2020

A gentleman holds the door open. Takes chances and knows sometimes he’ll be surrounded and alone like the Great Gatsby. Pain sometimes leads us to greater things and know like a comedian who bombs the show goes on. I know great music comes from the unrequited love experience and it’s very universal. This work came from many other tracks but I can say that music helps me pick myself up and and when I can’t find it in me I find the value in playing music as place to transfer that energy with hopes it will find it’s way to where it needs to go.

---

filters:

A picture is worth a thousand words.

There are two sides to every story

Two statements that come to mind while thinking about the experience of quarantine. Although admittedly as an artist a lot of our time is spent in the studios or garage or home office space creating. The shock to my system was knowing that what I had taken for granted were the little things of venturing out to the store and general interactions.

During this time I’ve been carving in a new space that has no windows and it’s been quite an experience. In times carving you can find yourself working away and what some call ‘the zone’ where you find a place where moving forward feels effortless and you are learning from persistence and feeling the work, you understand something and feel it all at once. Although, when you don’t have a window to tell you when the time changes it becomes a whole new world indeed.

A fellow creative shared the idea of how damaging it is that Native people are written largely in fiction, most recently along side the Twilight saga. Then I recall the writings of Karl May who wrote fiction that influenced generations to this day. A fictional Native character called Winnetou was a hero archetype fighting alongside Old Shatterhand. These writings spanned a very long period of time of which I have limited exposure to but overall what troubled me in my experience traveling in Europe to exhibit mainly in Prague and blind romanticism.

One evening over dinner in the country side at the table I was joking about the absurd flat aspect of this hero with a small group. I had learned that Karl May had claimed to people that he visited the US when he had in fact not. I noticed one of the men in the group growing increasingly upset and he finally broke to tell me I was insulting his hero of his childhood.

He explained to me that Winnetou was needed to provide a moral idea about connecting to the land and fight oppression. It intrigued me to hear his view but I had to come back to my point with it all. A fictional writer who never came here lead millions of people over time to think of us as one group. So wherever I travel and my friends who are Native that go arrive with expectations of being a hero archetype on horseback with long black hair. A role that has always been an actor wearing red paint to ‘play Indian’.

This brings me back to the Bane character who like many Natives endured great tragedy and suffering. I told him about the fishing rights movement to protect our treaties broken and the people who were under siege. That life was not entertainment. It is a bigger picture. I told him about our weavers who sold their basketry for pennies on the dollar to survive. How much work it takes to harvest material from the land and not take too much. At that time Christopher Nolan had written Bane into the third franchise of Batman. It gave us a reference point of discussion and I could reference Bane as an example. He was ex military and I noted his shemagh that he was wearing. He said it wasn’t something standard issue but one he had received in trade. He admired an abalone necklace I was wearing that was a combination of a shell my uncle had given me and beads hand rolled the old way by cousin.

It seemed appropriate to make the trade and I told him and the others at the table to be sure to tell the people they know that we aren’t as we are written in movies. I knew they would likely search online about the Coast Salish people and there wouldn’t be a lot on their at that time.

As we exchanged items and the guests seemed happy about the resolve I had to point out something that stood out to me. Knowing he was ex military and that he must be familiar with “false/stolen valor”. I informed them that where we come from what bothered me about people wearing headdresses at festivals we insulting for that very meaning of what it symbolizes. That in our region the items we own aren’t manufactured for a fashion statement but earned. Let them know my culture is not a costume. Think about the companies to make those items so you can play an idea of being wild. The wild west always implies a world without order when the people were connected not fictional but living by survival.

I went on to talk about our cedar capes and hats that they frowned at because they looked Asian in appearance. Yet I pointed out the purpose of them and harvesting cedar from what I know of it shedding rain from us and being so effective. And that in time of assimilation many of our people fell ill because they were forced to wear cotton that didn’t suit the region. Giving way to my best guess hypothermia. If we are on the water and one were to wear a cotton hoodie if would hold in the cold more than anything.

It also allowed me to tell them about the small pox time. The devastation of our people and losing 90% of our population. I noticed the group become uncomfortable about the subject after all we were at a dinner table but I figured it was necessary to share knowing I was only going to have a limited time to communicate a perspective that would otherwise be a missed opportunity. So I acknowledged that it wasn’t a pretty story but one they should be aware of. That fiction and romanticism can be dangerously deceptive vs intention.

I’m reflecting on this and it brought to mind the importance of having talks that aren’t easy. That using filters may make things appear pretty and appealing at times. It also reminds me that putting on a mask may not have saved our people from plague but we had the technology long ago then to know the clothing that suited our landscape and kept us safe. 

When the lock down came. I gave my son the shemagh that man gave me because we didn’t have any dust masks left in the shop. But I showed him how they are tied and how I learned about them. I had an older face mask with filters that felt overkill and my son said “Jesus dad you look like Bane, you’re gonna get us shot”! And it struck me how he was aware of the news and people buying guns and hoarding toilet paper. I was glad he was aware though of the reality we face not the same as some people 

After I told him this story about Prague and where the shemagh came from and the cedar we wear and why. He reminded me he’s gone up to harvest cedar with his aunties. We were ready to go out to the store at night leaving the studio. He unlocked his phone and as we got into the car he said in his best Bane imitation “nobody cared who I was until I put on a mask” and it made me laugh.

It gave me insight to a way to teach history in perspective and for us not to be written into fiction by sharing stories that aren’t easy to tell.

Far Beyond the Wheel

In all that is going on in the craziness of the ‘new normal’ I was overlooking the anniversary of one of my most important heroes that i have always been moved by over the years.

Chris Cornell was a singer some may know, some may not. To me he was so ahead of his time in his writing and some things get brushed over. By chance I got to meet Chris Cornell as a teenager thru a friend who knew the band Seaweed before grunge became a thing. Looking back at the timeline it was probably before Matt Cameron joined the band in place of Hiro Yamamoto.

Regardless it was a powerful memory of musicians just being people off stage talking music and being people.

Years later I was carving and establishing my career as an artist early on and working in Ballard with Bruce Cook III on a pole. Moe’s was a venue that I was just aware of and Presidents of the United States of America was big at the time. We were on a break from carving and walked by when he noted the sound thru the wall and said it sounded like them and said we should go back so later that night we did.

To a big surprise they hosted a closed show, PUSA under a different band name. At the time the grunge scene from Nirvana' broke and Seattle became a different place. But there I was in a show because Bruce said hey lets go check this out. What stands out to me looking back is that not only was I in a limited show and felt like VIP where they could have charged big money for labels. These musicians cared about their energy and love of making music. I was able to meet Kim Thayil and Ben Shepherd. I was enamored. These guys fueled my youth from me teens into a career choice. They were brought up to the stage because the had a song called Spoonman about a man who caught their attention in Seattle that nothing to his name. Something about that show and knowing he was there and not exploited moved me so much. It wasn’t about that and to the bands of Seattle that I grew up with always gave me pride in growing up here. Along with the release of the track that wasn’t wide release and a nod to Black Sabbath and my early respect in remixing ideas “Into the Void (Sealth)”

Years later I saw the show before the band broke up at Key Arena and I could tell it was being forced. I had a mix of my friends around me and we looked to one another and could see it wasn’t right.

I was always skeptical of talks about Cornell joining Rage Against the Machine but then again I was skeptical about a director Christopher Nolan making a new Batman movie.

He broke out of a shell for a time touring and I’m not going to dive into his career so much as the reason I felt compelled to write this in the first place.

I got to meet a person who changed ideas who grew up in Seattle and saw the world. Go through many ups and downs and that is what life is. Regardless I come back to a song that made me think as a teen, the power of writing and thinking that never left me and has only now been awakened in his absence.

HANDS ALL OVER

Don't touch me
Hands all over the eastern border
You know what I think we're falling
From composure
Hands all over western culture
Ruffling feathers and turning eagles into vultures
Into vultures

Got my arms around baby brother
Put your hands away
Your gonna kill your mother, gonna kill your mother
Kill your mother
And I love her, yeah
I love her

Hands all over the coastal waters
The crew men thank her
Then lay down their oily blanket
Hands all over the inland forest
In a striking motion trees fall down like dying soldiers
Yeah like dying soldiers

Got my arms around baby brother
Put your hands away
Your gonna kill your mother, gonna kill your mother
Kill your mother
And I love her, yeah
I love her
I love her

Hands all over the peasants daughter
She's our bride she'll never make it out alive
Hands all over words I utter
Change them into things you want to
Like balls of clay
Put your hands away

Yeah, put your hands away
Put your hands away
Gonna kill your mother
Gonna kill your mother
Gonna kill your mother
And I love her
I love her
I love her
I love her
And she loves me, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

he didn’t live to see it but he inspired the remix of those ideas into making these four paddles that represent Sealth, Leschi, Chief Joseph and Patkanim. I called it my four fathers and if not for him I wouldn’t have had the courage to make it and write about them for people to learn about.

