Salmon skins from the Yukon River in Alaska. http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/arcticspringfestival/scheduleofevents.html
joelisaak 