Cassondra Odden is an Iñupiaq, Unangax̂, and Norwegian painter and photographer born and raised in Matanuska Susitna Valley, Alaska, where she still resides. She is a self-taught artist who paints with acrylic on canvas, wood and stone. Her work is inspired by Alaskan landscapes, wildlife and people.
Odden started her painting practice in 2017 by painting on rocks she found in her community. “One of the first things I painted was The Scream from Edvard Munch…one of the rocks that we found when we were out exploring was the perfect shape of just the face,” [1] she says. She moved on to painting on wood when she decided to save some pieces from a birch tree at her parents’ house and paint them with acrylic paint. She gifted them to friends and family and eventually started a business called the Custom Cache, creating ornaments and magnets around the holiday season. Her works on wood often feature animals and landscapes. In 2021, she created her first painting on canvas for her grandmother, a scene of seven lilies representing her grandmother’s seven children, and has been painting on canvas since then.
Occasionally Odden teaches painting classes, hoping to open the artistic world to other people. “I love telling people, ‘You don’t know what you’re capable of until you find a rock and you start painting,’” she says. A recent ornament she painted features a snowy landscape scene with the green glow of the northern lights illuminating the sky.
One of Odden’s artistic influences growing up was Indigenous artist Penni Anne Cross, who lived in Odden’s community and worked with oil paint. Cross often depicted Indigenous people in nature, and this representation inspired Odden.“Her work was unlike anything I had seen before, showcasing this beautiful culture in such a truthful, important and impactful way,” Odden says. She is also inspired by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch and Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher.
In 2025, Odden’s paintings were displayed in several exhibitions, including Adorning the Aluetians at the Museum of Aleutians in Iluuluxˆ (Unalaska), Alaska, and Sedna Inuit Mythology at Conoco-Phillips Art Gallery at Alaska Pacific University in Dgheyaytnu (Anchorage), Alaska. Her work Where Life Flows (2025) was included in the exhibition One Night Stand Indigenous Art Pop Up at the Wild Birch Hotel in Dgheyaytnu, which was presented in partnership with the Alaska Native Arts Foundation.
In addition to painting, Odden is a photographer and has a photography business called Around Alaska. Odden has loved photography since she was a child. “I was that little girl wandering around with a disposable camera,” she says. She often uses her own photos for painting reference.
Odden’s next project is a black-and-white photo series of driving through southcentral Alaska, toward the Kenai Peninsula, in the rain. “The drives here are just so beautiful…the roads here are just absolutely iconic,” she says. In the future, she hopes to travel around Alaska more, teach more classes and become involved in artist-in-residence programs with Alaska state parks.