Nigel Fox Artworks

There were a number of people doing interviews all around the school today. Some of them were there yesterday, too, interviewing Dempsey, Ken and Stan. Today they interviewed Dean Heron and Although they weren’t totally clear on their intentions, I think that they may have been wanting to interview students, too. The camera crew that was from Victoria showed up at around 3 this afternoon; unfortunately, with the sunny weather outside, students were in scarce commodity.  And who can blame them?  Today was a very beautiful day after so much rain.   I stuck around, though, and I took some time to talk with Graham from Kermode Tourism and he took a video of me working on my second spoon.

Freda Diesing School, sunset after a beautiful day

My first spoon is coming along quite well. I had to wrap it up and put it in the back of the studio, outside, because of the nature of alder wood. Alder tends to crack when it dries out unevenly, and so when one carves alder, they must be very sensitive to how long they work on it before letting it settle outside. Yesterday, I don’t think that anyone was 100% sure on whether my spoon would turn out; I thought that it looked pretty bleak myself. But after a few adjustments, the spoon is right on track and even received some compliments from some of the teachers.

Before

After, but still in progress

Stan Bevan has confirmed that Bill McLennan will be at the longhouse at the college on Wednesday, February 1st. Bill is a renowned speaker and author who co-wrote one of the textbooks that we use in class: The Transforming Image. The Transforming Image project was formed when Bill used infrared film to capture previously unseen images on native artifacts, often covered in patina. Bill is very knowledgeable in the history of the west coast native peoples in BC. This promises to be a very good lecture.

Geo McKay is an aboriginal artist from the Nisga’a nation, who resides in Terrace. Geo has been at this game for a whole lot longer than I–40 years in fact–and has a lot to offer the native art market and the local community of artists.

I invited Geo McKay out for a coffee tonight with the intentions of gleaning some of his wisdom and maybe a good story or two. Geo, not wanting to miss a beat went into telling stories right away. Geo told me about his childhood and difficulties with school and how he dropped out to help out his family at home. Geo later came back to school and graduated within a short period of time. In drafting and architecture classes, Geo excelled with an A+ average.

Geo was mentored for a time by Freda Diesing, a Haida artist whom Dempsey Bob described as “the only teacher [of traditional northwest coast art] around at the time.” Also, one thing that Geo noticed about Terrace when he started carving, was that there was no native representation in the tourist markets around Terrace. Geo was determined to change this and worked hard over many years to develop his skills.

Over the years, Geo would come to sell to the museum in Prince Rupert–where a friend told him that people were buying. Geo lived for 15 years in Prince Rupert. Geo also sold to certain galleries in Vancouver, developing relations with the Spirit Wrestler Gallery and the Royal BC Museum.

Geo related to me a story about how he had three masks that he had carved that he was hoping to sell to the Royal BC Museum. He said that one of the masks he was selling for $800, another for $1200 and another for $1500. When asked why the difference in price, Geo referred to the fact that the first mask had one face, the second two and the third three faces. So, the buyer purchased the first two masks, but told Geo that she couldn’t afford the third mask. Not wanting to let Geo get away with the mask, she made a counter offer; she would take the mask on a 40% commission. Geo got a fraction of what he was hoping for, but he was still happy because it was more than what he would have had otherwise.  I think that the moral of the story was that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Geo also went on to say that when an artist sells to galleries in Vancouver “it doesn’t matter how many emails or photos that an artist sends to the galleries down there, the artist has to actually meet with the gallery owners that he wants to do business with, because the artist is selling himself.”

Geo went on to share his knowledge on pricing, mentoring, artist representation, target markets, relevant market factors, sponsorship, business partnership, and why some art businesses fail.

Tomorrow we start learning to carve spoons from alder wood. Alder is a semi-hard wood that grows in recently disturbed soil on the west coast. It literally grows like a weed and yet it makes very beautiful carvings. Most of the birch that we are using this year at Freda Diesing came from trees that were blown down during a one-in-200-year storm over the thanksgiving weekend and taken from CN land near Kitsumkalum.

We are coming up to the month of February, when we will be exhibiting as a class in the Terrace Art Gallery. We will be showing numerous paintings from first year students at Freda Diesing School. Opening night is Friday, February 4th at 7pm to 9pm. I will be sending out reminders between now and then, so please be patient if you hear this message a few times. Below is a photo of one of the paintings that I am submitting to the Terrace Art Gallery.

This painting is a reflection a rather strange experience that once happened to me in Topley, BC.

The story behind the painting shown above was from when I was walking with my cat in Topley, yes she’s a strange cat that follows me around wherever I go.  Anyways, I was sitting on the bridge over the Bulkley River, letting my cat catch up with me when all of the sudden I felt these claws on the top of my head.  Startled, I quickly shooed what I assumed was a bird of prey after my cat, off of my head and as the bird flew away, I realized that it was a raven.  It was yet another strange but true story from Topley.

On a more subdued note, I am currently working on a business plan for my art business. There are a few things to consider with a business plan, but it all basically comes down to two things: cash flow and write up. The cash flow is the bones of your business, and is basically what you expect to make and spend based upon historical data from your own and other similar businesses. The write up is the flesh of your business, including a description of all the different aspects of your business: products, services, suppliers, employees, vision, competitors, competitive advantage, marketing plan and any other information that may be relevant.

One item to include in your write up is your competitors. In fact, during the small business workshop that I recently attended, they recommended that we keep a book on our competitors with as much relevant information as possible. They said to “keep your friends close but your enemies closer.” This is a theme that I have seen covered a few times by different speakers in the art world, including Greg Shaaf, director of the Center for Indigenous Arts and Cultures (CIAC), who recommended taking “competitors” out for lunch. He said that while they are enjoying their “creme brulee” (that you paid for) ask them some questions and hopefully they will tell you something in return for your courtesy, and if not, then they will still be thankful because you bought them lunch. It seems like a good idea either way.

With Amy in Rupert for the week, I have been busy at my art for most of my spare time. I am currently working on about four different projects, with my paddle taking precedence. Here is a photo of the paddle in its current state.

We had a surprise visit from Geo McKay and Ron Jackson today. They stopped in to see what we were up to.

My eagle/killer whale paddle is almost finished. I have a few more coats of red to go. The photo of where I am at with it is below. This paddle has been quite the project. I have received quite a few complements on it, and it is the best paddle I have ever done.

It was good to see Dean in class again today.  Dean is working on a series of carvings and a box right now.

Kelly Robertson and Dean Heron

Other than that, we went to the Terrace Art Gallery today and talked with the curator, who turned out to be quite the flamboyant fellow. I included a blurry photo of him below, adjusting his welsh dragon shadow theater-prop–and though you can’t see it, just imagine it :)…

Terrace Art Gallery Curator

It was a busy day in class but I managed to get most of my design painted on the paddle.  The photo below shows the paddle design in progress.  In this photo I still needed to paint the rest of the yellow formline and add a few more coats.  When I am done, it will look something like the second photo below, but not quite, because of the darkness of the red cedar.