This work was inspired by the story of a Yup’ik boy named Nootaikok that, together with the rest of his village, was forced to migrate to Anchorage due to the melting of the permafrost they lived on. The Yup’ik Eskimos have been watching their land melt away and become engulfed by the ocean for years. They held off until it was no longer inhabitable and have now become the first climate-change refugees. A warning to all.

The painting is self-referential by depicting Nootaikok, the Inuit god of Icebergs, as the artist standing either on the edge of the melting permafrost or on top of a cracking iceberg. He contemplates his own existence against the backdrop of an infinite universe, as he attempts to stop an onslaught that he knows will ultimately lead to his demise. Nevertheless, he continues his labor because he believes that, in the end, it’s the work that will leave a mark.