Collectible Artworks
-
Raven & Clamshell Bowl Sculpture
Christian White
Price upon requestArgillite, Abalone shell, Catlinite, Mother of Pearl -
-
Raven Looking Back (Raven with Light) Sculpture
Christian White
Price upon requestArgillite, Catlinite, Mother of Pearl, Abalone shell -
Qolun (Beaver) Totem Pole
Lyle Wilson
Price upon requestYellow Cedar wood, Acrylic paint
This stunning pole was inspired by the story of how the Beaver Clan came to be part of the Haisla Nation. Each figure depicted on the pole represents an important episode in the journey that the characters in the story take. From top to bottom, the figures being depicted include a squirrel, a halibut, a giant man that is holding an otter, and two beavers.
This particular Haisla story is quite old, and Lyle is one of the few individuals who still knows all of the details. The pole is Lyle’s contemporary portrayal of the tale, which pays tribute to the ancient family connections between the present-day Haisla and their neighbors.
-
Drumming Sedna
Bart Hanna
CA$3,840.00Marble
As goddess of the ocean, Sedna sets strict rules about the proper way to treat the animals of the hunt, which the Inuit require for sustenance. This includes proper treatment of the animals’ spirit when killed for food. If she feels the rules have been broken, she cuts off the supply of food. When this happens, the Inuit tribal shaman is required to take a mystical journey to the bottom of the ocean to speak to the goddess. It is considered the most dangerous journey an Inuit shaman is called upon to make.Upon arrival at the bottom of the sea the shaman is required to comb Sedna’s hair, because Sedna has no fingers to comb it herself, and to find out what the tribe has done wrong that the food has been cut off. The shaman then makes a deal with Sedna, promising that if the tribe corrects whatever transgressions it has made, the goddess will return their food supply. The shaman then returns to the tribe with the list of things the goddess requires to be done to get the food back.
-
Raven & Frog Totem Pole
Don Yeomans
CA$80,000.00Red Cedar Wood
For inquiries on totem pole commissions, please click here.
Don Yeoman’s Raven & Frog Totem Pole demonstrates the artist’s mastery of cedar wood, particularly in his depth of carving. Yeoman’s decision to leave the pole unpainted serves to utilize a more minimalist approach and highlight the rich beauty of the wood.
Cedar wood is strong, lightweight, and extremely versatile. These qualities lend well to carving, and result in a wood that can be used to create a wide variety of objects.
The Raven is regarded as the Hero, Creator, Transformer, and the most important of all creatures to the coastal First Nations peoples. He is also known as the Trickster because of his wit and sense of humor. His legendary antics were often motivated by insatiable greed, and he loved to tease, to cheat, to woo and to trick. In the oral traditions of the Northwest Coast, Raven is credited with releasing the Sun, and creating the Moon, Stars and the Universe. In Haida culture, Raven is also said to have discovered mankind in a clamshell.
Frogs symbolize new life, good fortune, stability, and communication. They are associated with great wealth and prosperity. As a creature that lives both in water and on land, the Frog is revered for its adaptability, knowledge, and ability to inhabit both natural and supernatural realms. Frogs are the primary spirit helpers of shamans, usually representing the common ground or voice of the people. As a prominent sharer of knowledge, Frog is often shown in artistic depictions as touching its tongue to another figure in an expression of sharing.
-
-
3. Eagle, Killerwhale, Bear & Frog Model Pole
Christian White
Price upon requestArgillite, Catlinite, Abalone shell
Argillite is grey colour and a relatively soft stone to carve which hardens over time as it begins to oxidize once removed from the mine. As it is relatively a limited resource, it is difficult to obtain large pieces from the quarry. Apart from small totem poles like this, the kinds of objects carved from Argillite include plates with carved and incised designs, pendants, pipes, small boxes, and sculptured figures.
-
Cod Swallowing the Moon Panel
Joe David
Price upon requestRed Cedar wood, Bronze cast, Acrylic paint
This panel is created from one single piece of Cedar wood, which is a minimum of 500 years old.
-
“After the Ancients” Bracelet
Lyle Wilson
Price upon requestSterling silver, Textured, Engraved, Repoussé, Chased
Hinged with Sterling silver Catch
2015“Exploring one’s roots brings a healthy appreciation of one’s place in the scheme of things. The Pacific Northwest Coast (PNC) formline has undergone changes over the passage of time. What I wanted to do was to pay homage to that earlier, cleaner, straightforward, massive look of PNC art because it captures the sense of that era’s time. I learned from what work they left behind and so it impacts the work I do today.
