Northwest Coast Artists

Alano Edzerza

Alano Edzerza belongs to the Raven clan of the Tahltan Nation. Born in 1981, he has been an artist since he could hold a pencil; and received his first recognition of merit at age thirteen for a sculpture award from the school board of Victoria. This early talent developed rapidly into a professional career with international gallery and museum shows.

Alano began working in Northwest Coast art under the tutelage of his family member, fellow Tahltan artist, Terrance Campbell. In 2002 Alano furthered his education by attending school in Arizona for jewelry making under the instruction of Rick Charlie. He has also had the opportunity to work with artists Jay Simeon, Marcel Russ, Philip Grey, Corey Bulpitt, and many others. Currently he shares a studio in Vancouver and works with Rick Adkins, whom Alano considers one of the top jewelry designers in the Vancouver area.

As of late, Alano has been working with glass and experimenting with this medium. Alano Edzerza has been featured in 8 major shows. In October of 2007, Alano had his first solo show at Stonington Gallery in Seattle, where he featured new pieces in glass, jewelry, stone, steel and limited edition prints. In August of 2008, Alano celebrated the grand opening of Edzerza Gallery with Black Ice, a study in grayscale art of the Northwest Coast.

Alano has also recently completed three twelve by four foot installations in the medium of steel for one building, and is currently working with two other large building projects.

If you were to walk around, two hundred years ago, from California to Alaska you would see, wear and live Northwest Coast art and Culture. I want to be a part of the movement that will allow this to happen once again Peoples of the Northwest Coast did not develop a written language they developed an art form to tell the stories of our histories. This art form developed into one of the most advanced art forms in the world. This is also what makes this art so beautiful. The ways that balance is used within the formline. When you look at a piece your eye subconsciously continues to move studying the design because one shape flows into the next using variation of curves and thicknesses. This is the art of a once dying culture. It’s the art that is bringing the culture back alive. This is the reason why I work so hard towards my goal."

Bill Reid

Bill Reid was born in Victoria, B.C., in 1920. Although in his early years unaware of his Haida ancestry, he was to become perhaps the single most important figure in the late twentieth century renaissance of Haida culture -- a culture almost destroyed after the European colonization of the Haida homeland on the Northwest Coast. To describe him as a "Haida artist" is, however, not to refer to his ethnic background so much as it is to indicate the school of tradition within which he worked.

Reid's own upbringing was cross-cultural. His father William, an American of Scottish-German parentage, followed the newly-built railroad into northern British Columbia, where he ran a hotel in Smithers. His mother Sophie was a Haida but with an Anglican education and consequently anglophile cultural values that led her to hide from Bill his Native descent (nor did his father ever mention it). Shortly after William and Sophie married, he transferred his hotel business to Hyder, B.C., on the Alaska border while she set up house in Victoria, B.C., and made a living as a dressmaker, designing fashionable clothes for upper-crust families of the city. For some years the family moved back and forth between the two locations; Reid received his education in a variety of schools as a result. It was in school, twelve years old and bored, that he made his first forays into craftwork: carving miniature shapes out of blackboard chalk, including a totem pole and a Viking boat.

He was not conscious of his Haida heritage until his teens. However, gold and silver jewellery bearing Haida designs, worn by his aunts when they visited Sophie, introduced him unknowingly to the art of his ancestors. Years later, at age 23, he visited his mother's home village, Skidegate, where he met Sophie's father, Charles Gladstone, and other older members of the community who still had some sense of Haida tradition. Reid learned that his grandfather had been a carver of argillite and an engraver of silver bracelets; Gladstone had probably learned these skills from his uncle, the great nineteenth-century Haida sculptor Charles Edenshaw, whose tools he inherited, and whom Reid subsequently adopted as his culture-hero.

- Biographical Notes obtained from the Canadian Museum of Civilization

Darren Joseph

Darren Joseph is a Coast Salish Native from the Squamish Nation. Darren grew up in North Vancouver, and now resides in Powell River, British Columbia. His ancestral name is Shmoqwilum, which he received when he was 17 years old.

Darren began sketching and carving as a hobby, at the young age of 7. Darren has always been surrounded by Native art and culture throughout his life. His lifestyle is strongly based on his traditional values and beliefs that he was brought up with, and taught by his family and respected elders.

In 2003 Darren chose carving as a full time career. He has been guided and apprenticed with well known carvers from Squamish, Northern Tutchone, and Haida. In addition to his numerous masks, Darren worked on a totem pole in 2004 and has also worked on 5 ocean going canoes.

Darren Joseph artwork specializes in carving masks in red and yellow cedar as well as alder. There are three different types of masks that he produces: Moon Masks, Portrait Masks, and Animal Kingdom Masks. Darren also carves panels, totem poles and ocean going canoes and creates artwork that is of the highest quality, and deals with galleries around the world. His careful attention to detail is demonstrated in each piece of his work and Darren enjoys challenging himself to use different techniques. He is committed to carrying out his work in a responsible manner that reflects his teachings. Darren’s shares the stories and legends of First Nation peoples through his work. His intention is to keep Aboriginal culture alive through his artwork today, and for the next generations to come.

Carl Stromquist

Carl is deliberate and focused: Deliberate in his desire to paint with excellence, in his quest to earn visions that will generate artwork which honors his Gift of Life and the richness, depth and teachings of the Canadian First Nations.

Being Self taught, Carl has spent much time studying the works of renowned Native artisans as well as the timeless truths embodied in the elders' stories and legends. From this journey for truth has come his desire to portray the balance and harmony that exists in the Circle of Life. Carl's art is influenced by his profound love and respect for nature.

Born in 1969, Carl Stromquist is of Thompson descent, and has been strongly influenced by his Northwest Coast Native traditions and culture. Stromquist's sculptures and installations often reflect his profound love and respect for nature.

Carl’s art ranges from delicately balanced cedar sculptures to large metal discs cut into the highly stylized art that is uniquely his own. He has an incredible eye for detail and the appreciation of natural patina, often incorporating the latter into his works using chemical processes.

Derek C. Heaton

Derek Christian Heaton was born in 1970 into Mik'maq ancestry. He was adopted by a Norwegian mother and Canadian Father. Growing up in rural Quebec, he discovered a love for nature. Since the age of four he was drawing his natural surroundings, and at the age of nine was the recipient of a Canada-wide scholarship from McGill University for a winning brochure design.

In 1998, Derek started on a journey of self discovery and healing through his Native ancestral roots and his inspirations in Northwest Coast Native artists Willie Seaweed, Art Thompson, Clifford George and Tom Paul. His natural gift of carving has garnered acceptance and recognition from the famous Seaweed family, and his masks have been danced at Haida potlatch ceremonies where he received the name 'Cocky Raven', meaning a wealth of charismatic personality. His greatest passion is painting. His work has a touch of genius as they are all his own imaginative designs.

Heaton's work has been featured in several magazines and exhibited in select galleries including renowned Tribal Spirit Gallery and Appleton galleries. HIs work has also been recognized by Science World's exhibit of First Nations Carvers.

Derek works in many mediums and forms, creating Totem Poles, Masks, Talking Sticks, Sculptures and Jewelry. "My future goals are to continue my journey and see what vision speaks to me".

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