Edit: I changed the title of this piece. Since finding out for sure there is another piece of native art with the old title I really can't be using it. ( I've been reading up on trademarks and copyrights and now feel a bit foolish for thinking I was original with the title. Still, the new one is appropriate. /Edit

I love my homeland and my province. That's what this piece is about. My love of B.C. is personified by this Haida girl who represents the spirit of the coastal reigions. She is a spirit with wings I created based on motifs that originated from the native peoples totem carvings. I really hope the way they are pieced together makes sense from that artistic point of view...

She obviously doesn't need wings but I liked the idea so there you go...she rests on a green stem that originates from a sprig of cedar and her head is surrounded by a cedar 'halo'. The moon in the background is surrounded by cedar cones/seeds. Her dress is modern but the colours are traditional black and red like Haida blankets and cloaks and the white dots represent the buttons that adorn that type of clothing. That's the idea behind the frame as well.

The background is the B.C. coast which is very similar to Washington and Oregon states' coasts as well and probably similar to parts of the Yukon Territory and even Alaska. It's mostly cedar and pine. Cedar has had, and continues to have, many uses. A few examples are lumber for homes, furniture, decks, ornamental carvings, gardening mulch, railway ties, telephone poles; the native peoples had just as many uses for it if not more...cedar driftwood is a lovely buff coloured piece of wood that won't give you splinters! It's quite similar in shape to the font used in the title.

This originally started out as a death-type angel but I was kind of bummed out at the onset. I combined the idea with a drawing I was working on entitled 'Eglantine' which was an attempt to get back into traditional pencil drawing which I've really slacked off with in the past few years...

Reference: Robert E. Stanley's books on Native Art

Anyways, comments are appreciated...