I’ve been involved in it since 1959, when I did my first carving from a four foot section of a second growth fir telephone pole. Using a pocket knife, a one-and-a-half-inch chisel and a claw hammer, I tried to replicate a Haida Totem Pole figure from a photo in a book that I stole from my high school library ten years earlier. I worked on it all night and finished it, planted it in my front yard for the world to see, then drove to work. I came home that night and after comparing it to the photograph I decided to dig it up. Somebody came by and offered me ten dollars for it and I accepted.
I carved sporadically as a hobby until 1967, at which time I decided to make it my career. I discovered Bill Holm's Northwest Coast Indian Art, an Analysis of Form. This publication pointed me in the right direction and I began a serious research and development program. Analytically working from examples in museums, over the years I gradually began to grasp the intricacies of this fantastic art form and to appreciate it even more. I have tried to do it justice while making my own contributions.
On the pages that follow, I have selected a wide and varied collection of my work to include with descriptions. It has a been a great pleasure to create these and I wish to share them with you. I invite you to take this tour with me. Just click on the category that interests you.
