American Indian Art Spring 2006

$6.00
$8.50 CAN
he jewelry of Denise and Samuel Wallace can be
appreciated on many levels: as exquisitely crafted
objects of art, as a window into the culture of the
Arctic people and as visual stories with the major motif of
transformation. The Wallaces are master storytellers
who narrate with silver, gold, fossil ivory and colored
stones rather than words (Gibson 1987:18).
Combining their respective expertise in metalwork
and lapidary, Denise, a Chugach (Eskimo) Aleut, and her
non-Native husband Samuel create wearable art with
complex designs drawn primarily from Denise's northern
Native traditions. "Our work," says Denise, "is not abstract
but rather representative of objects, people, and legends
of our belief system in which all things are interconnected" (1996).
77t<& Universal Story
Similar to other Native North American cultures, a sense
of universal order and its iconography link the Eskimo
and Aleut cosmos to its regalia and stories. Jewelry,
though a miniature art form, often carries cosmic messages through imagery and design. A Yup'ik Eskimo
wooden transformation dance mask opens to reveal a
semihuman tunraq (Fig. 10). The imagery is reinterpreted
in silver, gold and fossil ivory in Was/c Belt II (Fig. 7). By
retaining the same aesthetic principles as occur, for
example, in carvings or masks, "their transfer onto jewelry
is simply a translation of preexisting artistic forms into
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another genre," notes anthropologist Peter Whiteley.
"Jewelry produces somewhat greater permanence — as
on a bracelet or necklace — than the older artistic genres.
But just like a dance or ceremony, the jewelry often
excerpts an image or condenses a story from the vast
array of poetic and dramatic imagery of nature and the
supernatural world that continues to animate [Arctic] sensibilities in the twenty-first century" (Whiteley 2004:155).
The physical and spiritual world of the Arctic peoples
provides a wealth of literal and metaphorical images for
the Wallaces. The silver, gold and ivory hues of the Arctic
winter landscape are mirrored in their materials (Fig. 3).
Yup'ik ellanguaq (all-seeing) eye motifs adorn both nineteenth-century bag fasteners and a contemporary belt
buckle (Figs. 3, 5). A pair of painted wooden amulets
becomes etched fossil ivory earrings (Figs. 11,12).
Above all are the animals — the whales, bears,
walrus and seals — with which the Arctic people form
essential relationships. A view shared throughout the
region is that every living creature contains a yua (its
double) — the name comes from the Central Yup'ik
Eskimos of Alaska, whose art is the Wallaces' major
source of inspiration — that is capable of taking on different forms. "An animal's yua frequently appeared as a
transformed human being," according to Ann FienupRiordan (1994:140), since "shared personage created the
common ground for the relationship between human and
nonhuman persons" (Figs. 2, 4, 6,13).
AMERICAN INDIAN ART MAGAZINE
1. Transformation/Shaman Belt, 1988.
Sterling silver, 14-karat gold, fossil
ivory, walrus ivory, lapis lazuli, petrified
coral, spectrolite, chrysoprase, sugilite,
abalone shell, opal, lepidolite. Average
figure, 3" high (7.6 cm). This belt shows
five Arctic shamans with their spirit
helpers in the act of transformation.
Each shaman has four (simultaneous)
components: animal-shaman, mask,
animal transformed and animal scrimshaw. Left to right: 1) Walrus-man shaman, walrus mask, walrus transformation, walrus scrimshaw (see Fig. 2);
2) Wolf-man shaman, wolf mask, wolf
transformation, wolf scrimshaw; 3) Birdman shaman, bird mask, bird transformation, bird scrimshaw; 4) Bearman shaman, bear mask, bear transformation, bear scrimshaw; 5) Seal-man
shaman, seal mask, seal transformation,
seal scrimshaw. Courtesy of the Mingei
International Museum, San Diego, California. Photograph by Kiyoshi Togashi.
2. Detail of Figure 1. Indicative of all five
shaman sets in the Transformation/
Shaman Belt, some of the components
open. As seen in this walrus set, the
Walrus-man shaman and walrus mask
components have hinged doors that
open to reveal the inner spirit, yua.
