About Us


        Lead Dog Graphic Arts (LDGA) was founded in 2004 by Miriam Cooper and her husband James. Their company started small with the idea of producing Miriam's fine art and photography into note cards and prints. Overnight the cards gained immediate success. Ten note card designs grew to twenty, and those twenty grew quickly until LDGA found themselves with the countless images they stock today.

          In the years to come LDGA will continue to add more photographs and fine art into their collection with the hope of inspiring others to reach out, explore and respect the wild places we call home.

           Our studio resides deep in the woods of North Pole, Alaska... far from
the beaten path but conveniently close to the basic necessities of town.

           Most people ask us with great surprise how we can live so far up north
but the truth is that our North Pole is just a town named after the magnetic pole. We don't live in igloos, eat muk tuk (whale blubber) or get our supplies from a local trapper's cabin.

          Alaska is surprisingly modern and contrary to what most visitors expect.
We are very lucky to have most of our needs met by local businesses, big and
small, right in town but most often it is necessary to make the half hour drive
'next door' to Fairbanks for more specific supplies.

          As with any town North Pole continues to grow every year and welcomes many visitors to our great state... and, every year more visitors leave this area in search of greener, or should I say warmer, pastures!

          Alaska is not an area for casual living. In winter our town regularly
experiences temperatures dropping into the -60's and in the height of summer
temps of +80 to +90F are common. An extreme climate change to say the least!

          Fortunately this type of weather offers perfect opportunities to run sled
dogs and when the snow falls in October/November it will often stay until
late March (or later if were lucky).

          There is nothing like mushing a team of dogs through snow packed trails in the bright sun in light pants and a short sleeve t-shirt!
          The dogs are a HUGE part of our life and inhabit every way of our being, especially during work hours. Each day a dog in the yard receives special time to come into our home and spend time in the studio.

          It is a wonderful opportunity in summer to cool down and in the winter it's nice to give them a warm up break, though some of our heavier coated dogs like to cut their special day short and get back out to the crisp cool air!

          Working from home offers many advantages and getting the chance to spend extra time with the dogs one on one every day is priceless. Bonds are strengthened, house manners perfected and a sense of peace settles over a sometimes tense business environment with our furry friends close at hand.
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            Lead Dog Graphics offers many different sled dog related products that takes our work hours into a multitude of different directions. From one day to the next we carve out our time specifically catering to our ever increasing customer client base, providing our best service to each individual or business.

           Spring and summer keeps our studio printers humming maintaining the retail tourist demand for our best selling note cards. This is our busiest time of year. While we shuttle out orders to our retail shops we strive to maintain our website, develop new products and still find the time to create new art, adding to our ever expanding life of mushing related products.

           Winter is a different time of year for us, but with the change of season our work hours remain long. When most of the tourists have gone home we shift our main focus from retail orders to client commissions, original art and training our sled dogs, getting the most out of our winter before the snow is gone.

            We temporarily experience a shut down of all business activities when the temperature dips down between 40 and 60 below zero (sometimes for a week or more) to make sure our home and family stays safe and warm during the cold snap. Our home enters a form of controlled chaos as all of our sled dogs (15 or more!) come inside to warm up with us.
 
            'Winterizing' the dogs may sound like a simple operation but, as with any task performed in the cold, it feels like a monumental effort. Just like humans, dogs need their potty breaks and with scheduled bathroom times as well as working in a feeding and watering schedule it keeps us all on our toes!

            It's a full time job but well worth the effort for the peace of mind knowing that our most cherished friends are warm and comfortable throughout the winter.