Florence Nupok Malewotkuk

• Name — Florence Nupok Malewotkuk • Birth Name — Nupok / Napaaq • Born — 4 March 1906 • Birthplace — Gambell, Alaska • Died — 1971 • Place of death — Anchorage, Alaska • Citizenship — Native Village of Gambell and American • Field — Painting

Nupok was born in the small village of Gambell, on St. Lawrence Island off the western coast of Alaska, to Peter Aghnilu Okinello and Akimuq Qenaaghaq. With the encouragement of an uncle, she began drawing as a young girl at home by lamplight. With resources scarce, Nupok would draw on drawing tablets, labels from tin cans, or on sealskin. Nupok married Chauncy Malewotkuk in 1926. The couple adopted a son, Woodrow, in 1933.

Nupok's interest in and documentation of women's tattoo markings have been a valuable resource in the study of traditional women's tattoos among the Eskimo people, including markings on the faces of hands of Siberian Yupik, Alaska Yupik, and Inupiaq people.

For some years after the Geist commission, Nupok focused on homemaking. In 1955, she took a new commission from Anchorage artist Kay Roberts, who sold reprints of the artwork under the name "Bering Sea Originals." Roberts paid for the artwork, but Nupok did not receive any additional profits from the sale of these works. After 1965, Nupok created more of these commercial-friendly artworks under the same trademark, including more whimsical illustrations of walruses dancing and dining. In 1964, Nupok was accepted into a government-funded designer-craftsman training course in Nome, Alaska, sponsored by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board. She was the only woman in the 32-person class, which was a program of the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1962. Nupok was also the only member of the class familiar with working with graphic arts on paper. After an extended illness of Echinococcosis, Nupok died in Anchorage in the spring of 1971. That same year, the University of Alaska showed a retrospective of her work.