Under the human shaman's mask is the
face of a shaman singing. The arms are
hinged and moveable. The walrus mask
represents the emerging animal spirit
and opens to reveal a human spirit face.
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57
c" 01 o> -I
,i o> ~ a_. o
5. Bag fastener, Yup'ik, nineteenth century. Ivory. e'Vis" long (17 cm). Collected in Chalitmiut, Alaska. A frowning woman with tattoos is
flanked by two seals tied to nets. The back flippers of both seals are in the form of human hands with open palms while their backs display el/anguaq, the nucleated eye motifs. Among the Bering Sea Yup'ik Eskimo people, bag fasteners were elaborately carved, revealing
the carver's artistic skill and rich imagination. This imagery was the inspiration for the belt buckle in Figure 3. Courtesy of the National
Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Cat. No. 37319.
Transformation defines the Wallaces' jewelry:
hinged doors open to reveal surprises, stories are contained within stories, faces peek from behind masks, a
woman becomes the moon, a man becomes a bear.
Furthermore, the pieces themselves transform: a belt
component becomes a pin or pendant while a small pendant emerges from a larger pendant and pendants
become earrings (Figs. 7, 9, 13). "Technically, I'm fascinated with movement," says Denise. "I like the idea that a
piece can be versatile. I think that this has to do with the
fact that many older Eskimo and Aleut pieces had multimeanings or transformations" (Dubin 2005:61). The
Wallaces' jewelry illustrates most of the symbolic themes
in Arctic life, including complementary opposites or duality (Figs. 11, 12), vision imagery (Figs. 3, 5), masking
(Figs. 7, 9) and shamanism (Fig. 1 ). There is also a hint of
humor in much of the Wallaces' work (Fig. 4).
Denise Wallace was born in 1957 to Sally Barnes
Hottinger, an Aleut, and Emil Stevens Hottinger, a German
carpenter. Although reared in Seattle, Washington, Denise
and her five siblings spent summer vacations with their
Aleutian family in Cordova, a small fishing community
located on Prince William Sound in southeastern Alaska.
After high school, Denise traveled to Cordova and resided
for a year with her maternal grandmother, Exenia Chernoff
Barnes, who lived her entire life within the Native community. It was Mrs. Barnes who drew her grandchildren,
including Denise, back into their Native heritage since
Sally Hottinger, who grew up during a time of pressure to
assimilate, did not keep up with her indigenous culture.
The time Denise spent in Cordova with her grandmother provided an important education that would resonate in numerous ways. Denise's first teachings came
from nature. She hiked the rugged Chugach Mountains,
studied their sculpted formations and became fascinated
with the abundance of birds, fish and sea mammals,
including orcas, seals and rafts of sea otters, many with
young pups clinging to their bellies. From her cousins,
aunts and uncles, Denise learned of her family's history in
the region. But above all, she absorbed her grandmother's values and listened to her stories.
SPRING 2006
Sam Wallace was born in 1 936 in Calvin, Virginia, a
coal-mining town. During the 1970s he met Denise in
Seattle, where he had started a company that manufactured stereo speakers. Eventually Sam decided to sell his
share of the company and, with the proceeds, to pursue
a passion he had had since childhood — collecting minerals and gemstones. Denise and Sam traveled to the
sources of various stones and minerals, including
Washington, Oregon and Idaho for jaspers and agates,
and Arizona and New Mexico for azurite and malachite.
Returning to Seattle, they studied silversmithing and lapidary, and learned how to work and set the stones.
"We had no intention of making jewelry," remembers
Sam. "And I was still more inclined toward artwork," says
Denise (Dubin 2005:33). However, by 1977 they moved
to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Denise enrolled at the
Institute of American Indian Arts. To support themselves,
Denise sold their contemporary stone and silver
"Scandinavian-looking" jewelry on Santa Fe's plaza for
six years (1977 through 1983).
Denise began to enter their work in competitions. A
belt of silver and picture jasper was awarded Second
Place at the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts'
(SWAIA) Indian Market, Santa Fe in 1982. And one of
their belts was awarded both First Place and Best of Contemporary Jewelry at the 1984 Eight Northern Pueblos
Market held at San lldefonso Pueblo, New Mexico.