My Four Fathers

I circle back to meeting him when I knew very little about the art traditions of our people. He said he didn’t like the album art they did because it wasn’t a reflection of the people from here. It was an idea that never left me and one that made me look deeper into music and art and history.

photo courtesy Brendan O’Brien

Stories to be told: Black Dog

Stories that move you aren’t written with the ending understood before hand but you walk into them not knowing what the journey is going to be. It will take time and it pulls you in or even like a movie you overlooked them in some way.

Today we think of stories in a more human sense but in recent projects I took time out to revisit other creators that were able to convey simple ideas that in turn made me revisit so much of what I thought I knew. Daniel Koren about a park bench video and following the value of Indy comedy shorts.

It inspired me to revisit the print that I had made for the Chehalis tribe in form of a carving. A Story call Coyote brothers and the Grandson of Dog.

The Story is long and intriguing. It was a treasure to sit with the elders panel for that year and learn about the push and pul of perceived power of a ring. What drew me in what, why dog. Nobody talks about dogs. It’s always wolf or eagle. They aren’t noble characters in most points of view. The I remembered the first story pole I carved with a team of artists where the coyote was an idea elders were asking for and ultimately let go.

These are characters without a voice much the way Native perspective is misunderstood or frowned upon.

At both times of those crossroads I walked away knowing there is something to all this. After all why are dogs so close to us in our homes all over the world. Our companions and comforts, riding in the car, walking or running, getting us out to walk them is a need they have and even on planes, but let’s not go there.

In this hard time I am happy to know that so many shelters have taken dogs in. At the same time knowing much support is going to our reservations.

I like to think that we don’t overlook stories but there is power in looking at motivations to move them forward. There is an idea that is accepted as tradition over stories. Stories happen around us all the time. It’s the observation of them that drive us to make art in the first place.

Overlooking the City study from Ari Sigglin’s self portraits

This print show I worked on in collaboration with Andrea Grant came about in need to tell stories from a view that is from what those things are from a modern Native perspective. In that it took many people that have shaped my life ups and downs. In those relationships we all have in common being dog owners. Some more than others. Regardless this was a need for me to get out of my comfort zone and write when I’m too tired to carve but need to get something out. Walking the dog as it were.

We’re bombarded by news about bad things and I wrap myself in that like a blanket sometimes and it is suffocating. It’s made me think about the bird songs in the morning walk, the raccoons that venture out in the day, the coyotes that went onto the streets in Los Angeles.

Circling back I think of that journey the dogs we love in our homes had to break from the pack and endure a hard transition. One of trust that the two feet we stand on would rely on the love of four legs and in some cases, three. These images were inspired by a remix of many things. Jimmy Page playing his guitar at the Kingdome, Marlon Brando’s interview on a talk show where he was mocked for concerns over Native rights. Sirius Black, Jeff Buckley , Bret Weinstein, Rocket Raccoon and Tom Waits.

You might notice the list is all male but I believe this necessary because a man can’t speak on the behalf of women. It’s not my place. It is not to say I’m not moved by the story lines that are written. It’s not my story to tell really. We make lemonade from lemons as artists. As a man, I’m told we are dogs or at least that’s what I hear with a general broad stroke of nuances.

The story of Black dog is losing many battles and be willing to walk into the fire literally. To come from a wolf line, run with coyotes but in the end approach a fire on the river made by humans. Seeking warmth when all that was at the back was a cold moonlight and howling wind at the back.

During all this i was inspired to paint again with true muse. Not for anything other than to learn from the journey of painting things that are more complex than I’ll ever understand and it’s not my place to even pretend. I can walk to the fire like a black dog and sit by a fire and listen even if I don’t understand.

I think about that video often from above and how comedy and tragedy intertwine. We could complain all day or we could laugh all day but I find myself in between trying to find the bridge, be a dog at odds with leaving my natural instinct behind searching for a new story. Today we lose ourselves in fantasy and movies relating to characters and scripts written to draw us in. Not question the story that is our life. The time is now and we have it for a brief moment. We are all animals after-all.

I recall my friend yelling at his dog so harshly for something of a small incident. I felt compelled to remind him “a dogs life isn’t a long one. are you going to lose yourself over something so small with a love so big? Like scolding a child for something all the same if you knew they wouldn’t live past your lifetime”? I was shrugged off but later on it came back to me and he gave me this inspiration I put into words.

When I was a child I remember when our dog bit my brother when was too young to know not to tease him over food. He was a stray from the river and knew a different life. Now that I’m older looking back I see something I didn’t understand. It took years to pass but that dog looked out for us until his dying days and it took time, patience and love. Protected us from predators on the riverbank remembering his wolf ancestry for us.

Perhaps the most biographical piece I’ve painted is just a remix of these ideas but I’d like to think of that video putting words into my dog from the river as this…

I walked a long way to get here to arrive at this place. A dog that evolved to love you even if the coyotes took my arm. I still believe in love and I’ll sit by the fire with you if you light a fire and sit under the moon next to you with my head in your lap. I’ll listen even if I don’t understand what you’re saying. If you see me as a dog I’ll love you forever.

Thunderbird

There’s no doubt lock down has changed the way we think about a lot of things. Carving has been a long tedious road where you think a lot but you also have things like podcasts and music. I don’t trust people who don’t like music but that’s just me.

Anyway here is video from the Thunderbird that took many years to develop the experience and stemmed from amazing elders who took the time to share the importance of it and why it should be carved as it is. Unpainted and standing atop a beam adzed.

In all there were and still a lot of things going in parallel with this work. The story poles installed and soon a video I will share of this going up as well. I also realize that a picture is worth a thousand words and documenting the work behind carving allows people to see the work that goes into standing these figures up to stand for a long time.

It’s been 11yrs now that I started to work in Cinema4d to make these plans a reality. A complication of things on paper is the disconnect with a sense of place or surrounding. It makes a huge difference to know what the surrounding of the sculpture is going to be and how it fits just right.

All the while it’s important to know how ti improvise with the material because wood has flaws and knots that can’t be read from the outside but even so. Woodwork overall is about utilizing and making sense of what you have to make sculpture feel right in it’s place.

Thunderbird itself is a powerful figure and unlike other tribes in our stories was a small white bird that the power to call on lightening.

Looking forward to sharing the next video in a post looking back #hindsightis2020

From the Ground up

It is rare but called for to share insight to inspiration as it happens.

it happens though and it is an idea that has to get out. Looking back on totem poles and story poles. They are treasures of things you might not have understood at the time but come back to. I was reluctant to be an artist because it was looked down upon. Years in embracing that it’s my calling in moving into sculpture from the first time picking up a pencil meeting paper it’s something that came naturally.

I’m reminded of a conversation with my fellow artist friend Andy Everson who inspired me to keep pursuing digital art as a valid medium. “why don’t they question call us out for using pencils and paper”? In doing public works for years engaging with people who want to have curiosity into Native American work. There is a loaded word of ‘authenticity’. It is a perception that this was made by a real Indian.

As a sculptor in this region I also find the phrase that is overused “low man on the totem pole”. It serves to convey that you are not important. David Boxley Sr. talks of this and it resonated with me. It brought me back to my first mentor I learned to carve with Steve Brown who was called out for being non-Native working with Nathan Jackson. There is reverence for many sculptural styles and what they mean but there is a powerful message to working on this Thunderbird I’m nearing completion of that took years to understand.

If you imagine the pole as beings stacked literally on top of one another the strongest figure is the one holding the weight of them all.

On another level of that thinking of where that log came from and how long it took to grow.

Any cedar we carve today is at least 300 years old to be able to endure the weather and the storms over generations of human lives. How many birds nested in that tree and how many squirrels and raccoons climbed up and down in the battle of nature to survive? How many people hid behind them for fear of their lives and lost their lives to feed that tree?

Cedar here is a medicine to our culture that has roots that hold to the land. in the quarantine I think about how blessed I am to be able to work on these ancestors and tell a story with them and learn from them.