In this bracelet, a mixture of modern techniques – repoussé, chasing, engraving, texturing, fabrication – has been added to a deceptively simple facial image that’s present on early traditional bent-boxes; a face thought to represent a supernatural guardian of any treasures contained within the box.
For me, and for this exhibition, this style of PNC imagery depiction on a bracelet seemed to be something that had a sense of inevitability because I have such admiration and respect for ancient PNC artists”
-Lyle Wilson, 2016
-
Iksduq’iya & Qolun (Eagle & Beaver) Box
Lyle Wilson
Price upon requestSterling Silver, Engraved and Textured on Hollow-ware2015
“My father’s Eagle Clan adopted me, but I was actually born into my mother’s Beaver Clan. Since the Haisla followed a matrilineal system, whereby every child was automatically included into its mother’s clan, my unusual adoption was due to the circumstances of the Eagle Clan having so many of its members die. Due to the early and unfamiliar diseases, everyone feared the clan would eventually become extinct.
I’ve always loved the look of a full-size, traditional wooden bent-box and liked the idea of a smaller, silver box using the same traditional proportions. It adds a unique sculptural look to any small box which, once seen, becomes a more appreciated detail with every subsequent examination. The box’s construction technique is very deceptive; it looks solid but is actually a box-within-a-box, with the hollow spaces between each ‘box’ allowing for visually thicker walls. For this box, I decided to honor my connections to both Haisla Clans – Beaver and Eagle – by engraving each on one-half of the box. The box’s lid has another Eagle engraved on the top, and the Halibut, a sub-crest shared by both clans, is engraved around the edges.”
-Lyle Wilson, 2016
-
-
Hunters Struggling for a Spear
Thomas Ugjuk
CA$7,175.00Basalt, Antler1973
“A remarkably animated work for the artist whose style is comparable to his father’s (John Kavik). In an interview with the artist in 1993, which appeared in the winter edition of the Inuit Art Quarterly, Ugjuk describes the difficulty he had in deciding what to carve. This may be why there are not many of his works available on the market. Both Kavik and Ugjuk were self-taught artists and took to carving whenever they were not hunting.”
“Ugluk says, ‘I would try to concentrate on an idea of mine and gradually expand on it as I went along which would lead to some comprehensible form for the carving I was working on. And, other times, it seemed that trying to stay with one idea didn’t always work so, rather than getting stuck with one idea, I would just work on a carving and what it would become’.”
-
-
-
Sedna
Oviloo Tunnillie RCA
CA$10,945.00Serpentine
As goddess of the ocean, Sedna sets strict rules about the proper way to treat the animals of the hunt, which the Inuit require for sustenance. This includes proper treatment of the animals’ spirit when killed for food. If she feels the rules have been broken, she cuts off the supply of food. When this happens, the Inuit tribal shaman is required to take a mystical journey to the bottom of the ocean to speak to the goddess. It is considered the most dangerous journey an Inuit shaman is called upon to make.
Upon arrival at the bottom of the sea the shaman is required to comb Sedna’s hair, because Sedna has no fingers to comb it herself, and to find out what the tribe has done wrong that the food has been cut off. The shaman then makes a deal with Sedna, promising that if the tribe corrects whatever transgressions it has made, the goddess will return their food supply. The shaman then returns to the tribe with the list of things the goddess requires to be done to get the food back.
-
-
-
-
Hawk Moon Pendant
Rick Adkins
Price upon request22K Yellow Gold, Abalone shell, Cast
Edition of 12
2007 -
Sun Hawk Mask
Norman Tait
Price upon requestNorman Tait with Lucinda Turner
Alder wood, Copper, Cedar rope, Horse hair, Operculum shells, Acrylic paint, Leather
Norman Tait’s exceptional Sun Hawk Mask stems from his father’s clan, the Tlingit Nation ancestry, and primarily represents one of his father’s family crest figures. While this exquisite mask depicts elements of a human face, the additional features, such as the beak, allude to its supernatural connection. Constructed from Alder wood, the wood’s unique grain is a strong element within the design and is used to exemplify the mask’s delicate human-like structure. Furthermore, the addition of acrylic paint and the stark horsehair locks add life to this Humanized Supernatural-being.
Featured in Finding A Voice: The Art of Norman Tait
10.5 x 9 x 7″ (excluding hair)