Alaskan Family

Walking to my remote midtown office today, I passed by two incredibly beautiful modern buildings that are home to two of the 12 Alaska Native Regional corporations.

My thought process went something like this… my hands are so cold they hurt… woah look at the way the windows reflect the sky… oh, hello ASRC… it be neat to do portraits of Alaska’s First people in front of each of their corresponding Regional Corporation… I wonder who I should talk to about that?

Later at my Kaladi office in the JL Tower, I found a beautiful statue done by Iñupiaq artist Larry Ahvanaka. What drew me in was the the simplicity and the protruding placement of the piece directly infront of one of the three elevators. I don’t know if Larry himself decided on the placement, but I absolutely love the juxtaposition with how removed you feel when looking at the statue knowing you are in a building in midtown Anchorage.

Found outside the bathroom @ Barnes & Nobel

Urban Wildlife

After a visit to the dentist, I took a stroll through the urban environment of midtown Anchorage, where I encountered the complex relationship between predator and prey.

Dinosaurs are slow moving, out dated and on the  verge of extinction. Dinosaurs come in all shapes and sizes and can take the from of a person, business or institution.

I am in the midst of dealing with a dinosaur. They are a large local business with many locations and poor record of hits-to-misses when it comes to customer service. They are the kind of business that will become extinct because they fail to capitalize on opportunities to create value in addition to the products and services they offer. They behave more like a vending machine rather than a thinking breathing organisation. Trust me, I am not the only one who has experienced this.

This particular dinosaur has the opportunity turn this record around with the situation at hand. Let’s wait and see if the dinosaur can evolve and further develop it’s tiny lizard brain to understand the immense value of social bonding that mammals and humans seek.

Today was first for many reasons. First TEDx presentation, first time talking about my bike tour as opposed to my photography, and the first I allowed myself to be vulnerable enough to cry on stage. No matter how many times I rehearsed, I just could not get through the story of my family and how we came to arrive to Alaska without at least getting tears in my eyes and a shaky voice. I didn’t get so emotional to that I couldn’t keep going, because the memories that stirred up my tears came from a place of strength. The funniest part of the evening was when I confused the word foreskin with forearm while describing the blistering side effects anti-malaria medication. Ah well at least we all got a good laugh from that. I’ll up date this post the video once it is released so you can get teary eyed and laugh too.

My buddy Spargo sent me this vid. It tickles the side of me that goes out to trace shadows.