The time is on us to look at that because that salmon are disappearing along with the trees. Losing connection and being the bridge between our generations shifts our focus from looking up vs what is right in front of us.

I takes a village to raise a child. Fed by the experience of uncomfortable times that we grow from.

The hardest thing as a carver is working thru the knots. But when I think of them as branches that held strong for the birds I watch fly in the sky. Or shelter a raccoon or squirrel. Of if it was there for me to climb on as a child to see how high I could climb and get in trouble for. They are part of so much more than I’ll ever know and it keeps me working and thinking about how amazing it is to reach out and even write like this in hopes I could be that branch.

I go back to old lectures I gave as an artist when I was looking at what I thought I knew. As the saying goes if I only knew then what I know now. There is something about growing pains and this may even be one of them but I’m still growing and learning how much we are all connected with roots that go deeper than we know.

I’m reflecting on the Songs of the sky world pole and how it brought the people together. I hope in this time people can come back together with an appreciation for what they’ve overlooked and what I just thought of as a normal in my life. Our families gathered often and in contrast I had a lot of friends who didn’t know their relations at all. It was a stark reality to me that by being around them I needed to learn more and experience what it is to make something all the while value the medium I work in would be equally important.

Carved by Adam McIsaac, designed by Qwalsius - Shaun Peterson

Nothing of this scale happens alone but it’s from roots we are connected to with the people who understand what it is to devote their life to a skill.

An eagle flies in the sky the was born in a nest that grew from a tree

My Brother in the League of Shadows

Years before I was thinking artist was possible as a career it wasn’t one I wanted. I grew up where scholars and media made jokes about being an artist and they were never good. Back then it was to push at the idea of the other, the non conforming. I remember how upset and in trouble I was in a school that was largely a reflection of the larger population. Despite growing up on the home lands of my ancestry I was the 1% along with a few outliers.

Most of us in trouble were of color and in one instance I remember one thing now that came back to me during this time carving away in the studio. There was a lesson about carving a canoe out of soap and they stressed that the knife should never go back towards you. I know now as an adult and father the safety but all the pictures I had known of were of my great great grandfather and great carvers with the knife going back towards the body. It was also something I admired watching my grandmother, mom and aunties cutting potatoes cutting back but with great control.

I remember sitting in the principal office for pointing these things out and my Grandpa showing up largely under stress as he was on our tribal council at the time. I remember a confrontation sitting at that desk and having respect for my grandpa explaining to the the principle that there is value in what our culture has. His mother was a carver. She made mostly small items based on books she had and what she remembered despite boarding schools. At that time much like the Japanese internment camps, culture was suppressed. Natives at the time were just looking to reconnect.

It was around that time that my grandpa used to take me to a small mall called B&I that was somewhat famous for housing a Gorilla, Ivan. We went there often and I remember feeling so bad for animals in cages. I remember my grandfather and I spending a lot of time going there and how he was upset with the people there about captivation. Because he was a son of painter he was so upset somehow inside about locking up animals to make art.

Across from Ivan’s cage we would go to the comic store and when I saw my first impression of Batman iconography I remember Batman: The Cult . I remember my dad being so upset why would your grandpa let you buy a book about a cult. I said dad this is a story about overcoming that.

Looking back on that series even though I loved and was alway and admire of Bernie Wrightson. It made me dig into those things of amazing illustrators and their work.

When I got a job at Chief Leschi School to carve I met a friend who would change my life forever. Bruce Cook III was carving and caught the attention of Phil Zantua. At that time Phil taught art and was drumming and singing at Chief Leschi. I was a failing student at Green River Community college but captivated by line drawing. At the time I totem poles and formline were part of our culture. Bruce was hard on me but gave me true friendship and he brought me to Steve Brown who mentored us both in making tools and carving skills when he was working for Seattle Art Museum at the time as curator of Northwest Coast Native art.

All the while I went back to this book because Bruce took on the name as Batman, his dark period as it is called in the art world. I was inspired by him to keep going forward because he pushed forward that totem poles are NOT part of the land there and the people needed to recognize their own culture. Which lead to a transfer of elders that shared their knowledge to bring back story poles. Story poles were brought up in an idea in the days when our culture was outlawed yet and literally stand up against consuming culture. During the Alaska Yukon Pacific expo there was a need for Salish people to identify and have visibility.

At that time people pushed opposition of the Haida we once had great conflict with but there were under the same pressures for survival. I used to say that totems were just icons or crests and I learned how they have stories. I got caught up in a fight to preserve our culture but overlooked the importance of my brother who lit a fire for me to seek this out.

I inherited the nickname of Ironman and I am conflicted with it. I know my friend Bruce carries the name Batman. But like naming someone it stays with you and I always thought if I could name myself in the comic genre we have in this small section I love Bane as much as I love Rocket Raccoon.

On one hand I love Bane for his tactics but I love Rocket for his ability to escape any prison but also not like knowing he was made by someone. We are all culmination of ideas and the sum is greater than the parts.

Driving back from a potlatch where my car got broke into the following day when I was broke and had nothing. My friend was so upset but I shrugged it off and when he said “Raccoons” I pushed back to say hey that is of value. I don’t know why I pushed back like that but I loved that word and that they work in the night surviving.

Working away in the night over years teaches you what is important about meditation. And to me it’s been a gift. I think of Batman and his dark run and like the great movies that Nolan has made. The Batman has to come back

I see all that is going on now and have a huge respect for Bane that has never left me. Working in darkness and the people looked down on. I learned the most of what I know from people who worked tireless in the night. To be a hero you have to understand you are a villain in someones eyes like the Raccoon or Coyotes.

Bruce stood up against ideas against personal gains to make me his brother. I want people to know that by having these hard conversations and not being comfortable big things happen. Outbreak and chaos. I think of that world where opposition at large fights for a greater protection of the whole.

And why I love the Bane character because I always identified with villains more than being a hero. I feel like I learned from being a league of the shadows. Bane was the only character who broke Batman in the movies as a storyline but he was also one who came to be his brother in the comics. Not the gorilla in a cage but a brother in arms fighting for a greater good and in the movie plot I that I do approve of is the need to look out for our young ones and how you should look out for them. I love the contrast of Bane saying ‘no one knew who I was until I put on a mask’ in contrast to the end where he it shown looking up without one in his youth. There is great power in that and a story that echos something I always have seen here.

Overall I think of the league of shadows as a symbol of work without motivation of money because you can’t eat money. It is one of experience and hardship that you fight thru and come away from it enlightened. That is my honest side of being more often than not misunderstood but explained in my own words and why I make dark work sometimes. In all I give thanks to my brother who had the courage to stand up against things that didn’t seem right when I was uninformed and misguided by pure aesthetic vs meaning.

Lost at See

Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. I’m asked often where ideas come from and there is no answer EVER. Like any creative person I have to have experience to draw from and for many of us in this field an old idea pushed back to you like the tide when you might feel lost as sea.

A perfect case in point is the Salish Sea. This idea stemmed from spending time at the beaches admiring the moon and the water. At the same time I wondered why I was there at night drawn to it always as a relief in times of hardship. My brother and cousins used to work night shifts and all of my friends did when we were starting out and a lot of them were cooks. They would come to my studio I would have music on and I learned cooking techniques while they had a place to learn about art. I found myself connected to people who worked in the night and connected with an amazing mentor who was and to this day still a nigh owl. I always loved raccoons despite their nature and persona but knew they were a part of a bigger system. People envy wolves and bears but the seagull and the seals were put here for a reason. Checks and balances. The tide pushes back the world works in ebbs and flows.

In this time of isolation a lot of artists talk and I was reminded by a close friend how far we’ve come as Salish people pushed out and disregarded like rats or raccoons. I feel like the tide pushes along with the moon as a reflection of how powerful a current can be. If you’ve never been in a canoe or boat it’s hard to understand but those who have been in the water know how vulnerable we are in the water but how much we depend on it.

I’m a simple man at the end of the day I work at making images but those images should mean something. I was never in this to waste paper and resources. I’ve always felt that our resources are limited and that what was and is this land a great place. Life is to be treasured. We are all just animals looking to survive.

The earth has pushed back the tide to reveal that we can’t eat money. That the veil of keeping animals in cages for profit isn’t sustainable. It’s about personal responsibility and we have no power over nature itself. It is a tide we can’t turn with all the technology we have and even so would you really want to.

