Welcome to Skana!

Skana is my grown up version of a kid's dream. As a child, I have been drawing countless orcas, dolphins and other animals that came along (not literally), such as lions, pandas, pelicans and even a kingfisher bird. I also went door-to-door to collect money for charities involved in nature conservation to protect the exact same animals. Fast-forward more than 20 years, and I am still the same kid, now just taking it to the next level.

The idea to create Skana came as a result of a period in which I was reflecting on those things I really care about. When approaching my 30th birthday, I decided to take the opportunity to go and see orcas in the Norwegian arctic, and to go on a 2-week volunteering holiday with the Icelandic Orca Project, realizing that that child in me is still there, and gets equally excited as if I were six years old.

The next step was to try out painting again. So, in December 2018, I bought a range of materials and painted a large orca. That exercise got out of hand quickly and the orca was soon followed by a turtle, the whaleshark, the whale's eye, the puffin and the crocodile.

It was during a long weekend of painting that the idea to create Skana came up. Soon, I bought the domain and set up the initial concept. Over the last months, I developed Skana.org into the online gallery it is today. While the process took a fair bit of blood, sweat and tears, it was also intuitive and rewarding to work towards a purpose.

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves what we do it for. So, today, I again travel to arctic Norway to see the orcas and humpback whales. And it makes me realize that Skana is not about me - it is about the animals on the paintings, each of which is suffering from human impact, and about the researchers putting so much effort into gathering insights to help us all live in balance.

Thank you for sharing their stories!

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