Rose Albert is an Athabascan artist who was born about 40 miles upriver from Ruby along the Nowitna River. Rose graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe New Mexico in 1981. In her Anchorage home studio in 1998, she started experimenting with carving Tlingit designs into red and yellow cedar boxes.
Rose started her box carving ‘with a collection of little boxes that she found at thrift stores. She hand carves and sands all her things.’ People liked her work and bought her boxes as fast as she could make them.
The artist, who usually has five or six boxes in progress at any given time, traces her designs onto the lids and sides. Once a drawing is in place, Rose carefully cuts the wood with a dremel tool and carves the design in relief. She then hand paints each intricate part of the figure with vivid colors like red, blue, green, and jet black. She loves bold designs, depth, and bright colors. Albert does more ravens than anything else. It’s a very popular image in the mythological beliefs of the American Indian culture.
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