(1948 -  )

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Garreth Andrews grew up in rural Minnesota and attended art classes at the University of Minnesota. He toured Europe, North and South America and spent a decade exploring Alaska and restoring historic works for the University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks. His interest in Inuit history and mythology led to many of his sculptures as “INUA”.

In Inuit mythology an INUA is a spirit or soul that exists in all people, animals, lakes, mountains, and plants. For arctic people, humans and animals are equal – all life has the same kind of soul or “life essence” (inua). This creates a dilemma. In order to survive, people must kill other creatures that are like them. Empowered by songs and charms, hunters go to seek that whale which has heard their songs and, pleased with their request, has come to offer itself. Speaking of this in “Anthem” – another of Garreth’s sculptures – Garreth  writes, “Songs of the Sea took many voices, some of them in languages that no man has yet spoken or understood. “Anthem” is one thin strain of an old, often repeated story of singers whose voices mixed but never blended. It is a song of praise to all who sang, the whales as well as the men who went to meet them.”