Inupiaq Eskimo artist Aakatchaq (Ak-ah-chak) is Kikiktagrukmiut, born and raised above the Arctic Circle in Kotzebue, Alaska. Aakatchaq began creating art professionally in 1999, and continues to experiment with new materials such as moving from canvas portraits to those on stretched caribou and deerskins, or creating visual effects with caribou hair in paintings. More recently she began working with aluminum and wood whose sensual creations swim down the walls of the newly remodeled high school in the Northwest Arctic Borough in Northwest Alaska.
Her art began with acrylic paintings and has evolved from canvas to caribou & sealskin, to aluminum and wood pieces. She began carving walrus ivory tusks with exotic hardwood and more recently she began creating her unique caribou skin masks.