Everything in this room has a back
Cedar, stone, burl, and a pair of doors that move when the room does. You can walk around these, and she carves knowing you will.
Amber In Wonder
A figure sitting wrapped up in her blanket, come out of the log and left sitting on the rest of it. I took the wood away until she was there and then I stopped. The bottom is still the tree, because I wanted you to see where she came from.
Otters Have Fun
Otters piled on top of each other, which is how you always find them. Whatever else they have to do that day, they do this first. I carved it so you have to go around it. From one end they are sleeping and from the other end they are playing, and both of those are true.
Mother Eagle
The one who does the watching. She is cut wide and flat so the eye sits right out at the front of her, and the down is left around the edge the way it gathers on a nest. She does not need to be beautiful. She needs to see.
Baby Eagle
The young one, with the feathers still coming in. Green in the eyes and the beak not yet grown into the face. Everything about him is about to happen.
Drop Away
A slab of burl left in the shape it grew. The mountains run along the top where the wood had already gone dark, and the eagle is coming down off them. Drop away is the moment before the wings open.
Imagine… A Native Journey Is Our Vision… Brought To Life
A whole cedar log, still round, with the journey going up it. The child sets out at the bottom carrying the pack. The bear is on the way. The owl is watching from the side you do not think to look at. The eagle is at the top, where the eagle always is. Green went onto the ground and the shell went into the water. It is not finished, and I am in no hurry.
Smiling Elder
Every line in that face is a line I cut, and not one of them is a sad one. Elders laugh more than anybody does. People forget that. A mask is only finished when somebody is behind it, so that is how she is photographed.
Sliding Door
Two doors on a track, so the art moves when the room does. A face on the one side with the bowls set under it; the turtle and the leaves coming down on the other. Shell went into the places that should catch the light. You are meant to put your hands on this one. That is what a door is for.