"I need to loosen up here... I need to tell a joke," Robert Davidson said with a laugh about 3 minutes into the interview. Up until this point, he had been noticeably uncomfortable—stiff in posture and at a loss for words. He didn't tell a joke in that moment, but eventually he opened up; By the interview's end, the once shy artist was recounting winters in Canada, where "the snow was so high, you had to stand up to do a number two."
As he speaks, a hint of his Canadian accent comes through. The soft-spoken man of sixty-seven years wears glasses that rest against his tanned skin. Despite being older and having a full head of grey and white hair, he has a distinguished handsomeness, with strong brows and a kind smile.
It is hard to imagine Davidson, an internationally recognized Haida artist, being nervous for any reason. He has championed the Northwest, Native American art form for decades. Davidson has received three honorary doctorates, and he is the member of the Order of British Columbia and the Order of Canada. As a leading figure in the Haida Renaissance, his prints and wo...
At first glance, John Taylor and Howling Wolf’s visual representations of the treaty signing at Medicine Creek Lodge appear very different from one another. It is more than apparent that the two artists have very different interpretations of the same event. This paper will visually analyze both works of art by comparing and contrasting the compositional balance, medium, and use of color, as well as how the artists narrated their views using different visual elements.
Tuele, Nicholas. British Columbia women artists, 1885-1985: an exhibition. Victoria, B.C., Canada: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1985. Print.
These art works are concerning what occurred in October 1867 when Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, Kiowa and the United States government signed a peace treaty (Sayre, Pg. 40). The syllable of the syllable. The treaty was signed at Medicine Lodge Creek on Arkansas River in Kansas (Sayre, Pg. 40). The syllable of the syllable. John Taylor’s art was created off of sketches that were completed shortly after the events (Sayre, Pg. 40).
From an early age the artist felt ostracized from nature and his only connection to wild life was through the natural museum of history and his uncle’s house, which was filled with taxidermy. His parents were divorced and his father suffered from alcoholism. His tough childhood forced Walton Ford to find humor in the challenging aspe...
The two pieces of art that I have chosen to compare reside in Toronto’s ‘Art Gallery of Ontario’. While the two pieces are very different in terms of artistic medium and period, the painting, “The Academy”, by Kent Monkman, makes direct reference to Auguste Rodin’s sculpture “Adam”. The sculpture is a giant bronze cast from 1881 inspired by Michealangelo’s “Creation of Adam” Ceiling Fresco in the Sistine Chapel. “The Academy” by Canadian painter, Kent Monkman was commissioned by the AGO in 2008. The piece was created as a visual commentary on the “injustices and oppression Aboriginal people have suffered” (Filgiano) However different they may appear to be, Kent Monkman ‘borrows’ the theme of Rodin’s “Adam” sculpture to create an analogy between Adam’s banishment from paradise and the Aboriginal’s loss of paradise through colonization.
Winona Wheeler’s essay, “Cree Intellectual Traditions in History” analyzes the oral history of First Nations Elders. She specifically questions the identities of the Elders telling their story and how they have attained the stories that they are telling. Wheeler’s thesis is that the Elders are not mere storages of knowledge, they are humans. And as the days go on, few of them remain which makes it even more relevant to take in what they have and pass it on to the newer generations.
Gardner, Helen, and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective. N.p., 2014. Print.
A small archipelago off the northwest coast of Britsh Columbia is known as the “islands of the people.” This island is diverse in both land and sea environment. From the 1700’s when the first ship sailed off its coast and a captain logged about the existence, slow attentiveness was given to the island. Its abundance, in both natural resources physical environment, and its allure in the concealed Haida peoples, beckoned settlers to come to the island. Settlers would spark an era of prosperity and catastrophe for the native and environmental populations.
Gordon Bennett and Tony Albert are both urban-based artists who explore their Indigenous backgrounds and the issues that are centered on their culture. Gordon Bennett’s issue for society is the denial of Indigenous
Banks, D., Erodes, R. (2004). Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement. Ojibwa Warrior. Retrieved January 20, 2005, from http://www.oupress.com/bookdetail.asp?isbn=0-8061-3580-8
An example of the cycle followed by her father, his father, and his father before him is told when Blunt recalls a major blizzard in December 1964 that trapped the family and some neighbors in their small homestead. She unemotionally describes how her father simply proceeded to go through the motions of keeping the pipes from freezing, calmly accepting the fact that he could do nothing as the storm progressed and he could not prevent loss of a of their livestock. Or how when he first ventured out to check on the animals in their nearby barn and nearly lost his way back in whiteout conditions. Later, when the storm passed, she told of playing amongst the frozen corpses of the cattle, jumping from ribcage to ribcage, daring her older brother and sister to cut off pieces of the animals, all with the calm acceptance that this was so normal, nothing strange about it.
Richard Brautigan’s short fiction stories incorporate protagonists that are recognizably fictionalized versions of the author himself. He writes in order to extract his own struggles of the past and the difficulties of discovering himself in the present. Through the characters in The Weather in San Francisco and Corporal, the portrayal of his optimistic view of life as a consequence of the rigors of daily life, and the use of symbols, Brautigan presents his personal story through the words on the paper.
Artistic ideals in Canada are often difficult to combine into one concise understanding given their changing nature. The colonial era as well as the late nineteenth century was significantly shaped by Pastoralism, a style that often depicted paintings of the countryside (Davis 36). The Homer Watson painting, After the Rain in 1883 is a pastoral style that depicts “nature reach[ing] its highest stage of picturesque beauty [that only occurs] when forests [have] been cleared, meadows or fields created or cultivated and farms established” (36). After the Rain shows a farmer’s field, where the land has been cleared of trees following what looks to be a major storm (38). Watson represents early Canada by placing emphasis on a secure, eerily comfortable, agrarian based society in a photographic-like piece of work. Homer Watson believed in his w...
Doxtator, Deborah. Excerpts from Fluffs and Feathers: An Exhibit on the Symbols of Indianness, A Resource Guide. 1988. Revised edition. Brantford, Ontario: Woodland Cultural Centre, 1992. 12-14. Print.
However, I can recall, one dismal, gray morning in early November I started off to a city council meeting, as most journalists should do, and I was quite glum. It’s the type of day where a grimace seems etched into your face and you can barely drag your feet to get to where you are obligated to go. Sulking, everything seems to be purposeless. The sidewalks were ru...