Alaskan Bill Ka’iana’s Art at Indigo Designs

Bill Ka’iana’s background is Inupiaq, Dena, and Havvii OE, which inadequately translates as Eskimo, Indian, and Hawaiian.  Some would say mixed up, yet Bill simply describes himself as VERY PACIFIC – both in background and in expression of his life and art.

Bill was born in Fairbanks, and hails from his Inupiaq mother’s villages of Norvik and Selawik. Inuk is one of Bill’s Inupiaq names, given him by his aunt Esther Norten – whose work is in the permanent Parka Collection at the Anchorage Museum. His other aunt, Lela Kiana Oman, has written 7 books on Inupiaq Legend stories. His mother was also internationally known for her skin sewing through Martin Victor Furs in the 1950s.

In his late teens, Bill traveled to Spain and studied formal art and “arte de la calle”.  He studied further at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Consequently, Ka’iana’s art interests are international in scope and expression; his work is very contemporary while also drawing on his eclectic genetic persuasions and Legend stories.  In fact, Ka’iana insists he doesn’t do any original works, that all his expressions in the arts are Genetic Memories. The mix of traditional and contemporary extends to the mediums Bill works with;  blending materials from new age stores with items gifted by nature and readily at hand in Alaska.

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