Pen and ink is where I really began to seriously pursue artistic studies. The medium led to the art of scrimshaw. Working ivory sent me back to ancient prehistoric times, each piece of mammoth ivory evoked thoughts of ancient people living on the pristine Alaskan mammoth step. Preparing the surface involved painstaking sanding, using multiple grits of sandpaper each piece needs to be brought to a high polish in order to etch a scene. Ivory is a hard substance, a scrimshander soon learns the art media is costly, not only monetarily, there is much preparation that must be done in order to place artwork on it’s surface. The actual etching process is tedious, and even painful to the hand, often leaving calluses on the fingers holding the awl. The value of ivory makes it worthwhile. One of the aspects of the media that attracted me to this ancient art form, each piece was precious and the painstaking effort to produce the art made it unique, long lasting. A childhood friend introduced me to scrimshaw a few years into my nomadic life in the late seventies. I sold an oil painting while living in and around the Fort Collins area of Colorado, in 1978. I decided to head out to California to attend a family reunion, I drove to the Santa Cruse area to visit the area I grew up, I inadvertently ran into my friend Carl Classmyer. Carl had an art studio in the redwoods up in the Soquel hills. I had produced my first series of art prints of some of my pen and inks; Carl was impressed and introduced me to scrimshaw. I was not able to acquire any fossilized ivory until a year later, I found myself in Newport Oregon, working in a silver-casting studio as a model maker. I made wax forms of whales, wolves any popular subjects the silver casters could use. There were silversmiths fabricating settings for a small group of scrimshanders, once again my pen and inks impressed these artists enough to sell me some pieces of mammoth Ivory. At that time my aim was to get to Alaska in the following year. I wanted to go to Alaska to find a direct source of Fossilized Ivory; eventually that is where I ended up. I found my ivory source, and began scrims handing for Ivory dealers in the Wasilla and Anchorage area, after doing many pieces for the dealers, I bought or traded for ivory of my own and began doing my own work. The Material eventually took its toll. I became burned out and stopped scrims handing ivory. I loved the material, moved from scrimshaw to carving fossilized walrus ivory. Carving fossilized walrus ivory, taught me to interpret my subjects in 3D. Ancient walrus Ivory contained varying shades of browns, blues, blacks, orange, the tones of the old ivory added life to the different subjects I carved. The art of pen and ink taught me how to draw, The art of scrimshaw, taught me, to do a wide range of subjects, the carving of walrus ivory, introduced me to see the sculptural form of all the subjects I could do, without the aid of photographs. Working ivory really opened many doors for my artistic studies. I work fossilized ivory at the present; the frequency is much less than it was in the late 70’s and 80’s. I carve ivory regalia to decorate full size replicas of Alaskan Native masks, parts for musical instruments, and a year ago I acquired a power tool that works like an impact awl. My hands hurt from scratching the hard ivory surface, I had to stop doing scrimshaw. This new tool has made working ivory much easier. I have polished my remaining supply of ancient mammoth ivory and have resumed my scrimshaw work.