Karen Olanna
Karen Jenkins Olanna is an established and award winning artist who resides in Nome, Alaska. Born and raised in Washington State, she started exhibiting paintings in high school. After graduation, she traveled to Europe and apprenticed in wood relief carving in Norway. Her studies continued and her carving experience increased when she attended the Native Carving shop at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.
Her marriage in 1976 to the Native Alaskan sculptor Melvin Olanna (1941-1991) led her to his home village of Shishmaref on the northern coast of the Bering Strait. Melvin became a strong influence and she started incorporating indigenous materials into her sculpture. Inspired by the natural forms of caribou antler, muskox horn and whalebone, Olanna carves fascinating subjects that include animals and the human figure. With vision and skill, she has developed a unique style where natural materials become the vehicle for her personal expression.
Woodcut printing is a type of relief carving and, like sculpting, is a tactile method involving the shaping and manipulation of different surfaces. An understanding of the materials is key to their expression and Olanna liberates herself with admirable skill and keen insight into the fundamental nature of both her subjects and the medium she uses.
Olanna draws from Greek myth, Alaskan shamanistic transformations and ancient goddess imagery as well as a variety of animals and human characteristics. From the depths of an owl’s eye to the flick of a mermaid’s tale, Olanna’s subjects are heavy with swirling, circular contours. The shape of the spiral is one that illustrates the cycles of expansion, out from a beginning point and, simultaneously, the flow back to the source. In this manner, the constitutive shapes of the images reflect Olanna’s own exploration into creation, life and divinity. Her subjects take shape yet remain rooted to the surroundings forming balanced, dynamic and interconnected compositions. In her hands the lines separating nature, myth and the human condition become blurred and instead the connections are revealed.
Exploring the full spectrum of human nature, Olanna illustrates the harsh realities of survival, the nurturing presence of a parent, the mystic apparitions of supernatural beings and the humble joys of berry picking. From figures that are soft and insubstantial as a cloud to those that are sharp and penetrating like a knife, she explores the foundations of existence that are manifest in, yet transcend, myth and legend.