Our people believed in this region that moon was the older brother of the sun and that he gave up his power to reflect his light onto the creatures that are necessary for balance. It is not much different than the story of Thor and Loki. Mythology is a powerful thing and looking to the Salish sea working at the night time I feel all the more reason to do what I do and converse with the late hour gas station workers and nurses I know. I learn a lot from what makes the world work and why there is a low tide and a high tide. From that I am moved like a creature in the water exploring the surface when the moon is out. That is what this idea has taught me that needed to become a print.

Qwarentine here

As trying as times feel for us all. I like many artists feel the isoloation and in a lot of ways become used to it. Like anything though. It is the simple idea that you “can’t” do something even if not by your choice but another. So in this time of working in isolation one thing that brings me light in the darkness of this studio without windows I know life is thriving and more people are thinking.

I’ve always been a huge fan of nine inch nails but now more than ever I’ve been playing this track and talking to other friends in their studios. My heart goes out to all those lost to this virus. I personally am grateful that my grandmother who was my biggest inspiration in my life, did not have to suffer this anxiety of uncertainty. That said it reminds me how much we have to look out for those other grandparents, parents, sisters uncles and aunties, sons and daughters.

One great thing from this is talking to fellow creatives is the appreciation of what little we have and being resourceful. If anything I hope that lesson is taken from this from all. Resources are not infinite. The fact people would fight over toys at a store or a pair of new shoes I would hope is trivial.

That said for every person I met who said they valued my work and couldn’t draw a stick figure to save their life. I always wanted to say you can and you always could. Some people have been taught that they can’t and fall into a place of what they can’t be. I believe this is a time for reflection the earth set forth and there is no ideal time for things to happen. So if someone told you, YOU were going to face an epidemic in two months you can’t lie to yourself you’d have doubts. Ok, ok, don’t get me wrong there are those who have always lived this way with this in mind but it is like living with hopes of the disaster rather than living itself.

I’m moved at the moment by my friends in the high risk jobs and those who work in the arts that live job to job to literally feed themselves because I remember those days thinking to myself I’ll never have a family because I can’t even feed myself but somewhere in there I had a son to raise along the way and I never planned it but it changed my life for the better. It made me value life and I hope everyone out there is having this moment of revelation to connect and see the side of the ‘other’. Meaning that we are given this moment to look at and hopefully appreciate that money isn’t the answer to things, systems or net worth. It’s vision and listening and most of all feeling.

That’s my novel for today. Oh and here’s that song

---

Innapropriation in Native Land

A picture is worth a thousand words. This is a piece I wanted to make 10 years ago for a show in Vancouver, BC but the funds weren’t in place. Regardless with my work in 3d I can tell the story with words and the image side by side.

Valentine origin prints story

Years ago when I was a bright eyed artist starting out I had the great fortune to befriend Bruce Cook III who I’ve talked about many times over the years that introduced me to my first mentor Steve Brown. I was just learning about serigraphy. I had made a single print to my name cutting color separation films in the basement of Bruce’s house in Tacoma when he introduced me to a local screenprinter James Bender. James had a business that was mostly apparel and some art posters for local bands but his living space and work place were located not far from where my band had a space to record in the former Heidelburg brewery which was a fairly vacant building at the time.

James’ studio was just across from there and I got to know him well and at that time photoshop was in it’s early stages. Somehow Bruce, James and myself at the time decided to create a valentine print. We set out to Daniel Smith to secure paper and a day later of cutting films we produced valentines. Given I was broke at the time I couldn’t afford to buy much paper but I was so proud to see my work produced in quantity that I could give to my Grandmother, my mother and my aunties and of course a few crushes then but that was all I could give. It was a great sentiment and it made me happy to work with a couple artists who wanted to make art for sake of making art to share with people.

The first design was elementary so much so that I don’t share it in my own posts here but it was simply based on a human figure holding a heart within the iconic motif of a spindle whorl.

The following year we revisited the concept and I again being a ‘starving artist’ didn’t have much in way of money but I wanted to up the quality of paper stock and reduced the size of the print to somewhere around 14” square. James’ wife helped me name the piece “On Tenterhooks” and it was a great lesson in how to title work and the philosophy behind what the work means to both myself and the viewer or in that case the recipient.

On Tenterhooks

Years passed after and we produced some works not as prints on paper but various items but the sentiment was there. After photoshop and the digital process picked up in the capacity to produce fine art prints my work migrated in that direction. The most recent of that was a revisiting of the idea as I wanted it to be in my original concept that was titled “My Light in the Darkness”

My Light in the Darkness

There were years in between the followed lots of experimentation of what I could say with the heart as an icon and utilize my best resources looking at it as a graphic as well as a story each year.

For those who follow my work it is well known that my grandmother had been a source of inspiration and supported my work emotionally and financially when things weren’t so great. All artists endure this to some degree as any independent or ‘freelancer’ which I’ve always hated the term for but it is a reality that ideas are hard to turn over day by day and make new and feel good about the work one creates.

When I designed My Light in the Darkness it was quite specific to know that in all the creatives I’ve had contact with the struggle at times with isolation because making art calls for one to refine concepts alone and spend a lot of time making the creations whether a weaving or sculpture or painting in solitude. Don’t get me wrong for my peers I can relate to this as a way of getting paid to meditate because after all a lot of people who retire look to paint or create as a way to find peace and that does exist in working in the moment.

This past year I realized how much I repressed things I couldn’t any longer and to embrace what some call the ‘shadow’ in terms of psychology. That within us is a darkness that if repressed eats away at you. To make peace with this I believe it’s necessary to give them room to breathe as it were. It is a matter of understanding that we can’t please everyone all the time and that failure is part of a journey we have to embark on regardless of occupation, class or sex. It is inevitable for us all.

Whether you’ve been stood up for a date waiting at a table painfully. Punched in the face at a bar for mistakingly think you could make friends and be coy, or simply having someone break your heart. It is the human experience that there is not love without pain romantic or platonic. Sometimes it mends and sometimes it doesn’t.

This year I wanted to acknowledge the realization with a triptych catching up on although late as it is “Black Swan”. I was moved by the movie because it like Whiplash showcased a sacrifice that is made to achieve a perceived greatness and need for validation. Something that is ever more powerful in this time of writing. I didn’t want to paint a pretty picture this year or ‘print’ one but share an expression that comes from a side we can all relate to but not want to hang on the walls for all to see but at least understand.

So I created Black Swan and the Boy Who Cried Wolf as a gesture. Individually they are named “the Hit”, “the Revelation” and “the Besides”. Together they tell a story. The color palette was also inspired from cinematography from Euphoria as well as it’s tragic aesthetic. It is to say that beauty can exist in tragedy and it is what we learn from it that calls us to create more and live more and try to love more.

The Hit

the Revelation

the Besides

In all we want a hit like something that makes us feel good a song that picks you up and moves you, motivates you and puts a smile on your face even when you are down holding your heart up as a shield. The Revelation comes when the honeymoon passes. The Besides calls to the old days of tapes and records, the things you took for granted whether a relationship survives or not. You come out the other side whether you’d like to admit it or not the arrow struck you because you called for it and you make peace knowing that regardless of the outcome if it was a hit or a flop you had to hear it out. You may have a heart in your hand that is your own or feel you’ve gained one that you made a sacrifice for but regardless you’ve made a commitment to journey into something that was uncertain.

Positive and Negative: the Comedian and Transformer

When I was 12 years old I watched Eddie Murphy RAW with my family. It was over my head of course at that age. I should say hey it’s been a while since I posted and all that but ok let’s get that outta there way. Done. I watched Joker again now that it’s been out on digital format with time to think about it for a day.

I was trying to figure out why I was compelled to make a painting about a villain who I don’t feel I relate to but then it got me thinking. I was thinking of a lot of things because it’s a powerful film overall. I need to preface this explanation about Tsa-qwa-supp a Nuu-chah-nulth artist who influenced my work along with George David and Beau Dick. There was an essay years ago about Tsa-qwa-supp titled “Snakes and Clowns”. It basically stated that his motivations for his work stemmed from being laughable as a culture and people and that I can related to as that motivated me. I recall being told by so many that Coast Salish people and specifically my tribe, Puyallup had no art and didn’t have totem poles which is true. But that lit a fire within to understand what I could about my past and prove otherwise.

George had been a great teacher, patient and insightful. He was moved by this idea of painting from emotion after meditation and wanted to do that at some point in life. To my knowledge he never did but his works forever influenced my appreciation for philosophical integrity. Beau was a master of making powerful work and wasn’t afraid to portray figures in their darkest and intimidating appearances.

