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Description:

Visitors to Alaska will find plenty of Native art in the cases of jewelry stores, tourist shops and art galleries. It's easy.

It's harder to find a gallery actually owned by a Native Alaskan. And it's really hard to find the artists themselves, busily at their work. Located in the 4th Avenue Marketplace -- the old Post Office Mall at 333 W. Fourth Ave. -- Two Spirits Gallery and Carving Studio fills a unique niche in the local art market. At the height of tourist season, it should be packed.

Here, visitors can look through the large glass windows at men while they cut, carve or polish their latest pieces. (It's possible to meet the artists, but wait outside the door; whether ivory, stone or bone, carving is a dusty business and the workers sometimes use filtering masks to avoid breathing the particles.) Robert Raphael was among the first artists to work in the space six years ago. "Within that time, a lot of people come and go," he said. "I was here longest -- and became the boss."

There's a lot of artwork here that you won't always see. Things you won't see outside the villages. A lot of one-of-a-kind things.

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