My lifestyle, art, and myself, are hard to separate. Each helps define the others. Seeing pictures from my life helps show what my art is about. I use the medium of 'art' to tell stories from the land. These are the pictures that go with the art. I also use the written word. I'm working on 3 books 'Going Wild' ' Gone Wild' and 'Beyond Wild'. I hope you enjoy these pictures and share my love of the land! I hope the pictures load fast enough!
Life on the houseboat. In 75 or so I built a houseboat. I lived on it as my only home for 5 years. I traveled all summer, and holed up for winter. Sometimes I didn't even know where I was till I floated to the nearest village in spring. I trapped all winter and came to town with my furs after the ice went out. Her I am in the hot slough out of Manley Hot springs, pulled over and getting ready for winter. The boat got dry-docked. I put poles out to hold a tarp so have myself some extra room to store things I didn't want buried in the snow. I have a little run about boat to save on gas that I drug along. Many of my supplies are out on the ground. I'm sorting and weighing and figuring if I have enough. Time to look for my winter moose! I saw many things out my window and in my travels, much of which becomes my art work and will be in my book. I met a lot fo people in the wilderness over the years and some supply me now with raw material I offer you.
This is the same view a few months later in the deep dark cold of winter The snow gets banked up against the hull of the boat to help keep it warm. I use a snow machine here. I gave that up and got a dog team a year later.
Mammoth Ivory Tusk. (click on 'mammoth' to go to my raw materials for sale) In my wilderness travels I learned where to find the 40,000 year old burial grounds of ancient animals. The ground has been frozen for all those years and creeks cut into the frozen ground exposing prehistoric bison, camel, 300 pound beaver, and this 10 foot 200 pound tusk. In the picture is the saw and ax I used to unbury the rest of it. I use this material in my artwork.
Artist Miles Martin from Nenana Alaska biography through pictures from homestead wildlife
Miles at Miles of Alaska
box 363
Nenana Alaska
99760
1-907-832-5442 miles@milesofalaska.net
click here to go to my site directory with links to all my pages. Art - raw materials for sale- book- advice- tips-ordering- info- home page etc
Miles at Miles of Alaska
box 363
Nenana Alaska
99760
1-907-832-5442 miles@milesofalaska.net
Life on the houseboat was a long time ago in the 70's. This is the houseboat dry docked in 2004 with me next to it.
Right--Me selling my Alaska art and materials at the Fossil gem show in Tucson Ariozona. This is the biggest show of it's kind in the world. The size of the vendor list is as large as the Fairbanks Alaska phone book . And My Mom lives there I get to see her and it is tax time so I bring my laptop computer and sit under the palm trees doing those awful taxes!
Above. My son comes to visit from California ands we find a mammoth tusk together. left it is in the boat- right he is chipping at the frozen mud to get it loose - boat is tied to it by his knee.
The ivory and large chunks from the tusk are for sale --go to my new materials site --later on will add to my raw materials page (If I forget to come back here in a few months go check the raw materials page)
Above and right--- my main Kantishna river homestead burned in a forest fire in 04 and I lost my trapline line cabins and everything I owned out there. Here is the small frame trap cabin I put up after the fire and right is the property with fire smoke still around
Have a greenhouse and here are some tomatoes from that and the herbs are about ready to eat even before the snow is gone!
Right. I got a grey beard now but still get out to cut fire wood hunt moose and such things here is my Yamaha Viking 540 decked out with all the survival gear to head out over 100 miles
Left here I am cutting up my yearly moose in the kitchen. Well my cabin only has 2 rooms so it is the living room as well. The ceiling here is hand whipsawed lumber from the 1800's off a steam boat hull.
I take a lot of flower pictures--the above are from my yard
Lynx from the Kantishna river in 2006 My claws come from my own trapping byproduct from Native trappers in my village.
Right --I come across antiques and odd stories told in teh forest. This boat is far inland with trees all around and gowing in the boat that was run by steam. How did it get here? I assume fomr the gold rush days
Left moose show up anywhere and can be curious
This owl lives in my yard and allows me to get close
The 50 mile trail to the homestead and trapline
Many people are concerned about where I get my animal products and how they were handled, believing they should be handled with respect and do not wish to support disrespect of the animals or land. Even though I am a hunter gatherer I try to respect the animals and many of my products are a by product of another aspect of the animals death, such as from a food source or killing in defence of life or property . These pictures help tell that story so you can know it to be true and not made up
Right. In 2004 my homesteasd of 25 years burnned in a forest fire. This is the replacement cabin
Me in 1973 when I lived in this boat on the Yukon River
Left, with one of my favorite customers from Japan - who meets up with me each year in Tucson for special items.
In Nome Alaska catching King crab with a friend. I was in Nome Feb of 08 to sell my art at the end of the Iditarod dog sled race and track down a source for fossil walrus ivory.
Left at Tanana state fair. Notre the rainbow. 'Art at the end of the rainbow'
I don't drive so this is how my 'goods' get around. This is a load of materials I packed and shipped to myself in Tucson, hauled from the post office by snow machine in a sled.
Spring of 09. I'm getting older, not getting out as much as I once did but 'still;;' I was on the Kantishna hauling supplies to the homestead cabin and ran into 'bear problems' Having another adventure.
In the summer I work with a friend who is a wilderness land surveyor and we go out in his private plane to survey homesteads, native land claims and remote village work. This involves camping out in the wild for up to 2 weeks at a time. This job gives me access to some of my raw materials and making the contacts with the Indians I need to get other materials I don't find myself.
Left in 2009 I find this 9 ft 140 pound tusk on one of my fossil expeditions
Right the tusk fund above is 'home' and cleaned up. Bands are to help stop it from cracking as it thaws and dries out after being frozen 40,000 years.
Left while fossil hunting I live off the land eating fish like this pike I got at rock creek where I stop to transfer gas and take a break
Right my girlfriend Irene- first snow of the year in Oct 09
Left the pirate flag i fly from my fence
Me at the big Tucson fossil show (where my mother lives so I visit her too!) 2010
I pick up my mail at the post office with the snow machine. Here is some of the materials I bought in Tucson arriving home in flat rate priority boxes
Taken in Denail park June 2010
2007 finding a mammoth tooth and tusk
Tanana River near Nenana where I live the train bride and the road to Anchorage and Fairbanks
Harvesting cabbage from the garden in 2010 This one fills a 5 gallon bucket for the making of sauerkraut
Part of the subsistance life is canning the garden. Irene and I do this outdoors. She and I have been together nbow about 2 years.
Right. I proudly show off a solar dehydrator the does serious drying of the garden. There is a fan if needed. Wild Rose hips for tea are dried, as well as beet and turnip tops. About 30 pounds at a time can be dried.
Among my river travels in the wilds I came across this abandoned cabin. View from the outside looking in. The roof is missing. Possibly a cabin from the gold rush days late 1800's.
My 2010 moose - already made into sausage
Left-- Me working on my book on the laptop while out moosehunting on the Yukon River
