Anningan Chasing Malina

Artist Statement

Throughout history, mankind has created stories to make sense of the mysterious working of the universe. By observing the monthly phases of the moon, the Inuit, indigenous people of Alaska, Greenland and the Arctic region, created a myth to explain the ever changing sphere in the sky.

The moon god Anningan and his sister Malina, the sun goddess, had a quarrel as brothers and sisters often do. Malina stormed off and Anningan pursued her. As hard as he tried, he could not catch her since they each rose and set at different times. Anningan was so determined to catch up to Malina to continue the argument he would forget to eat and thus explains the waning and waxing of the moon. Today, the moon still continues to instill wonder and mystery in all of us.

My design of Anningan and Malina was based on the Inuit tribal masks. Anningan’s design contains many moon shapes while Malina’s design incorporates sun shapes.

Materials

Hand dyed fabrics, batiks, oil paint sticks and beads.

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