Meet RAD Artist: Crystal Worl

We're honored to partner with Crystal Worl for our latest RAD collaboration to bring her original print, Raven's Moon, to life. We had the pleasure of sitting with her to chat about her traditional background, her inspirations, as well as learn more about the story of Raven.

Tell us a little about yourself and how you got into art.

I am Tlingit and Athabascan from Juneau and Fairbanks, Alaska. My mother Beverly Demientieff is Deg Hit’an Athabascan from Holy Cross, Alaska. My father Rodney Worl is Tlingit from the Thunderbird Clan. I am Raven moiety, Lukaahadi Sockeye Clan, from the Raven House from the Chilkat region of Southeast Alaska. I am a storyteller, a dancer, and an artist. As a visual artist I create mixed media work with jewelry metals, kiln cast glass, printmaking, and painting. Many of my materials and dyes are harvested from Alaska, such as blueberries, fireweed, and wood. Recently I have been studying how to work with animal hides, skins, intestine, and furs. The stories I share in my art are about Raven. The forms I focus on are based on traditional Tlingit design that are often intertwined with Athabascan beadwork design. I practice the recreation and modernization of Tlingit and Athabascan designs.

What influences your art and how you create your pieces?

The purpose of my art is to bring attention to cultural growth and discovery. My creative process is a means to bridge my experiences between two worlds, the traditional worlds of Tlingit, and the modern world. I create art to share my ancestral knowledge of creation and life and pass on old values to the new generations.

Tell us about your relationship and work with First Peoples Fund?

I am a former artist fellow! They have always been a great resource for me as an artist. They also have helped me build skills and networks valuable to my career.

Describe Trickster Company and why you and your brother founded it?

Trickster Company is an indigenous-owned design shop founded by siblings Rico and Crystal Worl with the goal to promote innovative indigenous design. As designers, we strive to represent the way in which traditionally rooted people represent themselves in modern context and fashion.

We focus on Northwest Coast art and explore themes and issues in Native culture and strive to represent a prestigious lineage of art in fresh and energetic ways as a celebration of Northwest Coast culture as it lives today. We are active advocates of diversity in community and work to promote diversity in civic engagement. We hope to provide products which act as cultural objects which modern indigenous people can represent their heritage, create products that non-native people can wear and appreciate without appropriating via cultural exchange, and to represent modern indigenous lifestyle to a broader audience.

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Learn more about the artists and see more of their unique one-of-a-kind work at www.crystalworl.com and www.ricoworl.com.

SHOP THE CRYSTAL WORL COLLAB