I head all the fear based in what this Joker movie was going to be and how it was going to be awful and that it was about incel culture. I was skeptical because after Joel  Schumacher’s take on Batman I was done and I regret never seeing Batman Begins in theater. So what risk is it to see a movie so I went despite the hype knowing that there were people there to protect us.

That said the movie fired up my artist brain.

It made realize this is a game changer for one simple reason. We are all want to see ourselves as the hero of our own stories but we are villains. Joker intentionally goes too far as comedians have to do to know the limit and be trouble makers. The way one envies a rebel but knows you would never be that person because you can’t really see those struggles and wouldn’t truly want to know them.

In Coast Salish culture we have Dakwibał the Changer/Transformer who was born of a woman of earth and a star being. He is noted for changing things to be less harmful to the human race for example reducing the power of the serpents to snakes. In essence silencing the comedian.

I say this because I think of the segment where Arthur Fleck bombs horribly on stage from the opening scene of his act. This is powerful because we have all been there in one form or another pushed into a spotlight where you make a fool of yourself. It made me think of strong and motivational words from comedian Dave Chappelle talking about bombing on stage at the Apollo in front of his family and friends, realizing if this is bad as it get’s ok I’ll survive.

It also reminded me that despite everyone hating on this movie of a Chris Rock bit where he asked the audience about the Spice Girls and it was quiet. He pointed out how they sold millions of albums, which I bought one and can admit, “nobody in this room of a thousand plus people bought that album”?

I’m not plugging my painting as much as I am explaining where it is coming from because there are times where art without explanation goes into an interpretation. I think of some of the work that is misunderstood and I have judged things on aesthetic alone before thinking ‘what the hell is this’, although I’m not saving up money to buy a banana taped to a wall anytime soon.

I thought of a piece that was at the Museum of Glass years ago by Mexican artists, the De La Torre Brothers who had a piece of an Armedillo on a crucafix with tire tread over his belly. I thought, this is ridiculous but leaned in to read the explanation that is was a piece about natures sacrifice for highway you could get to work on. That idea sparked back up when I thought about the trash building up in Gotham and the waste we make and how we disregard those without resources.

In the ending SPOILER

When Arthur kills his perceived hero it is because he has nothing left and that is the essence of Joker and what is the most frightening about him. What made Heath Ledger and Chris Nolan’s take on his character is captured in the Joker stand alone because the Joker is one with nothing left to lose and believes chaos is his essence to play a role where he failed as a comedian. He laughs to himself in the end because as Batman Begins ended with a teaser of the Joker it is played in reverse. In the interview that Mike Meyers gave on inside the actors studio years ago he talked about the power of his father telling him “every villain is the hero of their own story”. The Star Wars exploration of that with Darth Vadar tried to back story that with mixed reviews and I’m still scratching my head about it.

He is truly mad and transformed as he has the belief he is bound to seek chaos as his calling and believes he gives rise to a true adversary in Batman. It is on the work of that narrative that Joker was able to capture an audience. It reminds me how we can’t escape a perception of villains like the narrative of cowboys and Indians is part of our lexicon. It made me recall a saying an arts director shared with me ‘good art isn’t going to match your couch or living room’ something along those lines but I hope you understand the gist.

Equally so this reminded me of how I can love both Megamind and Joker at the same time, pop music and metal and not judge myself.

How do you make art?

It's a question I hear often, "how do you make art"? or "what is your process"?. It's a complex idea to which I've never had much of an answer but for good reason I think. I work in different mediums and that aside even, ideas come from, well, who knows where really. As a child I used to stare at wood grain while bored at different places and see images of faces. In my youth I'd spend hours creating watercolor paintings on the back of old 3x5 postcards of a small stream I fell in where I remembered seeing Mount Ranier (Takopid) in my view with big blades of grass on either side of it. That said, in the art form I practice there is an approach and discipline that defines it. When veered off from it is understood visually.

It's been a long time since I've thought about it but the concept of 'the curse of knowledge' comes to mind. It's the point at which you've done something so long that it's nearly impossible to explain how you got to where you are with the knowledge you've acquired. It's not out of ego to state this but as art goes there is a point that one takes ones own path.

I'm forever grateful to my family and mainly my grandmother who saw that I wasn't likely to become a lawyer or doctor. I was fortunate to have the support to embrace my gears towards music and art. I think my real growth came from the resistance of people doubting me heavily in my venture to understand Coast Salish art really. At the time I was learning only a handful of artists were making works inspired by the historical pieces which are few in comparison to some other tribes. It was there that I found inspiration to explore that small segment and see what could be brought back to our people of today.

Long story short, the Northwest Coast is more than totem poles which by the way cannot be read as hieroglyphs as have been published. Stories are as complex as you are willing to look when it comes to anything.

It's been on my mind lately how it is I create the things that I do because I don't want to fall into a pattern which has been a large critique about Northwest Coast Native art in general. There are many tribes along the water and interior all with unique stories to tell orally and visually.

I have great admiration for Greg Colfax who was an early mentor after my first, Steve Brown. He was the first artist to make me think about the deeper meaning of characters. Today people want to reduce iconography into icons, a consumable and digestible understanding. Eagle is honor, Bear is strength. What is overlooked is the depth of each tribe, each family and what those things mean, namely when it comes to history of tribal people, the cress and stories are individual and within them all a deeper story.

For me tonight I've been struggling to design a blue jay within a paddle. I originally thought, I can just design a profile of the face and make a wing, maybe the tail feathers or the feet. I erased so much over a day I had to start a new sheet template. I paced the room, listened to some music took several breaks and sat back at the design table.

I had the basic outline and head of the blue jay with some minor modifications with an eraser. Somehow, somewhere in letting go I started to think of what Kai Kai (Bluejay) means as a being from our people. He was the rescuer of the songs. Long ago the sky was low and people were hitting their heads and worked together to push it back up which is a story of it's own. But when the sky was raised somehow the bird people were separated from their songs. The bird people gathered and held a contest that whomever could retrieve the songs would be the winner and choose where the songs belong. In somewhat predictable fashion it starts with the underdogs, the smaller birds all the way up to Eagle who fails in his attempt. The Kai Kai stood up determined and the people laughed at him pointing out how they went through the ranks of flight power already. So he asked what they had to lose by him trying and Eagle didn't want to be shown up by his smaller stature so he told him they would go at the same time. They flew up and Kai Kai made it nearly as high as Eagle but just at that point he jumped on his head and at Eagles frustration still climbing he pushed off his momentum to seize the songs.

It's a story that tells us to value effort, and not underestimate the power of the underestimated and the power of what can be achieved when working together.

The break through I had personally in my design struggle was to think about Kai Kai as an individual. Perhaps the song was a love song he treasured of his own for his mate. Maybe he had lost a bet with teti ed (Hummingbird) or maybe he'd been scorn by Eagle and had something to prove. Regardless, songs are important to us all and in that context, Kai Kai had his own song, whatever it might be it was his. When all was done, he gave the songs to the smaller birds who have the more pleasant of them to our ears today. 

I decided to venture into that moment where Kai Kai found his own song amongst the stars and the other bird songs in that design. It is in itself in what western culture would deem "piggy-backing" on. All the same with all that explanation it's only one painting and one idea among many and it's by far not a process but what comes from the need to take time for a stillness and receive those ideas.

When Tribal Became a Four Letter Word

It's puzzled me for years to not understand how people didn't see the world as I did until I realized I am a part of an ethnic group that despite living in the land of my ancestors feels a stranger more often than not. I suppose my first experience of this came in fourth grade when I met my first 'white' friend who became my long time friend who I was even best man for in his wedding no so long ago. On the elementary playground looking for something to do I decided to take a stab at joining a basketball game. After all I was at Native basketball tournaments all the time on reservations. I should point out at this juncture that although I lived on a reservation and my school was on tribal land it was a public school and I was one of maybe four kids in a modest sized school district comprised of mostly rural kids in what was mostly farm land. 

I approached the group some others lined up to be picked for a team. I'll never forget a kid who would be classified as a stereotypical looking bully form an Adam Sandler movie stand as one of the team captains choosing. Looking back in my memory it seemed more like he was choosing for each side even though it's highly doubtful but that's how it felt. I should also mention I was an elevation challenged child, skinny at that. What stood out from this however is the reason I wasn't picked from the mix to be even teams and I'll never forget what followed. 

"I'm not picking him" he said to everyone even tho I was last.

"why not"? on of the kids asked.

