About Janine Gibbons

Janine Gibbons is a multi-disciplinary and award winning Alaskan artist of Haida descent. Born in Ketchikan, Alaska, in 1977, she is a member of the Yahgulaanas Raven Clan. Her predominant crests are Grizzly Bear, Dogfish, Double-Fin Killer Whale and Berry Picker in the Moon.

 

Janine’s works are inspired by the waters and lands of the Pacific Ocean, and their myriad colours, energies, and languages. Janine has illustrated four books in the Sealaska Heritage Institute's Baby Raven Reads series, including Raven Makes the Aleutians, an American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book, The Woman Carried Away by Killer Whales, The Woman Who Married the Bear and Nang Jáadaa Sg̱áana ‘Láanaa aa Isdáayaan, which is entirely in the Haida language Xaad Kíl. Most recently, Janine illustrated four books in the Haida Sk'ad'a story series authored by Sgaan Jaadgu San Glans Sara Florence Davidson PhD and her father internationally acclaimed Haida artist and Officer of the Order of Canada, Guud San Glans Robert Davidson, which include Jigging for Halibut with Tsinii, Learning to Carve Argillite, Returning to the Yakoun River and Dancing With Our Ancestors.

 

Since 2002, her beaded and enamel jewelry designs have been exhibited and sold in over 100 galleries, museums and fine gift stores across the country including the Seattle Art Museum and Smithsonian Renwick Gallery. In 2018, Janine was featured in two editions of Where Women Create Magazine

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Janine currently divides her time between living in a school bus next to her mom's potato patch on Mitkof Island in Southeastern Alaska and on a 12-acre farm on the Big Island of Hawai'i.

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“Particularly when we are out in nature we can sense our ancestors. Even if we cannot see them, we feel them: Picking berries just as they did, catching fish or just chatting away getting lost in time. The scent of the ocean, the rain, the trees, the fog, the sound of whales, of eagles and ravens—it’s all part of our DNA.”

— JANINE GIBBONS, Where Women Create Magazine