Red Cedar wood, Acrylic paint

Tom Paul’s Eagle from the Deep is a beautifully and simplistically designed carving from one of the Nuu-chah-nulth nation’s foremost artists. This contemporary sculpture blends both modern and traditional elements. Tom’s depth of carving, precise painting, and eye for angle make this an expertly crafted piece.

The subject of this piece is unique, for it holds personal significance to Tom. Below is a description of this relationship as told by Tom himself:

“Early in the 1900 when my grand uncle was a young man – around 1929 – he heard there was a huge Eagle from the deep just outside of Friendly Cove. Fishermen from the cannery were excited and in a frenzy. They had never seen one before. At that time there were Irishmen working in the Nootka cannery and they harvested the Eagle from the deep on a Sunday. A female was also spotted and captured by the cannery workers. My uncle saw photos that they had taken and remembers that these animals were huge.

As a young boy, my relative was out fishing with his father and he saw an Eagle from the deep. He said, ‘it was like it was flying though the water.’ It was swimming between the fishing boat and the stabilizer line – it was huge. He ran to get his father and they both looked at it. His father reached out to see if he could touch it but it quickly dove and swiftly disappeared. Eagle from the deep is known as A-wa-ta-sum and it comes around with the warm trade winds and the warming of the weather. It is often considered to be a giant sea turtle.”

 -Tom Paul, 2014