The next few years were a pivotal time for the Wallaces.
Their daughter Dawn was born in 1983, and son David
came along two years later. Denise's grandmother was
placed in a nursing home, and two of Denise's second
cousins who lived in Cordova committed suicide. About
that time, Denise has said, "I felt I needed to counterbalance the negativity of my cousins' death and what it
said about the failure of my culture. There were all these
emotional struggles going on" (Teters 1997:25).
Denise began to research Native Alaskan imagery,
noting that "for the first time, I began expressing myself as
a Native person through my work. Before that, I was
learning the craft and trying technically to do the best
that I could" (Wallace 1994:114). What followed was the
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Wallaces' initial use of Alaskan imagery and
design elements, combined with the techniques they had acquired during their years
in the Southwest.
Their breakthrough piece was the
Killer Whale Belt, which was completed in
time for the 1984 SWAIA Indian Market.
Within each silver-and-inlaid-stone whale,
Denise scrimshawed bears, seals, hunters,
fish and eagles onto fossil ivory. The belt
won two First Place awards. Three months
later, the Wallaces crafted a belt titled
Alaska, the Land and Spirit of My People,
which won an Honorable Mention at the
Native American Invitational Show held at
the Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.
Neither belt had any removable components. Soon, however, people asked if Denise
could make separate pieces. "I realized it
would be nice if people could take the whole
belt apart and wear the pieces individually or
together," said Denise (Dunitz 1988:52). She
also became interested in the moveable parts
found on numerous Alaskan Native masks.
Shortly thereafter, the interactive, transforming elements that are now such a defining element in the Wallaces' work emerged.
The next major pieces were all masks,
and one of the masks opened up revealing
an inner image. Denise was intrigued by the
excitement it generated. "When people purchase your pieces, it becomes very much a
part of them," she said. "Because they wear
it, it's more personal than painting or sculpture; it's something that they put on their
body" (Teters 1997:27).
Denise frequently mentions that as
people wear the Wallaces' work, the pieces
take on another dimension. When strangers
invariably ask about the artist and the
designs, part of the continuing story is that
the wearer passes the information, including
its story, on to new people. The wearer thus
becomes a storyteller.
As Denise focused on her Alaskan themes,
a division of labor was created; she did the
design and metalwork while Sam became
responsible for the lapidary, an arrangement
that is in place to this day. At the same time,
they are very much a team. Denise decides
on a design and then discusses it with Sam.
Certain designs dictate specific colors; others
allow more flexibility in determining what
stones will be used and where to add scrimshaw details. As they study a tray filled with
AMERICAN INDIAN ART MAGAZINE
7. Mask Belt II, 1989. Sterling silver, 14-karat gold, fossil ivory, lapis lazuli, sugilite. Approximately 4" high (10.2 cm). Yup'ik masks had
multiple symbolic references and were a visible embodiment of shaman spirit helpers. This was the first belt they made using equal parts
14-karat gold and sterling silver. Many of the masks open to reveal an etched fossil ivory inner spirit. The belt is shown closed (top) and
open (bottom) with their removable pendants and earrings. The twelve masks alternate with yua (spirit) faces: 1) Woman of the Moon;
2) Bird Spirit of the Mountain; 3) Walrus mask; 4) Bering Sea Yup'ik transformation mask; 5) Wolf mask; 6) Yup'ik Seal Dance mask; 7) Spirit
of Driftwood; 8) Half Man/Half Wolf; 9) Tanqik; 10) Bering Sea Yup'ik transformation mask; 11) Owl mask; 12) Lower Kuskokwim
maskette. Courtesy of the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Anchorage, Alaska. Cat. No. 1999.52.1. Photograph by Chris Arend.
stones, they place them in patterns. Because of the way
that the stones are set in the Wallaces' pieces, Sam
prefers opaque stones over translucent ones. The stones
they use — lapis lazuli, sugilite, jasper, chrysoprase — are
solid and vividly colored, in contrast to the fossilized ivory.