"Because he's an Indian". Again I should point out how this was a predominantly white school. Others were frustrated because recess is a time limited activity so each second is precious time, especially in youth where time is eternity. I was thrown back for realizing for the first time that I wasn't perceived as everyone else but something different. It wasn't that I was short or skinny it was that I was a Native American.

"Screw that man" came from the boy who shoved him in front to challenge the sturdy framed bully who stood tallest of the group. The shove came from one his height but maybe even 1/3 less his mass, tall but skinny for our age group.

"Let's just play" he said, a fight broke out and we never got to play that day but it gave me my first long time friend. I eventually played with them all but with the awareness that I was different from that moment forward.

Another example stemming on a new level of that very experience came on the Monday where on the same playground one of the boys asked "what did you guys do this weekend"? and I was first to reply "I went to a pow wow with my grandma and grandpa"

"what. no no no." the boy replied without missing a beat "pow wow's are for Indian chiefs ONLY, my dad told me so"

I had to ask although be it confused "are you and Indian"?

"No" he replied "but you guys know right that's how it is"? looking to the group who I had been accepted as one of. And to my great surprise, they all nodded their heads in agreement.

I share this as the intro to this topic as a display of taking sides or playing on a team. In my youth and throughout my life I have had the Native American experience first hand, not in some version of watching "Dances with Wolves" or "Avatar" and before that "Little Big Man". I live as a Native American in a time that exists outside the cowboy western complex.  My life consisted of social responsibilities that I was raised in relating to ceremony and protocol. By the age of 11 I'd attended many funeral services and even if not in person, knew the people who passed in some way as members of my tribal community. I learned the practice of our community roles in those things, the cooks who prepared the food, the fisherman who caught the food, or the hunters who provided the elk, the weavers and artists who made works to gift to witnesses of the community. The practice of potlatching that I grew up with as a sense of belonging. The ceremony that tied us to other tribes and tribal communities. 

Taking long car trips with my family to honor the passing of someone important to another tribe was a practice that I grew up with as a sense of what I understood as a foundation. I never thought of this as foreign because it is a practice and tradition that long stretches before the word America itself.

Flash forward many years forward becoming a father myself and seeing what the present day looks like I've arrived at a new basketball court. One without a bully but an equally powerful authoritarian idea that shapes a new playground. One who uses the very word tribe and tribal in condemnation for a game where the goal seems to be to win favor of opinion more than anything. The game of who is right and who is wrong and not the players involved. Politics are not foreign to myself nor many Native Americans. My grandfather was a member of our tribal council throughout my childhood. His shared some fairly complex ideas with me as a child what I see now as his way of his sense of urgency to entrust me with such knowledge. At the age of 10 I'd already known a lot of struggle that affected our community as 'tribal' people.

A key example is the act of fishing. A long pass time act one might think of as what it is to be American. Although my uncles and grandfather fished on the river of our family property along our tribes river, I didn't go very often. I wondered about this when I would hear other kids at school talk about fishing with their fathers. Until one day I wanted to go on the boat with my dad and my uncle, standing at the side of the river bank with my grandfather. My grandfather started cursing and I just remember him say "Not again, dammit". I didn't understand as he told me to get in his truck. I just remember a lot of yelling and confrontation with white men on the lower bank of the trees where I couldn't see them.

On that car ride back up to the family property. I was told about the time he'd hoped we were passed. I was educated on that car ride about being shot at, having our nets seized and our boats stolen or damaged because we were Native American but in his words "Savage". 

"That's what they call us grandson" he muttered with clenched hands at the wheel "It drives me mad no matter how much we work at this."

I listened to him and listened on. If you asked me though now I wouldn't be able to tell you all the details but it kept me from going out there again for years. He was my hero and still is like a lot of grandkids who grow up close to their grandparents which to be honest is probably just as rare as being an Indian in a public school at that time. My understanding of tribe came from a closeness of family and extension of my families relations and tribal ties.

Back to the present day. I've been at many services and travelled to many tribal reservations to visit and participate in ceremony. Perhaps what sparked this blog post alone was that passing of my friend who was a diver and great example of a single father upholding culture pass early in his life. I was moved at his service by the number of tribes from other nations come to attend. I had seen larger attendance to services before but something struck me there. I loved him dearly as a friend and something in me regretted never being able to tell him although we went to the same high school how I was proud to have him as a member of my tribe. I knew him as selfless and one to really extend himself in his efforts to be available to others in what he could offer as a fisherman or singer to families who had lost someone in their community.

To me that is what I hear when I hear the words 'tribal'. So today when the culture climate of the larger population talks about polarization and how we've become 'tribal'. I am again that confused child wondering why the larger group can't play the game and just call it 'teams' because that is what it still is to me. A game of opposition where the teams are at odds to win something. Native people and to be clear "Tribes" are fighting for something that is clear, to protect lands and our environment that has been an underlying value of our way of life that has become known as a cultural practice. It's only in a political climate that I see the divide happen as we veer from our very 'tribalism'.

I am but an artist sharing thoughts reflecting in a sea of mass media but it's something that has been on my mind as an avid listener of podcasts and political news thinking of my grandfather and at a larger scale, my tribal community who is largely marginalized on the sidelines at others fight for something that isn't clear to me while the recess bell is short from going off. Are we not looking at the clock and enjoying this game of life or are we consumed by who is right?

Inktober 2017

 Looking back on October and what I learned from the decision to participate in #inktober2017 at least the Northwest Coast Native edition anyway. Browsing instagram the end of November I came across a post from an artist that I follow. I was intruiged as she reposted an inktober challenge list. For those of you unfamiliar with inktober it's a month various groups largely, Illustrators participate referencing a daily assignment for the day. In this variation the days included subjects that are particular to Northern Northwest Coast Native style art. There are regions that have distinguished characteristics and from an academic view it's sort of simplified that way. Most groups make use of the ovoid and u form shapes that comprise what has largely become known as 'formline' art. This is particular to regions of Southeast Alaska yes, northern style in southeast it can be confusing but stay with me.

When I started out learning Native art despite growing up in a Native community emmersed in my culture I was unaware of the art style that had been largely forgotten where I come from in Southern Puget Sound. I assumed that totem poles and all the artifacts in the local museums were characteristic of my tribe but they weren't. In fact the tribes who practice the art form that is most prolific in western Washington would raid our villages in pre-contact times. That said I learned this style as it was most recognized and it's what people in the art collector world wanted so to make a long story short I spent much time among Northern artists who lived in the Seattle area and learned how that art relates to their culture and how it functions as not just art but an expression of wealth and cultural knowledge that surpasses monetary value but insues a sense of pride.

Different kind of animal day 23

There are several books on the subject of the formline art tradition but are focused on the academic view and don't tend to examine the arts functioning purpose. It's to preserve history and lineage that tie far back as a written history in many ways. I have learned this style and practice it in a way one would write in another language knowing it's not my first language but one I can respect and allows me a window into a way fellow Native people view the world uniquely. The work I do in this style now are not made for sale more than they are design exercises to keep myself 'sharp'. 

So back to the inktober subject. After buying an iPad pro 10.5 model with an apple pencil I was excited about hand drawn art, even if digital the tool set is fun to explore. This challenge gave me a spark of inspiration to challenge myself with ink and paper which I hadn't done in years so I dove right in. The first week was mostly Northern element forms so I followed that as the guide to adhere to the list. After the second week however I shifted to my Coast Salish roots. Along the way I used various papers and pens developing a preference for ones that felt good to me. Which brings me to one major draw back about using the iPad and apple pencil is  this, as an artist we develop sensitivity to feel from pens, brushes papers etc. Those feelings all go out the window when using two hard surfaces and it takes some getting used to. So needless to say I was happy to jump back in to using paper and pen, brush pens in particular that have flexibility to them with a feel of sweeping curves back and forth.

Favorite animal day 24

The challenge gave me just that, when I woke in the morning I would think of how I was going to tackle the subject of the day. As crazy as it sounds it is often more challenging to have some open ended subjects such as 'favorite animal' or 'different kind of animal'. I looked ahead on these when browsing the list and decided I wanted to make an impression with those paying attention to the Instagram feed and because I follow an account of a Japanese woman who owns three meerkats I made that one of the challenges personally. It's this kind of thing that makes making art fun again. The question of whether you think you can pull off something that's outside of the norm. Equally so my animal of choice, no, not my 'totem' as there's no such thing in the Disney or new age sense. I've designed many wolves before but I wanted the day of my favorite animal to be something new as well so I went with a crawling wolf. White on a black background.

