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A Eugene Alfred (b. 1970), Tlingit/Tutchone (Athabascan) Printmaker and Sculptor. Raised in the mountainous grandeur of the Yukon, Eugene Alfred has given striking new form to the material culture of his ancestors. He reconfigures tra- ditional imagery with fluid shapes and rhythmic pattern to engage the fast- moving world of the present. Both a sculptor in wood and a printmaker, Alfred reinvents Northwest Coast art for the discerning contemporary viewer. Born in the village of Mayo, Alfred is descended from multiple generations of artists. His grandmother was particularly well known for her beadwork, and was exhibited in both galleries and community shows. As a child, the artist spent most of his summers with his grandparents, ‘‘living on the land: hunting, fishing, and gathering food.’’ It was a period, he says, of both stimula- tion and tranquility. Alfred also spent considerable time with his Uncle Martin —an artist confined to a wheelchair who was continually drawing. His Uncle Martin was an extremely accomplished draftsman, and the young artist was fascinated with watching him work, memorizing his elder’s technique for future translation into his own images. Alfred remembers learning to draw on cardboard when he was in kinder- garten. Since his family didn’t have much money, he also began to make his own toys as a child—carving wood into trucks, boats, and even small figures. Looking back now, he feels that the peaceful atmosphere of his grandparents’ home helped him develop the patience necessary for carving, especially for large projects demanding monumental commitments of time. Alfred always dreamed of attending art school, and when he was only fifteen, he took a class with renowned Tlingit wood-carver Dempsey Bob. Bob’s work extended the scope of traditional imagery, often through his fig- ures’ streamlined features, his reduced usage of form-line design (see Glos- sary), and the addition of new curves and angles that shifted the look of compositions. These innovations clearly had an effect on Alfred, whose own masks would later reveal clean lines and focused expressions that echo his teacher’s work. After finishing high school in the city of Whitehorse, Alfred attended the Kitanmax School of Northwest Coast Indian Art near Hazelton, British Colum- bia, where he studied painting, carving, design, and silkscreen printing. His coursework was directed by Gitksan (Tsimshian) artist Ken Mowatt,