My formal education in the arts include engraving, etching, painting, printmaking and graphic design, which became a natural foundation to develop abilities in the art of scrimshaw. I began my career as a Scrimshaw artist in Hawaii, producing finished works on ancient ivory.

During my engraving career, during 1980s and ‘90s, the ivory I used was fossilized walrus and mammoth which had been buried and preserved beneath the permafrost for thousands of years, imbued with mineral colors within the earth. Many of the large pieces were fashioned into functional tools by prehistoric Eskimos, such as fishing weights, adz heads, hooks, spear heads and other implements related to survival; bestowing these pieces with undeniable artifact value.

The process of excavating ivory within areas of ancient encampments is performed by modern-day Eskimos within the few months of the year when the permafrost melt will allow this. These actions not only support indigenous Eskimo livelihood, but also have no impact to infringe on the rights of ivory-bearing endangered species. 

In the photos, is one of the stages in scrimshaw. The ivory has been blacked with ink and with the use of a scribe... a metal etching spike, lines are carefully scratched into the polished ivory. The image is worked in negative form... in the reverse of the final image, so that areas which are to be dark appear as white. Hundreds of thousands of inscribed lines are necessary to create a realistic scene. this process would take several weeks of diligent concentration to accomplish. After the black ink is removed colored archival inks are worked into the inscribed surfaces.