The collector Judith Powell has said that the Wallaces'
"work is distinguished by their use of color. The pieces
have a delicacy and lightness in their color and structure
despite their size and weight — which is always very substantial but comfortable" (2003). Denise acknowledges
that Sam's love of lapidary and her reliance on his work
has undoubtedly influenced the course of her design. And
no two pieces are ever the same, since Sam does all of
his work freehand, without measuring.
"My biggest input into [the] whole creative process
is the cutting and polishing," Sam remarks. "I don't overpolish. I don't want a slurry that is worked into the top of
stone to become part of it in order to have a brilliant
shine. To me that takes away from the nature of the
stone" (Dubin 2005:192).
Regardless of how many elements the belts contain
that can be removed and worn separately, Denise
ensures that each creation remains an individually integrated work of art and that it is well made. Although
Denise did not learn how to use tools from her carpenter father, she believes that "he conveyed the importance
of the technical precision and patience that is as important in metalwork as it is in fine woodworking" (Mittler
1993:249).
SPRING 2006
Transformations:
lew&lry of 12en\£,e and
Wallace
is a tWenty-1-iVe-year retrospec-tiVe
exhibition that features nearly tv/o hundred
of the- \*/a\\ac43-s'1 v/ork-s of miniature
v/earable sculpture. Organized by the
Anchorage /Museum of-History and .Art,
Anchorage, Alaska and <zurated by
T^oslyn Tunis, this traveling exhibit,
v/hich runs through F^ebruaryJ:? at
the-H-eard/Museum, "Phoenix, Arizona,
v/ill be at the National SAuseur* of
the Ar^eric-an Indian, <^eorge <^ustaV
-Heye <Z^-nter, NevS York from SAarcJh 2to July 2£>, and the Institute of
Aweric-an Indian .Arts, S>anta
Ne\V Mexico from August "\6
to November J5.
61
The Wallaces' storytelling belts are coveted by collectors
and museums (Figs. 1, 7, 8). Each typically took four
months to make and required eight hundred to one thousand hours of labor. (The belt that Denise and Sam consider their single most important — the Crossroads of
Continents Belt— took twenty-five hundred hours of
work.) It was not unusual for Sam to be cutting and shaping three hundred pieces of stone and ivory, many with
compound curves. "The belts were very difficult and
demanding on us," Denise explains, "because we had
to balance the whole piece with design and color, tell a
story, and make it wearable" (Dubin 2005:194).
Initially the Wallaces produced one or two belts a
year, but eventually they crafted only one every two or
three years. By 1992 there was a waiting list for the
belts, which were often purchased sight unseen. The
designs for the belts came from many sources. Denise
found inspiration in the imagery on old scrimshaw (Fig.
5) and from books on Alaskan Native art and artifacts
such as INUA: Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo
(Fitzhugh and Kaplan 1983), the catalog for a traveling
exhibition curated by the Smithsonian Institution in
1982 (Figs. 5, 10, 12). She was particularly stimulated
to create the Crossroads of Continents Belt after seeing the exhibition of the same name. The imagery in
AMERICAN INDIAN ART MAGAZINE
Agayuliyararput: The Living Tradition of Yup'ik Masks:
Our Way of Making Prayer, an exhibit organized by the
Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Anchorage,
Alaska, can be seen in their work, including the Yup'ik
Dancer Belt. Following the King Island Dancers performance in Santa Fe, Denise and Sam created the King
Island Dancers Belt.
The concept of family supplies a wealth of images.
The Women and Children Belt was based on a typical family outing in Cordova. The belt captures the
inevitable, often humorous chaos when numerous
mothers, babies and children interact. For Denise,
mothers are heroic figures. One might even surmise
that Denise and Sam's long-term marriage and mutually
respectful working partnership has influenced their
work. Whereas many people emphasize the male hunting aspect of the Eskimo/lnuit culture, Denise has
always stressed that the woman's role is as important
as the man's role.
Her greatest source of inspiration, however, has
been traditional Native American stories. Storytellers
have played an essential role in American Indian cultures, passing on history and tradition from generation to
generation. The Wallaces continue the custom by sharing the stories of Alaskan Natives through their jewelry,
particularly the belts.
