Clarissa Hudson's Biography

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Full Name: Clarissa Rizal Lampe Hudson

Clan: Tlingit Raven T’akDeinTaan (Sea Tern), Snail House in Hoonah, AK; born and raised in Juneau, Alaska

Mother: Irene Sarabia Lampe, originally from Hoonah.

Father: William Boyd Lampe

Maternal Grandmother & Grandfather: Mary Wilson Sarabia & Juan Sarabia

Paternal Grandmother & Grandfather: Patricia Rizal Lampe & Fred Lampe, Sr.

Clarissa Hudson and her husband, Bill, have three grown children: Kahlil, Lily and Ursala.

Art & Cultural Background: Introduced to Tlingit song and drumming with grandmother Mary Sarabia; studied Native art, song and culture with Harry K. Bremner, Sr.; A.P. Johnson; Cy Peck, Sr.; Selina Peratrovich; Delores Churchill

Apprenticed in Chilkat weaving with Jennie Thlunaut

Sudied metalsmithing with Preston Duywenie, fashion design with Wendy Ponca, creative writing with Arthur Zhe at the Institute of American Indian Arts

Studied glass-casting with Preston Singletary and David Svenson at the Pilchuck School of Glass

Studied painting and collage with Cecil Touchon and Bill Hudson.

Attended Glacier Bay Tlingit Language Immersion Camp; attended Ft. Lewis College, majoring in art, minor in languages

Cultural Contributions: Since 1989, Clarissa has annually conducted Chilkat weaving workshops and apprenticeships to aspiring Native women with classes in Alaska and Canada, and at her winter home in Colorado. President of non-profit organization Artstream Cultural Resources (www.artstream.net) which sponsors various projects including a 6-yr project documenting Northwest Coast tribal regalia via portraits and video; costume designer and co-producer in theatre company; monthly house concerts, hosting musicians/singer-songwriters from around the nation and, spearheaded 1st Northwest Coast NativeArtists’ Gathering and Evening Concert in May 2006 in Juneau Alaska (which inspired the first Artists' Summit during the Alaska Federation of Natives in October 2006!).

With husband, Bill, Clarissa is Owner/Manager for online daily local news web site at PagosaDailyPost.com.

Full-time Artist since 1980: Clarissa’s creations are in various private, corporate, public art collections nationwide and internationally. She specializes in designing and creating Alaskan Tlingit ceremonial robes, including Chilkat and buttonblanket robes and other regalia; works in acrylic paintings, silkscreened prints, and collages; in collaboration with her husband, created numerous Percent-for-the-Arts commissions in public places featuring beaded aerial sculptures and carved wall murals (visit www.hudsonhudson.com)

Featured in several publications and documentary films; received full fellowships from the Pilchuck School of Glass, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian Visiting Artist’s Award; won Best of Show awards including the Heard Museum Native American Art Show & Sale, the Santa Fe Indian Market, the Lawrence Indian Market, the Alaska Native Heritage Center Art Show, and the Sealaska Juried Native Art Show; a costume designer and actress, she worked with Perseverance Theatre and NaaKahidi Theatre in Juneau, Alaska and Pagosa Pretenders Family Theatre.

Clarissa Rizal Lampe was born in 1956 in Juneau, Alaska, a few years before Alaska became the 49th state.  Her mother, Irene, is Tlingit Indian from the village of Hoonah, Alaska; her father, William, is Filipino American originally from the Phillipines. with Japanese, Chinese, German Jew and Finnish blood.  Clarissa was as introduced to Alaskan Native art while in high school, when she produced her first carved and painted cedar box.  During the next year, she met master Tlingit dancer and regalia-maker Harry K. Bremner, Sr., who invited her to join his touring dance troupe, the Mt. St. Elias Dancers from Yakutat, Alaska.  During this same time, she met her future husband, Bill Hudson. 

In 1977, after the birth of their first child, she became more domestic and made custom clothing and hats for family and friends.  She and her husband started decorating their cozy house and furniture with Northwest Coast Indian art, teaching themselves along the way the intricacies of formline design.  A few years later, she became interested in landscaping, and soon found herself the owner of Kahtahah Landscape Gardeners, a company which developed and maintained a lush, naturalized garden for Sealaska Corporation, one of Juneau's largest companies. (Note: In 1984, the garden received the City & Borough of Juneau's 1st Beautification Award and a year later in 1985, it was destroyed by the City's underground telephone street improvements and since, has never been the same.)

Since 1980, Clarissa has focused on artwork inspired by her Alaska Native heritage.  Her husband was a silk-screen printmaker, famous for his Alaska Folk Festival posters and other art events throughout Juneau. They also collaborated together on various limited edition prints for various local Native organizations including Sealaska Corporation, Tlingit and Haida Central Council, the ANB/ANS, SEARHC and Sealaska Heritage Foundation. After apprenticing to master Chilkat weaver Jennie Thlunaut in 1986, Clarissa began teaching Chilkat weaving to local Native women.

In 1988-89, to enhance her self-taught talents in clothing and costume design, she studied clothing design and metalsmithing at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, NM. Between 1983 to 2005, she designed and created 50 traditional Alaskan ceremonial robes, including Chilkat, Ravenstail and Button Blanket robes as well as numerous traditionally-inspired carvings, paintings, small weavings, and collages. Many of her pieces have won awards at various shows around the country. During 2007-08, she will be working on a manuscript for a book of her first 50 ceremonial robes.

Between 1989-1993, she worked with the Naa Kahidi Native Theater, as costume & set designer, tour manager, stage manager, actress and singer/musician, touring the U.S., Canada, and Europe. 

Bill and Clarissa Hudson have collaborated on several large public art installations throughout Alaska.  In 2002, after 25 years of collaborating on a number of concerts and children's theater productions in Alaska and Colorado, they created a non-profit organization Artstream Cultural Resources. They continue running their on-going art marketing business, Hudson Hudson Ltd.

Clarissa's work is presently represented by Inuit Gallery in Vancouver, BC. Contact the artist