VANCOUVER BRITISH COLUMBIA is only about forty miles to the north. We spent a brief weekend there with our daughter and son in law who live in the far north Terrace B.C. We share a birthday and celebrated it together. On Saturday we spent several hours in the Vancouver Art Museum at the incredible, just opened exhibition on the life and works of Charles Edenshaw. Edenshaw was the most famous of the turn of the century Haida carvers. This exhibition is a once in a lifetime display of more than 200 of this master artist's works. He was the best of the Haida carvers and lived his life on the Queen Charlotte Islands north of Vancouver Island. I have long admired his work and was thrilled to see it.
Photos were not allowed in the Edenshaw exhibit but I took these shots of an incredible house front being carved on the third floor of the museum. It is a magnificent and true depiction of the Haida art form. Enjoy the design, the detail, the skill of the carvers.
This wonderful house front is about twenty feet wide and 12 feet high. The house front door is the oval cavity just under the tongue. A defensive detail any entrant into the house would have to expose his head first and be subject to a knock with a club. Note the Killer whales , the salmon, the great wolf . Just wonderful imagery and craftsmanship.