Hand(s) day 7

I wanted to be sure to keep the challenge not so predictable but also keep to the list. For example the day of hand(s) I decided to make 'director hands'. A fun play on modern views that can be expressed with an ancient art tradition.

Crow Sisters I (from design in a circle)

From these excercises I ended up developing two pieces that have made their way into fully committed prints in my portfolio as well as a commission piece. The day of 'design in a circle' I decided to use the iPad pro as my starting point and use the mirror feature that is really useful in the Autodesk Sketchbook Pro toolbox. 

In all it was a good experience and for any fellow artists who may be facing a blank page doing these design challenges are a good way to kickstart your imagination. What was most rewarding in it was to know I was doing the illustrations, not for commissions or competition but to challenge myself daily for that month. I definitely look forward to next year and may jump in to the larger challenge posted on forums using the unique Coast Salish style as my approach but stick to the list online. We'll see. Happy illustration my fellow artists, and to close out, my final day post 'anything you want' which ended up being a Nuu-chah-nulth serpent.

Anything you want day 31 Nuu-chah-nulth serpent

Uncontroversial Monuments

With today's political climate at high tension I hope to add some glimmer of hope for good news. It's been a couple years in the making now and I am now able to speak about a project that will be ongoing as part of Seattle's waterfront project.

For some time now the city of Seattle has been working on renovating their waterfront and in the process commissioning 6 artists of which I am one. The city put a call out for submissions to have a monumental sculpture that represents the Coast Salish people and specifically recognizing the Puget Sound tribes. 

The project early on called for a totem pole which was quickly changed as totem poles are not customary to the Coast Salish people. Much like the project I was involved in with the city of Tacoma who also sought a totem, the decision was made to create something more customary to the culture and the land. In Tacoma's case, a female welcome figure raised in September 2010.

It seems in recent years I've been more aware of peoples choice of words in radio and television, meaning podcasts and YouTube essentially. This snapshot of pop culture has hipsters donning headdresses in bad taste, the use of the phrase "when we killed all the Indians" as a matter of fact kind of notion in conversation, or "America just doesn't have culture like Europe, we have no culture here". That last one takes the cake with me. I beg to differ and draw the line there. This country is filled with culture in art, language, song and dance with a rich history. It's just undergone many efforts to eradicate but in recent years out of the shadows seeing some appreciation.

Events like the Sante Fe art market, pow wows across the country and Tribal Journey's in the Pacific Northwest showcase a cultural identity that predates the country it's known as today. I am happy and fortunate to live in this time with this opportunity to share a culture through public art and have people know the art tradition is made with intent to honor the land from which it comes from. I believe this comes at an important juncture in our political climate as we revisit the civil rights movement of the 60's with high tension. Where monuments of controversial 'leaders' are in question for what they stand to represent.

With that said it is my honor to share a preview of the figures I will be creating as a permanent installation on the Seattle Waterfront near Piers 62/63 close to the Seattle Aquarium. The intent for the sculpture is to honor the people whose city is named after Chief Sealth. I have chosen to create three figures that represent family. The style is going to be unfamiliar to most but in time I hope that people will see the appeal of this style that has been at times mistaken as originating from Africa, the Pacific Islands or New Guinea. 

artist rendering of proposed waterfront figures for Seattle

It has long been a dream of mine to make works that relate to our tribal history and acknowledge the nuances of our sculptural tradition that have been foreign in it's own land. So I am happy to share the preview of renderings that represent figures, not of any one person, not of one tribe but one of an idea of unity and peace. These figures will be carved in western red cedar with heads cast in bronze that sit atop concrete bases. Each base will have elements that reflect aspects of Coast Salish design, carving, painting and weaving. I am hopeful people will come to appreciate the subtle ambiguity of the figures and regard them simply as beings that belong to a place  where the land meets the water and have a long history that can be understood as a harmonious and uncontroversial nature.

Native people have survived many obstacles with attempts to erase them from history. Sealth noted this in his early uncensored speech about questioning the right for his people to simply be as they are. What is perhaps most notable and inspiring to me relating to this undertaking is his words in addressing the notion that Americans at large will think of his people as gone. It seems we are in that place now even though we remain. I am filled with pride knowing the work I will make has a history that the ancestors of the land will relate to and the coming generation will grow up with and bridge that gap as we continue to survive as we always do. O'siem.

WWD 2017

When I got a message on Facebook requesting that I join a conference called World Wood Day I have to admit I was skeptical at first. For one, I had been involved in a gathering ten years prior that was an international gathering that despite having worked out in the end had very unpleasant aspects to it. That said, I was taught that when we are called upon to represent our nations we must do so. So bags packed not entirely sure what I was in for I threw together my tool case that's served me well all over so far.

Day 1

I arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday the 19th of March looking for my connection shuttle to meet Bethany Knagin an Alutiiq artist also trying to figure out where we were going exactly and we struck up a conversation and jumped on board the next bus to our destination.

That next stop we met up with the organizers along with a group from Canada wearing their traditional feather head gear and carrying their Lacrosse sticks. Next we met a few South African sculptors and a recluse First Nations elder and it started to pick up interest, what was going to happen here exactly? We all got to our designated hotels and I met my roommate, Philbert Honanie, a Hopi Kachina artist. Fortunately, he'd been on one of these events a couple years prior in China and said he'd walk me thru it.

Day 2

Monday we registered and received badges along with an outline of the weeks schedule. In this huge exhibition center in Long Beach's Convention Center there were stacks of wood slabs and sculptors ready for the taking. People asked for help moving them and in that point I ran into fellow Washingtonian Native and relation, John Smith as we were helping the South African team carry their chosen slab to their table. It turned out that he and I were assigned team NW (Northwest) along with his new apprentice Derek Grover (Skokomish). Much to our surprise we found we were left with one slab that nobody seemed to want and one that would be hard to fit our sculptural style so we had to wait for the next batch which didn't arrive until the end of the first day but it was promising and we socialized a bit while waiting looking at what each of us brought in terms of tools.

Day 3

Tuesday, Team NW faced an uphill challenge in terms that we were working on Cherry wood 18" wide by 12' long and it's something not particularly cooperative with our traditional tools but we took it on with a plan. Me, jumping into my architectural scale mind started to graph the slab to scale and exploring concepts while other teams were already carving away. I thought out loud and John heard me say "you have 20 minutes" as though we were on Iron Chef in a challenge, laughing. Fortunately it wasn't a competition it was more a gathering to showcase and mingle and learn from one another. That day we decided to approach the work as a house post and talk to the fellow carvers about the differences in Washington Native sculpture vs that of Alaska because so many had assumed we were trying to carve a totem pole.

Day 4

Wednesday with a plan in hand we started working and discovered just how challenging the cherry was vs red cedar and yellow cedar. We worked thru and made small talk but this day was great because we were seeing how we didn't let language barriers hold us back from communicating with other woodworkers. John went over to watch the South African's and showed them some sharpening techniques and myself talking with the Alaskans about formline followed by a visit to the Maori next to us working with Australian carvers. This was the day of really making friends and bonding.

Day 5

Thursday the reality set in that the following day was going to be my last there and the team would have a day of carving without me so we had to make some decisions about how to get ahead of the curve. Although we had made great strides with the advantage that we all have familiarity with Coast Salish design we still had to work hard at making the big moves work for us. This required using power tools which not every carver is keen on and in my view exceptions must be made and given we had one day to work with something on this scale, not having worked as a team prior and needing to finish something in four days, I have no regrets.

Because the gathering had limitations for resources we really had to reach out to people who had tools like sanders or grinding discs etc. Groups needing to do this were brought outside to minimize dust to the others inside and fortunately it was a sunny beautiful clear day and we made the strides we needed to.

Day 6

Friday, my final full day of carving we managed to finish out the carving enough for me to hand over the finishing details to John and Derek. We brought our work outside for the interviewers and cameramen to ask questions and have us share a family song from Skokomish and Puyallup. It was a great way to wrap up my trip there and I was sad to leave so soon.

Day 7

Having to get up at 4AM to catch my early flight wasn't easy but I made it safe and sound. I reflected on the week of experience noting how important it is to share culture and most importantly be able to receive teaching from others to grow as human beings. I loved the fact that every day on the stage a new group would perform music from their nation but most of all I loved the Mongolians, that and dancing with the Moroccans. I look forward to the opportunity to participate again and with some experience under my belt even more so.