8. Top: Craftspeople Belt, 1992. Sterling silver, 14-karat gold, fossil ivory, sugilite, chrysocolla, variscite, chrysoprase, lapis lazuli,
coral, lace agate, silicated chrysocolla (gem silica). First figure,
33/i" high (9.5 cm). Denise designed this belt after a trip to the
Anchorage Museum to participate and demonstrate in its Native
artists group show. The belt is her tribute to the various artists
and their media. Ten figures are separated by medallions
scrimshawed with craft imagery. Left to right: two boatcarvers,
two maskmakers, two basket weavers, two ivory carvers, two
doll makers. Courtesy of the Institute of American Indian Arts
Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Cat. No. AT-58. Photograph by
Walter Bigbee.
9. Far left: Yup'ik dancers. Left to right: Pendant of dancer/mask,
closed, 1987. Private collection; Pendant of Yup'ik dancer with
mask as body, open, 1986. The inner, removable face is itself a
pendant. Private collection; Ring of dancer/mask, open,
1980s-1990s. Private collection; Ring of dancer/mask, closed,
1980s-1990s. Courtesy of the artists; Pin/pendant of Yup'ik
woman dancer, 2001. 3%" high (8.5 cm). Private collection.
Photograph by Kiyoshi Togashi.
10. Left: Yup'ik transformation mask, collected 1878-1881. Painted
wood, sinew, feathers. 17Yi6" high (44 cm). The transformational
portion of this mask figure has a hinged belly that opens to reveal
a thumbless, semihuman tunraq. Its theatrical character was the
major inspiration for the Dancer Belt and is reinterpreted in figures 4 and 10 of Mask Belt II (Fig. 7), and the two left pendants in
Figure 9. Courtesy of the National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Cat. No. 64260.
SPRING 2006
People who saw the belts asked to buy their
individual components. After a belt was completed,
Denise would designate which individual pieces she
and Sam would then personally fabricate in limited
editions of three to five (Figs. 3, 6, 13).
11. Earrings, 1992. Sterling silver, etched and carved fossil
ivory, sugilite. Male, 1 5 /e" (3.4 cm). These earrings are a contemporary version of nineteenth-century hunting amulets (Fig.
12). Private collection. Photograph by Kiyoshi Togashi.
12. Pair of painted wooden amulets in the form of smiling
male and frowning female faces, and an example of duality,
collected at Nunivak Island, 1927. e'W high (17 cm). In the
Bering Sea area, carvings of conventionalized male and
female representations were frequently attached inside
hunters' kayaks as protectors from evil sea-dwelling spirits.
Courtesy of the National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Cat. No. 340373.
Requests for the Wallaces' work soon exceeded
their ability to produce it. This led to the development of what they named the Gallery Line, which
required the casting (under the name "Fabricast") of
some of its components outside the studio. These
pieces were returned to the studio and then combined with hand-fabricated details in silver, gold,
fossil ivory and stones added by the Wallaces and
their assistants. "Our main goal was to create a line
of jewelry that is affordable but had the same quality as any fabricated piece that we did," states
Denise. "The Gallery Line pieces were multiples of
an idea — not mass produced" (Dubin 2005:196).
Denise designed and fabricated the master upon
which all others were based. The Gallery Line
encompassed mostly rings, earrings and bracelets
and was marketed in about forty galleries and
museum shops around the country. The Gallery
Line had both a fixed number of editions (typically
one to two hundred pieces) as well as unlimited production pieces (Fig. 11).
No two Gallery Line pieces are entirely identical,
since the natural materials, like fossil ivory, as well
as the scrimshaw designs, vary. The Wallaces hired
seven additional people, most of whom had never
made jewelry, to help produce the Gallery Line. They
enjoyed teaching employees with "no preconceived
ideas about jewelry," explained Sam. "If we are going
to be unique, then we have to figure out our own way
of doing things" (White 1992). However, by 1996 the
Wallaces began to rethink the direction of their business. They phased out selling to galleries, but continued the Gallery Line at their Santa Fe studio for
several more years.
