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Artist/Curatorial Statement

In the spirit of spindle whorls, the Grand Masterpiece of contemporary Coast Salish graphics, this design depicts a human encircled by two salmon, four wolves and four thunderbirds. I wanted to create a graphic work that could rival early and classic one-colour Coast Salish graphic designs, such as Charles Elliott’s Salish Renewal and Stan Greene’s Human with Thunderbirds. Within the overall feel of the design, an Aztec calendar influence can be sensed in the circular form. This cross-cultural aesthetic influence reflects the cultural reality of Coast Salish people living in the most urbanized and densely and diversely populated area of the Northwest Coast.

One intention of this classic Salish design was to provoke questions about how contemporary Coast Salish people fit in modern society. Simultaneously, another intention was to show that I have a knowledgeable understanding of traditional Coast Salish design elements and principles. As the great Haida artist Robert Davidson once ARTiculated, “you can’t innovate from nothing”.

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