In my culture historically, intersex individuals were the shaman, the healers, the culture bearers, and the keepers of the ways. The way of men, and the way of women, the two-spirits. These individuals were known to be able to walk on both sides of the veil. I was taught the ways by my grandmother, taught to bring life, heal bone, and stitch wounds, but never to spit poison.

And so, in my practice I use reclaimed materials, specifically reclaimed timbers when possible. Timbers that once gave a sense of strength, utility, and structure. I use their raw form as a representation of the masculine, and then patiently, with chisel, mallet and knife I labor to tease out the feminine nature within, exposing a thing that is at once surreal and evocative, where once it was rough and unrefined.

At the heart of my work is a belief that was patiently nurtured and taught to me by my grandmother, representation matters. As a Sugpiaq artist, and as an intersex woman I have chosen to devote my life to capturing the whimsical, hidden, and mystical nature of my life. One rarely seen by others. The esoterica I create, is true and potent, and raised using the ways bequeathed to me, by her.

Word, not action. These tools I use today, are the same ones so lovingly handed down. I use them to give a face, culture and acknowledgement to an aspect of society so unjustly stigmatized by ignorance. To give back to my people, and to carry the divine light into the divine darkness. My body and its work are evidence of the truth that classical sculptors and poets once fetishized, even deified. My work is a means of providing, however feeble an attempt, representation, and a way stone to those who follow.