Inspiration: A Dream Envisioned

My totempole came to me one night when I was watching a T.V. show about whales. This show wove a glorious tale about how whales evolved from large wolf like creatures that lived close to the ocean. I thought to myself...imagine going to the beach and seeing a pack of wolves the size of killer whales, you’d be like “holy crap look at the size of those wolves!” This was what we in the art business call a eureka moment..an epiphany so to speak. I immediately did a small sketch on the back of an old photo copy (I do a lot of drawing on the back of old photo copy’s, I hate to waste). So I had my sketch and it became the inspiration for my first totempole

My Totem: The roots of my Carving.....

The decision to carve a totem pole didn’t come easy. I had worked on others totem poles, three to be exact. One was with my old master Henry Green and the second was with my friend Lyle Campbell. While working on their totem poles I felt it was too much work and I told them so. They both told me it would be different when I worked on my own totem pole, they were right. My first totem pole wasn’t a commission; I didn’t think “I want to carve a totem pole, what should I carve?” I wanted to tell a story and a totem pole was the best way to tell it.