From 1993 to 1995 Denise was part of an artist's
collaborative program, This Path We Travel, sponsored by the Smithsonian's National Museum of
the American Indian, Washington, D.C. The program brought together fifteen contemporary Native
American artists of different backgrounds to exchange
ideas about the creative process. Of the four locations
they visited, Hawaii was particularly meaningful to
Denise. As the Wallaces re-evaluatated the direction
of their business and lives, Denise and Sam discussed leaving Santa Fe. By the fall of 1 999 the family had moved to a new home near the town of Hilo,
Hawaii. The Wallaces' latest designs already exhibit
some Hawaiian influence.
AMERICAN INDIAN ART MAGAZINE
Although neither Dawn nor
David initially expressed any interest in jewelry, both are talented jewelers. Dawn, who graduated from
the Fashion Institute of Technology
in New York with a major in jewelry
design, has returned to Hawaii and
is pursuing a career in jewelry. She
was honored with the prestigious
"Artist's Choice" Award at the 2005
SWAIA Indian Market for her first
belt, titled My Family or My Ohana.
"When we left Santa Fe, we
decided that we only would do what
we wanted to do," says Denise.
"Just the four of us, no employees
and no open studio. I would guess
that we are making about forty to
fifty pieces a year now. We will
never make another belt. They are
too intense. And it's all we can do
now to make enough jewelry to do
three shows a year" (Dubin 2005:
220). These three shows include
the Native American Invitational
Show at the Heard Museum in
March, the Institute of American
Indian Arts Museum show in August,
and the show at Long Ago and
Far Away Gallery in Manchester
13. Walrus-man bolo/pendant, 1993. Sterling silver, 14-karat gold, fossil ivory. 33/a" long
Center, Vermont the weekend after
(8.6 cm). Limited edition 5/5. The detachable etched fossil ivory pendant can be worn
Thanksgiving.
separately, as shown. Private collection. Photograph by Kiyoshi Togashi.
What continues to truly distinguish Denise and Sam Wallace's art
Mittler, Gene A.
is a sense of life and animation. Their ability to combine
1993 Artists Bridging Cultures: Denise Wallace. Art in Focus.
complementary motifs within a single object of jewelry
Rowell, Judith
creates a dynamism that imbues their jewelry with move2003 Personal communication.
ment and expression. Evoking the spirit of the finest traTeters, Charlene
ditional Arctic carvings, the Wallaces' intimately scaled
1997 Denise Wallace: Cultural Bridges in Metal and Stone. Indian
Artist, Summer:22-27.
work conveys a monumental life force.
Bibliography
Dubin, Lois Sherr
2005 Arctic Transformations: The Jewelry of Denise and Samuel
Wallace. Easton Studio Press, Westport, Connecticut and
Theodore Dubin Foundation, New York.
Dunitz, Robin J.
1988 Wearable Sculpture: Denise Wallace's Versatile
Metalsmithing. Southwest Art, November.
Fienup-Riordan, Ann
1994 Boundaries and Passages: Rule and Ritual in Yup Ik Eskimo
Oral Tradition. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Fitzhugh, William W. and Susan A. Kaplan
1983 INUA: Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo. Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D.C.
Gibson, Daniel
1987 Denise Wallace, Storyteller. Artistry in Jewelry. Santa Fean,
December:! 8.
SPRING 2006
Wallace, Denise
1994 This Path We Travel: Celebrations of Contemporary Native
American Creativity. National Museum of the American
Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. and
Fulcrum Publishing, Golden, Colorado.
1995 Personal communication.
1996 Personal communication.
White, Fran
1992 Layered with Significance. Lapidary Journal, September.
Whiteley, Peter M.
2004 The Southwest "Painterly" Style and Its Cultural Context. In
Totems to Turquoise: Native North American Jewelry Arts of
the Northwest and Southwest, edited by Kari Chalker,
pp. 148-155. Harry N. Abrams with American Museum of
Natural History, New York.
Lois Sherr Dubin is a curator, frequent lecturer and author, most
recently of Arctic Transformations: The Jewelry of Denise and
Samuel Wallace (2005).
65