This piece represents two basket symbols, one from Skokomish, the other Puyallup that relate to the theme "Roots". The next are two Killer Whales from a Puyallup story to represent the water, above them a woman wearing a feather cape and cedar hat with Thunderbird on it holding a wolf paddle.

Centerpiece designed by the Modern team that was central and planned the year prior.

Happy International Women's Day

So it's been quite some time and after a few people asking it's never a better time to start a blog than to get behind something dear to my heart. I love the women who have shaped my life in ways I can't even begin to understand but I will try in a brief post for this fine day.

Let's make no qualms with this posting, this is not a countdown in any particular order per say but more of a personal acknowledgment of women I have known and admire for their iniquities unto their own powerful senses that have captured my fascination and  admiration.

Barbara Earl Thomas

Barbara Earl Thomas is a visual artist, a writer, and a community activist with a longstanding record as an arts administrator. She has overseen programs for Seattle’s Department of Arts and Cultural Affairs, Bumbershoot a Seattle Arts Festival, and the Northwest African American Museum where she served as executive director from 2008-2013.

I met Barbara when she was a consulting artist to a small group of artists seeking know how of how to survive the business of art. She opened with a story as a child making art that made her grandmother smile which in turn made her feel good about herself and I was hooked. She was the first woman I met in the art world to mentor with absolute honesty about the day to day reality of being an artist for a profession and all it would entail. She and her work are both powerful as they are captivating.

Clarissa Rizal

Clarissa Rizal was an amazing artist who left us too soon. She was a member of the Tlingit weaving community apprentice of Jennie Thlunaut. Her work in woven material both customary in the way of Robes and regalia were and remain exceptional. Her fearlessness to explore her artistic creative appetite lead to great break throughs and I was ever so fortunate to learn from her openness about that creative process.

Her work is significant to the weaving community and her absence is very much felt in her recent passing but she serves undoubtedly as an inspiration in the legacy she left for us to learn from.

Ramona Bennett 

Ramona Bennett is a member of the Puyallup Tribe. She is one of many tribal members who collectively helped to ensure the rights that so many sacrificed their lives for. Ramona has been an activist for much of her life and a major spearhead in securing fishing rights for the Puget Sound tribes. She continues to be an instrumental figure including the recent need for awareness when it has come to #IdleNoMore and #NoDAPL. I had the pleasure to visit with her at an event hosted in Muckleshoot that acknowledged the warriors who fought to defend the territory and rights of our Native people in which she was acknowledged as a true bearer of the torch in keeping that alive.

Matika Wilbur

photo by Kevin Gradey

Matika, a Native American woman of the Swinomish and Tulalip Tribes (Washington), is unique as an artist and social documentarian in Indian Country- The insight, depth, and passion with which she explores the contemporary Native identity and experience are communicated through the impeccable artistry of each of her silver gelatin photographs.

I had the honor and privilege to create the logo for her 562 project that has gained world status acclaim. Her project has a goal to document all Native Nations of the United States in a collective that will give voice that Native people are very much a part of the modern world and will share their stories with a fellow Native citizen that will acknowledge them in a way that perhaps others could not and share that with the world.

susan point

For anyone who ventures or takes interest in Coast Salish art, it's understood it would not be where it is without her high driving ambition to create works of art that carry that heritage. Susan proved that carving is not strictly a mans arena but that she could really dig in and make waves.

arianna lauren

Founder of Quwutsun made Arianna has shown change starts by start up. Although it's only been a short time since she's launched her line of products she's made an impression in her community and has a promising future where the sky is the limit. She's modeled for various designers and continues to explore the creative fields of opportunity as a force of nature and ambition.

Mother, Aunties, sisters, cousins and grandmother

photo by Steven Miller

If there were a secret to my success in life and this career I have come into, it wasn't just hard work alone although that was a large part. I learned to work hard from the women who raised me. They have taught me all I know about love, life and forgiveness and understanding. I was blessed in this life to be born into a family and even more so a tribe of strong women leadership that goes back many generations. There are so many women in my family they all know who they are and I've grown up to see them become amazing mothers and at times still have the strength of our grandmother to call me out when I need to be brought in line with our teachings.

It's impossible to capture all the women who have changed the world and continue to so I can only share a snapshot before I lose your attention with what came to mind on this day in March 2017. 

Star Wars, two Native artists and a 'pioneer'

It's has been over a year since this subject was posted on the old version of the blog which had to give way for the new format but this post is important to me. It was about a year ago this time of year I spoke out about the poorly imitated works of my friends Jeffrey Verrege and Andy Everson whose works led a path for someone to come in and lay claims to for namesake.

This makes me think of the many instances a non-Native has 'pioneered' a path guided by Indians and to overlook landscapes and territory unknown to them and say 'look at this place not seen by man before these eyes of mine', shoulders back and chest out. That very notion has become all to familiar to Native people that despite our presence and experiences we have and contribute.

With the latest release of the Star Wars trailer it's no wonder to see postings all over about it and in relation to that I saw some Native individuals post links to Scott Ericksons interview on geekologie, I'm not linking to it but you can search if you like but it outlines him as someone 'pioneering' the meld of modern Sci-fi and Native art.

I took the time last year to do a comparison of my two colleagues works along with approximate release dates of their work along side this pioneer to showcase what does not take a genius to understand. The work called innovative takes a meld of something genuine and makes it into a stick figure version paraded as genius. The concern comes in when realizing how someone can cash in on this when I went to look at all the social linking that was done and the following this guy had on Pinterest alone.

My point in this all is to simply say, support the artists who laid the path for someone to come in after and lay claims to something Native Inspired and I encourage you to visit the artists websites who have given way to much sacrifice to take a leap of faith and explore that new territory.

And don't be afraid to go to geekologie and say something in that thread and be heard.

http://jeffreyveregge.com

http://www.andyeverson.com

Peter Pan, Indians and Neverland

Today I went to see Pan, Disney's latest rendition of the classic tale written by J. M. Barrie in 1904 reworked time over again and again and in this time of great political correctness many a Native activist paid much mind to it's release. This version directed by Joe Wright takes a unique take from the first 15min wherein the use of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit and onto the use of the Ramones Blitzkieg Bop the continuity of that dissipates no other modern tunes come into being after those scenes and so it loses a sense of consistency.

I will credit Disney for going away with the fantasy tribe and poor taste of the original animated Peter Pan which brought us the greatly offensive "what makes the red man red" song from that great old time when it was perfectly alright to push non Euro-American's into propaganda and stereotypes that elevated the esteem of the day. In the notable advocate against Native appropriation authority Adrienne Keene had cited, it's better we are absent in film than to be vilified or glorified, that's my simplified version of her gist.

the original Tigerlilly that suggests Native women are freely giving to be with non-Indians dancing atop a big drum which a real Native woman would ever do and if you don't believe me, just ask.

I believe this to be true. On my recent trip to the Czech Republic for the 2nd time I again came up against the notion that I am not Native because I do not look like images of those shown around the world, and what are those exactly but images created largely in fiction of white actors, wearing make up and wigs dressed in clothing that at best resembled a compilation of tribes. The truth is not many care or say, get over it, or you lost the war but I've really never heard anyone tell me the war thing to my face. And yet as Americans we are told 'never forget'... the Alamo, Pearl Harbor, 911, all of which take place after our loss and continued striving for the promises granted in the settling of these lands.

This happened because America as it was founded made us one obsolete inferior race. We were not human beings to the new world, to this day when the fourth of July comes, radio waves still call us savages. So when the declaration stands to state all men are created equal, well except, blacks, asians, latinos and above all the native savages.

Back to the topic of the movie though itself. Like I said, I"m glad we are absent in it replaced by a mythical multicultural tribe. Back at that time of these successful writers, Native America was Neverland a place of fascination and wonder, but to the world never understood.

Today in parts of Europe, there are large numbers of people who study aspects of mostly Lakota culture and emulate it to a fanatical degree. The problem is Native America is comprised of more than 600 tribes, some which have fallen but nonetheless share the complexity and diversity of European culture. I tell friends often it's like asking an woman of Iceland to speak Spanish or a German to tell you Italian histories and traditions. Our land is vast.

Ok, again back to the movie, the characters were forced, relationships left at the editing floor and Hook a sad attempt at a young Harrison Ford/Indiana Jones. The pace if off and the villains oversold. Climax tensions of action only tool hold of me for one scene when Peter flies and then, that's about it. My recommendation for this movie and my ranting that makes little sense to most, well I'd say Netflix.