Tracy Opheim

Medium: Carving, Model Building

Born and raised in Kodiak, Tracy Opheim has made a living as a fisherman for most of his life. He has been building baleen boats for two decades, a skill he taught himself and which he practices between fishing seasons. He models his boats after modern watercraft, ships depicted in historic images, and designs from his imagination. He makes about two models a year, with baleen purchased in Anchorage. He also works with ivory.

Opheim’s boats reflect a deep family history of building and using watercraft. His grandfather, Ed Opheim Sr., the son of a Shumigan Island Aleut woman and a Norwegian immigrant, was one of Kodiak’s most famous small boat builders. Ed was known for his skill at making skiffs, dories, and purse seiners from the spruce trees around his home in the village of Ouzinkie. He also published numerous articles on boat building in Alaska Sportsman Magazine.

Opheim sells his boat models to a small circle of friends and collectors. He has pieces in the Kodiak History Museum, the Alutiiq Museum, and private collections. In August of 2013 his work was included into the international juried art exhibition, 10 x 10 x 10 x Tieton, in Tieton, Washington.

Alaska’s Rasmuson Foundation honored Opheim with a prestigious Individual Artist Award in 2012. “Their award made it possible for me to build a small workshop, without which, I would not have been able to continue my art,” he said.

Photo: Tracy Opheim, 2017, courtesy of Mike Rostad.